http://www.sevenmag.com/a...eaver.html


Guitarist Miko Weaver, is best known as a regular in various Prince bands from 1984 to 1990. Those who didn't see the Purple Rain tour will remember from the videos that Miko supported Prince in performing "Baby I'm A Star", "I Would Die 4 U" and "Purple Rain". After leaving Prince's band in 1990, Miko toured for two years with Eddy Murphy. Miko says that while Prince taught him what it's like to work, Eddy Murphy taught him how to relax. In February 1995 Miko moved to Rotterdam, Holland, and started jamming with local Dutch bands. In mid-1995 he formed Miko And The Boombox and started work on a CD. Miko composed the songs and decided the set list but says his management style differs to that of Prince in at least one respect: 'I ask my band members, regularly, their opinion. And I pay less.'
Axel Engelhardt spoke with Miko about how he came to work with Prince and why he decided to leave.
A: Did you ever have to sign a contract back then for not talking about his [Prince's] concerns?

M: I don't know for sure if I signed it, I was not a signer type of guy ... I had a separate type of thing a 'I pay, you play' type of agreement -- I call a bank, my money's in there and I'm on the stage.

A: When did you get into the Prince world?
M: In 1984.
A: But you played with Sheila E before, didn't you?
M: That was '83. But I got into his thing when he came out. I was already playing in his band in my imagination.
A: Where did you grow up?
M: I first landed on the planet earth on this little island in San Francisco Bay and then moved to Berkeley California and that is also where Jimi Hendrix lived at one time and Sly & the Family Stone and Larry Graham's Central Station. We were all influenced by that, like others have been by the Twin City sound with Prince. We all have these certain sounds from the areas, you know. I grew up listening to those guys. I was fifteen when I started playing guitar. The first year I got my guitar I made my first record with somebody I met on the street. He saw me coming with my guitar case and asked me if I wanted to do a record. I said: 'Yeah!' And at this time I'd been playin' maybe about eight or nine months. I wrote the music but I was new to the business, I was happy being in a studio recording.

A: What was the track called?

M: "Never Ever Baby". It was just a demo for this guy ... At that time I jumped into it and from that point on it was like go boom different things coming up. You know I'm a musician now, but I was an athlete, I played baseball, basketball, football. At one point I had a chance to be a professional in sports so I had to make a choice. I had to project -- where can I go playin' sports? And where can I go playin' music? Now if I had been playin' sports I wouldn't be over here talking to you. I would probably never leave the country because all the games are played in America. But being a musician you're playing world wide and you're able to go everywhere and that is what I chose.

A: What were you doing from fifteen until you got involved with Prince?
M: I was playin' various bands.

A: So how did you become a guitarist in Sheila E's band?

M: Sheila and I knew each other from years back, from high school days. Sheila already came from a famous family and I knew them and they respected me. I had my own band, but with them I wanted to play originals and they wanted to play Top 40. So I quit the band and some of my friends were gonna play in a big festival and I asked 'Can I play with you guys,' and they said 'No we have somebody else.' So I said 'well let me do it by myself' ... It worked up like I was a one man band and Sheila was in the audience. The next day somebody came up saying Sheila is looking for you 'She wants that you call her so I got home and called her and she said 'I want you to come to LA for an audition for my band. You already have the part,' and I said 'Okay that's cool.' So we got together right from there 'cause we already knew how the music would sound because I was Prince fan.

A: Did you play many times with Sheila E?

M: I played a whole year and then Prince hired me after that.

A: So he just saw you and it was, 'Hey, I want you to be in my band?'

M: Yeah, actually we did the Purple Rain Tour. It was like 100 shows in the States. The last show was in Florida so everybody was chillin'. Now the tour was over, 'what are we gonna do right after this?' So he called me and said 'Hey come up to my room, and he showed me "Around The World In A Day", the cover and all that stuff. He said 'this is the new thing'. I thought 'this is cool' -- it showed his own label and then he told me 'I want you to play in The Family'.

A: You played in The Family too?

M: Yeah, we did one concert at First Avenue, the only existing concert of that group.
A: Was the fact that St Paul left the only reason why the second Family album was never recorded?
M: Well you know if it's built around the lead singer and he's not going to be in it ...
A: But why didn't Prince try to find another lead singer?

M: But it would be a different family ... I got a phone call from him saying. 'Do you wanna come to France?' 'Yeah for sure!' and he said 'Okay I'll make the arrangements'. ... And then I landed; they picked me up and they took me straight to the control room where he was looking at things, watching clips and stuff like that: for example, the thing with Jerome, the bath tub scene and stuff like that and he said he wanted to put me in The Revolution.

A: What was the reason that The Revolution split up?

M: I don't know. I think it was a Prince thing. You know growing -- just to get new ideas. 'Cause when they left all the things started changing. The music changed 'cause he got new influences and since I was the only one who was still there besides Fink, all the way up to the Nude Tour there were different people coming and going.

A: How big was your influence on his music?

M: My influence? Maybe a lick or two. Not very much but it is like this: I'm a Prince fan so I learned every guitar lick I could from Prince. He's like a genius, as you know, so he never plays the same lick. He doesn't remember some of the stuff so I might one day play one of his licks and he naturally likes it because it's his but he may think it came from me. My influence comes from other guitar players playing rhythm like -- Al McKay, Nile Rodgers.

A: So what was the reason you left ... I saw a video of a rehearsal some time ago where you got into a fight with Prince. He seemed pretty upset, stamped his feet with his high-heel and then walked off.

M: You've seen that video tape? So what did I do?
A: Well you left him standing there like a little kid.
M: I didn't actually know that this was out! How did you get a video tape with that? I remember this event!

A: Well he tapes almost everything and I saw this a while ago at a friend's place.
M: Really? I mean I thought that wasn't available to the public.
A: Well, don't panic, it is not circulating.

M: What happened to get the right story from my perspective ... I always keep my guitar on volume 10 -- meaning I can not go any louder. I always did that. But what happened was the sound man turned my guitar up so loud in the middle of the 'big thing' -- and I looked at him [the sound man] to tell him 'Hey man don't do that and Prince didn't see me motion to him and he looked at me and said 'Man turn that damned guitar down!' I was like 'It's not me, it's him' but Prince was really getting upset at me and said 'Look man if you wanna talk then you have an office. I'll go with you man and then we can talk about it but please don't yell at me on the microphone over something like this, which is not even my fault.' You know I took it personal back then and he was still under this thing so I just said: 'Okay see ya!' But I was just going to go to the office and he followed me around all the way to the door and he said 'Get out' and I
said: 'Okay' and I left. He said 'leave' but it was not the kinda 'leave permanently, forever' ... [Later] He came to the club and we talked about it and he explained to me that because he was doing "Graffiti Bridge" at this time, there's a lot of pressure, and the only person that subconsciously he felt could take the pressure was me. I'd already been with him, I knew him, 'cause you don't get to be with somebody like him for so long if you don't know how!

A: So what was actually the reason that you left, or did he ask you to leave? M: No I left on my own not because of him and I don't know if I feel good when I now say that it was because of the other band members. It was like: Prince -- The Band -- and Me. Me and him was cool but me with the band? Because I'm Miko one hundred per cent, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week always, never changing. But they -- when Prince came into the room it was like 'Okay -- lights, camera, action', a whole new personality came out and they weren't true to themselves. That's basically why I left.
As a postscript Miko, still regards Prince or as the 'best guitar player around' as well as 'the best piano player'.

cool.thanks.

good read -- thanks!