On October 9 & 11, 1981, The Rolling Stones performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with opening support from Prince. At the time, Prince wasn’t well-known but Mick Jagger was a fan of his early work and invited him to open the show. Less than four songs into their set, the crowd of 94,000 promptly booed Prince and his band off stage, likely because his music and fashion was much different than taste of The Rolling Stones’ audience.
Following the poor treatment, Prince flew back to Minneapolis, set on not returning to the stage. However Jagger and his manager convinced him to come back for night two. Prince and his band received similar treatment on October 11, but finished their five-song set, closing with “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”
The Rolling Stones 1981 American Tour took over massive stadiums and venues across the country. The band was promoting ‘Tattoo You’ and was the highest grossing tour of the year. The band received over 51 million dollars in ticket sales and had roughly two million attendees over the span of their concerts.