Behind the Scenes: Glamorous Life
November 17, 2008

This week, in Talk of the Town, Claire Hoffman visits the home of Prince. He lives in a thirty-thousand-square-foot Italianate villa, built by Vanna White’s ex-husband. Hoffman talks about what it was like to meet Prince, and shares a couple of prints from his new book, "21 Nights," a collection of stylized portraits taken while Prince was in London last year.

You had some colorful descriptions of Prince’s home: Bright-purple carpets, a Lucite grand piano, bearded men playing flutes. Is this how you imagined Prince’s home to be?

I think I imagined everything about Prince would be more bizarre, dare I even say celestial. I’ve been listening to Prince ever since I started listening to music so he’s less an artist to me and more a sort of galactic overlord. So to show up at his house and have it smell like a Pottery Barn showroom and hear Yanni on the TV was sort of shocking.

In his defense, Prince hasn’t lived there long. I got the sense that he had a sort of make-a-home-for-Prince suitcase that someone else had unpacked -- a little purple velvet there, a statue here, and voila!

In your interview, Prince said the following about gay marriage: "God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was like, ‘Enough.’" Did you two have a more in-depth conversation about this?

I was a little surprised when he said it, because he has always seemed so unrestricted sexually.

We were having a larger conversation about his belief system and his politics. He told me he didn’t have a horse in the November election and that he didn’t believe in getting involved with these kind of earthly contests. I had asked him if the fact that Obama was black didn’t compel him to get involved.

He said, "Why?"

And I said, Well, because you’re black.

And he said "Am I?" and held up his wrist next to my ruddy one. Indeed his skin was lighter, and he cracked up.

Anyway, he walked me into his library and opened a Bible up to the Sermon on the Mount, and that’s when he got to talking about trying to live Biblically. For what it’s worth, the way he said it wasn’t hateful so much as sad and resigned. Prince is a true believer, and I think that’s important to keep in mind in hearing his viewpoint.

We’re showing our readers some of the photographs from "21 Nights." Are they like the photographs he has hanging in his house in, as you put it, "various states of undress"?

I interviewed the photographer, Randee St. Nicholas, who has photographed and made videos of practically every big-name celebrity. The thing she said about Prince that stuck with me was that he sees women in a way that most men don’t. He looks right at them. I felt that -- he’s strangely considerate. In person, I found Prince humble and down to earth -- if you closed your eyes you could imagine he was your fat old uncle and you were on the way to a (vegetarian) BBQ.

Finally, did you have any of that carrot soup?

I didn’t. I should have.

---

[Edited 11/22/08 6:07am]

'if you closed your eyes you could imagine he was your fat old uncle and you were on the way to a (vegetarian) BBQ.'

Seriously P , this really has been a crap week!. Has our man lost his mojo?. Forget being misquoted[?], this quote is the one that will probably kill him!.
Cheer up P , it comes to us all. You can't hide from time.

suomynona said:

Is there anyone he didn't offend in this interview? It seems Prince only wants white Christian heterosexuals to listen to his music now.

The colour thing doesn't have anything to do with wanting to exclude black people or denying his history. He wanted to make the point that regardless of colour, we're all just human. His religion says god is the ruler of man and he shouldn't vote to have a human leader, so why would the fact that someone is black compel him to vote, after all, he's just another man.

Also, he doesn't hate gays, the bible said men shouldn't lay with men and that's what the JW's believe, so that's what Prince believes.

These aren't my views, just how Prince sees things because of his religion.

To be honest, you have to give credit to the JW's for sticking with this belief. If you believe the bible to be the word of god, then you shouldn't be able to modify things to fit, as certain other christian groups have done just because it makes them more popular in the modern world. If you really believe that book is the word of a being that created everything around us, then you really should live life according to its writings.

LOL good stuff, time waits for no one. i think he's still similair to the way he was, he still shuns labels and the religion is his form of rebellion-no different than the sexual freedom of his youth. remember he was a product of the conservative reagan 80's this stuff is a classic case of oppositional defiance disorder which he has in spades. Prince sees the world going one way (liberalism and tolerance which i like) and he'll go the other, that way he maintains freak status. kinda juvinile but like i've said in earlier post i go to prince for funk and scorching guitar not wisdom, if i went to him for that i'd still be 16 not 40.I dont approve of prop 8 but i also dont feel i have to burn and boycott a musician ( and my collection which i love) to prove it.Prop 8 will be overturned by focus and dilligence by good people and prince will have to live with it just as he lived with conservitism in his youth. Either way i'm gonna be rockin prince in my ipod.

fat old uncle

Something tells me the next time this reporter talks to Prince, it'll be because he's just happened upon her house on a conversion call.

And then his eyes will get wide, and he'll say "YOU!" Then the Benny Hill music will kick in and he'll chase around the house trying to whack her over the head with the Watchtower.
[Edited 11/19/08 4:49am]

MendesCity said:

No doubt that will disappoint the handful of obama fanatics...

Good to hear he didn't have a horse in the election, and sees the bigger picture.

FlamingRaindrop said:

Actually, we couldn't be happier. Our eight-year nightmare is almost over. There's NO WAY to cast a pall on that!

Number23 said:

Or could it be that he meant that he doesn't see color????

TheEnglishGent said:

very nicely put.
we don't have to agree with Prince's POV, but we should try to respect it.

dreamshaman32 said:

I think you've got it & have a good attitude to boot. Rock on.

Number23 said:

Well these "earthy contests" are the way JW believe. ON their website they are not allowed to vote or get in2 politics. Its just sad to see someone who has been a fighter of freedom and finding your own self be bamboozled, hoodwiked into a controlled organized, this almost cult man-made religion, where former Jw's cant even speak to one another even if they are in the family. I cant think of a reason Prince actually wouldnt say this..I dont want to believe it but JW's are really really strict...I wouldnt be suprised.

Its hard for me to listen to his music right now. Maybe in a month I will again.

Prince really needs to get in the studio and make some high quality music. What was the purpose of that interview? Was he promoting anything? Why is he speaking to the media? Did he say anything to further sales of his music?

The worst part of this controversy is that he'll probably release new songs to answer the backlash. Coming soon from Prince: More songs with dense narrow biblical interpretations about subjects that are hard for anyone to relate to!

Number23 said:

"Am I black or white
Am I straight or gay?"

funksterr said:

i could be wrong but i don't think we'll be hearing from Prince in any interview for a long time. he probably will see this reaction on the net as more reason to not do anymore interviews. hopefully he will learn to keep his religious beliefs to himself.

wonder505 said:

i hope that's not the case. i like his interviews and i like his rants, be they in print or during concerts or on his albums. like i've always said, ranty prince is my favorite prince, even if i have no idea what he's going on about. ESPECIALLY if i have no idea what he's going on about. why? because it's his mind just puking out stuff, and with an imagination like his, he needs to do that as much as possible.

HOWEVER

i really wish prince would learn to reconcile. i'm not saying he needs to learn to compromise or to concede to the sensibilities of his fans or water anything down. i just wish he would lighten up and figure out a way to be who he needs to be while figuring out a way to play nice with others. every interview with him lately, he seems to have such a chip on his shoulder. he needs to get off the cross (sorry, stauros) and appreciate the good things he's done, and just spend some time HAVING FUN with his music, with the fans, with interviews. put angry prince on the shelf for a while, bring playful prince out for a change. and i know it's possible for a JW to reconcile his or her principles and still engage comfortably (and maybe even enjoyably) with a non-JW world. prince needs to give that a shot. he needs to find that balance.

maybe prince needs to mostly grant interviews to gearhead music magazines like guitar world like he did for a while in the late 90s and early 00s. those were some of his best interviews ever, i think.

Anxiety said:

i agree 1000%. just to hear him talk about music, the industry, his format for the musicology shows were a blast to read. i still believe that he's given us a lot, music, live shows, intimate settings, i will never forget the great opportunities he's given us as fans to see him. but I agree, i think he should focus more on talking about music.

Anxiety said:

Has everyone gone mad...Religious Beliefs..are based around what you "Think"..not what you read....or say....Gay Rights, Human Rights have to do with the law...how do you change the law...by voting...Prince does not vote..hence if you want "Change" ...my Gay brothers and sister..you need to Change the law not Prince...he's not your problem..but maybe the liberal "New Yorker" is? as they are active in the Political Process and the person who wrote the piece voted and the publishers voted...may be you should find out what they vote for?

or maybe they just wote S%%T so people would comment on it and go out and buy the magazine? ah ..capitalist ...don't you just love them!

LondonStyle said:

what?

LondonStyle said:

but if you want the law to change don't you have to convince those thoughts are against the law so they could vote in your favor? not so much change their thoughts but at least educate on the matter?

Well, I don't think I've ever layed with a man. Most of the time, it has been the man sitting and me leaned over doing my thing and vice versa. There's been a lot of sitting and leaning but no laying. So what's their problem with that?

Anxiety said:

Amen. He does these interviews, where he goes on and on about his religious views, all the while using "Princespeak", and doesn't allow tape recorders or pen & paper....then he trips when the story "mis-quotes" him? He seems to want to "educate" the journalists on his spiritual worldview, but he just winds up getting himself all twisted up. I'd really like to be able to know what was actually said, and the context of the quote about gay marriage.
Knowing Prince, he probably didn't mean it to be homophobic, but it probably came across that way to anyone who hasn't been reading all the man's nutty interviews over the years. Prince seems to always come close to integrating his religious views with his public persona, only to blow it. He reconciles with Wendy & Lisa, does the Ellen show, and in general just seems to be cool with gay friends and fans, then turns around and says something stupid that probably isn't 100% reflective of his actual views. His desire to seem somewhat cryptic also seems to lend itself to him being mis-quoted, or at the very least mis-interpreted.

He needs to stick to discussing music. When he talks about artists who influence him, what gear he uses, etc., we see the REAL Prince. His spiritual view actually comes across much more clearly in those articles, because he is talking about the one area that he knows best...and the one thing that he uses to express himself best.

MendesCity said:

This guy has lost me forever.

What a stupid ass.

The gay comments and the election -- am i?-- comments are too much for me.

He's like a bible programmed robot -- an anathema to the free spiritedness he once glorified.

no respect. I have no respect for that.
[Edited 11/19/08 9:02am]

In all fairness, I think the "black" comments were him being a smart @$$, making a joke at his expense.

As for the election, he's a JW and they don't vote. I don't agree with his view on this, but that is a core belief of their sect.

wonder505 said:

Bingo...Education, hence the bible, koran, etc..they are just books of knowledge they do not control the mind they give points of view or opinons but they do not stop you from thinking...if you did not think..then you could not understand the concept of god as her/she/object/thing/ is not in a book but in your own mind!

I think Prince has already got to that stage ...

That's why the New Yorker wants to talk trash as this stuff don't sell magazines!

JediMaster said:

And maybe...just maybe...the reporter brought her own agenda to the interview?

Having worked as a reporter, I'd like to tell you how I think this might have gone down. We all know Prince doesn't allow tape recorders...and sometimes doesn't even allow note taking. Which means the reporter has to rely on his/her own memory of what was said. (Which is why there should never be direct quotes in the article that follows, as there were in this one. Or the reporter should call the source back and say, "I heard this - is that your recollection, too?")

If you don't have notes or a tape, you sit in an interview and - every time something "quote-worthy" is said, you think to yourself frantically, "Oh, geez...I have to remember that line...that's really good." So you replay it a couple times in your mind - and miss a potential qualifier that follows right on its heels. This is in addition to, as always, thinking about the next question...or a follow-up question. There's no way a reporter can be "in the moment" or really listening in the interview, because he or she is too busy trying to remember what exactly was said and weighing each statement as a possible lede for the story.

I have my doubts about all of this - a reporter possibly having her own agenda, that Prince might not even have said what's attributed to him, or that he may have qualified what he said and it sailed right over the head of the journalist. Frankly, the most inflammatory quote in the piece doesn't even sound like Prince. He has an elegant (if cryptic) way of speaking. He's not blunt - as that quote is.

TheEnglishGent said:

Ok in the bible didn't God appoint certain men to rule over his people?