Today would’ve been Prince’s 60th birthday, and to celebrate, Variety spoke to several of his collaborators to reminisce about his funniest moments. Prince was, of course, a known expert jokester who incited food fights, had tour mates kidnapped onstage, and prank called all his colleagues. But perhaps his most infamous brand of humor was unintentional, most often the result of his dry sarcasm and merciless shade. One target of the latter was his old foe Justin Timberlake, whom Prince once dragged to hell and back for JT’s audacious insinuation with “SexyBack” that sexy had ever left whilst Prince, the inventor of sex, still walked this earth. Former Universal publishing exec Rebekah Alperin now recalls a time when Prince was extra bitter about being forced to acknowledge JT’s existence:
We were backstage at rehearsal the day before he played the [2004] Grammys with Beyonce, and there were so many acts rehearsing that they had to share space. He suddenly came out of his dressing room and he looked straight at me and said in that low voice, “I’m sharing… a bathroom… with Justin Timberlake.” Nothing against Justin, of course, I just don’t think Prince was expecting to be sharing a bathroom.
Well, nothing against Alperin’s interpretation of his disgusted reaction, but I think we can all agree on the message Prince was sending about his opinion of JT. And yet, the Super Bowl didn’t get the memo.
