I heard on the take 5 things away from Prince's past some people were saying during the Oprah interview he was acting like an asshole and just made shameless lies. What did he say?!??!

XVI said:

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He was not acting like an asshole. He was on his best behavior. They are only saying that because he was not forthcoming in discussing the death of his child on national television. I don't understand way anyone would think he should have been talking about this on television.

ok, I understand that but he didn't say anything cocky or aggorgant?

XVI said:

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He did not say anything cocky or arrorgant. He was very nice and really appeared quite normal. He did a really good job and handled himself well.

A lot of folks on this board feel that he should have told the truth about his child. I can't figure out why anyone would want him to this but, that is how some people feel.

It is strange that Prince did not insist beforehand with Oprah that she not ask questions about his child, that way they could have avoided any embarrasment and would have been a perfectly understandable request. At the time, his son had died only a month or so before I believe.

In the end, it is clear Prince allowed Oprah to ask any questiong she liked, which was commendable. He did not lie exactly, he just said 'all was good' with their family - and you could argue, from his point of view, that what he meant was the child was 'at peace' and things had turned out the way god intended.

As well, it is strange that Mayte's face did not drop or react when the question was asked. The death of the baby was one of the things people claim they split up over, and yet on this interview they looked very happy in each other's company. She does not look like someone who is pretending to be happy but has really been dragged along by Prince desperate to make Emancipation a success.

But looking back, clearly they were masking their inevitable sadness. Why even do the interview at that time? Simply to promote Emancipation. All the times Prince has been reclusive, then he picks that time to do lots of interviews and appearances. Well, some people like to work through the grief to distract themselves I guess.

Very well said, metalorange.

metalorange said:

If I remember correctly, Prince sort of brought up the baby thing on his own by showing Oprah the room that was prepared for the baby and saying, "I want to show you my favorite room." Oprah's asking about the health of the baby was logical next question afterward. I mean, how could she NOT ask about the baby after he took her to the baby's room?

And Prince also said, "Our family exists." You could interpret that loosely and say that he meant he and Mayte as a "family," but it was purposely elusive.

Nonetheless, I still liked the interview. Prince was very cordial, and he was actually very funny. I thought it was good that he presented himself that way since most folks who don't really keep up with Prince have this image of him as being a total egotistical asshole. Hopefully, some Oprah viewers saw him in a more favorable light after watching the interview.

PicassoFace said:

I have the interview and I just re-watched it. In fact it was Oprah who first brought up the subject of the baby by referring to the liner notes on Emancipation, where it mentions the use of the ultrasonic recording of the baby's heartbeat on 'Sex in the Summer'. Prince then goes into some detail about how it was done and incorporated into the song - now you would think that would have been a touchy subject for him at the time.

Later on, without prompting Mayte herself mentions that 'Let's Have A Baby' was a romantic song written for her that basically got her pregnant. Again, you would have thought this was something she would not want to talk about. They then go onto discuss having a large family.

You're right that Prince does say that his family 'exists', in an elusive way.

It is after all this that they visit the playroom and Oprah mentions Prince wanting a large family once again.

All in all, it was Oprah who kept pushing for information about the subject.

The bottomline, this interview was pre-recorded and Prince could surely have requested that any discussion about his baby was edited out due to the touchy nature of the subject - but for whatever reason, he did not, he allowed the pretence that things were fine to go on. Just all seemed very strange to me.

Threads like this come up pretty regularly.

That said... I don't think he was an asshole. He actually seemed nervous, and was quite revealing. Apart from the baby thing (which was sad as hell to watch) and the b.s. discussion about the name change (the symbol coming to him in a dream... blah, blah).... he spoke about people thinking that he's weird.

However, I would say his comments about having created a separate identity that would love him to deal with the fact that he was tormented about his short stature as a child. Oprah asked him what they would call him and he nervously replied, "Anything small." I've never heard him address his height either before or since, just occassional references in some of his songs.

But I don't see how you could say he was an asshole. He was shy as hell and Oprah is an extremely skilled interviewer, so he had reason.