Cowell Angered Over Prince’s Lack of Gratitude
Evidently all is not well between brash American Idol judge Simon Cowell and the Artist Formerly Known As Prince, one of the surprise special guest vocalists on the American Idol finale show last week.
So, Simon, what exactly is the big problem? Cowell was reportedly angered by Prince’s refusal to neither sing or even meet with Idol contestants, nor greet the audience. Other guest vocalists, past and present, were more congenial. Prince merely sang two back-to-back songs with his own backup singers (or dancers, whatever they were…), then promptly left the Kodak Theatre, leaving without saying a word to the audience, the contestants, or the Idol staff.
Cowell was quoted as saying, “It just tells you how selfish Prince is. He comes on, not a word — ‘I’m not gonna sing with anybody else, I’m not gonna say good-bye.’ Thank you for your generosity, Prince.” Wow, I can feel the sarcasm dripping off those words!
American Idol host Ryan Seacrest later admitted to the press that he had been worried that Prince would be a no-show, because he did not arrive at the Kodak until just a few minutes prior to his performance.
A word to Prince, if you happen to be reading this somewhere out in LaLa Land: You just got the privilege of being invited to sing on a show that over 30 million viewers tune into each week. You took advantage of that opportunity; can’t you at least pretend to be grateful? I’d even venture to say that a good portion of the viewing audience (the younger viewers) probably had never even heard of you until you performed on American Idol . At the very least, you need to step off your high horse and be gracious for the chance you were given!
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:57 am
I’m even more impressed by his performance if he only showed up a few minutes before. Prince is too big something like this. Simon is jealous that he’s never been as cool.
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Hear Hear!!
I didn’t take into liking how he pounced off stage so quickly. A simple wave, and thank you would’ve sufficed. I actually agree with Simon on this one. Prince may be big, but AI sure helped him a lot.
Just one thing Ash…when you said “the Artist formerly known as Prince”.
Isn’t Prince still called “Prince”?
That aside, a good article. -_^
June 16th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Actually, McFever, he actually goes by some weird symbol now, so everyone just calls him “the artist formerly known as Prince”…LOL!!! That’s Hollywood for ya! =-)
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:55 am
Sorry to break it to you ‘critics’ while you feign comprehension of Prince & his mannerisms–however peculiar they may be to the avg skewed perspective out there–but, your accusations & ‘insights’ merely betray the collective “avg” ignorance re: this practically incomprehensible person! Ever hear of shy, anti-social types who just happen to be employed as an actor who still must vomit before going on stage? Don’t pretend to act like you can fathom this musical one-of-a-kind, when it is obvious that each of you are more fixated on what you see rather than what you hear, yet this is simply the emphasis of our society: a boob-tube addiction of the mtv-generational person who likes the easy way out of everything…you know, the slacky trendoids who suck up the visuals but are gutter-brains when it comes to even basic music theory, let alone being utterly useless when it changes around to the histories of music, themselves. I am almost completely amused by the comment(s) that seem to imply that AI did Prince a favour! Please, get a grip, then try to grab a life while you’re at it, for it is apparent that @ least one of you seems to believe that Prince paid AI for the “great opportunity” to get exposure, as if he needs it! Just because some confused people don’t see him everywhere in print, on air or via any other form of typical modern media is not proof that some artist needs face-time on prime time to bolster sales; his fan base is huge, loyal, widely-varied & doesn’t have to be in everybody’s face to be successful financially & otherwise. He doesn’t have his own label, studios, clubs, etc. for no special stupid reason; he has it due to his talents & efforts, both. You can bet your last dollar that AI paid Prince very handsomely to do two songs live; the end result was to increase AI’s street cred at the expense of a quick ride on Prince’s coattails, NOT the other way around. I could tear this one up for far too long here, so I’ll just end it with a forthright admission that (as a sometime musician & sound tech/engineer myself) I have always noted how the more talented a musician/artist friend of mine is in both creativity & fundamental capability, then the more difficult it is to understand them in the personal sense; respect & admiration are not affected, either way, but it is plain as day that they walk through this world on a different plane than the avg joe or josephine & they are often ill-perceived while being treated just as unfair as the initial perceptual bias. That being said, I don’t expect but only the savvy among you to realize that Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Fripp & Brian Eno, among innumerable others in this person’s study of music & musicians throughout time, all shared the elements of strange, unexplainable behaviours as incorrectly-perceived by their fellow man: the brute & brutal public that points a dumb finger at the virtuoso of sounds, when the true blame lies with the dolt who can’t figure out what he is being exposed to when confronted with the eccentricities of a person who blows everyone else’s mind by default! The person reading this who wants to flex their head & get in tune with the musical peeps around us, while not necessarily training to become a musician themself, just needs to hit the library &/or local jr. college and take an open-minded, adventurous, rewarding/enlightening jaunt thru music history, basic music theory and a classical or jazz appreciation course to have the universe of acoustics open up to them in a manner most likely to become the beginning of a great & lifelong journey!