'Weird Al' Yankovic Reveals the Huge Singer Who Would 'Never' Approve a Musical Parody
He said that he even pitched the late singer a parody of his song "1999," and the "Purple Rain" singer was so uninterested that he didn't even reply
Yankovic noted that Prince was seemingly a fan of his music though, particularly his parody of Michael Jackson's song "Bad""Weird Al" Yankovic has performed parodies of hits from the likes of Michael Jackson, Elton John and Madonna, but there is one artist who turned him down.
During a Monday, June 9 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 65-year-old musician revealed that he had tried to get Prince to approve several parodies, but was never successful.
He explained that the "Purple Rain" hitmaker "is like the one guy that was never into it."
"He's got a good sense of humor," Yankovic added, saying that he'd "heard a bootleg recording of him in the studio talking to some friends" about Yankovic's late-'80s parody of Jackson's song "Bad," which he titled "Fat."
In the clip, Prince reportedly said that the song and its accompanying video were "really funny."
"But when it came to parodying one of his songs, not so much. I had like a half a dozen ideas that I pitched him, and none of them got accepted," Yankovic recalled.
There was one he was particularly excited about — a comical take on Prince's song "1999," which he wanted to title "$19.99." It was inspired by the idea of late-night infomercials, but Prince was not interested. He didn't even respond to the offer.
Prince died at the age of 57 in 2016. However, Yankovic won't even attempt to spoof him at this point.
"I try to respect the wishes of the artists," he said. "And he still made... He made his wishes very, very clear while he was with us."
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Yankovic might not have had luck with Prince, but he previously spoke very highly of Jackson, who he told Rolling Stone was very receptive to his ideas and had "always been very supportive."
In fact, the "Smooth Criminal" performer enjoyed the parodies so much that he allowed Yankovic to record the music video for "Fat" on a subway set.
"The first time I met him in person was long after I had gotten permission to do 'Eat It' back in 1984. There's a contract somewhere that has his signature next to mine, proving that we are the co-writers of 'Eat It,' which is surrealistic in and of itself," Yankovic recalled.
He continued: "The first time I actually ran into him was backstage at one of his concerts, this was maybe four years later, when Even Worse came out with my second parody, 'Fat.' I went backstage, and he was seeing a lot of people, but I brought along a gold record of Even Worse to present to him, and he was very gracious and thanked me for it and said some nice things."
Yankovic revealed one song that Jackson "wasn't quite so into" having him cover — "Black or White."
"He thought 'Black or White' was more of a message song, and he didn't feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood," he said, adding: "In a way, he did me a huge favor, because I was already getting pegged as the guy who did Michael Jackson parodies, and because he wasn't so into it, I decided to go with Nirvana, which wound up revitalizing my career."
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