Is there a pre recorded loop on "whole lotta love" that he covered during ONA tour in '02 as far as im aware P played on all the guitar parts during that tour and thers a part on the Las Vegas vid where he gets rid of hes guitar and you can still hear the guitar hook of the song lowered down. I also have the Vega club boot for the aftershow on that tour and hes soloing over what seems a loop? If so it seems a shame as he was going on about him being live without any loops/fills etc during that time

Raajput said:

That was Renato playing on one of his dozen keyboards.

calldapplwondery83 said:

it's not a stupid question.

unfortunately, musicians are sometimes forced to or for other reasons synch things. Mariah SOMETIMES lip synchs but she CAN and often DOES do it live.

So it's not dumb to ask if Prince was doing the solos live, especially since he does that trick with the guitar effects and letting it play without him there.

i don't know whether he was or wasn't (i don't play guitar) but I'd be interested to hear what guitar players say.

Prince sometimes plays live on TV shows, sometimes he doesn’t. Depending on the sound for the venue, this is standard practice for a lot of performers. For instance on the Grammy Awards with Beyounce' all the music was tracked, how do I know because a friend of mine was at the sound check when Prince decided that the sound was not ideal, my friend was the guitar player for Earth, Wind,& Fire. Prince didn't like the way the sound was on stage and acoustics were bad in the auditorium. Prince did play, contrary to belief that wireless systems were not available, during the Purple Rain live at Syracuse; Prince had his wireless system connected directly to the guitar internally back then. He was using a Samson wireless system back then and you can see it taped to the back of the guitar on a lot of the shots.

DANDRE said:

So Prince wasn't playing guitar live at the Grammies? Or are you just saying that the backing music was tracked? Certainly he's done that before - I seem to remember when he played Baby Knows on TOTP in the UK he was singing and playing guitar over pre-recorded music.

I would find it hard to believe that Prince wasn't playing guitar live, despite what your friend says. Every movement of his hands is associated with an equivalent sound. The backing band can mime because they do not get close-ups of their hands on the fret-board like Prince does. The guitar even makes a sound when it is thrown away at the end.

It would just seem bonkers to me to pre-record the sound presumably at a rehearsal where clearly they DID play it live and then mime on TV when you've got a band that has played live perfectly around the world and a musician like Prince who's been doing this for a long-time now.

on top of that you've also got the idea of prince going into a studio or somewhere to record the guitar parts - particularly the guitar solo on Beyonce's Crazy In Love.