Over my many years as a Prince fan I have seen a couple of stage flubs or "senior moments" by our favorite musician and the "Prince" of cool.
Granted, they are few and far between they do happen. There was that JB/Michael performance where he seemed like he didn't know what to do next almost like he was high or something, then he actually fell offstage!

I heard during the Purple Rain era he hit himself in the mouth with the mic doing that famous JB under the leg thing. (dang...can you say embarrassing?)

I read an interview where he was reportedly accidently hit in head with a guitar and went onstage bleeding!

Have any of you ever seen anything like that in concert? (a trip, a slip, a missed cue, a fan that went overboard and blew his cool in the process) and did it bring him down to earth in your eyes or did you just overlook it as human?

i've seen little flubs like no sound from certain instruments or other technical snafus...sometimes i don't even know what went wrong but i can tell by the way prince is carrying on that someone's in trouble.

dude doesn't have a very good poker face about when things go wrong onstage, but i love that about him.

Anx said:

yea, it is funny seeing the look on his face, all the while we had no clue!

Anx said:

I saw him once give a lighting cue and the stage folks screwed up. He handled it well but somebody might've lost their job that night.
[Edited 10/19/06 8:48am]

I remember these ones;

1. At the American Music Awards in 1985, he hit himself in the mouth w/the mic while performing Baby Im a star. I think his shawl or got caught on the mic

2. At the MTV awards in 1991 (I think that was the year), his shirt sleeve (by his wrist) got caught on the microphone while performing GETT OFF.

3. Performing My Name is Prince on Arsenio in 1992, he had trouble lighting a review on fire, it took a couple tries.

4. In 1994 on the American Music Awards he was lip synching to 319 and was a second or two off at one point w/the lip synching.

Other than that,,,the man is usually RIGHT ON!!

On the Arsenio gig, didn't P have a little trouble lifting the piano lid?

I know it's not a concert, but when he was on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, he couldn't shoot a kooshball past the first row. I was embarassed for him.

LuneCerise said:

He had no trouble lifting the piano lid,...he did, however, forget to keep the piano lid open with the half prop stick. When the piano lid came crashing down,...he almost smashed his hand trying to catch it!

Another incident that comes to mind is the Today Show on his performance of "Zanalee." While Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric were about to introduce P again,...all you heard was his guitar blaring in the background over their voices. When the song began, sound difficulties prevented P's guitar (even solo) to be heard. P tried to signal the problem during the song to the sound engineer by saying "Somebody turn me up!" Unfortunately, they never got the problem straightened out!

At the Universal Ampitheater in 1992 he couldn't light the bad review, so he pretended to piss on it with the lighter fluid.

He said someone threw his guitar at him and cut his head during the PR tour.

Musicology tour he sang "everything...nothing about you is false" during Call My Name."

Sometimes I'll hear him play a riff on guitar that isn't clear, and he'll then repeat it the right way.

And of course, broke his damn ankle in concert!!

Of couse, how could he never mess up in concert? The guy's only human, after all. I can't walk down the street without tripping. And as a musician myself, I make mistakes all the time that others don't notice.

NDRU, when did he break his ankle I don't remember that one??

Brixton Academy '98, 'Nothing Compares 2 u'. something mechanical broke at the side of the stage and made a right old noise over his piano playing, P stopped the song while a techie fixed it. then he carried on with the song. Cool.

He kinda flub his lines in his goodbye tribute performance to Bryant Gumble on the today show

kpowers said:

You have a good ear - I noticed that too. Probably because I rewound it a bunch o times.

He nearly knocks the mike stand out of the way off his mouth during the intro to 'Gett Off' @ the MTV awards in '91, nearly missed his opening line.

cole said:

I'm spreading rumors; actually I think it just was a bad sprain.

Happened in 1998. I think he slipped on moisture that came from a fog machine. I saw a show about 2 weeks later, and he was obviously still in great pain, but still trying to get on top of the piano to play guitar, and still in heels.

A performace of Delirious at the UTCM premiere Prince drop the Mic stand.

never noticed.

NDRU said:

I was at that show. It was in AC in '98. I believe it was broken- a fracture. The show was cut short because they took him to emergency. Chaka fell in her set right before that. They put an oil-based mixture in the fog machine instead of a water-based one. I was hanging around in the casino after the show and got the "1st hand info".
[Edited 10/20/06 5:08am]

http://www.youtube.com/wa...U4fzeeev0g
THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE.

OneMoreTimeP said:

That's the one - that's the fall off the stage I was talking about.
That's the type of stuff I'm talking about. Even little stuff like how he seemed a little surprised that Mel Gibson didn't respond to his friendliness on the Jay Leno show. He almost seemed a little unsure of himself which is a nice look into his ordinary side. It actually makes me like him more. He's just an ordinary cat with an extraordinary gift.

The 2005 Oscars wasn't exactly a mistake, but having to read a long list of names of foreign nominees definitely took him out of his comfort zone.

I was at a show in Wilkes-Barre, PA and Prince kept yelling to the crowd, referring to them as "Scranton". The people around us were getting so pissed!
Then I think someone finally told him where he was, because he started saying Wilkes-Barre.

The classic: "Who's the fool singing Will?.."

The recent: flubbing the lyric in "Fury" at The Brits.

UCantHavaDaMango said:

He wouldn't do what she told him. She told him to pull the koosh kinda upward and he was pulling it downward. and well you saw the results. koosh-splat on the floor.
ha, that was funny.



And there was a performance of "Life Can Be So Nice" where he dropped the mic and tripped over it. He caught himself though and didn't fall but it sure was funny. He looked over at Jerome and Wally and 'em to make sure they weren't laughing at him!




"wouldn't" edit
[Edited 10/20/06 11:56am]

Didn't he trip over a piano in like 98, and twist his ankle

sorry, thats not funny

mmmmm....fucking up the lyrics to Sometimes It Snows In April on the Musicology tour...

You guys have seen alot of mess ups.

Daddy pop on arsenio hall in 92 he missed his cue on the last verse.


IF U WANNA NO PRINCE'S "OOPS1" FACE, JUST LOOK AT THE MUCH MUSIC VIDEO (KISS) IF U HAVE IT AND LOOK AT HIS FACE WHEN THE GURLS IN THE AUDIENCE MESS UP THE LINE TO THE SONG. IF HE EVER SUDDENLY BREAKS OUT IN2 THIS FACE HE HAS MESSED UP. U MAY NOT NOTICED WHAT MESSED UP BUT SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG.

I hope u wont never c me when I perform in concerts.... It happens EVERYTHING....

I think I've noticed in some concerts... (4give me, im getting old) is that the band was going out of beat and Prince was beating it with his hand....

Lilith said:

FruitToAttractBears said:

**** yes, he made the band a signal 2 look at him and then beated the pulse or the tempo.... it was at the beginning of performance...pretty normal...