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American History

Tolkien vs. Disney and Other Major Historic Feuds

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Rick James began to feud with Prince during a tour
Rick James began to feud with Prince during a tour. Consequence

22. That Time When Rick James Almost Kicked Prince’s Ass

In his autobiography, Rick James recounted the time when he almost beat up Prince: “I chased after that little turd. I caught up with him and was about to lay him out when his manager stepped in. ‘What the hell is wrong with you, Rick?’ asked the manager. I told him Prince had dissed Mom and that I was gonna kick his scrawny ass. Prince explained that he didn’t know who Mom was. ‘Well, now you know, motherf**ker,’ I said. ‘Prince will be happy to apologize to your mother,’ said the manager, ‘and he will be happy to apologize to you.’ Prince apologized to Mom and apologized to me. I was a little disappointed ’cause I really did wanna kick his a**.

Rick James. Pinterest

Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic recalled that “Rick definitely had an attitude with Prince … I remember being on shows with Rick and Prince, and they would pull plugs on each other, gettin’ ready to go to blows“. Fortunately, the feud never reached the physical violence stage, thanks to peacemakers such as Nile Rodgers of Chic: “I used to always say to Rick, ‘We all are just doing our own kind of thing. Prince is Prince, you’re you—we all have our own identity when it comes to the world of funk“.

Written by

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

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