back in the NPG days.

He would let fans in to listen to the soundcheck and then ask if anyone played guitar, piano, horns etc.

I remember him saying to one guitar-player fan "dont try to sound like me, try to find your own thing."

good advice more all musicians IMO.

you just have to love the guy, for all his quirks NO ONE loves and lives music this way.

The open soundcheck was better than the show. Interacting with Prince without the rehearsed show thing was far better than the concert. That's a tour I'd like to see. Prince just show up with the band and play some, talk to fans and bitch out the band and tech guys. In fact, it's my favorite part of a Prince show, when someone fucks up and Prince loses his shit over something that the audience didn't even notice.

I think he did a few of those during the Parade tours too

1 particular one I remember is where his father joined him and they all did a song called Susannah's Blues

They were awesome, but they were not really soundchecks. The real soundcheck is always done in private earlier in the day at the venue. These were more like little mini pre-concerts with a Q&A session. Prince was in a serious career decline, and was playing small venues with an awesome band, an awesome show that was much more focused than the medley heavy Doug E Fresh heavy Hit N Run shows. or the 1997-98 medley shows. Musicology was a much bigger success money-wise, but the "soundchecks" were then a thing of the past. I'd love to see him bring them back. Prince seemed more humble in 2002, but seems to be in full Diva Mode right now.

That's what was great about being in the Club, GA first come first serve guaranteed seat in the first rows of the Kodak theater, and (pseudo)soundcheck! No one came up to play an instrument at mine, but P did crack on a lot of audience members that were walking in. That was worth it right there. THEN he played an amazing show and finished up with another show at House of Blues. Would love to see a return of these.

[Edited 7/25/14 11:57am]