Adam Curry, a former VJ on MTV, has a story about Prince:
http://mtv.curry.com/stor...yReader$15

Prince
Posted by Adam Curry, 10/30/01 at 12:06:45 PM.
When Patricia and I moved to the US in 1987 I sold or gave away almost ten thousand vynil albums and 45's. It was just too impractical schlepping them with us. Besides, CDs were mainstream. I kept 10 LPs. All of them Prince records.


Paisley Park

My encounter with his royal badness was on his home turf, in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. I was in town for 4 days on a commercial shoot for Sam Goodys/Musicland. Yes indeed..somewhere there's video of me walking through a record store at the Mall of America telling you how cooool it is to shop at Sam's.

Needless to say, they didn't ask me to endorse their stores a second time.

I went out with the crew the second night. They were local and I quickly noticed all they would talk about is what bars Prince would show up at sometimes, or jam onstage. They took me to the place he was supposed to show up at that evening. I forget the name of the place, but it looked just like a set from Purple Rain and half expected Morris Day to leap out of the shadows to tell me about his 'brass water bed'.

Of course Prince wasn't there. I'm not one for bars anyway, certainly not to gawk at celebrities. I was a VJ for chrissakes. It may be the lowest rung, but its still on the showbizz ladder! Back to the hotel for an early night.

Around midnight I got a call in my room. It was someone from Paisley Park. Prince was throwing an 'intimate party' at 'the crib'. Did I want to come along? Shit yeah! Actually that came out more like "uh huh". I didn't even have to worry about wheels (Paisley Park is about 20 minutes outside of town) A car would be downstairs for me in 10 minutes. Now this was cool shit!

The limo whisked me off to PP Studios, which stands just off the highway illuminated in a purplish glow. The effect is very dramatic. I was greeted at the front door by one of the many friendly paisly people who seemed to think nothing of guiding me through the white, and therefore inconspicuous metal detector. I was led to the right on the ground floor into the room where I could already hear the distinct sounds of the master himself.

The room was white, no party lights, just dimmed lights in the corners. The place was filled with beautiful boys and girls. Now I know why the bar was such a bummer. This was where the party was at. There was a fruit and juice bar along one side of the room. It was all fresh too. At the other end of the room was a mobile DJ set. Simple, two turntables and a tape deck. The deck was spitting out tunes that were Prince, no doubt about that, but they were songs I'd never heard before in my life. Sometimes just tracks it seemed, sometimes with vocals, sometimes without.

I was without doubt, in the place to be.

I struck up a conversation with some of the people there. I knew one of them because she was an extra in the Sam Goody commercial. Her name was Willow I think. She was rumoured to be Prince's current GF or current ex-GF. Either way she had an attitude. When I finally spotted our gracious host standing over by a stack of speakers in the corner Willow was quick to tell me not to approach him. She said that he "has a poblem with people taller than him, especially if there white"

Perfect reason to make a beeline straight to the man.

He saw me coming and already had his hand out to shake mine before I was within reach. First observation: He's not as small as you might think. He wasn't wearing his really high heels and still his height seemed pretty much normal. In fact I distinctly remember thinking I'm more of a freak at 6'4" than Prince at his 5'whatever.

Second observation: He's a very eloquent talker. After I thanked him for inviting me to his party we chatted about the Halloween shows I had done a week earlier in NY for my daily MTV programs. Wow, he'd not only watched the shows, he remembered what I said in them! That's a big deal when you're on MTV, trust me.

In contrast to Willow his attitude factor was Zero. A real superstar.

We chatted for about 15 minutes and then I excused myself so I wouldn't look like some friggin; groupie, like the rest of the people there

About an hour later (Prince had already retreated) the Paisley Park people came into the room with flashlights and flashed them on and off pointed at the floor. Nothing was said, just flashing. Apparently that was 'the sign' as everyone obediently started shuffling towards the exit where my driver was waiting to take me back to my hotel.