PRINCE: Celebration SPECIAL EDITion: with additional scenes Thank u 4 helping us reach 10k Sinniks!

He was the oldest, the chazz, he was the drummer, it's something like that. a phil collins we can play sing and play drums at the same time we did our first gig charlie he was just naming the band whatever he wanted so our band's first name was charles cousin and friends so now I'm just someone's friend. that's not the name of our band so I came up with the name soul explosion so we won that badge battle when they announced the winner they said then the winner is Phoenix and we thought we lost Charles like we won yeah.

I changed my name to Prince Phoenix, who went to Central High School. He came up with the name Grand Central. We opened for Marvel Whitney, our manager Frank.jackson got us the gig to play behind her we didn't know who we were going to play behind because we thought if we played behind her she couldn't be that famous we made a little money and then we never saw the money and Charles had the money and I thought he wanted to see the money and he would never want to show us the money we kept asking for and he never showed it.

I think we literally got into a fight, so you know Morris and everything. team that played in my group what group is that grand central morrison

prince

was in it morrison

prince

was in his group wait guys did you hear what he just said i'm from springfield illinois i grew up in minneapolis my mom took us out of springfield when i was eight years we were moving from Springfield we were supposed to go to California we stopped in Minneapolis and ended up there for the next 20 years as time would reveal, you know, pun intended, a lot of great things happen in Minneapolis, remember that from above. school, check this out, this is what I remember from high school, the heyday of Grand Central, ladies and gentlemen, I felt like you knew I wanted to make some noise, it was a dance in the cafeteria, I was going there to see Prince play and the band and I didn't do it.

I didn't really meet Prince that night. I met Andre Simone, the bassist. We did a lot of talent shows and local outdoor festivals. They played like they were 21 years old and were so incredible. They were like 14. 15 years old. Prince played like Hendrix and I just want to say perfectly, not trying to break through and uh, the band was super tight, I was amazed. I got to know Andre and I kind of stalked him a little bit, he would always come to the side of the stage and say, listen, man. I want to play drums for you.

I'm a very good drummer. I already have a win. Anyone says I have to be part of this. Then we started dating. You know, we smoke some weed together. One day we missed school. I went to my house, I really checked out the guys' houses, but we went there and he had a nice crib man. He had my drum kit set up in my room. His mom was like Pam Grier. I fell in love with his mother and that could have sealed it. The deal, but he started playing Morris back then, he kicked everyone's ass. I started playing some Power Power.

He was administering some vaccines for the soul. there, looking at me, I said, "What's up, man?", and I said, "dude, you're on the bench," this is our new drummer, this is it, so you gotta go down to where we're practicing and, uh, He says, man, that's right. It happens that our drummer we're having trouble with it man bring your drums so he knocked it down and then you know he had directors guys they came to see him Prince and I went to see him we got a new drummer now we moved Charles. He's drunk, who was Charles Smith, we called him Chazz and that was Prince's cousin, I came from soccer practicing, the drums moved and Morris said it was a shame because you know me and Charles we had our problems, I set up my drum and there was something strange.

It took a guy standing in a dark corner staring at me about two or three weeks before Prince actually said something. He just looked at me like he was crazy. That mysterious thing jumped at a young age. I wonder: what is this guy looking at? then he would come in and out, you know, he wanted to be funny and laugh and then all of a sudden he would go back to that thing again and until I got to Grand Central and saw him playing Prince, he was destroying Carlos Santana's solos. Fascinating when Chaz left the group and Morris came into the group like the dynamic of the man changed and everyone was like, yeah, this is the guy, you know, I was the lead singer and our grandkids were bad, the band members were telling you and no one was in front.

There wasn't any league when we were in Grand Central, you know what I mean? There was no leader. Morris would come from behind the drums and sing. Love doesn't let me wait. You know, one song, maybe two. Morris didn't sing. Morris yes. I'm not really a singing drummer that I was in and he didn't really tell me much, we talked about song arrangements and stuff like that, but other than that he was very distant in the cut, you know, we hit it off musically right away and eventually already You know, within you know, a few months, you know, we start, you know, hanging out and, uh, getting to know each other, becoming friends and you know, before you know it, like best friends, he, um, He spoke in a low and soft voice, but then.

He had a great sense of humor if you know I spent some time with him so you know he was cool he was great but again he was still hard to be around at times that never changed that's how Grand Central became in Prince Morris. and all of us met with that nucleus also on the north side of minneapolis it was time to fly, which was jimmy j and terry lewis alexander o'neal all these characters were alive and roaming the streets of minneapolis a lot has been said about this the movie is autobiographical how close is it to the real world how close is it to the real world purple rain minneapolis is not the minneapolis i grew up in the first avenue the prince chose to glorify didn't serve black people at all it was all about a rock band, we didn't go out there, we never really felt welcome there for a black musician in Minneapolis, you had very few options to play, we had to create options, it doesn't really matter how good you are if you can't find a place to play was another reaction you can't find a place to play create your own venue that's where the whole battle of the bands came into play talent shows at Lincoln Junior High North Commons Park Harrison Field Glenwood community center that's where all this stuff took place the competition was fierce and very competitive yes, it was very competitive at any time you could have a battle of the bands, the economy was good advice with the five families, everyone is paid this amount and the winner of the battle receives this amount like this we like printed brochures and we put them on everyone's windshields we rent ballrooms in hotels okay we'll take the door you take the bar because it's going to be a great show or you'll be impressed with a rival band called grand central morris it was drummer morris. day andre simone was the bassist, they were a really good band but honestly our bands kicked out their bands no, we never lost when I was in our group and I don't knock on the door because morris was in the band but in the battle of the bands they lost a pair of flight time, which was terry lewis, the flight time was his.

They had Cynthia Johnson there and then whenever you could get Alexander in the group, I came to Minneapolis in 1974 by way of Chicago, you know, trying. To find myself I ended up in Minneapolis and the flight time was incredible. You know, we were rivals like we weren't normal bands of 15 or 16 years old. We were pretty good when I was young. Me, Terry Lewis, we were all in bands called Flight Time. freddie we referred to those guys as jukebox bands that played every song not by grand middle note we cut the songs you know we came out of the box jimmy jam was in the south he had a band called mind and matter you had the family family the family family the family that sonny thompson the barbers sonny thompson and joe lewis and the sonny gang those were our idols growing up the family when they got involved you always let them win they were like gangsters far away the community center was their home you didn't I didn't want to win the battle because you would lose the war.

They began to take out weapons and machetes. There was a festival out of the way. Battle of the bands. Jimmy's group of princesses grew. We trample everyone. They came out wearing their costumes. Neutron connected to its base. killed everyone it's over at the festival you guys worked together there's a studio there where you guys got together or it was you who did it originally you got everyone together no, actually in the neighborhoods there's a house where it seems like everyone gets together That turned out to be our house , nice mother, son, she didn't, she didn't run away to the boys, oh, no, home, you know, it was a very interesting time, you know, um, and my mom was, you know, um, you know, I think at that time. was she, I think she was, she was in the and at that time, so you know, she managed, she was the director of the ywca and then she actually became the Ruth Hawkins center and then she ran a lot of those things, so she ran a community center in the commune, so you know, our house was like a community center, so it's a great place to come like a great energy, I think my father played bass in a band with Prince's father, boy.

The kids have a real soap opera back in Minneapolis, yeah, it's a small town. You know, we just had a bond. It was a beautiful moment to have that bond. They were always playing. He would want to come to my house every day. I used to have to do it. prince duck we rehearsed at my house we had a little house with some of that asbestos we have this recording machine I think he recorded like two tracks but could you larry after rehearsal he would want to come to my house every day and the radio was dead we had a black station , so to speak, that was broadcast in a five block radius from eight in the morning until five and at night, the Minneapolis sound of the sounds that we started with keyboard players doing trumpet parts, we didn't have a trumpet section practically. all the bands had trumpet sections, time of flight family, all the major bats, they all had horoscopes, the biggest acts, you know, the commodores and they all had trumpet sections, cameos, all, you know, james brown, all They had trumpet sections, Prince found a way to format it and show Linda how to do it. all the hard lines on the keyboards, so we started using keyboards to play online through that process, we just developed a style naturally, doing our thing, doing what we did and playing together, listening to pop stations, learning about popular topics. we had our funk roots we joined them we formed the minneapolis sound and so our bands became legends there was an event called wheatley festivals local groups were invited to perform on stage all over the neighborhood it was right in the middle of the projects and every few years you would have a national group there, you know, there could be a cameo, you could have Evelyn Champagne King, you know, this is very important, you know, we had a battle of the bands, I mean one of the biggest battles of the bands that we had between the three of us. 15 year old kids signed up for a local battle of the bands and it was like the biggest battle of the bands and we went in, we were just a trio and we had a reputation, but people were waiting for flight time and Acting was like one of the biggest bands in the city at the time.

They encountered the competition groups with the latest instruments and high-tech equipment and the kids, well, they just had cheap little instruments and tiny, clunky amplifiers. The drummer had batteries that didn't work. You know, heads from both sides, the other competing musicians looked at them and just laughed, they told the trio that they wouldn't even let you on stage because you guys aren't ready yet, they weren't going to do it. let us play on it because we had, we didn't have any equipment, the three guys came out on stage, we had these cheesy little amps when I logged into their app, so it was like the whole audience started laughing, well those kids showed them they played their hearts out singing songs by all kinds of acts they started with an obstacle song we played fire we did billy preston out of space we did it we did some slides but you know people started coming back and before he knew it they were all bad once we got it We got it, the audience was on their feet shouting first prize. 75 he and Andre Simone had a band and did some shows in the north Minneapolis community, where they were from, so it was like a teen center.

Things, his birth sign is Gemini so some days he was all business and then some day he's like a comedian but always a musician regardless. I didn't like making other people's songs. I like to do their own things. They are much more true. to life than the rest of the things, I think of flowers, trees, cornflakes and things like that, and our originals were about what teenagers were into at the time, drugs, sex and music with the community in which we lived and played around them. they didn't want to hear that they wanted to heartony winfrey bob said the more he tries to contact you he's getting ready to call you more officers call perry i have a problem in minneapolis he says this press is way over his budget he's getting ready to sign a contract with bob marley's manager and no we want that to happen while he was in new york with uh pepe they met with bob marley's manager i called a friend of mine don taylor don taylor was the manager of bob marley and the whalers and he signed don for a year and mo austin no I wanted this to happen well I actually got the phone call from Bob Corolla Cavallo sent these guys and they actually said they were our managers for one they didn't know they weren't until Steve Arnold showed up later Perry and Tony were the Atlanta Earth Wind and Fire road managers in the 70s did these amazing shows, they were the best live shows on the planet,

thank

you.

Saw Earthwind and Fire play in Minneapolis. He called Mo Austin, who was the head of Warner, and asked him who was

helping

Maurice. He told Bob Cavallo and they set up the meeting. I took my daughter to the first audition, but now she only comes in a bikini. underpants I think I said I think you're cool not that I really don't think you should go on stage in your underwear he says okay I'll take it off the prince demanded I move to Minneapolis I was already quite successful manager at the time we had a label maurice white and i wanted to produce prince prince said no bob cavallo he had to deal with cbs he had just signed with cbs on earth wouldn't he shoot arc and arc was an american record company? boscavalo couldn't do it.

He had a young junior partner named Steve Farnolli. I gave Steve a five-year contract. Bernoulli calls and tells Joe that he won't sign it unless you've moved to Minneapolis. I was not involved in that round. of discussions, but I was convincing them that I could take it to the studio and deliver this product and they said okay, go ahead. I was under the impression that he was going to have full management, that's how we managed to avoid him not being produced by a maurice or verdeen they gave me a budget of 77,000 so they sent me to minneapolis they came to kabul ruffalo and they were trying to sign prince and he wasn't signing did you start to be able to alter at that time yeah, at that time, okay?

They were your managers, that's how it got there about Cabal Russell called me and they said the man Prince wants to come to your house, he says, but he just wants to see the studio in the house, he doesn't say anything else except that the Warner brothers don't No I like the fact that he didn't have a producer, they sent Ray Parker Jr. to watch and see what he was doing and they said, "Well, you know he's coming and he's not going to talk much, you know?" I'm going to say a lot, it wasn't like that at all.

He was taking a ride in the Rolls Royce and we were cruising, you know, and he just wanted to get the studio equipment, so we got him a sound board. The guy Steve flew back to Minneapolis and we put him there. I flew to Minneapolis. I met with the children. I bought a 16 track studio.Hollywood style brought the studio to Minneapolis, building a 16 track studio in his kitchen that opened to the back porch over the lake, but this kid was a phenomenal man. He couldn't believe how fluent he was in each instrument and then he was smart enough.

To write those songs, he would think of what he wanted to play and then record it on tape from brain to fingertips in a single take. He was part music engineer because he was a fast study because I put all the basic tracks on the 16 tracks and as soon as Prince played that tape, oh my God, I want to be your lover, why did you make me feel so bad? Sexy dancer, oh we're on a plane back to LA okay the kid brought him back and we're working on the album so come back to my house on the next trip to LA and Warner Brothers wanted me to produce the album.

I think he was a sexy dancer and he touched me what he got. You know, we're supposed to be working on it and I heard that. I myself don't know what to do with this. I told a brother that they should leave him alone. This sounds great as is. I took it out to the Hollywood sound and was able to drop the vocals and then. the backgrounds and the lead vocals the lead guitars basically came in and started playing he was very relaxed I want to be your lover and he had the arrangement he said it had a great sense of rhythm and the tempo was right and he really did it.

We didn't come together until we put the drums on the track, now we had to do the drum tracks again. The buttons on the side of his jeans. Everything he used at the time to make him look taller. One of my heroes, Carlos Santana, is to blame. for my shoes in all your first posters you had shoes higher than mine and recently I tried an experiment I played the guitar in flat shoes I was like Samson without hair well I do all my own things it's hard to find clothes that look like that in the early days just custom quotes weren't there we were all in that kind of tattered clothes at the time we were digging in barrels the whole look you know, andre and prince were much more interested in fashion 100 more plastic pants and it was a bikini brief zebra his managers then were perry jones and tony winfrey needed some work on his hair my partner tony his brother was a beautician a stylist we are in california perry jones and tony winfrey took us to a place here in our life to get our hair done, the mine took the right one, the prince had much better hair tonight and they did his hair and he hated it and said take it out, we can't take it off, just give me a perm.

He said well your hair will fall out, I said I don't care, I don't like it, they gave it a perm and it was completely straight, he said, that's it, we heard him well and he says I want to be someone that no one knows who I am and I told him what do you mean by that he says I don't want him to know if I'm gay and I think he's a double Gemini this cat is totally different yeah I think it was just him being who he was being the true Gemini that I am and there's a lot of sides to that too I said okay I said well what do you want is the album cover?

He said I want the album cover to cover just me, a big picture of me and the back me on a white horse on a pegasus flying I said oh hi and we filmed the front of the cover he said the boy wants to be on a white horse and he wants the life of wayne pegasus and I wanted to do it naked I got with the makeup artist and took the skin tone, I tapped him all over his underwear, I threw him on the horse and we took the photos and then they moved on and they put the wings on us and there it was, you know, we thought we were amazing, but you know.

Back then you didn't really know that, first of all, you had Dez Dickerson on guitar and then Gail Chapman on the other keyboards. André Simone, of course, and Bobby and I kept rehearsing with the band to make it tighter. We weren't ready. how we got the clues for the prince's help and I ran out of budget and mo austin gave me a bonus of ten thousand dollars he started rehearsing he did a show at the state theater that's when everything broke loose that was his second album I want to be your lover When his album came out, I was very impressed, you know, I mean, I probably talked myself into losing a lot of money, but I told the truth, I was young and they released it as it was and the rest is history as a hit.

I was getting ready to finish, they had made maybe two or three singles but they hadn't released it. I feel free, so I'm going to remake this fool. Here we were in Huntsville, Alabama, we were in Jacksonville, Florida, we were in New York, California, I mean we were all over the US, they gave me a budget of 77,000 and I got 74,000. after the first record of platinum gold, it's easy to manage a group, but at that time Prince didn't want to get in. Warner Brothers, but the black manager prince wants to pass the time and wanted the Rolling Stones for her, so he thought the bottle flyers could do that in the meantime, now we have our first gold and platinum record.

I'm getting ready to have it. my first child, they know I need money, so they are squeezing it out of me little by little. Well, I went to Quincy Jones, who he had worked with on the Johnson brothers, and I said to Quincy, I need you to do it. this that and any superior I can't now because I'm in the studio with Michael and we're doing well while I'm in the steel talking to Quincy Prince is outside in the car, well since he was. I couldn't get the money from Quincy. I had to get the money from Cavallo Ruffalo and I had to start giving up some of my management points and they kept taking my management points and I was like, I'm done.

With this I am leaving here and I discovered many years later through Maurice that everything was settled. No Austin wanted Cavallo Ruffalo to manage Prince, but Bob Cavallo couldn't do it because he had just signed with CBS and an earthquake. so they needed someone to go find Prince. I was pretty much a closer. He had a young junior partner named Steve Farnolli. The reason he became a partner with Joe and my company was because Steve had to spend 24 hours a day with Prince and Moe sent him. Then I, Fargnoli, came in, and that's why I was so heartbroken that I lost him to the biggest management company.

I gave them French, Prince, and I had been in a band for a long time before that, so we were used to going. go out and do, you know, perform and just play, if you could play in front of some of the people we used to play with when we were caged, you could play, but exactly Prince was round and determined to do it his way. American bandstand and we did a midnight

special

, that was a big deal. He told us all not to smile or talk. This isn't the kind of music that comes from Minneapolis, where I'm presented differently.

Let's start with bassist Andre Simone, Matt Fink, Bobby Z. dez dickerson gail chapman when she started interviewing him and prince did his shy act and you know, using his fingers to tell him how old he's been none of us really understood any of that, you look at him, he's looking at his fingers, his hands are like shaking , he's nervous, I mean, that's a pretty big deal, if you think about it, the American trailer really isn't much bigger than that and Snapchat is big on wondering who the lovely lady is. I couldn't help but crack a smile, that was all done on a trip to Los Angeles, so we did American bandstands and we did a midnight

special

, we only had one American bandstand and at that time we didn't really know if people were paying attention or not, early summer of '79.

We rehearsed, you know, for a few months and then we embarked on a release tour in September, just going and playing these little clubs all over New York state. We did the Roxy in Sunset, we did a total of 13 or 14, but we missed the last three. Because Prince developed laryngitis, we had to cancel and then they decided not to reschedule. We did a handful of performance dates where we or we were considered the headliners. You know, we're on tour and we're open to refresh ourselves again. We're at the Circle Star Theater because that's when we met Sheila.

We were absolutely killing it by the time we finished the set. Dad kicked the amp out of her. He fell on top of the chill. The gang keyboard smashed it and smashed it, so we got kicked off the tools. We were in Huntsville, Alabama. in jacksonville, florida, we were in new york, california, i mean, we were all over the US, it was a show we did in denver, the rainbow music hall, a 1500 seat theater, we do this show, the tickets were sold out, it was like a hard day's night, I mean, it was like crazy, they chased us like a caravan of fans, so that was a clue, but it was a little difficult for a minute.

You know, we started touring because we were opening for uh, Rick, the change, James, I think 1980 turns it on. with rick james and the stone city band and special guest prince apollo 246 shows in japan at age 17 once the event was over i ended up driving i had a great time my manager brought some tapes and said well there's a guy who has this album I want to be your lover, I love that album and I watched some videos of it and you know it was great, you know, I mean, I felt like it was a lot like us, I had it at the time, um, in the video, lover, it came on tour with us he was our opening accent yeah I heard it from her and that was an amazing prince it was like what 21 22 you probably thought oh I'll help this kid out let him get a start being our backup at the time when he realized we were pretty monstrous we didn't know he was so confident but when he came on stage you know he was full of fire you know a workout yeah rock attitude he dances andre simone uh they had the right move like the rolling stone he was posing and sounding good, they had a powerful sound, but at first the audience didn't know what to think of them, so you know we were getting a lot of ridicule during the first three songs and then after the fourth song.

People said wait a second, he's doing well, but that blues turned into total joy, maybe the first three songs,after high school and I think the song is great, yeah, yeah, when they were finishing the record, you needed some lyrics. If I had the title at that time, I even had respect for my letter lighting ability. Hey, it was literacy training, so I said yes. I called him exactly 15 minutes later and said, here you go. He gave me the lyrics that I played on the first album on a song called The Stick did the lead synth work and we finished it, so we basically cut the whole album.

Me and him and you know some background singers and Phil and stuff like that, but we cut the album right there. to his studio he took the old flight time came back and came down got rid of alexander o'neal and put morris day in front prince was doing all the music and basically did everything he and morris did that's how things were and we were absolutely for it I agree that the prince had accumulated so many songs in different styles, the first loyalty, I think, was to the songs and the songs found the people, the image he was looking for with Morris was not the cool thing that matched us. with all these different personalities, you know, vanity, I like to surprise people, Susan, I'm 16, Brenda and um, I'm very direct when I first dyed my hair blonde.

We enter a restaurant. It was platinum in crazy underwear. I said, “Oh my God, them.” You're looking at me, he said, you're not used to it because you stay behind a lot and you need to get comfortable with your power. We were all just gypsies and like a big harem of music, I'm going to do another one. album at that time and then he started bringing all these, you had to put these albums together into one, here's another band that wants to produce, oh they weren't unhappy, I mean it was gold and they didn't have to fight for it when they were supposed to you need to focus on its release, here he comes with the time it was a big album and he released a whole group so he started rehearsing them.

Prince created a situation that was so tense and creative at the same time that there was never anything. I like that he and Andre Simone had a band and did some shows in the north Minneapolis community where they were from, so it was like a teen hub, which is very different than biker bars of any kind. friendly, so yeah, that was new for him, in fact, up until that point we hadn't done a show where it wasn't kind of friendly to begin with, um, it was the first time we had to overcome the hostility of not only open for someone else. but opening act for a band whose at least part of their fan base wants you dead.

I was working with him when he was booed from the stone stage. He got thrown around pretty badly once in the war. The sound of 120,000 people was incredible. He knew it. about Prince and we played shows with us in 1981, that's 19, what was it? 1979 I was when Prince first came out and um, I was bombarded with Prince charms, you have all these friends of mine that work at this company, he was at the same record company, the Rolling Stones had a crossover with Miss You that came back to disco music. Mick hand-picked him and he was a great prince.

The fans came in one of our managers and said you guys are going to be Open Stones, something like that. I don't know and he said no it's going to be great and I'm thinking you know the look and everything you know but he's so you know you say Rolling Stones and he's he loved Mick Jagger yeah he loved Mick Jagger, yes. Yeah, and he wanted to be a rock star so bad that I wasn't listening, I was like, I don't know, yeah, but you know he's like no, I gotta do it, man, it's going to be cool, but he was recording on video his program, he opened the beginning.

Stone and it was Prince's idea to just do that. There was a Friday afternoon and Saturday off and then another show on Sunday. Prince hadn't done many shows and had never performed like a big rock show, so he had the thong on. they had the trench coat they weren't fans of the bikini underwear the late bloomers we sang head jack all of you I think we'll be dead after this that concert was around Mark's first concert with us the first time I was scared and you didn't know who the girls were stones, who they were, he didn't really know that I knew the Rolling Stones, you know, I knew they were rock and roll, bikers, hell's angels, you know, 120,000 people to get to that point, okay?

I'm outside the soundboard with my little video camera and stuff. I don't think anyone could prepare for what was about to happen. We see a lot of anticipation between rehearsals and the flight to Los Angeles. Kind of setting up for the show, just the stairs. The walk up to the stage was like a scene from Lord of the Rings, he goes straight up into the air, there was a huge staircase going down the red carpet back to Stone Village and he walked down all excited, but you get up on the stage and the scenery. It's a mammoth, you can't even use it all the way, it's also angled slightly downwards to give a better view, which was strange because you're going downhill the whole time there was the roar, the sound of 120,000 people.

Incredible, there were five thousand outlaw motorcyclists, how did they disperse? and Bill Graham comes out and says, okay, let's start the show. Stones fans want the stones, but instead they get Prince. You had a mixed race group of mixed gender people we went out at two in the afternoon j giles and george are good yeah we're just wrong the prince seemed radical yeah so the friday show actually wasn't that bad , the first two songs, right?, these guys. They're like you're kidding me, next thing you know here come the beer bottles. I thought, right, this is not going to be good, they're throwing beer bottles at him because you know you have all these hardcore bikers that weren't. trying to hear that, I mean, the first thing I saw was a jug of orange juice fly through the air and explode on our 18 year old bait player's base, his first shows with the explosion, two songs later and right on welcome the children of show business. a little strange where these objects came from they hate us so much something they're just throwing their lunch at us they look like cattle and they had fire hoses and they're spraying people they look like clouds just clouds yeah and Then the next thing I saw was a fifth of a unopened fifth of Jack Daniels flying through the air.

The prince died at the last second. Yes, it was war, but you had to survive. He was protected by God. His duck's head had an endless empty bottle, it grazed his head by about a quarter of an inch. The prince shook a little. He left the stage early. I remember Lisa looking at Lisa. There were things breaking and I saw Prince running past me the whole time. As we walked up the stairs we all looked at each other like what are we doing right? I don't think he'll come back. My cues from the rest of the band and the song we left.

We'll just finish the song and then run upstairs. The stairs too when we got backstage he was already on his way and didn't come back. They weren't happy with this guy in bikini underwear. That was tragic. You know, he wanted to get on the plane. We down. We get into the airplane. Coming out of there, he just didn't play well with people, whether it was the falsetto or the locker room. Bill got on stage and started cursing. Some people in the audience were expelled. They never booed us. To that left there is a radio station broadcasting live. from the coliseum and they said they kicked us off the stage for the rest of the day.

Word got around that this opening band was booed off stage, so there were people who came on Sunday not wanting to be left behind and thought "we." I'm really going to give it to you knowing that on the plane I said yes or you know, that's when I had to cheer you up because I'd never seen a cat humiliate people so much and I thought it was cool, now in the middle, the prince had returned. he wasn't coming back to minneapolis the management called he didn't want to hear about it nick called he wasn't going to do it you know and he begged prince to come back and do the second show yeah i don't know what mick said to try to get him back it didn't work the management came to my room said you would call me literally I appealed to his manhood I said we can't let them do us like this we can't let people run us out of town because if we do it now we'll be running forever so you have to go back we have to to do this the obligation to do the second show was difficult and the obligations as we know for Prince were difficult the second show was a dead man walking, you knew it It wasn't going to be better, he got on a plane, he came back and you know we made some changes for Sunday, we changed the set, you know, we changed the set, uh, because we came back for the second show two days later, we shortened it, made it as hard rock and roll as we could, but they still didn't care, they just wanted to hate us that day was hard Sunday was hard yeah I was there uh there were two shows there was only one show I think it was the weekend October this was a time when rock hated disco most of those White rock fans equated any black person with disco or funk music or something they didn't like.

Now, on the second day, the preparation was so intense that Prince left the stage after only three numbers. you know, and then here comes the prince, I'm on the soundboard watching all this unfold, man and here comes the trench coat with the hind legs and stuff, man and these two weren't having it, man, age and I was like, oh, it was time to go well personally, I was completely disgusted, I thought if there was a racial element, frankly, I'd had enough, we left while I was walking across the field, it was a long way from the stage at the stadium football to the locker room and me.

He sees Bill Graham, the legendary promoter, like a teardrop behind him and says some things, hand expressions, who knows what he said. Bill Graham ran up to him and said, Look, you have to get back on that stage. He turned around and walked back to the stage. and he sang three more songs and I started playing pick up shoes, thinking it was like putting it in my mouth and acting like a dog. I asked him about that day and he said there was a guy near the front of the stage who kept screaming and yelling the prince said I got so angry I wanted to fight that guy he was very angry he was hurt it may have been the way he liked to think back in the day saying he was mad at that guy but bill graham said when he talked to get him back on stage he could see he was hurt from having to deal with being teased a lot at school i tried to make up for that by being as flashy as i could and as loud as I could, he was hurt, I was almost shaking him.

It wasn't necessarily someone who made that type of music that was black, that was the problem with those fans who got angry because they didn't want their stations to start playing disco and funk music and stuff, it was a kind of War, remember there was something in Chicago where they smashed a disco record, at a rock station they set them on fire, all of that collapses at the Rolling Stone show at the coliseum and now here we are, three albums into the controversy tour that's about to begin. you have the six weeks where you wonder where he is, you know, a relatively short period of time after the stone, oh yeah, I thought it was very sexy when I mean he doesn't do it anymore and that's why he won't see it with the panties seriously, although yeah, he definitely has it compared to for me, compared to a kind of book like Spanish, I mean, there is no comparison in musical talent and on stage, whatever he does, he didn't deserve to be booed because I never saw him more petrified, there was a sea of ​​people in front of him, those are the people he was going to have to address to be the great artist who wanted to be a brand, you're not like that, and I said, well, I said, friends, that's the stones you don't have. that talking to me I know how loud they get and he says no, no, you don't understand when we get to our first show, you're going to see and he says night and day from this, yes, I did it.

He didn't even know he was in town and had no idea he was going to open for the Rolling Stones. The prince decided not to open for anyone else again. Yes, from that moment on he never opened another show so bad that it would humiliate you and he didn't. I share his feelings about having to deal with being teased a lot at school and I tried to compensate for that by being as flashy and loud as I could. I didn't even know he was in town and I had no idea he was going to open for the Rolling Stones.

Personally I would have thought it was a horrible idea, but be prepared. He's going to be in a bad mood. He was booed off stage and had things thrown at him at the Stones concert. My God, you didn't make a mistake in those days or never heard the end of it. He was prepared for the bad day and then it didn't turn out that bad, but I read later, he didn't talk about it. It was just one of those days where he was quiet. I didn't know what to get out of it. The first thing I did was sell it.

I would create my own universe. Creating your own universe is the key. believe and let all the people you need occupy it, it was humbling, but you know what I think he motivated me. We went back to the studio, you know, we didn't miss a single beat that fueled his tank, I didn't, I didn't. I realizethat you played drums, let's work on the controversy on both records, yeah, I didn't realize that and I always tell people that Morris is an amazing drummer, I mean just the funkiest drummer that ever lived. Private joy I was, I think one of the first I have a song, I give you a handjob, yeah, I don't think they like it.

I gotta tell you when Prince introduced that song to the band back in the day and we all played that song by the way in the studio and, um, I was. I actually care as much as I thought, okay, this is what's going to surprise, it's the surprise, the shock value in a lot of ways, I guess he was really looking, I think he was just being who he was, the real Gemini that I am, there was a Here there is little acting, I said, I said, are you worried that this might have an adverse reaction? and he shrugged and yeah, that's the point and we were just finishing up so we did some overdubs and some mixing. controversial when was the controversy i got all this music that says that a 1999 album is a double package, said it's normal to sell it at this regular price.

The Warner brothers take too long to release their albums. I don't want the material to be published. older, this is the movie, so he's trying to make the movie when the controversy just broke out and no one listened to it. 1999 and I like that little red corvette song, but what is this? Know? Then he would just write so many. songs that he knew was the brand that learned to cultivate that image that he knew that everyone talked about whether he was black or white or straight or gay whatever energy came out of that stone thing that was the spark that

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ed the people of the whole country at that time that's how I met Jesse, I met Jesse through Susanne Carwell, I was still in Prince's band at the time we won doing the gig on first avenue and she brought Jesse in and I looked at the audience and I saw uh suan and I I saw him next to her, I saw Jesse and I thought that must be what she's talking about.

You told me to play guitar, so we went and played and I said: You know I'm trying to put my thing together, see if you want. to be in my band you told me that Prince was putting something together for Morris at the time and they asked me if I wanted to play guitar, they already had their thing ready to jump right now, do it, you know, Morris' group, this is the group , it was new to us it was kind of a veteran we were learning new things we saw the success and how cool it was you'd be a fool not to pay attention it was like a slaver it was crazy but in hindsight it played out all our hours it made us all become in better musicians because he was like that, you know, he was a prodigy himself, he thought that if his father could ride him like that, he could ride us and let's see what happens, you know, he made us run around the ring for six.

The months we were ready took us to Detroit and put us on stage in front of 26,000 people. The days and we hung out with Prince and toured, we had a great time. Pittsburgh was our first stop on the controversial first tour. I think we played. 30 minutes 25 30 minutes opening for him I have to keep rolling here we're basically stuck on the hills so we have to learn to step and do all the damage doing this on the keyboard he would play so well on the piano jimmy was great at interacting with the audience and Still he did what you all usually do.

Jesse is one of the best guitarists who walks through difficulties. He knows what I'm talking about. Jesse and Terry had to dance and step to sing and act as assistants. Every little body, they all beat us up on the first tour because we didn't know anything yet, he was on top of the speaker playing guitar and this that and they were handing us over, anyone only knew a couple of clowns. When Vanity went on tour and saw her stuff for the first time, she was completely stoked and excited because she'd been, you know, modeling and been all over the place, but she'd never experienced adoration like that before when you're living that life, that style.

Life is so fast, you're like running through life, you don't have time to stop and really focus on what's really going on when you're young and that's your first love, that's hard, I think we're in Detroit, I don't remember, and there was a big egg fight, uh, we broke up and a couple of guys are really mad and he's always laughing, he gets off stage, he's just laughing, he's having a good time. I was like, why are you going to get involved? our show like that, man, the prince said: don't do that when I'm on stage, basically I come to do a show and people pay to see that show when I get on the microphone, that's what time it is, so it started bad like us.

We were in Cleveland or something like that the night before, certain man, I went on a special hunt. I have a couple of drawers, no, you could put them in a car like that. When I paid the production manager, I put them on his jacket because he used to do that. less work, take out a pair of underwear and do this, like put it in the pocket, he goes, I'll get it and he says he got it out of these big straws and he was hot and I was on the side of the stage, right there we got.

You know, right there we had a problem until Zapp was on the bill with us and my band, you know, because we were very close, so the moment you missed one, you had to beat everyone, the tension of the country in The end of the tour got really bad and that's what led to the crescendo. The prince looks at me and says what happened to you. Jerome just hit me with an orange and said what he could do but he couldn't carry it turned into two days. of total chaos you guys can't do that to me when I'm on stage where we couldn't do anything at the last show and all that, trash hotel rooms, jesse johnson was a prisoner of war, he made a big girl come out and grab me.

Offstage, the prince appeared dressed like me. The prince jumps in there like Jesse or something and the moment is hearing that they have a prisoner there and Lewis shows up at the end of our session. It was happening throughout the entire sound check on stage. Didn't they tie up Jesse? I'm just waiting for it. I like to chain him with my hands on top of him to the closed racket like we're running back through the door, the door was closing but he sees me coming and starts running, let's hit the edge of that door and I'll stop because I thought.

He got hurt, you got stuck with the bill, right, five five grand was a big deal, he was ugly and that was a dirty mind and a controversy, we saw each other when the last show ended, he told me they just had something crazy . food fight at the end of the tour he came to Los Angeles the first tour was 81 in 82 we finished in April 82. We had between April and July before we started rehearsing for the 1999 tour 1999 multiracial band in full pancake makeup white light was no longer the typical R&D band the lighter faces I feel like my opinion was definitely calculated kamikaze headband guy marketing one day at sound check our lighting director came in and he was wearing the kamikaze headband he came back to later from the sound check and he was going to give it back, he said that no one should wear that, but later on, Prince hired a couple of people who designed and created the clothes that were the first type of custom-made clothes. stage clothes the purple belonged to him and he claimed it he walked into a rehearsal you know this bright purple trench coat and he put it on let's go to show business now during that time we filmed in the armory it was only an intense three-day shoot to get everything that we could, it's like Lester was married to a 1999 Corvette and the automatic was a great time for bed.

He knew that you know, okay, I put in a blonde girl to cater to the MTV generation. They worked, they were all very professional, it was obvious that I couldn't tolerate it, so it was a very professional operation rehearsal, so exhausting and so long that I wouldn't want to be around me at that time, but when you stood in front of me 20 30 40 80 000 people you're glad you had it we had already been on tour rehearsing again renewing the show jerome was always kind of a roadie he was at every rehearsal we used to rehearse in this little rehearsal room on the sides of this club there were all these mirrors big like mirrors big as hanging mirrors and I was like someone brought me a mirror jerome goes to the wall he takes out this big mirror and puts it in front of mars I grabbed one of the strange mirrors from the wall and I ran to Morse and put it in front of me and Next thing I knew he stood in front of me with the mirror, he just stood in it and looked at it and Morris jumped right into it, got ready and put his hair up. and he fixed his clothes and princess, he separated he rolled on the floor he laughed with all his heart he approached me he hugged me and I want you to do that every time, every time, let's do it again, we rehearsed many, many hours and you know that he commissioned to do it.

That's because we were under his uh his uh production company, I think those days took their toll on everyone at the time when it was hell to work for friends. Horror stories. The only good thing I can think of when I think about those days on tour is the time and hanging out with those guys, I would go out and play background for the vanity, he would stand in the back and watch, then we would go up while time stopped us behind and I watched and then he came out and did his show in the movie, they're all both.

The groups act as if they are their own entity, but in real life all groups are under the control of the Prince. We were the Prince's band. We were never royalty artists individually. Morris. It would really be nice if the Prince was nicer, but you know? Look. What's going on? You know, so I guess we can afford to let it be. He is making you more famous every day. You may not have the money to prove it, but at least you did this. No, I was never tripping like that because I ended up being so broke, no, we were going to be broke in San Diego, we all shared rooms except for more, so I never equated his wealth with what I should be making for Terry, I was serious, I wasn't a grandiloquent thing, we were not making money. dead, I'm bro, I'm in the era, I got platinum gold, I'm broke cause I'm like I haven't been paying attention, I'm so broke, but I knew that was suh, the reason you never listen to me. and know it because it's like you're there by choice.

I never knew what the revolution did. We never deal with that. I'm sure they were making more than others, well below the top level because we were making our little 150 a week in a check, you get to the point of wow, you mean we actually get paid to do that, oh okay, There's someone who's taking care of all this stuff and, oh, you mean someone tuned it for me, oh, wow, you know, now you're mad. If they didn't tune it the way you'd like them to or what do you mean you didn't change the strength, you know what I mean, the biggest pleasure was just the ability to walk off stage and get it over with. just back on the bus or back to the hotel the warner brothers definitely supported the tour the three albums were all the warner brothers you couldn't have a better situation you know money is one thing but the soul is another I wouldn't mind if you just Se It ruined, you know, because as long as I could play this kind of stuff and come here, it's a good feeling for me.

It went pretty well for me. I was driving home from the geek place wiping my forehead and I heard automatic and we just played. and we don't normally play that one, but I mean there were a lot of people there tonight and they turned on the lights and I looked up and you know it makes you cry because you can feel the love in the room, you know, and that means more than money, you know , I could go on for hours, I don't know, I'm just having fun and I'm grateful to be alive, you know, I wanted to give you a little taste of where we are. live and get a little taste of where you all live, for me this is like my second home, I just want to tell my little mother babies that I'm happy to be here, if I could spend the night in someone's crib I would do this .

It's a hotel, they are very nice to us, but this bed is hard, what did you learn and what an experience combined with all the money in the world, the time was all the funkiness of Prince, yes, it was a hardcore RV, they were full of face in your funk band. and they shook it every night, when you go on stage like that, you're not only hot but you're angry while you were really angry and it was the only way at the time you could get it out and it wasn't destructive, he was up there playing with your teeth clenched and what it means you can't handle a 10 minute vamp on cool is a tremendous song that's not going to make a house, to be completely honest, they were the only band I was afraid and rightly so, so that yeah, because every night we tried to kick their ass, they were turning into Godzilla, we had a better band than Prince, we could outdo them, you know, except Prince, he basically could have had any musicians he wanted, but he chose. the one he chose for his own reasons and, um, when the time came, yeah, our band played better, it was competitive. uh you know it got heated sometimes, but you know that's what it was about, it was competition, you know?We always tried to outdo each other and it showed, and then there was the issue of vanity, you had a real sense of drama.

We were going to be together for maybe two and a half years, but it was like an on-again, off-again situation, they had already broken up. but he was trying to make people think that he was still there and that they would get together but she was making everyone realize that it was just a joke that she was really done with him and susan moonzee said that she wasn't either would sleep with him, jill jones. It was crazy, it was kind of hard trying to maintain a relationship between, you know, in the rock and roll business, I mean, we were really feeling like ourselves, we had accompanied him for like three or four shows in a row, he started to see that there's just no comparison this is what i saw the prince was starting to cross time he was stealing that black audience that's right so that's what you saw the audience you know they come from the neighborhood they time was like oh what were we going more rock and roll, there was a point where we were on tour x number of minutes before show time, the road manager or one of the managers would come in, hey, the audience is about 75 white people and that number continued, we wanted our audience to look like the western world we would have.

Let's play solid, let's work because we had to, but he really wanted to do the little red corvettes in the 1990s, he was changing the little red corvette from 1999, which was the big breakthrough, he would use different voices, falsetto soul music, he was doing things that were more rock. based and not like Church, The Time is a funk band and you guys didn't, you could really see the change. They would think it would be a great package, people would love it, but it became a contest and that's when he brought them out. tour because all the reviews were yeah, Prince was great, you can see the time when he didn't particularly like it stopping us from doing certain dances, wearing certain clothes, he just never wanted there to be room to overshadow him and he would.

Always tell us that you know they are not interested in you, that they are here to see us if you do a dance that they didn't like. He came into the dressing room practically every night and had great talks with Morris and said don. Don't you go out and do the bird? Aren't they doing this so management will say they know we're putting them on their own tour? There is a good side and a very bad side. He didn't want them to change their minds in a lot of the major markets, he wouldn't let time play, so it would be him and that would be sick and we're going backwards, that'll be for sure, you know, they reduced us to just playing for Vanity Six, which Which you know, we didn't want to do that either, so it's okay, we were part of Vanity Six, there was Princeton at the time, so you traveled, we traveled for nine months together, it's actually very difficult to be in a relationship and be part of a group. , we would wait to get to these major cities and we would be very happy and then we couldn't play and it was a real pain to go to a city like Los Angeles and New York and he took us off the bill because he was afraid that we would overshadow him and that was something that already You know, in cities like that is where all the criticism comes out, he just completely timed out the sign and he did it on the east coast and he did it on the west coast, so we never played those markets and it made us mad, it was completely ridiculous, we were all creations in this play, time in Vanity Six, all these people wear what they want and do what they want. and play whatever you want with this ability to control our people, we just don't need much to be angry, we don't get paid, we'll go back to the hood when the tour is over, you know it wasn't a Many bands didn't talk because time could kick their asses and many times he created a monster and then couldn't deal with it.

It didn't take long to learn a lot of it had to do with what had happened with Jimmy Jam. and terry, before I joined, the one time jimmy and terry didn't come to the concert, terry and jimmy had already started their productions and I heard the songs, I thought, man, you know, guys, you guys are amazing, we're in New York City , here we are. we're here in new york we're here in new york radio city road was huge at that time every celebrity you can imagine was there to see prince and they were wondering where the hell we were we got to the lounge and found out that When we got there we found out that we're not going to play.

Well, hey, I don't blame them because it was like we were all in New York and we couldn't even play. Then we had two days off in New York. that date, but it was that particular show that when those guys left New York and went to Atlanta it was after that really depressing ordeal and he I don't know and that's when those guys left to Atlanta, I guess they They said not to record. other songs for other people and they did that anyway we had a show we had never missed a game they got snowed in somewhere this particular show we had in Atlanta I think we went to Atlanta to do Sos Band or they were in Atlanta en It will surely be one of Atlanta's most memorable winter snowstorms.

In the morning the whole snow storm happened. We think about all possible scenarios. We looked at ten different flights and they all cancelled. It was the worst day of my life. We are at the Atlanta airport. up and down for eight hours and what it takes to take off anything we missed the concert in san antonio it hadn't snowed for 50 years literally 50 years the next day we were in san antonio they missed the show we played the show in san antonio and the night terry and jimmy got lost, prince played prince was off to the side playing bass and lisa played keyboards, they tied me up with a bass, i don't play bass, and they put me in front of the microphone they wrote them for.

I got to the end of the tour and said goodbye to them and that was pretty much the beginning of the end regarding my involvement in the band. It came to a head on that 1999 tour. It's like with your biological siblings. Now you can love each other but. There comes a point where you know, you're a teenager and you know you start, you start throwing hands and you're trying to knock each other out. In 1999, everyone praised him and he became the international superstar he could convince. Pictures of the Warner brothers and a lot of people who were bankable stars.

He made that decision to be more of a rocker. The forces of good and evil. He was adopting something. You'd only seen that in the rock world and he was a black guy doing it because he was mixing religions, which scared a lot of people, there were always extremes, friends who carved out their own niche, it really clicked. me and I thought, oh God. God I think he's right Dark and Light Alice Cooper Black Sabbath they were scared when they saw a cross hanging and you were naked in the shower the rest of the pop music was operating inside prince gray brought in I'm kind of sexy I could be anything you want me to be