4 of Michael Jackson’s most famous celebrity feuds: why the King of Pop clashed with Eminem, Prince and even former Beatles legend Paul McCartney
- Did Prince really try to run over Michael Jackson in his limo after a 1983 James Brown concert? Not everyone loved the Thriller star, it seems
- Jackson was deeply offended by Eminem’s music video for Just Lose It, which poked fun at him, saying it ‘crossed a line’ and shouldn’t be played on TV
While certainly not as enduring as the superstar’s phenomenal career, the conflicts between him and some high-profile figures and fellow artists were rather legendary.
So who had the biggest feuds with the Billie Jean singer? We take a closer look.
The bickering brothers
The brotherly bitterness was supposedly so biting that at the 1984 Grammy Awards ceremony where Michael won eight awards, many believed when Michael made a point of thanking his brothers – and Jermaine in particular – it was in fact wholly sarcastic.
In 1991, a bootleg copy of a song recorded by Jermaine was leaked to the press, in which he criticised his brother’s plastic surgery and called him a “lonely superstar”. In an interview with the LA Times, Jermaine said that he’d written the song after Michael repeatedly refused to take his phone calls, saying: “I understand he’s a very busy person, but after you repeatedly try to contact your own brother and he doesn’t call you back, you begin to wonder if he hasn’t just completely lost touch with reality.”