After reading quite a bit about Princes' various relationships, I would conclude that it is almost a tie between "The Time" members and Rosie Gaines. Any other thoughts?

Alexander O Neal
Andre Cymone
St.Paul

the names 'levi' and 'sonny' come to mind...

sitruk7 said:

I'm surprised to see you mention St. Paul. Aside from putting the Family's promotional work on hold during UTCM filming (which hurt the group and not just the front man) and then calling Paul a punk in concert (after he left the Prince circle), what else did Prince do to him that was so bad? Seems to me that Morris got treated worse than Paul

Anxiety said:

-----
Did Levi steal money from Paisley Park? I would have to say Brown Mark. After all he said Prince grabbed him in his collar and choked because he broke a string on stage, left at the hotel once when Mark was not prepared to leave, and
put him behind the keyboards during the Parade tour.

laurarichardson said:

i never heard anything about levi stealing from paisley park. i read a story about his job at paisley being so miserable that he cleared his stuff out on the sly one day and ditched the place without giving any kinda notice at all. of course, i've only read one side of the story, so who knows what the real story is. i haven't heard a thing about levi stealing, though.

Averett said:

Prince and Morris seemed to eventually make amends. I'm not sure about Paul and P.That "St.Paul,punk o' the month" chant on the Parade tour as well as the references to him in Dream Factory were my main points in how bad Prince treated St.Paul.

BrownMark is another good choice!

I think that ultimately, I'm going to pick Rosie over all others. Prince refused to control the male members of his own band and allowed them to create an uncomfortable work environment (being the only woman around that kind of crap must have made her feel real isolated and Prince did her no favors.) And then there is the issue of Prince's hot young ladies like Carmen bumping Rosie's own solo album onto the eternal back burner. Finally, the brother needs to pay the woman for her work. I know Eric Leeds and others feel ripped off but Rosie really got the shaft in my opinion.

sitruk7 said:

You've got a point.

Apollonia was screwed pretty bad. After all she was treated just as a stand in for Vanity for Purple Rain and then ditched her after the glitter faded. She apparently was pulled off the tour and she went to congratulate him a the Oscars on the award for best soundtrack and he said "that's okay, Dianne Ladd has bigger tits than you" and walked away.

Hotlegs said:

Thanks 'Legs. I try.

Daxx said:

She also said that,when she fianlly decided to leave the Prince camp in late 1985,Prince told her "You'll never make it without me".

sitruk7 said:

Your Welcome.

Averett said:

What about Jill Jones? She's been in the Prince camp since 1982,but had to wait until 1987 for her album to be released! In addition,she had the smallest roles in 'Purple Rain' and 'Graffiti Bridge'.She had to sit back and watch other,less-talented female proteges steal Prince's attention.Then,when she finally decided to leave the Prince camp in the early 90s,her Paisley Park recording contract prevented her from releasing any music for many years.

DavidEye said:

DavidEye said:

she had one of the best albums of any protege, snd got no promotion

St paul and Prince musta made up. St paul is on prince's omnibus BBC documentary back in 1991. I think they even show a clip of his video stranger to love.


damon and tony m I assume got fired. Prince could not take damon pulling faces on tour anymore or tony screwing carmen behind his back ( don't go there).

Anxiety said:

If I'm not mistaken,Levi was dating Warner Bros. publicist Karen Lee,so there must have been some kind of conflict-of-interest thing going on.Prince was feuding with Warners at this time,so it was undoubtedly a messy situation,which is probably why Levi resigned.
[Edited 5/10/05 2:48am]

Hotlegs said:

I've always felt kinda sorry for Jill.In 'Purple Rain',she played a waitress who gets ignored by Prince as he pursues Apollonia.Then,in the sequel,she plays Prince's girlfriend,but he soon loses interest in her and chases after Aura.

no wonder she hated the script

DavidEye said:

Yeah she was gonna be the main rival to kim basenger.

thesexofit said:

DavidEye said:

- and he was right.

Ok... maybe it's me but associates like St. Paul and Apollonia were not screwed out of songwriting credits (like Wendy & Lisa, Rosie, Andre and so many others) or financial compensation (Rosie, Eric Leeds and so many others.) Prince saying mean things to people seems light weight to me. Messing with people's money seems far worse than anything else.

Hell, Prince in the heat of anger supposedly told Wendy and Lisa that they would go to hell for their lifestyles but I'm sure that the lack of songwriting credit bothered them far more than the verbal diarrhea that Prince periodically spewed. Just my humble opinion

Based on the stories I'm reading on this thread, and others I've heard about, it seems like Prince treated just about everybody like shit (if even half the stories are true).

Daxx said:

Why would he say something this nasty to her? I thought they always got along?

DavidEye said:

Jill is a great pick. Originally, J.J. had a MUCH bigger part in Purple Rain, but it was cut waaay down. I always felt P thought Jill was a threat to him. She's a great vocalist, which he used to death all over the 1999 album. BUT, because of that, I think he tried to hold her back later on. Dogging her out by allowing her part to be cut down, script wise, in Purple Rain. Doing the same AGAIN in the GB movie. He was constantly slapping her in the face with that shit. Jill was a strong willed woman, much in the same way as Lisa and Wendy. She probably didn't kiss his insecure ass enough, so his way of getting her back was treating her the way he did. I heard that P was somewhat jealous of Mark Brown. Mark was 18 when he first joined P on the Contoversy tour. He was with P on P's way up. He was 19 and 20 during the 1999 tour, and 21 during the Purple Rain explosion. U know Mark, being the ONLY other brother in the band, was living it up with the female fans. I heard P was very jealous of that. He felt Mark hadn't "payed his dues". It wasn't Mark's fault that he was as young as he was when he joined P and Mark's timing couldn't have been any better. But, I have to go with Andre. Andre's family basically took care of P when he had no where else to go. Andre's mother, who already had her own family, brought P's ass in. Fed him and put clothes on his back. And for P to do Andre the way he did, was waaay out fucked up. Andre and his family had something to do with P getting signed. Without them, P's state of mind would have not been there cuz he would have been more concerned with where in the fuck he was going to sleep.

blackguitaristz said:

Jill is an interesting pick but I kind of look at her situation with a "glass is half full" perspective. Unlike some of P's associates who were promised solo albums that never materialized (ie. Rosie), Jill's was released after a great deal of time and care was put into it. Another positive point that makes Jill's situation a little brighter compared to other associates is the fact that she was given co-writing credit on many songs unlike many of P's other proteges. On the other hand, Brownmark is someone I would definitely consider as being screwed by Prince.

Averett said:

grapevine is that theres still some $$$ issues lingering.....i was sorta suprised when i had heard it..after all, p is always going on about artist rights....i guess that only applies when its him..

Funny....I was gonna add my list of names. But being that its 2 sides to every story. I'll wait for P's autobiography. Especially since none of the above persons named are gonna do any interviews anytime soon.

sitruk7 said:

I have heard about Cymone, but what's the scoop about O'neal?