Sheila E. Says Prince Recorded an ‘Incredible’ Solo Version of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” Before Erasing It

“So we get the song ‘Bad’ from Michael and we’re here at Paisley [Park]. And Prince is like, ‘Wait a minute.’ He said, ‘Michael wants me to sing this song with him.’ So he played it for us. He goes, ‘Your butt is mine…’ He said, ‘What?! Your butt is mine?’ And he just walked away, he said, ‘Uh, uh.'”

Sheila added that she helped “re-record” the song with Prince at his Minnesota studio. “It was so funky, it was so amazing. It was an incredible rendition of what it should’ve been,” she continued. “And then after we recorded it, we’re like, ‘Oh my God, we can’t wait for Michael to hear it.'”

But the song wouldn’t reach Jackson’s ears due to Prince immediately scrapping it after recording. “Then Prince went like this,” Sheila said, gesturing as if she were pressing a button. “And he erased the whole thing. Right there.”

But according to Sheila, that wouldn’t be the first or last time Prince, a known perfectionist, would get rid of a song. “Oh yeah, it was fun. We did that all the time, though. I can name so many songs that we re-recorded that was sent to us. Ah, that’s another show.”

Nonetheless, “Bad” was a chart-topping hit upon its release in September 1987, being No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.