Eddie Murphy revealed that the late Richard Pryor still has an outstanding IOU. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night (Nov. 29), Murphy revealed he’s been watching The Beatles’ “Now and Then” video “over and over and over and over again” on YouTube.
Host Jimmy Kimmel replied, “You could’ve been the fifth Beatle,” pulling out a vinyl copy of Murphy’s 1985 album How Could It Be, per Entertainment Weekly. He continued to read aloud the dedications written on the back of the album, which included messages of thanks to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Pryor.
“To Richard Pryor, my idol, with whom I have a $100,000 bet,” Kimmel read. “No motherf—–, I didn’t forget.”
Murphy recalled, “When I told him I was doing a music album, he bet me $100,000 that I wouldn’t put out a music album where there’s no jokes or nothing, it’s just all music. He said, ‘You’ll never do it.’ And I bet him $100,000. And then I did it, and he never paid me.”
Kimmel asked the actor and comedian if he ever asked for the money, to which Murphy revealed that he “never brought it up.”
“We did a movie, we did Harlem Nights afterwards, and I never said anything,” he added. “But he owes me.”
Murphy honored Pryor in 1993 at the 7th Annual American Comedy Awards when he bestowed Pryor with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The historic stand-up comedian passed away from a heart attack in 2005 following a battle with multiple sclerosis, per The New York Times.
Murphy spoke to James Corden on The Late Late Show in 2021 about meeting Pryor for the first time on a plane a year after he began his time on Saturday Night Live, and giving him a copy of his first comedy album.
“I said, ‘Mr. Pryor, I’m Eddie, would you listen to my [record]?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I know who you are!'” he shared.
Recalling that he “was sitting behind him and watching him listen to [his] record,” Murphy remembered his excitement while hearing Pryor laugh at it throughout the ride, and that Pryor’s driver ultimately gave him a lift after they got off the plane.
“That’s the way I met my idol,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on ABC. Watch Murphy’s interview with Kimmel above.