Prince Seriously Shaded These Celebs

Was there anyone quite like Prince? He literally turned himself into a symbol and got away with it because no one could do what he could do. His catalogue of music is packed with hits that are so iconic, they're instantly recognizable as the Purple One's. He oozed sex appeal, rocked platform shoes and just so happened to be a virtuoso musician. According to Rolling Stone, Prince's "body of work speaks profoundly to the depth, sincerity and sensitivity of one of pop's most enigmatic masters."

While we know that Prince was untouchable, the musical genius was also great at keeping himself in the spotlight. According to Rolling Stone, Prince "had no trouble stirring up headlines every few months or so with some cryptic or outrageous maneuver, which only added another layer to his volatile mystique."

While Prince was skilled at dominating media attention, he was also extremely sensitive, even a bit prickly, and it seemed no one could hold a grudge quite like him. As such, Prince was also very outspoken when he was offended and there's a long list of celebrities who got seriously shaded by Prince.

Three years after Prince died, author Dan Piepenbring published the memoir he'd been co-writing with Prince himself, called The Beautiful Ones. The book came out in October 2019 and shocked readers by the straightforwardness of many of Prince's opinions.

One major takeaway that surprised readers was Prince's criticism of contemporary pop music. Prince said that music executives "keep trying to ram Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran down our throats and we don't like it no matter how many times they play it."

This is a major bummer because when Prince died, Katy Perry grieved on Twitter saying: "And just like that...the world lost a lot of magic. Rest in peace Prince! Thanks for giving us so much..." Dang! The respect clearly wasn't mutual.

Back when Prince was still alive, he got irritated with Justin Timberlake and his 2006 hit, "Sexy Back." Prince didn't like this message and, according to Contact Music, said to a crowd at an Emmys afterparty that same year: "Whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!"

Timberlake got revenge through Timbaland's song "Give It to Me" when he sang: "We missed you on the charts last week/ Damn, that's right, you wasn't there/ Now if sexy never left then why is everybody on my s***?" However, after Prince died, Timberlake admitted Prince was incredible on The Tonight Show when he said he was the "pinnacle of musicianship," per Vanity Fair.

Prince didn't always like it when other musicians did covers of his songs. There was an incident in 2013 when he was doing an interview with Billboard, when Prince called out Maroon 5 for covering his song, "Kiss." The cover appeared on a deluxe version of Maroon 5's 2012 album, Overexposed. Prince said of this: "Why do we need to hear another cover of a song someone else did? Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what's already there."

There was a related issue between Prince and Sinéad O'Connor over her 1990 version of "Nothing Compares 2 U," which was written by Prince in 1984. When O'Connor and Prince met up in person after her success with his song, it didn't go well. In an interview O'Connor did with Good Morning Britain, she said that Prince invited her to his house in Malibu. When he offered her to become one of his proteges, she refused and in response, she claimed that Prince tried to punch her. She had to flee at 5am and run to a neighbour of his for refuge.

This one might not come as a surprise. Both Madonna and Prince were such heavyweights in the 80s (and 90s and 2000s) music scene that very few other musicians could touch them. So the first logical step in this connection was that Prince and Madonna dated. According to People, the relationship lasted a grand total of two months before it deteriorated into verbal insults. For instance, Madonna once said of Prince: "Time to go meet the midget."

If anything, their breakup was a real shame because their massive egos seemed so perfectly matched. According to People, when Prince let Madonna go, she screamed at him: "How dare you dump me. Don't you know who I am?"

Later, when Madonna started dating Sean Penn, the actor punched a hole in her wall when he found out she dated Prince, according to People. Madonna then called Prince and told him he had to fix it, "because you're responsible for it, after all." Astoundingly, Prince showed up with plaster and fixed the hole, proving, as if we didn't already know, that Prince could do anything.