from 5/29/00 Time.com...



New Passport, Then?



It is a measure of creative people's achievement when their success allows them to be known by one name (Picasso, Yanni). But a musician from Minneapolis, Minn., did those titans one better, insisting that he be referred to only as an unpronounceable hieroglyphic. Since 1993, the man born Prince Rogers Nelson has refused to use his given name to protest the terms of his recording contract. Last week, however, the singer who has simply been referred to as The Artist announced that his contract has expired and his name has been emancipated. "I will now go back to using my name instead of the symbol I adopted to free myself from all undesirable relationships," he said at a press conference. Proving that he bristles at all forms of bondage, Prince also elucidated the nature of his annulled marriage to the woman simply referred to as Mayte: "She does her thing, I do my thing, and sometimes we do our thing together."