amorbella s experience: http://prince.org/msg/7/296558

rdhulls experience: http://prince.org/msg/7/296614


pej's experience
I've been contemplating if I should write about this since 3AM in the morning last night and now is the time. I have a lot to say so bear with me. As was reported there were 3 purple ticket winners that had the chance to go to Prince's Beverly Hills mansion last night and preview upcoming things on his new lotusflow3r.com website and have Prince play for them. I am one of those 3 and oh boy last night was like an unimaginable surreal dream come true. The other two people who attended were amorbella and to my surprise an old friend RDhull.
The night started off kind of hectic because all of us scrambled trying to find the location of the house. We were all on our own missions looking for the place (mapquest sucks) on our own and amorbella was lucky enough to use her GPS system. With the help of a good semeritan who pulled over and asked me if I was lost I soon after found my way to the gates I was looking for. I told the gate guard my name and when the gates began to open I knew it was on like donkey kong. After many twists and turns through the windy roads I finally arrived. I was greeted at the door by Prince's security man then by Scott Clay(the guy who is in charge of the new website) and a writer for Rollingstone Magazine. The two of them walked me into the kitchen where hor de veurs (I know I spelled that wrong were being served. (RD was all over the stuffed mushrooms and i enjoyed the deviled eggs, yes deviled eggs at Prince's house.
Next to the kitchen was a sitting area with plush couches a television and coffee table which connects to a big circular room with that amazing piano in it. Outside of the windows you could see a gigantic courtyard with a huge symbol sticking up out of what may have been a fountain. We mingled and were served drinks in the kitchen with other guests and writers for magazines (Huffington Post, USA Today, etc) as well as the designers of the website Scott Clay and Anthony Malzone, Prince hairdressers, Anita Baker, Marva King, CC and Josh Dunham, Renato Neto, Rhonda (P's old bass player), Morris Hayes, Bria V., and other random guests who I have no idea who they were.
At this point me and RD were in total disbelief of how we ended up in this awesome situation. (BTW he wanted me to let you all here at the org know how much he loves and misses you and this time he mos def got that name check!)
After an hour or so of mingling I just knew we would be seeing Prince soon. The designers announced that we would all be heading downstairs to preview the website which had gone on live at 8pm. As I was walking to the staircase I spotted ole boy in the hall way dressed to the nines and talking to a lady from a magazine. amorbella and RD's wife had just been greeted by Prince in the hallway before that moment. When i saw him I had my Jamie Foxx moment of the evening and did everything in my power not to look him directly in his eyes but I failed.
At this point we entered the theatre room. This room had a huge picture screen, awesome sound system, comfortable couches, and thick soft carpeting. We all sat down and the lights went dark for the presentation. Scott Clay lead the presentation and showed us things to come on the site that I refuse to talk about here because by no means do I want to spoil what's in store for all of us in the future. All I can say is you will all(even the naysayers) be blown away by the graphics and 3D effects plus the many surprises which are in store.
After the spectacular preview of the site Scott told us that now was the time for us to head down the hall where Prince would be performing for us. At that split second we heard his guitar being played by him loud from a room where he was with the band and the music began. We all got up and shuffled our way through the pool room where we saw the pool table with a symbol layed across the top. We the passed by the dopest DJ booth with Rashida(I think it was her at least don't quote me on that one) doing her thing and into the music room we entered. Prince was in his little area to the left of the room with all his guitars keyboards and sampling equipment, CC on the drums in the center Josh on Bass to the right and the three back up singers in front of Josh. Over on the far left center side of the room was Mr. Hayes on keys. I'm no good with setlists so I'll write what I remember him playin and maybe perhaps when I get RD's report i will post the songs a little better.
From what I remember in the first part of the show he played everything from the Rollingstones (you know RD was lovin that) to many many other covers like Free, Ohio Players, Lets Go, I Feel 4 U, Stand Sly and the family stone every day people "Take you Higher" and a couple others that some people complain and says "he always plays those". Regardless I have no problem with what he plays. CC rocked on the drums and halfway into the show John Blackwell stepped in. They played Sexy Dancer and Controversy mixed with other songs I couldn't identify. Oh yeah, they also sang "Turn Me Loose"(I told you I suck at set lists and I had no time to try and jot things down). Throughout the show Renato came in to play on the keys where Mr. Hayes sat. Prince also called in a guy named Fred( I think to play harmonica) many songs later the band went out through a back door and Prince took off his guitar. He went over to his sampler and started spittin out the sickest old school Prince beats which he tweeked and screwed around with such as the beats from Dorothy Parker (mind you he sang a few lines of that song) to Erotic City, Hot Thing, Forever in My Life, Partyman, and the ever so awesom beat of Irresistable Bitch. When he played that beat he made his way over to the drum set and played along to the beat as RD and I stood right in front of the set and and sang the lyrics out loud saying UHHH instead of bitch out of respect for ole boy. At that point Prince walked out of the room and I guess he went up to the kitchen to eat.
A little while after we danced a bit more then we were escorted back into the theatre room by prince's assistant for our statements on the evening. We did that then we were told we could go drink and party some more. We hung out for a while and then we called it a night. i know I'm all over the place with this report but I did the best I could.











[Edited 2/12/09 1:01am]

thx for reporting!

So rd finally got his namecheck. Lucky you, Pej.

Did Prince talk to you?

Sounds great. Glad u got the chance to experience and ienjoy it. What competition did u win?

Great story... if it's true
Weird that he didn't play any new tracks... if it's true

Congratulations to the winners!!! I'm so jealous

Thank you !
I hope you have enjoyed it.

Sounds like a great night, can't believe how lucky you were to be there.

Any chance of spilling any info about the site? I need something to look forward to after the initial disapointment. Not interested in 3d effects and fancy environments, I just want an idea of the real content.

Did they give any indication of release dates for the new albums?

Was there any indication as to when we might be able to share some of the websites new amenities?

2freaky4church1 said:

no he did to RD though

OMG, PEJ!

What an awesome experience!!!!

For ALL of you.

TheEnglishGent said:

This is what I would like to know too

TheEnglishGent said:

Let's just say sooner than later. No direct indication of exactly when though.

oldmanjohnson said:

soon

CarrieMpls said:

a night I will never ever forget!

thanx for sharing

Cheater07 said:

i think he may have played some new stuff cuz there were a lot of songs that i didn't recognize

If I would have been there I would have made damn sure that I got the full setlist down on my cell or something...

Wow, that's a great story PEJ! Thank you for sharing that with us!

OMG you lucky sod. So happy for you all. Can't wait for the rest of the site to come into full use.

Thanks for the report.

CarrieMpls said:

indeed!

and thank you for writing a report for us. much appreciated

cblu said:

Though it's admittedly nice to read reports when someone's documented it, I know I'd always rather just relax and have fun. Different strokes and all.

Sounds really exciting.
Would help if I wasn't so far from the U.S. where I may be able to win something and actually go

Cheater07 said:

As for the "If it's true"... I have met and know PEJ personally. This isn't just some random person making stuff up for fun.

you were so lucky!!!

CarrieMpls said:

you know it's true!

PEJ said:

glad you had such a wonderful time!!!

kimrachell said:

thank you!