>>>Continued

I am one of the few people I know that when all is said and done I could sing "I did it my way" and not be lying. The big difference between me and Frank Sinatra is he had a few regrets, too few to even mention, whereas my regrets may be too many to count. Then again I am so stubborn and head strong that if given the chance I would probably do everything the exact same way again. My biggest interaction with Prince happens to include what is easily one of my top ten all time regrets and proves once more I am not as smart as I think I am.
If you recall the story about me mud wrestling eleven girls in my hotel room in Denver on the Street Songs Tour you might also remember the catalyst for that adventure was my breaking the number one rule of touring which states "Never, ever, fall in love with a girl you met at a show!" I had met a young lady while on the KISS TOUR and in spite of what everybody told me I knew that she was "really different".
We had written and phoned each other regularly since we met. The more I got to know her the more I liked her. When KISS ended in December 1979 I went to join my parents in Houston where we went every year to visit the rest of our family. Both my Mother and Father had been born and raised in Houston and we were the first and only element to move away when my Father's work relocated us to California. Following Christmas instead of returning to California with the folks I decided instead to fly to Denver and spend a little quality time with my new sweety.
After I had purchased my ticket but not yet left Kathy decided she had better tell me something important that she had been putting off. My guess was it was another guy but she assured me that I was the only guy in her life. Instead she told me she was pregnant.
Oh the images and emotions that exploded in me were too numerous and complicated to even attempt to try and explain. I will just say the combination of being an adopted child, a late sexual bloomer, an extensive religious upbringing, and a hopeless romantic I had always been extremely careful and responsible in regards to procreating. Quick check....yes I distinctly remember asking her if she was on birth control and she had assured me that she was.
Everything I had ever believed in all simultaneously collided in my brain with enough energy that it just might have been on a par with the initial stages of nuclear fusion. With a million voices yelling at me from inside my head I am not sure how long I did not speak to the real voice on the other end of the phone. I think I finally said something along the lines of "that's interesting."
Then she said "Don't worry, it's not yours."That shut up about half the voices in my head but when you hear your sort of unofficial girlfriend is pregnant with another guy's baby is not exactly cause for relief. She explained that she had broken up with her old boyfriend before she met me and then after she met me she found out she was pregnant. She told me that it was her responsibility and it should have nothing to do with us. I already had my plane ticket and any normal guy would have changed plans at the speed of light but I thought only a jerk would do that so off to Denver I went.
I had an absolutely wonderful time and we grew closer and closer. I flew back to California a very confused young man. This was the time of Desert Storm and America was going to war. I was still of draft age but on top of that I now had a wartime specialty, pyrotechnics, which meant if there was a draft I did not get a number, I went. I knew I wanted to do the right thing, I just didn't know what that was.
I flew Kathy out to California and we had another great time. I got along better and enjoyed being with her more than anyone I had ever known. I got the Rick James phone call and she flew back to Denver. We had no formal relationship and had made no promises concerning seeing other people. I still had a couple of girls I was dating in California and the girl I met that first night in Hollywood when I went out with hyperspace proved I was not closed to meeting new people. I sent Kathy an intenarary for Rick's tour and she had letters waiting for me at every hotel and we talked on the phone practically daily.
What any of this had to do with Prince is probably not very clear but stay with me because it is going to real soon. Prince might have been aloof and mysterious, some might even say a pretentious jerk, but his crew and band couldn't have been nicer. They were great!
I spent a lot of time hanging out with his crew in the afternoons while they were waiting their time to hit the stage. I hung out so much because they let me play Prince's guitar as much as I wanted. I had never played on such a good instrument or through such good equipment so I was having a blast and spent hours playing everything I had ever learned to play.
On one such occasion I was playing the Beatles song "Day Tripper" when Prince came walking in and caught me. He was half laughing, something I had never seen before, and half sneering. He walked over and said "interesting phrasing" and I knew he did not mean that in a complimentary way.
Embarrassed I took off his guitar and apologized about using it without his permission. He waved his hand and said "No, no. no, don't stop now. I think you need the practice" and he walked away. That constituted my longest conversation with Prince but it is longer than most people had.
Not only was his crew nice but his band was great too. I particularly got along with Matt fink, the keyboard player that dressed up like a doctor. As the tour went along we discussed many different effects he wanted to add when they headlined their own tour. It was his desire to expand on the doctor theme and have all sorts of gadgets and sparking devices around him so he looked like he was playing in Frankenstein's lab. I even drew him up some plans and made some phone calls to people I knew in movies that could help him.
But by far my favorite member of Prince's crew or band, in fact my favorite person on the whole tour was his female keyboard player Gale Chapman. Gale was beautiful and sexy and smart and talented and funny and successful and just plain wonderful. She was way out of my league but I was never that smart when it came to such matters so I overstepped class boundaries and befriended her.
Of course every guy on the tour had the hots for her and if they were not in love then they were certainly in lust with her. Who could blame them. There was however something different about the woman on stage dressed in lingerie and dirty dancing with Prince and the same girl off stage. The girl on stage in her underwear was playing a role and the real person was a born again Christian. There is nothing like overdose of Jesus to dissuade most suitors and the word quickly spread that there was no party here. Most of the guys thought "What a waste" and went about pursuing other more available conquests. Most guys but not me.
If she wanted to talk religion then I was her man. As I mentioned earlier I had been raised in a very religious environment from the time I was baptized at age one on. I had not only taught Sunday School and been an alter boy I made it all the way to Sub Deacon in the Episcopal Church. I had even applied to go to Seminary after college to become a full Priest but the Church felt I did not have enough worldly nonacademic experience and I should go learn about life and apply again later. I guess I took their advice because nobody can say I was not getting my share of worldly experiences.
.. Anyhow I could discuss theology with the best of them and that would include a beautiful young musician new to the flock. I could be seen happily whistling away, hotel Bible in hand, making my way to Gale's room on our day's off. This got to be so common place that after a while nobody even seemed to notice. The guys on my buss would grill me with questions like "You guys aren't really reading the Bible all that time" and I would assure them we were and start to go into whatever the latest topic was. This was always enough to make them wish they had not asked in the first place and pretty soon they left it alone entirely.
The truth is that is exactly what we did most of the time and I enjoyed it because she was a very bright and interesting person. The thing was the more I hung out with her the more I liked her and the more attracted to her I became. This was not hindered in any way when she began taking me clothes shopping with her. Prince had told her he wanted her to wear sexier stuff in his show so I kept her company as we hit the more intimate ladies apparel shops. Then once she had made her purchases I was treated to private fashion shows in order to offer my manly opinion if the garments were in deed sexy or not. I started the tour not even knowing what a Teddy was and ended it a connoisseur of unmentionables.
I asked her about her boss and she told me that he was actually very much into women in spite of how he dressed and acted. He had even made advances towards her but she had made it clear that she was not interested in that kind of a relationship and he had accepted and respected this. I couldn't help but notice all the female fans he was attracting so maybe the little guy was onto something after all. What the hell, whatever gets you through the night.
Gale seemed to enjoy my company as well and it was not entirely Bible study after a while. It wasn't anything dirty or scandalous either. It was all very sweet and innocent and never went any further than kissing. I never however ever kissed a cousin, Aunt, Grandmother or my sister like that. If we had been in sixth grade it would have been a world class romance.
This all led to that fateful day when I was lounging around her room playing with fire. I was laying on her bed, it was made up and I was relaxing so I had my shoes off. Anyway I was making up little wads of flash paper and lighting them and throwing them into the air before I got burned. This gave the illusion I was throwing balls of fire out of my hand...very impressive. Unfortunately I threw one a little too high and the fire alarm went off.
I started jumping up and down on the bed as if it were a trampoline and began punching the fire alarm that was attached to the ceiling. After about three or four good punches the fire alarm gave up and everything was quiet again except for Gale's laughter. Suddenly there was a loud pounding at her door. I figured it was the hotel security checking out the alarm so I swung the door open all prepared to start making excuses.
There in the doorway was not hotel security but Prince himself backed by this great big body guard. He looked startled to see me, looked down at my stocking feet and then looked past me to see Gale with an equally surprised look on her face. Prince began to stamp his feet. He was wearing those little star booties so I guess he must have really liked them. While he was stamping his feet he started making the strangest sound. Very high pitched and coming from somewhere deep inside him. I thought he looked like a steaming teapot about to erupt.
This went on for a few seconds until I did the only thing I could think of. Not having anything to say and having seen enough of the exploding teapot I slammed the door shut and dead bolted it. Everything was quiet. I looked through the peep hole in the door and the corridor looked empty but I was not about to go out and see. I waited over a half hour before I cracked the door open just enough to see if the coast was really clear. Seeing nobody I shrugged and said goodnight to Gale and headed back to my own room.
The next afternoon I saw something truly out of the ordinary. Prince was in the building early and he was talking to Rick. I had never seen him talk to Rick before and Rick looked equally surprised as he just listened and occasionally nodded his head. I wondered if this could possibly have anything to do with me but that would be ridiculous. The next thing I knew I was being told to go see Rick right away. Maybe it was not so ridiculous.
I found Rick in his dressing room, The security guard let me in then closed the door. I looked at Rick's face and could not tell if he was mad or not.
He eyed me up and down and said "Watkins...you fuck Prince's woman?"
So much for ridiculous. I stalled wanting to be extra careful not to say the wrong thing. I also started getting a little pissed off so I told Rick. "In the first place that is not the kind of thing a gentlemen goes around telling. In the second place it is none of yours or his business and finally she is not his woman."
Rick stared at me and then he began to grin "You did didn't you. You smooth little player"
"Think whatever you want, I am not going to discuss it."
Rick stopped grinning "You know he wants you off the tour."
That sucked. I did not want to go home but I stood my ground. All I said was "and..."
Rick looked away "and what do you think I should do?"
If I was going to loose my job over this silliness I was not going to go out begging so I decided to just go for it. "Well if Prince is running this tour I guess you better send me home"
Rick thought a moment then looked at me again "I aint sending you nowhere" and then he spoke to the security guard "Run out there and tell Princess I just gave this mother fucker a hundred dollar a week raise." Without a word the guard nodded and disappeared out of the room. There was an awkward silence and I didn't know if I should just leave or not. Then Rick said "What are you standing around here for, go back to work."
When I got to the door I said "Gee, a hundred dollar a week raise, thanks Rick"
Rick started laughing "I told him to tell Princess that, don't you go getting all gullible on me now. Raise my ass...get out of here.
That was the end of that. In time I did stop seeing Gale but not because it upset Prince. The closer Kathy got to having her baby the more I knew I was going to have to make a decision about what I was going to do. To be honest there was no denying my feelings for her so I cut off all my other relationships including the one with Gale.
I know realistically nothing further would have come between Gale and me but I never had much use for reality. I sure did like her and I secretly always wished I knew for sure. Considering how things turned out it could not have been any worst. That's for sure. Now, looking back after all this time I think I actually I understand the truth in the old saying " They say the saddest words ever uttered by men are "What could have been" Oh well, so it goes.


And that's the way it really happened

Copyright 2005
John Sherman Watkins

Interesting reading, although I missed the first two parts.

One thing I'm confused on: He mentions this being during "Desert Storm", but the tour with Rick James would have occurred over a decade before the Gulf War.
[Edited 9/20/05 6:37am]

JediMaster said:

LOL, he also confused me with his mention of the draft and being of draft age in 1979. The draft oficially ended in 1973, registration for the draft ended in 1975. It wasn't until mid to late 1980 that President Carter reinstated registration.

Wow i guess prince really was an ass in his early days!

SexyBeautifulOne said:

Yeah, I'm afraid I have to take all of this with a huge grain of salt, since his recollections are a tad bit off, to say the least.

FunkJam said:

In his early days?

JediMaster said:

Early years of his career.

JediMaster said:

So did i. Somebody got a link ? Thanx.

FunkJam said:

Yes, I know. I was making a joke that he's still considered by many to be an ass.

Interesting story.

I was confused about the "stocking feet"

JediMaster said:

LOL well yes i guess he is, but just not as much.

FunkJam said:

well he certainly seems like a natural jackass to me.