I have always thought this to be the case. Because I have been such a fan for a long time, I just think it's funny when I'm just minding my own business and I hear two or more complete strangers talking about Prince. I was getting lunch today and two of the cafeteria employees (early 40s) were discussing how Sheila E was Prince's drummer at one point. They said some other stuff (I was trying to get my tea so I didn't hear everything) and the last thing that I heard is the guy saying that Prince and Sheila looked like twin sisters. Or it is possible I might have misheard and he was talking about Diamond and Pearl or the current Twins but in context it sounded like the former. Anyway, I almost joined the conversation, if nothing else to see what the hell they were talking about, but I didn't. Which is another weird thing about being a fan. In a lot of cases of overheard conversations, I did jump in as if I were some sort of expert on the man.

Just thought I throw an interesting bit of sociology out there...
[Edited 4/29/08 18:12pm]

the only convo i have heard like that is when i was near a stall at a fair and the dealer was moaning to some guy about how prince wont sign anything i just smiled and walked away

What I find annoying when that happens, though...

I'M NOT PART OF THE CONVERSATION

Like when my dad's friend from Taiwan, Joey, was staying with us, they brought up Prince WHEN I WAS IN THE OTHER ROOM on the computer.

Annoyed the HELL outta me.
They never talk about him when I'm around
And when I come in, they change the subject on me.

See, this is why I need this place. Because nobody I know listens to him, lets alone talks about him. I gotta talk about him with somebody every now and then or I'll have mind back-up.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Yep that is the great part of this site, hey you don't always agree with what folk say but at least you can chat about him. I feel the same around friends who don't know his stuff and family. They simply don't want to know and don't understand why you like him, mind you I don't understand why they like what they do so its even

I actually over heard a funny Prince convo today at the local burger joint.

I was in line getting food for me and my dad and there's these two really, um, big burly guys, they really didn't look like the types to even KNOW who Prince was. So anyone, I'm scoping the menu for what I want to eat when one guy askes the other,

"So you see that little mother(bleep) Prince on Jay Leno the other night?"
And his buddy said "Yeah"

I thought they were gonna start trash talking and that I was going to end up going to the ER in a gum wrapper for defending him. I'm glad I kept my mouth shut because the guy who bright up Prince started spilling all kinds of compliments about Prince.

How nice his guitar was.
How the song he was playing was "The shiz-nit"!
How the women backing him were pretty.

Just on and on. I was standing there with a big, cheesy smile on my face. I had never heard anyone outside my circle of friends talking nice about Prince.

The man was talking so nice, you'd have sworn Prince was in there to overhear him or something.

It was pretty cool.

I had to put Prince in the clear with a patch of teenage boyz that were determined to believe that Linkin Park was in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and how Prince wasn't...I don't know why I bothered to sink to their level of thinking by trashing their musical tastes like they were trashing Prince...

I gave up when I had to call a guitar player, to prove that Prince could play a "Poison" song by ear...because they didn't believe me...At least the guitar player shut them boyz up..

Cool thread.

What's worse when someone tries to argue with you about a Prince question.
A guy I work with was convinced that Tom Jones wrote Kiss and he was telling everyone this at the pub the other day.
I explained (as a fanatic of over 20 years does) that he was wrong and that Prince wrote it.

I finally convinced him
[Edited 4/29/08 16:12pm]

guarinigirl2000 said:

That was actually cool, and good thing you didn't start up,
it wouldn't be nice to be going to ER in a gumwrapper...

Controversy said:

Haha, I had the same thing, I was just working away one day and someone mentioned "Kiss, that Tom Jones song" aww I nearly wet myself.
Once I composed myself I went all Prince on them!

..... just waiting for some worker to bring up "I feel for you by Chaka Khan....

Tame said:

the worse i have heard is a group of teenagers about 14-15 who were saying that this band they were listening to had made the whole genre of funk so being curious i asked who they were listening to and it was some random band off myspace whos members were all about the same age as the teenagers and i found myself arguing with them about who invented funk and who played funk

Controversy said:

I was in Macy*s yesterday buying rhinestone earrings for a formal I'm going to. Because I have 5 holes, I have to buy multiple pairs. My conversation with the saleswoman went from piercings to tattoos, and I mentioned that one of my friends has 3 Prince tats.
She started trying to tell me about Prince... one thing, tho- I had to keep correcting her.
She told me "Prince" was only his stage name not his real name, for starters. Then she told me he hasn't done anything in a long time, and now my friend is stuck with his name on her body. When I told her about Leno & Coachella, she asked me how I knew this stuff.

I agree. Sometimes being a fan... we're not "experts", but we feel the need to "drop the knowledge".

enough with this twin talk its making me po lil heart bleed.

Man about dropping knowledge, I know that this is about overheard convos, but I please please please let me tell you how I had to hip my friend about Prince.

Okay, as a Prince enthusiast myself, I had to learn all the stuff I know about Prince on my own. I didn't have anyone to hold my hand and lead me down that purple lane.

But at the time I got into Prince, my best friend got into him too and it was WEEKS before I got her straight on the basic facts:

Prince being his real name.
What his height is. (She refused to beleive he was petite.)
That he wore other colors besides purple.
That his house wasn't purple. (Which got shot to hell when he painted a house purple! LOL)
The height of the heels on his shoes. (yes, we fought about that!)

And my personal favorite:

She was singing "Pussy Control" one day and when I mention it was Prince's song, she changed colors. She didn't know it was him and I had to show her a video of him singing it before she would beleive it.

Now she'll spit facts almost as well as I can. (And I learn something new everyday from the seasoned veterans on here, you guys rock! )

I always thought it was cool to hear people talking about Prince songs they heard on the radio...you know, back in the day when his new stuff was on the radio. I remember this one fellow co-worker at a grocery store I worked at talking about how he hated that "Thieves in a Temple" song but he thought it was pretty cool after hearing it a few times. And then another randome memory of this girl I liked talking to her friend about how she thought "Arms of Orion" should be the Prom theme song.

It's weird how these little tidbits stay with you as time marches by.

i havent had this happen to me yet...but this morning i heard 3 prince
songs on 3 different stations... and later this evening i was eating
at applebee's and heard "youve got the look" while enjoying my meal

Daleboy90 said:

Ive already told evryone that and they'r like - what? he did?


Ive never heard anyone talking about prince ever!

dont you find if you just pop put with a prince fact like the chaka one peeps just stop and stare at you totally uninterested and then carry on talkin like it never happened - oh its just me then!!!!

Man, I can't believe so many of you have never overheard a Prince conversation.

When I really go back in the memory banks, I can remember numerous discussions from middle school classmates who had either seen "Purple Rain" or had absorbed the phenomenon through osmosis in 1984. And I had no idea what the hell they were talking about because I hadn't seen the movie yet, was only marginally familiar with Prince, being so completely into Wham! and all.

I was on the Train today coming home from work asnd two people were sitting behind me talking about a new guy on their job that had a tatoo on his face. They were saying he would have to cover it with makke-up and one of them said "that will have to be an awful lot of make-up, he'd wind up looking like Prince, or little Richard or somebody!
[Edited 4/30/08 14:06pm]