I saw him hangin' at the celebration. He got up on the stage and hit a lick in the early part of the week. I thought it was cool that he just hopped up to the keyboards and started jammin'. Anyone know what this man has been doing since departing the NPG?

JackieinOregon said:

he's a shoe salesman at the mall of america and Tony M is his manager

btw,

when did he actually leave the NPG!? am I totally off?

Still smoking a lot of bud I would guess.

Shunchan he left the NPG when Renato joined which I believe was around the beginning of 2002.

Although he was seen in the studio with P at the last Paisley party (not celebration) so I'm not sure he is completely gone.

Someone on this site said they asked him what he was up to at the Celebration and he said he was "producing".

Talked 2 him at the Celebration and his now producing new acts in MPLS so he is still in the musicbusiness. Didn't see him at the Mall (we went 3 days) so i don't think he is the new Al Bundy.

I overheard him talking to someone at the celebration. He said he produced a new artist and her record is supposed to be coming out soon.

i ain't seen mr. hayes since the trc listenin party... he's fallen off the face of the earth 4 the most part, i guess...

Mr. Hayes is a real good friend of a relative of mine and he told her that he left the band late last year because he just got tired of touring...he said he had been touring with Prince for 10-11 years straight! He's also said that he and Prince are still cool, though. I'm pretty sure of that, since Morris lives across the street from him.

It must be an interesting change to go from playing in a band that travels the world playing for thousands back to being almost anonymous?

Many of Prince bandmembers go through a transition. They go from being unknown to being sought after "stars," traveling all over the world, performing, having people recognize them and wanting their autographs. Then after their time with Prince is up, they go back to being a private citizen that almost nobody recognizes.

Cat became fairly well known and popular among Prince fans. People were excited to get her autograph. Then she just kind of faded away from the Prince scene. Same thing with Tony M.

Finess said:

Finess, I say almost the same thing you did, whenever someone asks me about Tony M: I say he's working at a Payless Shoe Source somewhere!

ha ha ha

I still wonder if Tony actually PLAYS the guitar, like he's shown holding 1 in the "Morning Papers" video..

?

It was stated once that he wasn't coming to the Park for a while and no one knew why.

From what I could see, I think he'd like to take all that he's learned and try something new.

All I can tell ya is he is working and playing with Kip Blackshire in Kip's band.