The documentary goes into detailing several first-hand accounts of why Prince was not on the song. However, the documentary fails to include that Prince did, in fact, donate a song to the "We Are the World" album, (released April 23, 1985) "4 The Tears in Your Eyes", and made an accompanying live performance video for the song, which premiered on the "Live-Aid" concert broadcast on July 13, 1985. In addition, Prince detailed his "side of the story" with the song "Hello", a B-side to the "Pop Life" single in the US (released in July 1985), and the B-side to "Raspberry Beret" single in the UK.
In a 2024 interview with Uproxx, Bao Nguyen spoke about the importance of a specific instance of humor in the film: "When you're making a film that does have humor in it, when the first joke comes on, you really hope it lands. The one joke that, I mean, I knew that was going to kill, but my producer, who's British, was like - I mean, I'm going to call her out a bit here - she was like, 'Who's John Denver?' So that John Denver line obviously is one of the hugest laugh lines in the film. And if I'm ever in a theater with my producer, I always kind of glance at her. It's like, good thing we kept that line in! But it's really interesting, the different parts where people laugh. Obviously, the snake story is hilarious and Lionel Richie's reaction to that. And the John Denver line, depending on the audience. Sundance people laugh. A Utah crowd really loves their John Denver jokes."
The song Lionel Richie bangs out a cappella (starting at 10:58) when talking about writing "We Are The World" with Michael is "Rule, Britannia!" (a British anthem written in 1740) which Lionel follows with, "There it is. There's your template."
This documentary premiered on January 29, 2024 on the 5 year anniversary of the death of soloist James Ingram. James died from brain cancer on January 29, 2019.
Bruce Springsteen's last concert before the recording was in Syracuse, not Buffalo