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True story#35 PrePurple Prince

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Author Topic: True story#35 PrePurple Prince
Pyro John
Old School posted 01-23-2005 04:45 AM
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.There have been so many Prince posts here lately I just couldn't resist.

On the Road with Rick James

or

The True Adventures of the Too Much Fun Club

Story #35 PrePurple Prince Part One

The first time I ever heard about Rick James was in 1980 when I got the phone call to go to work for him. I had just finished seven months on the KISS DYNASTY TOUR. but KISS had no immediate plans for going back out and they were not paying me a retainer either. This had been my first tour and I had loved it but I did not know if there would be a life on the road for me after KISS. It had been unbelievable that I had gotten that job in the first place and as far as I knew my little dream was over.
All my life I had been a music lover. Nobody in my family had anything to do with or knew anybody who even worked in show business so all I had were records and movies and dreams. When I was ten I won a series of talent competitions doing stand up comedy that included an impression of John Lennon. I used my winnings to attend my first concert and I saw the Beatles live. Even then, at that early age, I tried to finagle my way backstage. I loved Rock and Roll.
Now that I had gotten a taste it only got worst. I can clearly remember riding in the back of the family car but in my mind I was in the back of a limousine and my father was not my father but my chauffeur driving me to my concerts.
Concerts, I was hooked on live concerts and went whenever I could. I saw everyone including the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, and anything that rocked. We saw Jethro Tull and they blew off some flash pots and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. In no time me and my friends were sending away for flash powder and making our own effects..
After I graduated from University of California at Santa Cruz with a degree in psychology I began working as a counselor for disturbed adolescents in different residential group homes. On weekends I managed to get a part time job as a security person for Bill Graham Presents in San Francisco so I got to see all the concerts and on top of that I was paid to be there,
From there I made supervisor and then began working as a stage hand. It was great because there I was helping set up and actually handling the instruments and equipment of musicians I secretly idolized. My childhood friend Tim Zoch and I had continued playing with pyro as a hobby. He and I were always in competition to see who could outdo the other one and he scored big when he got hired as the assistant pyrotechnician for KISS and actually got to go on the road with a real Rick band. Well, wait, it was KISS so make that almost a real rock band but it was a big band.
The next year he outdid himself and killed himself drunk driving just a few days before KISS was supposed to go to Japan. When KISS started their American Tour I was hired to fill my friends position so I was honor bound to do a good job. I had lasted the whole tour and done a good job but as I already said, that might have been the end of the rock and roll career.
Then I got the call to go to work for somebody named Rick James. Believe it or not in the early 80's Rick James was not getting a whole lot of air play on the heavy metal rock stations I listened to so all I really knew about him I had learned from the few cassette tapes they sent me in the mail. It was certainly different that what I was used to but still it sounded pretty good. It really didn't matter, he could have totally sucked and I would have been there if it meant going back on tour again.
They invented the term "culture shock" for times like my first week with the Stone City Band. I had grown up in Texas before relocating to California, the adopted child of a mild mannered Christian railroad worker and his homemaker wife. Now I may have grown up in the South, I was even born in Mississippi, but the environment I was raised in was anything but the red neck racist stereotype so many people assume concerning southerners. My father was the gentlest man I ever knew but the one thing that would get him mad was racism. He hated it with a passion. I remember him working for civil rights when I was very young. If he even say racist graffiti on a wall he would clean it off or change it to say something else and absolutely no racial slurs or jokes were ever permitted in our home. I sometimes wonder what happened in his life to make this such a prominent issue with him and I guess I may never know but that was how he was and that was how I was raised.
I knew from my upbringing then that we were all God's people and there was no difference between black people and white people. I knew a whole lot of stuff. The only thing was I had never really ever been around any black people. There had been a few black kids (three) at my high school but they had kept pretty much to themselves, Suddenly I was thrust into a world where everybody was black except for a few of us white guys and I remember hoping that everything my Father had believed so deeply in and he had worked so hard to install in me was indeed actually true,
The experience of being a sheltered white guy suddenly immersed into the black culture could possibly be somewhat unnerving but I would not know anything about that. I was a sheltered white guy suddenly thrust into the culture of Rick James and the Stone City Band which looking back was pretty much like black squared. They came walking into the rehearsal studio in Beverly Hills cocky and arrogant and leaving no doubt that they owned that stage
. My two clearest memories of this initial encounter was first of all just how big they were (Oscar was well over six feet and Levi had the athletic build of an NFL Linebacker) and secondly what the hell was up with their hair? The only time I had ever seen braids was on Bo Derek in that movie "ten" but none of these guys looked like Bo Derek. Their hair was wild, their clothes were wilder and one more thing. They were loud. The guys were in a great mood, laughing and joking with each other. I was introduced and all I heard was somebody say "Oh shit, we got us another white boy." and with that they laughed even louder.
I wondered what had I gotten myself into. I busied myself with setting up the pyro demonstration that my boss, Hank Schmel, had brought to show the band. I watched Hank while he B.S'ed with the guys while I did all the work. So far this was just like KISS except this time Hank would not be coming on the road with us and I would be on my own. The more I watched the more I began to wonder, which one of these guys was Rick James? I am not saying they all looked alike but they did all have their hair in those braids so which one was the star?
I was wasting my time because just about then the door came flying open and in whirled a presence that made the arrogant cockiness of his predecessors seem like amateur hour. Rick came in big and loud bearing gifts. Behind him were assistants carrying boxes with the new "Fire it Up" tour jackets for the band. Everyone was grabbing and searching for the ones with their name stitched on it and trying them on.
Hank introduced me to Rick, He eyed me up and down and said "We aint got no tour jacket for you"
I said "Well I'm new"
Rick just went "**** that...California, get this mother ****er's measurements and get him his colors. Man got to have his R.J. colors on if he gonna be hanging with us."
A thin guy with braids and a full beard ran over with a tape measure and took my dimensions. I never did get that tour jacket.
Rick pulled out a joint and lit it up. This guy had balls. I knew rock stars did stuff like that but they did it in their hotel rooms or dressing rooms with the door closed. Not this guy. He just lit it up and seemed to dare anybody to say anything about it.
Hank was ready to show off. He had some fountains hanging in the lights and they were supposed to come down making a golden curtain of sparks. I had argued with him about the placement. I wanted to put them behind everyone but Hank wanted them downstage in front of the band. Hank's company so guess what, Hank won. Hank said to set it off when I noticed that there were some sound monitors that had been added and they were right underneath where the fountains were. I pointed them out to Hank but he insisted it would be fine and for me to stop fooling around and set the fountains off.
I pushed the button and the row of fountains fired and a pretty gold curtain of sparks began cascading from the lights to the floor. This was followed by a pretty golden fire erupting on the stage as the gray carpet like material that covered the monitors erupted into flames. People ran around and began firing extinguishers and throwing water, soda, beer, or any handy fluid until the fire went out. Then the monitor engineer, a fiery little Scotsman named Brian Hendry went off and started cursing Hank out and calling him every filthy name he could think of.
Rick stepped in and put an end to the name calling saying it was an honest mistake and that it was time to get on with the rehearsal. As the band started tuning up Rick cornered me off to the side. He looked me square in the eye "You didn't want to put those things there did you"
"No sir" I said quietly;
"You gonna burn my shit up?"
"No sir" I said again.
Rick said "Good, see that you don't" and slapped me on the back as he walked over to pick up his bass. He started making up a song about Hank the Master Blaster which seemed to restore Hank's hurt feelings. Then they went through the set while I took notes. I had my work cut out for me. The next few days all I did was work and work and work some more. I was cutting cables and building the control board with Hyperspace and learning the songs and watching the rehearsals.
I was too busy to even think about being the new white boy but all that seemed to just fade away the more and longer I worked with the guys. They were all very helpful and better than that they were a lot of fun. We ran out of time and packed up and headed for the first show in Ft Worth Texas.
Once in Texas I realized how far behind I was and worked from the time we loaded in until show time. I was not finished so I got a flashlight and just kept working while the opening act was playing. This is considered rude but I had no choice. I had to get my show up. As I sat there working in the dark it all felt pretty good. True, I had been surprised by the braids and wild make up the band wore but KISS wore wild make up so I was sort of used to that already. The band was a great bunch of guys that were a lot of fun to work with and Rick, who could come off as very demanding, was really focused on putting on a great show and I sure respected that. It seemed that everything was going to work out just fine until I looked up.
I looked out onto the stage and could not believe my eyes. The opening act was playing away but their singer was dressed or should I say undressed so he was looking and acting like the gayest thing I had ever seen. He was shirtless with black satin hot pants that showed off his butt cheeks like he was Daisy Duke on the Dukes of Hazard television show. On his feet were these little velvet black bootie high heeled things with a silver star on each ankle. Hot pants and booties were all he had on except he was wearing enough makeup he could have been a tramped up whore version of Tammy Fay Baker.
I went over to the side of the stage and asked the stage manager "What in the hell is that?"
"That" he said "is Prince."
"Is he just with us tonight?" I asked hopefully
"The whole tour"
"The whole tour?"
"The whole tour"
Dazed I went back to wiring my flash pots. Prince was singing something about wanting to be somebody's lover. He sure liked to thrust his hips and lick his fingers a lot. What the hell I thought, if I could hang with the braids and makeup then surely I could handle this too. Just then the spot on the side of the stage where I was working exploded in light. I looked up into the blinding spotlights and shielded my eyes with my hand. I could make out Prince's silhouette as he stood over me thrusting his hips and singing "I want to be your uh uh uh uh lover"
**** this, I wanted to go home.

On the Road with Rick James
or

The True Adventures of the Too Much Fun Club

Story #36 Pre-Purple Prince Part Two "Look out...Prince has a knife!"

Call me homophobic but that first night when Prince came over to the area I was working in and shook his little hot pants put me closer to another mans genital area than I ever hoped to be. I threw my wire cutters down and scampered off the stage as fast as I could scurry. Some of the crew guy's who had seen what happened were cracking up but I was not laughing.
I went to the production office and found both the production manager and Victor Reed the stage manager there. I told them I was not going anywhere near the stage as long as "he" was out there. I felt like I needed a long hot shower with lots and lots of soap. The production manager said that we were running late and that set change was going to be as fast as possible and he really needed me to finish up everything I could right now.
I said "You want me to go out there while he is out there?"
Victor said "Yes I do."
Up until now I had been noyhing but cooperative and helpful. They had never seen this side of my personality before. I said "Try and make me." and stood my ground. I could tell by the look on their faces that this was probably the last thing in the world they needed to deal with right then but that was their problem. Victor said that he was certain I was exaggerating and things certainly could not be that bad. I asked him if he even knew what the guy was wearing and he admitted he did not.
When I described the hot pants and little boots I finally got his complete and undivided attention. He looked at me and simply said "Bullshit".
"No" I protested "But if you don't want to take my word for it go out there and see for yourself"
The production manager said "Go take a look and see what's going on"
Victor got up saying something about how I better be telling the truth and time was short and blah blah blah. He followed me out of the office, down the hallway and into the darkened arena where he stood frozen as he stared open mouthed at the stage.
"I told you so" I said.
"Oh my God" was all he said. He stared a moment longer as if to see if maybe it was just a dream and it would all go away. It couldn't really be that the opening act was doing some live gay porn sex show and yet it didn't disappear or go away so maybe it might really be happening afterall. Mouthing one last "Oh my God" he turned and almost ran back to the production office.
I was right behind him but at the door he suddenly ordered me to wait outside. All I heard as the door swung shut was "we have a problem." It was pretty interesting for the next few minutes watching different people running in and out of the office. I am not sure what was going on in there but there sure was a lot of commotion.
It is important to understand this was not the MTV Prince. This was not the Purple Rain Prince. This was not the fashion icon Prince with the fluffy shirts and the matador/ice skater looking velvet outfits. This was a young Prince just starting to find his way as a live act. He had just released the album "Dirty Mind" and was being hyped by Warner Brothers as this super genius kid but he was still prancing around in the tiniest, tightest hot pants you could possibly imagine and as one crew guy so aptly described him "That boy looks queerer than a football bat!"
Finally I was told to come inside the production office.
Victor said "We need you to go out there and finish setting up your stuff."
I told him I wasn't' going anywhere near that stage. I said that I had to be bent over to do my work and that's when he snuck up on me last time.
He insisted it was no big deal.
I said fine, then he should go out there and bend over and after I see that it is safe I will think about it. The situation was resolved when they pulled one of Rick's personal security guards off of dressing room duty and assigned him to stand behind me and guard my flank.
That is exactly how I finished wiring and loading my effects for that opening show, down on my hands and knees working with a big, mean looking body guard standing right at my feet facing Prince. his arms folded across his chest and a nasty expression on his face.
I saw Prince do a double take when he first saw us but for the rest of his performance he managed to stay pretty much away from us.
The general vibe was that this was going to cool down and that maybe the guy was not as weird as he appeared to be on stage...wrong. The hot pants and booties stayed and Prince himself did nothing to endear himself to anyone.
He would whisk in without a word, sound check only speaking to his band, play his set and vanish into the night without so much as a "goodnight" or a "Kiss my *** ".
If you were to see him backstage he was standing by himself in a corner or behind a plant just staring and staring and staring. It was enough to give you the creeps.
One thing was certain, the record company believed in this guy and were supporting him big time. I remember walking through towns on days off and walking past record stores to see their windows filled with Prince displays. Once in a while there would be a Rick James album in the window but if there was it was off to the side. I found this very curious because this was supposed to be a Rick James tour so one day I went into one of these stores and asked the manager what was up with the window.
It was explained to me that Warner Brothers had a whole advance team that was hitting each city about a week before we were to play there. They had promotion materials for the record stores and give a ways for the radio stations and by all appearances were a very organized, professional, and well financed operation. I know when Prince became the artist formally known as Prince he claimed he was a "slave" to the record company. I do not know if he was or was not but what I do know is when he was a struggling new artist the record company spent a ton of money and effort to promote him.
You may ask yourself, as I asked myself, if this advance promotion was so effective why didn't Rick James do the same thing. The answer I was told is that Prince was on Warner Brothers Records where Rick was on Gordy Records and Gordy Records wasn't in the business of spending. They had no problem if Rick wanted to do this on his own and out of his own pocket but they were only interested in money coming in and had no interest in money going out.
It is hard to say for sure if the extra promotion was responsible for ticket sales but the rumor was started that Prince was selling as many or more tickets than Rick. Word was that the people were really coming to see Prince and just staying for Rick James. This seemed exaggerated but either way the people were getting a great show. It seemed like the competition between the two pushed them both into trying to outdo the other.
When Prince did talk to antone he was demanding little dude. He wanted more lights, more stage time, longer sound checks and when he did not get them he would just take them and the tension between the two acts began to increase as a result.
We were in some city and Warner Brothers was throwing a party for Prince. Some of us that got along with their crew guys were invited by their crew to attend. We were not having any parties thrown for us so we decided to go. The deal was their crew would not tell their boss that they invited us and we would not tell our boss we went.
It was a very strange party in deed. There was food and drinks and music and girls and stuff but something was missing. It was a Prince party but there was no Prince. The record company was in full hype and you could hear people talking about the boy genius and how he played every instrument on his album but still there was no Prince.
Finally he arrived but he came in and just went into his staring thing. He stood off by himself against a wall looking out into the room and in the dim light all you could see were these two big white eyes that were surrounded by black mascara in their zomby like trance. If anyone tried to go near him his bodyguards kept them away.
After he had stood there about a half an hour Prince reached into his pocket and took something out. It looked like he was unfolding a little pocket knife. I tapped one of their crew guys on the shoulder and asked him "Hey, am I seeing right...does Prince have a knife." The guy squinted over in Prince's direction and nonchalantly said "Yeah, you better watch out, it must have a two inch blade on it."
I asked if he was putting me on
"No" the guy said "He makes us sharpen it for him"
I said that now I knew he was putting me on but he swore he wasn't. I continued to watch Prince trying to figure out what he was up to. There were some decorations next to where he was standing. Mostly pictures of him or replicas of his new album cover. Prince turned on these decorations in a few swift movements sliced several of them with his little knife. Then, as he maintained that creepy stare he folded up the knife and put it in his pocket and with that he left the party surrounded by his security. I do not think he spoke a single word the entire time he was there but he sure did teach those decorations a lesson the hard way. It would take at least two or three pieces of tape to repair the damage he had inflicted. I guess they found out who was not to be fooled with that night!

To be continued

and that's the way it really happened

i'll cut ya ass....

n the Road with Rick James
or

The True Adventures of the Too Much Fun Club

Story #37 Pre-Purple Prince Part Three Bible Study


I am one of the few people I know that when all is said and done I could sing "I did it my way" and not be lying. The big difference between me and Frank Sinatra is he had a few regrets, too few to even mention, whereas my regrets may be too many to count. Then again I am so stubborn and head strong that if given the chance I would probably do everything the exact same way again. My biggest interaction with Prince happens to include what is easily one of my top ten all time regrets and proves once more I am not as smart as I think I am.
If you recall the story about me mud wrestling eleven girls in my hotel room in Denver on the Street Songs Tour you might also remember the catalyst for that adventure was my breaking the number one rule of touring which states "Never, ever, fall in love with a girl you met at a show!" I had met a young lady while on the KISS TOUR and in spite of what everybody told me I knew that she was "really different".
We had written and phoned each other regularly since we met. The more I got to know her the more I liked her. When KISS ended in December 1979 I went to join my parents in Houston where we went every year to visit the rest of our family. Both my Mother and Father had been born and raised in Houston and we were the first and only element to move away when my Father's work relocated us to California. Following Christmas instead of returning to California with the folks I decided instead to fly to Denver and spend a little quality time with my new sweety.
After I had purchased my ticket but not yet left Kathy decided she had better tell me something important that she had been putting off. My guess was it was another guy but she assured me that I was the only guy in her life. Instead she told me she was pregnant.
Oh the images and emotions that exploded in me were too numerous and complicated to even attempt to try and explain. I will just say the combination of being an adopted child, a late sexual bloomer, an extensive religious upbringing, and a hopeless romantic I had always been extremely careful and responsible in regards to procreating. Quick check....yes I distinctly remember asking her if she was on birth control and she had assured me that she was.
Everything I had ever believed in all simultaneously collided in my brain with enough energy that it just might have been on a par with the initial stages of nuclear fusion. With a million voices yelling at me from inside my head I am not sure how long I did not speak to the real voice on the other end of the phone. I think I finally said something along the lines of "that's interesting."
Then she said "Don't worry, it's not yours."That shut up about half the voices in my head but when you hear your sort of unofficial girlfriend is pregnant with another guy's baby is not exactly cause for relief. She explained that she had broken up with her old boyfriend before she met me and then after she met me she found out she was pregnant. She told me that it was her responsibility and it should have nothing to do with us. I already had my plane ticket and any normal guy would have changed plans at the speed of light but I thought only a jerk would do that so off to Denver I went.
I had an absolutely wonderful time and we grew closer and closer. I flew back to California a very confused young man. This was the time of Desert Storm and America was going to war. I was still of draft age but on top of that I now had a wartime specialty, pyrotechnics, which meant if there was a draft I did not get a number, I went. I knew I wanted to do the right thing, I just didn't know what that was.
I flew Kathy out to California and we had another great time. I got along better and enjoyed being with her more than anyone I had ever known. I got the Rick James phone call and she flew back to Denver. We had no formal relationship and had made no promises concerning seeing other people. I still had a couple of girls I was dating in California and the girl I met that first night in Hollywood when I went out with hyperspace proved I was not closed to meeting new people. I sent Kathy an intenarary for Rick's tour and she had letters waiting for me at every hotel and we talked on the phone practically daily.
What any of this had to do with Prince is probably not very clear but stay with me because it is going to real soon. Prince might have been aloof and mysterious, some might even say a pretentious jerk, but his crew and band couldn't have been nicer. They were great!
I spent a lot of time hanging out with his crew in the afternoons while they were waiting their time to hit the stage. I hung out so much because they let me play Prince's guitar as much as I wanted. I had never played on such a good instrument or through such good equipment so I was having a blast and spent hours playing everything I had ever learned to play.
On one such occasion I was playing the Beatles song "Day Tripper" when Prince came walking in and caught me. He was half laughing, something I had never seen before, and half sneering. He walked over and said "interesting phrasing" and I knew he did not mean that in a complimentary way.
Embarrassed I took off his guitar and apologized about using it without his permission. He waved his hand and said "No, no. no, don't stop now. I think you need the practice" and he walked away. That constituted my longest conversation with Prince but it is longer than most people had.
Not only was his crew nice but his band was great too. I particularly got along with Matt fink, the keyboard player that dressed up like a doctor. As the tour went along we discussed many different effects he wanted to add when they headlined their own tour. It was his desire to expand on the doctor theme and have all sorts of gadgets and sparking devices around him so he looked like he was playing in Frankenstein's lab. I even drew him up some plans and made some phone calls to people I knew in movies that could help him.
But by far my favorite member of Prince's crew or band, in fact my favorite person on the whole tour was his female keyboard player Gale Chapman. Gale was beautiful and sexy and smart and talented and funny and successful and just plain wonderful. She was way out of my league but I was never that smart when it came to such matters so I overstepped class boundaries and befriended her.
Of course every guy on the tour had the hots for her and if they were not in love then they were certainly in lust with her. Who could blame them. There was however something different about the woman on stage dressed in lingerie and dirty dancing with Prince and the same girl off stage. The girl on stage in her underwear was playing a role and the real person was a born again Christian. There is nothing like overdose of Jesus to dissuade most suitors and the word quickly spread that there was no party here. Most of the guys thought "What a waste" and went about pursuing other more available conquests. Most guys but not me.
If she wanted to talk religion then I was her man. As I mentioned earlier I had been raised in a very religious environment from the time I was baptized at age one on. I had not only taught Sunday School and been an alter boy I made it all the way to Sub Deacon in the Episcopal Church. I had even applied to go to Seminary after college to become a full Priest but the Church felt I did not have enough worldly nonacademic experience and I should go learn about life and apply again later. I guess I took their advice because nobody can say I was not getting my share of worldly experiences.
.. Anyhow I could discuss theology with the best of them and that would include a beautiful young musician new to the flock. I could be seen happily whistling away, hotel Bible in hand, making my way to Gale's room on our day's off. This got to be so common place that after a while nobody even seemed to notice. The guys on my buss would grill me with questions like "You guys aren't really reading the Bible all that time" and I would assure them we were and start to go into whatever the latest topic was. This was always enough to make them wish they had not asked in the first place and pretty soon they left it alone entirely.
The truth is that is exactly what we did most of the time and I enjoyed it because she was a very bright and interesting person. The thing was the more I hung out with her the more I liked her and the more attracted to her I became. This was not hindered in any way when she began taking me clothes shopping with her. Prince had told her he wanted her to wear sexier stuff in his show so I kept her company as we hit the more intimate ladies apparel shops. Then once she had made her purchases I was treated to private fashion shows in order to offer my manly opinion if the garments were in deed sexy or not. I started the tour not even knowing what a Teddy was and ended it a connoisseur of unmentionables.
I asked her about her boss and she told me that he was actually very much into women in spite of how he dressed and acted. He had even made advances towards her but she had made it clear that she was not interested in that kind of a relationship and he had accepted and respected this. I couldn't help but notice all the female fans he was attracting so maybe the little guy was onto something after all. What the hell, whatever gets you through the night.
Gale seemed to enjoy my company as well and it was not entirely Bible study after a while. It wasn't anything dirty or scandalous either. It was all very sweet and innocent and never went any further than kissing. I never however ever kissed a cousin, Aunt, Grandmother or my sister like that. If we had been in sixth grade it would have been a world class romance.
This all led to that fateful day when I was lounging around her room playing with fire. I was laying on her bed, it was made up and I was relaxing so I had my shoes off. Anyway I was making up little wads of flash paper and lighting them and throwing them into the air before I got burned. This gave the illusion I was throwing balls of fire out of my hand...very impressive. Unfortunately I threw one a little too high and the fire alarm went off.
I started jumping up and down on the bed as if it were a trampoline and began punching the fire alarm that was attached to the ceiling. After about three or four good punches the fire alarm gave up and everything was quiet again except for Gale's laughter. Suddenly there was a loud pounding at her door. I figured it was the hotel security checking out the alarm so I swung the door open all prepared to start making excuses.
There in the doorway was not hotel security but Prince himself backed by this great big body guard. He looked startled to see me, looked down at my stocking feet and then looked past me to see Gale with an equally surprised look on her face. Prince began to stamp his feet. He was wearing those little star booties so I guess he must have really liked them. While he was stamping his feet he started making the strangest sound. Very high pitched and coming from somewhere deep inside him. I thought he looked like a steaming teapot about to erupt.
This went on for a few seconds until I did the only thing I could think of. Not having anything to say and having seen enough of the exploding teapot I slammed the door shut and dead bolted it. Everything was quiet. I looked through the peep hole in the door and the corridor looked empty but I was not about to go out and see. I waited over a half hour before I cracked the door open just enough to see if the coast was really clear. Seeing nobody I shrugged and said goodnight to Gale and headed back to my own room.
The next afternoon I saw something truly out of the ordinary. Prince was in the building early and he was talking to Rick. I had never seen him talk to Rick before and Rick looked equally surprised as he just listened and occasionally nodded his head. I wondered if this could possibly have anything to do with me but that would be ridiculous. The next thing I knew I was being told to go see Rick right away. Maybe it was not so ridiculous.
I found Rick in his dressing room, The security guard let me in then closed the door. I looked at Rick's face and could not tell if he was mad or not.
He eyed me up and down and said "Watkins...you **** Prince's woman?"
So much for ridiculous. I stalled wanting to be extra careful not to say the wrong thing. I also started getting a little ****ed off so I told Rick. "In the first place that is not the kind of thing a gentlemen goes around telling. In the second place it is none of yours or his business and finally she is not his woman."
Rick stared at me and then he began to grin "You did didn't you. You smooth little player"
"Think whatever you want, I am not going to discuss it."
Rick stopped grinning "You know he wants you off the tour."
That sucked. I did not want to go home but I stood my ground. All I said was "and..."
Rick looked away "and what do you think I should do?"
If I was going to loose my job over this silliness I was not going to go out begging so I decided to just go for it. "Well if Prince is running this tour I guess you better send me home"
Rick thought a moment then looked at me again "I aint sending you nowhere" and then he spoke to the security guard "Run out there and tell Princess I just gave this mother ****er a hundred dollar a week raise." Without a word the guard nodded and disappeared out of the room. There was an awkward silence and I didn't know if I should just leave or not. Then Rick said "What are you standing around here for, go back to work."
When I got to the door I said "Gee, a hundred dollar a week raise, thanks Rick"
Rick started laughing "I told him to tell Princess that, don't you go getting all gullible on me now. Raise my *** ...get out of here.
That was the end of that. In time I did stop seeing Gale but not because it upset Prince. The closer Kathy got to having her baby the more I knew I was going to have to make a decision about what I was going to do. To be honest there was no denying my feelings for her so I cut off all my other relationships including the one with Gale.
I know realistically nothing further would have come between Gale and me but I never had much use for reality. I sure did like her and I secretly always wished I knew for sure. Considering how things turned out it could not have been any worst. That's for sure. Now, looking back after all this time I think I actually I understand the truth in the old saying " They say the saddest words ever uttered by men are "What could have been" Oh well, so it goes.

how much of this is true?

That's quite a story.
I'm eagerly waiting for more.

klhk said:

how much of this is true?

i bet my topic will be one of the most viewed.

wow...wonderful read...we do have permission to post this here, right?

can u post a link to this stroy? pls

Hold it!!! Stop the presses!!!!!

A couple of clarying questions need answering!!!

1) Is it Gale or Gayle??

2) Rick James seems like a pimp. He called Prince 'Princess'??? What was your impression of his feelings about Prince's musicianship?

3) What's this about the HUMAN TEA KETTLE???? A little more detail on this?? This seems odd even for Prince???

4) You say your family is from Houston?? Guess what, so am I. To let us all know that you are bonafide - what is the name of the huge mall right smack dab next to the loop????

Soladeo
5)

it's gayle chapman

rick was jelous of prince,that is the main reason why he called prince "princess"

rick probably liked prince in the begining,but he stared hating him because prince stole rick's girl-dennise matews latter known as vanity.
at that time rick said that you cant take prince for serios,he sings songs about incest and head.he is out of lunch.
at the last interview rick said that prince is a true funk soldier.

sorry klhk but there isnt a direct link,i found them on 3 diffrent licks and collect it into a story.

klhk said:

can u post a link to this stroy? pls

soladeo1 said:

i never told that story is mine.
i wrote the name of the author.everything is legal.i have the right to put the story if i name a writer.

handclapp finger man you are wrong.this story is not from prince.org.i found it on rick james web site.

thebanishedone said:

link pls?

www.rickjames.com

thebanishedone said:

Wow,
Thanks for the stories. Prince was sure way uptight back in the day. I'm surprised Rick didn't pull a Charlie Murphy on him and put a 'Unity' on his forehead Oh, that tea kettle thing sounds like the Dave Chapelle imitation.

baabahope said:

Wow,
Thanks for the stories. Prince was sure way uptight back in the day. I'm surprised Rick didn't pull a Charlie Murphy on him and put a 'Unity' on his forehead Oh, that tea kettle thing sounds like the Dave Chapelle imitation.

ok.....I see there are more stories....are these the only three with Prince in them????

vainandy said:

"Unity" didn't come around until the "Cold Blooded" album. Back in the "Fire It Up" day, Rick would have slapped him in the mouth with his "Love Gun".

ol' boy looked like he was waitin at the free clinic for his results in that picture...