Weird Al Reveals the Song Parody That Prince Wouldn’t Let Him Do
The musical comedian sat down on The Tonight Show and shared his rejected pitch to the late singer.
Weird Al Yankovic is known for his parodies of famous songs and artists, from "Eat It" to "Like a Surgeon" and "Another One Rides the Bus." But, as the five-time Grammy winner explained on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 9, he only uses songs that the original musicians have approved. And when Jimmy Fallon asked what his "white whale" song parody is, he had a quick answer.
"Prince is like the one guy who was never into it," he said. "In fact, I heard a bootleg recording of him in the studio talking to some friends, 'Oh, you got to see this 'Fat' video, he makes fun of Michael Jackson, it's really funny.' But when it came down to parodying one of his songs, not so much."
Yankovic said he pitched "half a dozen ideas" to the late singer, and none were accepted.
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Weird Al pitched a parody of Prince's "1999"
"This killed me, because I thought it was going to be really funny — it was a parody of '1999' called '$19.99.'" As in, "it was like one of those Ron Popeil late night infomercials: 'You can get all this for $19.99 — but wait, there's more!'"
Prince, unfortunately, was "not into it," and so that's a parody we'll never get.
"I try to respect the wishes of the artists," he said. "He made his wishes very, very clear while he was with us."
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Weird Al is going on tour and playing at major milestone venues
Yankovic is currently promoting his "Bigger and Weirder" 2025 tour, which includes dates at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. He recalled seeing his very first concert at the Forum in the 1970s, sitting in the nosebleeds watching Elton John "through binoculars." Yankovic said that performing at the Forum is like a "nice circle of life, because instead of being in the nosebleeds, I'll be on stage. It's the best seat in the house."
Fallon's first concert happened to be Weird Al show in 1985, and Yankovic recalled that the merch sold at those early shows included a T-shirt with joke concert dates that would "never happen."
"One of them was Madison Square Garden, which was funny at the time because, like, this idiot's never going to play Madison Square Garden," he said. "And now, 40 short years later, here I am."
Watch Al Yankovic's interview above, and watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:35 ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
