Michael Jackson and Prince may have been in competition with each other on the charts, but ultimately, they respected each other. That is, according to Jimmy Jam, who worked with both of them.
Speaking with PEOPLE at the Hollywood premiere of Michael on April 20, the songwriter and producer shares that he thinks they “probably were both competitive, but they also were very respectful of each other.”
“The way they went about doing what they do is totally different. I always say Prince would start a record at the beginning of the day, and at the end of the day, the record would be totally done, mixed, ready to go. Very spontaneous. That’s the way Prince did it,” he shared.
On the other hand, Jimmy Jam notes that “Michael was very meticulous.”
“I remember, on Scream, we literally spent three days changing one line, and he just said, ‘We have to challenge ourselves.’ And we finally were like, ‘Okay, we’re done challenging that. It sounds great. It sounds great.’”
Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009 after suffering a cardiac arrest at home. Meanwhile, Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at Paisley Park, his home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minn., at age 57 on April 21, 2016.
In Jimmy Jam’s mind, they were “two different individuals in the way they create,” but insisted that “they both admired each other,” even if they seemingly feuded during their careers, so much so that it’s rumored that Prince skipped out on the supergroup recording of We Are the World in 1985 due to Michael’s involvement.
“Which doesn’t mean they necessarily would have got along in the studio creating, because they did it in a different way, but Prince was definitely influenced by Michael, and I think Michael was definitely influenced by Prince,” Jimmy Jam adds.
About Prince, Jimmy told PEOPLE, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him or think about what would he do in a certain situation.”