Funk genius and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, BERNIE WORRELL, speaks highly of Prince in a cool interview with Fonkedelica. For the entire interview, go to : http://www.fonkadelica.co...elluk.html . Here is the gist of the Prince discussion.

9. You were telling to me earlier today how all the music of the world for you relate one to another. Can you explain how you feel about the music being a universal thing ?

Well to me… the gift. I was born with the perfect pitch: anything I hear, I can play. And I have also the gift of being able to mix music whatever genres they are. I can mix it, go from one thing to another, like jazz to country western, from country western to Irish, from Irish to Operatic, and so on and so on. And being able to hear that way and having the gift to relate. ‘Cause my thing is: everything is related anyway. But people don't. It depends on how you hear it. And I just happen to be able to hear it. All things are related so I keep that to show to my group or to who ever I play with. There are others who can do that beside me by the way.

10. Any name you wanna share with us ??

Will Calhoun, of course Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, …

11.You tell me !!

(Laughs)

12. What about Prince ?

Prince is... Prince can also do it.. Prince is arranger also. He can take from the 70's, rework it and take it to the 90's. He's what we call a reworker. He does Old School, but updated. Prince is great; he's a genius at reworking and updating old grooves. Like ….in better words: that's one of the gifts that he has.

13. Have you ever had the opportunity to work with him ??

(….)He knows who I am: he was growing up on P-Funk, so he took it, you know, and made it into his style. So that's so far the closest we've come to being together except he presented us at the Rock and Roll of Fame. He did the presentation.

BERNIE!!!! BERNIE!!!
Truly a legend....

funkpill said:

He is truly one of the living funk gatekeepers.

so that means he doesnt consider prince as an innovator

fartman said:

he considers him genius
[Edited 3/25/05 17:48pm]

Bernie definitely digs Prince and what he does musically. The Wizard of Woo is a personal friend and a cool guy. I will never forget Bernie coming to our radio studios back in 1999 and bringing his keyboards to perform. You couldn't meet a nicer man.