http://peachandblack.podb...interview/

VERY ENLIGHTENING!!!!

Loved it - thanks so much for sharing!

That was interesing and great fun. Made me appreciate Tony M. a lot more.

Really looking forward to this. Tony has taken so much heat from P fans over the years. Wondering if that will come up...

Brave, clever, not bitter at all.
Great guy, you can tell.

I always liked Tony. It's great to know Tony is the cop on the balcony in "Purple Rain" the movie.
Shuts definitely all the nonsenses about Prince going after the rap trend.
He incorporated it because he wanted Minneapolis friends around him.
Prince had done rap since the "1999" album. It just turned mainstream.
He just wanted a band of friends again. A new "Prince & Friends" if you will.
With, as always, the ambition of covering every pop sub-genre (rap, jazz, heavy metal...).
As Captain said, the NPG is an extraordinary band, and it's made
of guys who hanged out together in high school, not west-coast session semi-gods,
Prince could have had the best drummers fill willingly the spot.
But no, Michael B. That makes me smile.
Prince was so confident in his choices that he may have looked like
perpetually giving the finger to the rest of the business.
But it was really about being surrounded by friends.
In L.A. or New York, I'm quite sure he felt the vultures circling.
By the end of the eighties, Ingrid Chavez was a spiritual catalyzer,
but so were Mavis Staples and George Clinton.
He must have swore to himself to keep fun as the core priority,
over expected business decisions, or expected musical styles.
Of course this "I will do as I please" attitude may seem self-centered,
but look around at what was going on at the time.
Ain't no way Prince was going to hang with Bobby Brown.
It does not matter if Prince had enough knowledge in rap.
"Jughead" makes me want to "get stoopid", so there must be something
that poor song nailed. It's fun, it gets blamed because Prince THE Genius,
understand, he's too good for that.
Become a musician first, stare at a blank music sheet for weeks,
and you'll suddenly find the esssential quality in "Jughead": fun.

As Paisley Park was slowly building a new identity and work processes,
the Revolution days had to be replaced with the delicate balance
of selling mainstream to finance "underground" projects.
Which sums Prince in the 90s in a way.
A pharaonic budget like Carmen Electra makes me think of Howard Hughes:
money is a detail. Faith is the driver.

I was the first surprised to learn that Prince hit the 100 million records bar, a few years ago.
Here's a guy who "sinked" to a cult status on one side, and kept mainstream admiration and respect intact.
Never sold his butt to anyone.
Yeah, he needed Tony for "My Name Is Prince".
No matter what year, it's always mostly about Prince "and the Band".
No one goes to war alone.

I really enjoyed this interview. Thank you very much. I never had a problem with the rap stuff. This interview gave me insight on this phase. I respect Tony M for just packing up and doing his "normal" thing. Thanks again.

nice interview. i see tony in a different light now. much more positive. thanks.

I will listen to the interview. Tony M wasn't that bad as a rapper. Geez. And Prince surely love 'em fem guys lol.

This was a REALLY, REALLY good interview. I loved the hang-gliding story, and when he tried to get P out of the limo at the beach in Rio. Great stuff!! Thanks for sharing.

Good stuff, thanks. That was my first time hearing the P&B. Was that toesy asking the questions?

I never got why Tony gets so much flak. He had a voice like satin and his delivery was very smooth on his spoken word tracks. Maybe it was the tracks of him trying to sound gangsta that got him into trouble.

That goes for Prince too. I love his spoken word but when he tried to sound all hard, not so much.

LOL @ Blacula. Overall I think Tony's presence was good for Prince at the time and I was happy to hear they were on good terms in recent years.

I was looking forward to hearing more questions about Exodus and Goldnigga, I mean, hey.....it's TonyM, so I thought that would be a big part of the conversation.

love the interview! I been waiting to hear Tony M speak up since P passed! He tweeted and followed

me this morning after he saw that I had shared the podcast on my twitter page and said....

Tony Mosley ‏@TonyMosley8

so sounds like we need to be on the look out for new stuff from the NPG and some upcoming shows too

Thanks for this fellas, don't think I've ever seen Tony M talk at length about his time with Prince so curious to get his perspective on things.

Had a listen now, a really interesting interview, Tony seems like a super nice and very reasonable guy who is able to look back with no bitterness. I think that you were right Captain about some of the fan disdain for Tony is based more on their deflecting of the "blame" of Prince's incorporation of Hip-Hop into his music. Like with people blaming Larry Graham for Prince's decision to convert to the Jehovah's Witnesses it seems to be fans taking out their frustration by blaming the individual whom they find most emblematic of these sudden changes in Prince's musical direction/beliefs, even though at the end of the day we know that Prince was a very headstrong guy and that ultimately these decisions would have come from him. I'm still not really a fan of much of the music from this period but I feel that it's Prince's musical decisions that make this so and not Tony.

Incidentally regarding Tony's tweet I'd actually be quite interested to hear new music from the NPG, obviously it wouldn't be the same without Prince but I do enjoy the NPG albums from that period and was always kinda disappointed that we never got a "true" sequel to Exodus and Goldnigga (not counting NPS here given that that was mostly a solo effort and largely abandoned that more organic 70s funk live band feel for more of the "plastic" production that Prince was doing in the late 90s.)

I never got why people seemed to dislike Tony M. He seems like a cool guy!

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Had a listen now, a really interesting interview, Tony seems like a super nice and very reasonable guy who is able to look back with no bitterness. I think that you were right Captain about some of the fan disdain for Tony is based more on their deflecting of the "blame" of Prince's incorporation of Hip-Hop into his music. Like with people blaming Larry Graham for Prince's decision to convert to the Jehovah's Witnesses it seems to be fans taking out their frustration by blaming the individual whom they find most emblematic of these sudden changes in Prince's musical direction/beliefs, even though at the end of the day we know that Prince was a very headstrong guy and that ultimately these decisions would have come from him. I'm still not really a fan of much of the music from this period but I feel that it's Prince's musical decisions that make this so and not Tony.

Incidentally regarding Tony's tweet I'd actually be quite interested to hear new music from the NPG, obviously it wouldn't be the same without Prince but I do enjoy the NPG albums from that period and was always kinda disappointed that we never got a "true" sequel to Exodus and Goldnigga (not counting NPS here given that that was mostly a solo effort and largely abandoned that more organic 70s funk live band feel for more of the "plastic" production that Prince was doing in the late 90s.)

Beware of idealization.
No man is an island, especially in times of need.
The more if you've chosen a childhood hero as some kind of mentor.

[Edited 11/6/16 7:48am]

babynoz said:

Good stuff, thanks. That was my first time hearing the P&B. Was that toesy asking the questions?

I never got why Tony gets so much flak. He had a voice like satin and his delivery was very smooth on his spoken word tracks. Maybe it was the tracks of him trying to sound gangsta that got him into trouble.

That goes for Prince too. I love his spoken word but when he tried to sound all hard, not so much.

LOL @ Blacula. Overall I think Tony's presence was good for Prince at the time and I was happy to hear they were on good terms in recent years.

I was looking forward to hearing more questions about Exodus and Goldnigga, I mean, hey.....it's TonyM, so I thought that would be a big part of the conversation.

I really don't think Tony had anything to do with Exodus, did he?

bonatoc said:

babynoz said:

Good stuff, thanks. That was my first time hearing the P&B. Was that toesy asking the questions?

I never got why Tony gets so much flak. He had a voice like satin and his delivery was very smooth on his spoken word tracks. Maybe it was the tracks of him trying to sound gangsta that got him into trouble.

That goes for Prince too. I love his spoken word but when he tried to sound all hard, not so much.

LOL @ Blacula. Overall I think Tony's presence was good for Prince at the time and I was happy to hear they were on good terms in recent years.

I was looking forward to hearing more questions about Exodus and Goldnigga, I mean, hey.....it's TonyM, so I thought that would be a big part of the conversation.

I really don't think Tony had anything to do with Exodus, did he?

Yup, I stand corrected.

bonatoc said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Had a listen now, a really interesting interview, Tony seems like a super nice and very reasonable guy who is able to look back with no bitterness. I think that you were right Captain about some of the fan disdain for Tony is based more on their deflecting of the "blame" of Prince's incorporation of Hip-Hop into his music. Like with people blaming Larry Graham for Prince's decision to convert to the Jehovah's Witnesses it seems to be fans taking out their frustration by blaming the individual whom they find most emblematic of these sudden changes in Prince's musical direction/beliefs, even though at the end of the day we know that Prince was a very headstrong guy and that ultimately these decisions would have come from him. I'm still not really a fan of much of the music from this period but I feel that it's Prince's musical decisions that make this so and not Tony.

Incidentally regarding Tony's tweet I'd actually be quite interested to hear new music from the NPG, obviously it wouldn't be the same without Prince but I do enjoy the NPG albums from that period and was always kinda disappointed that we never got a "true" sequel to Exodus and Goldnigga (not counting NPS here given that that was mostly a solo effort and largely abandoned that more organic 70s funk live band feel for more of the "plastic" production that Prince was doing in the late 90s.)

Beware of idealization.
No man is an island, especially in times of need.
The more if you've chosen a childhood hero as some kind of mentor.

[Edited 11/6/16 7:48am]

Yeah okay sure, but I've seen people act like Larry more or less brainwashed Prince. I'm sure that Larry did have a fair degree of influence over Prince due to his status as a childhood hero but I also think that Prince was a stubborn guy and that largely overall the decision would have been his own. Hell maybe I'm wrong but since none of us really know what was going on in Prince's head at the time who's to say how his conversion came about. Anyway I'll probably stop going on about this now as it's been discussed to death over the years and I guess we're kinda veering off topic a little.

Great interview!

Appreciative! Thanks for sharing.

bonatoc said:

Brave, clever, not bitter at all.
Great guy, you can tell.

I always liked Tony. It's great to know Tony is the cop on the balcony in "Purple Rain" the movie.
Shuts definitely all the nonsenses about Prince going after the rap trend.
He incorporated it because he wanted Minneapolis friends around him.
Prince had done rap since the "1999" album. It just turned mainstream.
He just wanted a band of friends again. A new "Prince & Friends" if you will.
With, as always, the ambition of covering every pop sub-genre (rap, jazz, heavy metal...).
As Captain said, the NPG is an extraordinary band, and it's made
of guys who hanged out together in high school, not west-coast session semi-gods,
Prince could have had the best drummers fill willingly the spot.
But no, Michael B. That makes me smile.
Prince was so confident in his choices that he may have looked like
perpetually giving the finger to the rest of the business.
But it was really about being surrounded by friends.
In L.A. or New York, I'm quite sure he felt the vultures circling.
By the end of the eighties, Ingrid Chavez was a spiritual catalyzer,
but so were Mavis Staples and George Clinton.
He must have swore to himself to keep fun as the core priority,
over expected business decisions, or expected musical styles.
Of course this "I will do as I please" attitude may seem self-centered,
but look around at what was going on at the time.
Ain't no way Prince was going to hang with Bobby Brown.
It does not matter if Prince had enough knowledge in rap.
"Jughead" makes me want to "get stoopid", so there must be something
that poor song nailed. It's fun, it gets blamed because Prince THE Genius,
understand, he's too good for that.
Become a musician first, stare at a blank music sheet for weeks,
and you'll suddenly find the esssential quality in "Jughead": fun.

.

Well said.

.

I wasn't a fan of Tony M, but thoroughly enjoyed the interview - what a top man! Loved the fresh insight he gave of Prince too.

Great interview but LOL at the "...it was a great time to make a transition and step away" line. People always say that years after they were fired from a gig...

CoolMF said:

Great interview but LOL at the "...it was a great time to make a transition and step away" line. People always say that years after they were fired from a gig...

I agreee with your logic, but I get a vibe Tony M is sincere in that remark. Just a vibe. After the interview, I see Tony in a different light.

Very interesting interview! Thanks Tony M for giving us some insight into Prince's world back then! And thanks to the P&B guys for connecting with Tony M.

.

Diamonds and Pearls is one of my all time fave Prince albums and I never understood the hate against Tony M and/or the rap. As Tony M says in the interview, P started a trend where rappers played with a band and not just a DJ.

.

Re "transitioning" - heard that word now used in place of passed or died