Featured Image Credit: GQ/Alamy
Elon Musk claimed that the late Apple founder Steve Jobs was rude to him the first and only time the pair met in a recently unearthed clip.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief has since gone on to become one of the richest - and most recognisable - men on the planet, but back when he met 'his hero', Musk was very much the lesser known of the pair.
Taken from a 2015 interview with GQ Magazine, Musk stated that Jobs, who passed away four years prior from cancer, was 'kind of a jerk' to him when they crossed paths at a party.
“[The] one time I met Steve Jobs, he was kind of a jerk,” Musk told GQ when asked how he differed from Apple’s late CEO.
“And everyone I know who met him [said the same].”
In the interview, Musk then stopped to qualify his answer, saying: “The last thing I need is to generate animosity, you know. It just is not helpful.”
Jobs, who co-founded Apple in the early 1970s alongside Steve Wozniak, attained a reputation as a blunt and often dispassionate person.
Numerous former employees, including 'Woz' (who left the company in 1985) have commented on Jobs brutal side, which biographer Walter Isaacson describes as 'Bad Steve'.
He would pass away in 2011 at the age of 56, having helped spearhead the company's development of the iPod, iPhone and iPad since returning to Cupertino in the mid-1990s.
In spite of this incredible track record for developing cutting edge technology, Musk took a shot at Apple in the same 2015 interview, claiming Tesla employees that don't make the grade are snapped up by the rival technology company.
“We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding," Musk bluntly stated.
“You know, it’s better if I don’t say anything on [the Apple] front. My point is, there’s no upside in generating animosity. It’s not that I care about currying favor with Apple or anything like that, but I don’t care to generate animosity.”
While the fortunes of Apple and Tesla have both continued to trend in the right direction since then, it is Musk - the latter company's CEO - who has benefited most.
In 2021, he officially became the richest man in the world, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the process.
However, his new level of fame has also led to greater scrutiny on his personal life, with a number of accusations recently being made against the 51-year-old.
Back in April, a former SpaceX employee accused Musk of sexual harassment, while just this week, a separate report stated that he had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
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