This article was originally published on stairwayto11.com as ICYMI: Celebrating 40 Years of Purple Rain in a Prince news roundup.

Many assume that a fierce rivalry with Michael Jackson kept His Royal Badness from participating in the star-studded charity single — but the truth is more complicated.

His career began in 1978, with the release of his debut album, For You, and ended nearly 40 albums later ... In 1984, Prince starred in Purple Rain, a semi-autobiographical film designed to ...

He wore a similar sparkling hooded outfit to the Oscars in 1985, the year he won Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain. The singer ... also in an appropriate Prince-inspired hue, matching ...

Chaka Khan had a hit with her 1984 cover of 'I Feel For You' and worked with the late music icon on the 1998 album 'Come 2 My House'.

40 year later, fans never received a clear ... The world-conquering success of Purple Rain ensured that Prince was one of the first people to be approached for the project. His longtime engineer ...