I read Per Nilsen's book back in high school, and I don't remember what it said about whether Prince did drugs. I know some others have been written since the first edition of that biography. Just wondering if any have addressed it.
[Edited 4/20/10 6:04am]

I believe Per's book DMSR alludes to possible drug use on Prince's "dark night of the soul" in 1987. (I don't have the book in front of me, so can't give you an exact citation.) He also discusses drug use allegations (though not by Prince) on the Purple Rain tour and earlier.

I think Possessed by Alex Hahn addressed it. I forget if DMSR quite got to the point of the Black Album (I believe it did), but it was around that time when Prince was tripping on ecstasy. Ingrid Chavez was part of that. Susan Rogers had a bad incident with him when he called her to the studio (after she had quit working for him from sheer exhaustion) at about 2 in the morning. The studio was dark, except for a couple of candles. Ingrid met her at the door and said, "Are you looking for Prince?" She pointed Susan in the right direction. Prince said something like "do you love me?" or whatever, and Susan said it was all very weird, turned around and got the hell out of there.

Prince has said he had an epiphany of seeing God, and that led him to cancel The Black Album. However, Gilbert Davison said Prince told him he thought the devil was chasing him - literally like demons were after him. Davison confessed that story to Matt Fink about what Prince was saying and feeling, shortly after it was happened. It was all from Prince doing drugs. I had always heard rumors of the X thing, but when Matt Fink relayed that story to me, it was a bit disappointing. I had always thought Prince wasn't one of those kind of guys, but even Prince fell to it like anyone else could.

Prince also addressed drinking in "The Holy River", about having another glass of Port.

I think overall the X time in 1987/1988 is pretty well known.

Prince was rather non-drug/non-smoking/non-drinking from early on. He once sat Lisa and Matt Fink down after he caught them smoking pot. He was really pissed off and almost fired them. This was way early on, like 1980 or 1981. Lisa continued to love her smokes (cigs) and Hennikens after a concert. Fink smoked pot through the Revolution years and after on occasion, but never ever went on stage high. It was purely off-time smoking for him.

I seem to remember, when he became a bit more interview friendly around Emacipation time, somebody asked him if he did drugs and he replied "I'm interested in all experiences" or something like that.

I didnt even know they made x then...that just shows u how I never really experiment much.

janecarol said:

Yes, even used X.

One of my best friends Has a dance company in NYC, and knows the art/club scene etc. pretty well there. Also he is a heavy user himself (whole other topic) and also knows the drug scene as well. Anyway, He SWEARS that one of his best contacts made a coke delivery to a club in the late 90s, and it turned up to be to Prince. I don't want to believe it, but I feel as though he is a good source. I'm just hoping that his friend is lying.

I know another guy in MPLS who is fairly well connected that claims that 1989-90 ish was a heavy ecstasy period for Prince. Come to think of it - it might explain why he is friggin licking all over His Mic Stand in the 1990 Nude tour from Japan video, maybe he needed a damned pacifier.

EML3 said:

It might also explain the seething paranoia.

I just noticed the distinctive sound of a bong rip during Lady Cab Driver