Source: http://thelip.robertsharp.co.uk/?p=65

Ekow Eshun: Joan Didion’s written an excellent book called Slouching Toward Bethlehem. In it she says: ‘A writer is always selling someone out.’ I think she’s right. As a journalist, you’re involved in this business of truth and lies, really. Stories aren’t the truth – if you want, they’re lies; they’re fiction. But at the same time successful stories have a kernel of truth to them, even if they’re completely made up. The resonance they have is an emotional honesty.

The LIP: Can you give an example?

Ekow Eshun: Some years ago I went to Minneapolis to interview Prince at Paisley Park. We sat down and kind of talked for 40 minutes and it was all good. It was only afterwards that I realized or I came to realize that I couldn’t actually trust a single word he’d said.

What had happened was that Prince and his wife had just had a baby the same week I interviewed him. During the interview, he didn’t talk about the baby at all, but about how he was having the best time of his life. That same week Prince’s baby was dying of a rare condition, and had died by the time I got back to London. He didn’t mention anything about it.

In a way, that was his prerogative. But at the same time it struck me as weird. On the one hand, his baby is dying and on the other, he claims he’s having the time of his life. Those things didn’t fit together, and the whole thing felt false. So, what I wrote about was my own feelings about that strange contradiction. Whoever Prince was, whoever Prince is, I hadn’t really quite seen him then. I ended up with possibly the sense of selling someone out but also an honesty in terms of writing. That’s all you can do as a writer. That’s all you can aim for.

The article that he wrote was published in early 1997 in (now defunkt) British style monthly The Face, and was by a wide margin the best interview/article to emerge from those two days of promotion Prince did at Paisley Park. Unfortunately, it is nowhere to be found online.

I recall The Prince Family publishing some excerpts, but I don't know if they ever published those on their website at the time.I've got backups of that website on some old hard drive, but I wouldn't even know which one.

I owned that copy of The Face (I owned just about every copy of that magazine starting from issue no. 99), but at one point I had to clear out a lot of the magazines I owned (when I moved) and I don't know if I've still got it.

It was a strange period this. On the one hand, Prince and Matye are doing press and TV, telling the world that all is well on planet Prince, and how much they are in love with each other etc etc. While on the other hand they have this incredibly sad and stressful situation in their private lives to deal with. The strange thing was their apparent denial (at least to the public) of what was going on. I can understand (from a non superstar point of view) about his reluctance to talk about it, who would? However, he could have easily put out a brief but to the point press release telling people of the tragic news, and still perhaps managed to avoid the subject in interviews with less weirdness involved. I'm sure that interviewers would have perhaps approached the subject differently had they been aware of the truth, instead, they (naturally) wanted to ask about their baby, and both he and Mayte had to go through this whole senario of telling us that all was well.

I don't know, I can only imagine what I would do in such a situation, who knows what I would actually do, or say. I hope I never have to find out. Maybe I'd act totally different if I knew the world was watching my every move. I like to think I would have been a bit more truthful about it, thus perhaps avoiding further pain by pretending that all was cool.

The Face was a great magazine. I remember my sister have me a huge bundle of them when she left home, about 50 copies. They were all much earlier than '97 though.

The funny thing is, I think he did get to who Prince really is. Prince is a bundle of contradictions and disconnects. He's very compartmentalized, to the point where what he's saying one minute doesn't jive with what he's saying the next about the exact same subject, from sentence to sentence.

He can be saying that he's having the time of his life and mean it while at the same moment, his infant child is dying.

He can say that he doesn't like anyone doing covers of his songs and in the next breath tell you how much he loves doing covers of other people's songs to give his shows a party atmosphere. Or how he always wanted to put them on his albums but WB wouldn't let him.

It's not the most attractive quality in any person, but it is certainly interesting. And probably a pretty major factor in his drive. The man is a walking dichotomy. A contradiction. He can't help himself. He doesn't really see the need to. And that's fine. But it can certainly be frustrating.

All I can add is that grief is a strange thing.

Everyone deals with it differently. Some may think, "what in the world are they saying"...or "I would never do something like that!" I know it can be hard not to judge, but you really shouldn't. I think this is why grief can bring people together or tear them apart.

It is such a unique and personal experience. The best thing to do is to try and understand people can be polar opposites with regards to this emotion and try to let them grieve in their own way while you grieve in yours.

BartVanHemelen said:

The article that he wrote was published in early 1997 in (now defunkt) British style monthly The Face, and was by a wide margin the best interview/article to emerge from those two days of promotion Prince did at Paisley Park. Unfortunately, it is nowhere to be found online.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will be the one your looking for then, or if maybe someone else has a copy or scans of it .

http://pokepona.com/forsa...G_2528.JPG

[Edited 11/25/12 16:29pm]

At the time, Prince was having the time of his life, professionally. He just released his triple CD, Emancipation, outside of WB.

This openness was promotion for the CD, probably the last time he promoted as much for anything.

Losing the baby was a personal issue, which he separated from the promotion, which he felt compelled to do, still.

I kinda understand it.

Thinking about it further, Prince must have felt like he had to prove something to WB re sales or his worth. That is probably the reason for the continued promotion thru the pain.

It's not out of his personality to distance himself from situations, so that's why i'm no surprised about his actions. Mayte was a different story however and I can see where this was the start of the end for them.

Whats the purpose of this thread?

To show that an already known to be reclusive rock star didnt open up to an interviewer as he would a therapist regarding the health of his newborn child?

This is really a low for you Bart..not a new low because you never seem to outdo yourself.

What it is:

Prince is a persona. You think he wears eyeliner to bed?

Everything about Prince that we see/hear/absorb/love/bitch about is the Prince persona. Yet some continue to perceive/judge this Prince persona as if it's the REAL person.

It's not. It's a put on.

Maybe it is done for the sake of art, maybe to avoid the trappings of fame and an Elvis Presley/Michael Jackson ending. Either way, Prince has used/created/manipulated with this persona from day one.

When fans are "angry" or "loving" Prince they are talking about a persona...clearly not a someone they personally know.

Politicians and celebs all manipulate/use their image for career advantage. Why would your favorite purple rock star be any different?

[Edited 11/25/12 18:37pm]

I remember that article from The Face!!!

I wish I had the magazine.

Anyways, the Oprah Interview creeps me the hell out.

I mean, he shows Oprah the nursery and kid's room,

he talks about "our family", and he gives Mayte shifty

eyes of nervousness when she speaks to Oprah.

The entire experience was highly orchestrated, and

I couldnt' for the life of me imagine what his wife

must have been going through during what amounted

to a big promotional advertisement ala Winfrey.

he gets a pass on this occasion....

skywalker said:

What it is:

Prince is a persona. You think he wears eyeliner to bed?

Everything about Prince that we see/hear/absorb/love/bitch about is the Prince persona. Yet some continue to perceive/judge this Prince persona as if it's the REAL person.

It's not. It's a put on.

Maybe it is done for the sake of art, maybe to avoid the trappings of fame and an Elvis Presley/Michael Jackson ending. Either way, Prince has used/created/manipulated with this persona from day one.

When fans are "angry" or "loving" Prince they are talking about a persona...clearly not a someone they personally know.

Politicians and celebs all manipulate/use their image for career advantage. Why would your favorite purple rock star be any different?

[Edited 11/25/12 18:37pm]

You said it wonderfully! Sadly, I think far too many people believe the persona more so then the real person. Prince is a persona. It's not hard to tell the brother takes good care of himself, but he ain't wearing no eyeliner to bed. LOL. I am sure he still dresses nice in and off stage as confirmed by bis photographers and body guards. BUT he is not doing what we see him doing on stage. It is important to separate these two realities, because if not..We are judging the wrong person. We should not be judging anyone though, who are we to say Prince is this or that. We could surely comment on the guy, (That is what I am doing..lol) But judging and making light of a very tragic situation as if Prince really is a contradiction is over and beyond.
Prince said before, he can be contradiction if that is all he sees. While it is a lyric to a song, he might somewhat believe that. We all do in a way...I just think the incident that happen to his son is none of our business. People react to things differently, and what he did is normal for him. I have had family members react the same way. Of course they aren't famous. BUT Prince had the right to carry on the way he did, if you carried on a way you thought was cool...Why should we question his character?
Just my thoughts anyways...

All I can add is that grief is a strange thing.

Everyone deals with it differently. Some may think, "what in the world are they saying"...or "I would never do something like that!" I know it can be hard not to judge, but you really shouldn't. I think this is why grief can bring people together or tear them apart.

It is such a unique and personal experience. The best thing to do is to try and understand people can be polar opposites with regards to this emotion and try to let them grieve in their own way while you grieve in yours.

errant said:

The funny thing is, I think he did get to who Prince really is.

I think you're right.

I don't think Prince his behaviour was unnatural. Nor do I think anybody is in the position to judge him.

Actually, last week one of my nurse students cried her eyes out because she cherished her patient, a baby, for two weeks, knowing he would die. Because the student just started her internship, the staff made sure she got all the time to take care of the baby. She took care of the baby for two weeks and was present when he died.

She was very upset because the mother distanced herself from the baby and didn't visit him three times a day. Some days she would only visit one hour.

I told my student that I think it was very special that she cherished the baby and made sure he got a lot of love in his short life from her. She really was very important for him and can cherish the bond they had for those 2 weeks together. And naturally she feels sad about his death, eventhough she knows nobody could have prevented it.

However, I also told her not to judge the mother. There are many different stages and ways when it comes to grief. I felt sorry for the mother that she lost her child and was not able to be there with him often. She just wasn't emotionally capable of handling that. And I can understand that.

I advised my student to organise an appointment for the mother (and family) with a grief counsellor. So, they would not be so alone and get specialized support.

It's natural that this young girl got upset when confronted with an intense situation like that. However, she was able to share her feelings and open herself up to different perspectives.

However, the adults on this site don't seem to have a mature view and attitude as this 21-year old girl has.

I have no children myself, I can understand it must be the most intense pain there is. So, if a parent detaches him or herself from that situation, even if that is for one hour, I understand that.

I don't think there is a good way to handle the death of your child. And I don't think it is just to be judgemental about anybody who has to go through such a painful grief.

And I think it's shallow judgemental comment of the journalist, he is not trying to understand the complexities of life & death at all. Just occupied with his own objective.

[Edited 11/26/12 17:09pm]

Most of Prince's interviews are worthless to me. They focus on his hair, he talks about CON being the prefix to Contract, bitches about the industry. Nobody talks about his creative process for writing songs, nobody dares talk extensively about the vault. Nobody will talk remasters that are obviously so close to never coming out. That carrot on the View is about as exciting as it gets for me, and unless Prince does a 180, I doubt any of his interviews will be anything above marginal interest to me.

Revolution said:

At the time, Prince was having the time of his life, professionally. He just released his triple CD, Emancipation, outside of WB.

This openness was promotion for the CD, probably the last time he promoted as much for anything.

Losing the baby was a personal issue, which he separated from the promotion, which he felt compelled to do, still.

I kinda understand it.

Except that the entire album was tied to the birth of his baby: included in the artwork, his heartbeat used in a song, lyrics referring to his birth...

Later on Prince used the "well this is all personal and I don't want my private life all over the press" defense, but I bet that if his baby had been healthy he'd have sold the photo rights to the highest bidder etc.

skywalker said:

What it is:

Prince is a persona. You think he wears eyeliner to bed?

Except that we've never heard anything that contradicts his public image. Go read all the stories of his engineers, musicians, publicists etc. Go watch Kevin Smith's tale of his time @ PP. All of those not only confirm the public image, but reveal that he's probably even nuttier IRL.

Keeping up a completely different persona from who you really are for years, decades is a tough act. Considering Prince's acting skills...

stillwaiting said:

Most of Prince's interviews are worthless to me. They focus on his hair, he talks about CON being the prefix to Contract, bitches about the industry. Nobody talks about his creative process for writing songs, nobody dares talk extensively about the vault. Nobody will talk remasters that are obviously so close to never coming out.

Theyre worthless because of Prince. First of all he usually picks people who won't talk back, and when he's confronted with a real journalist he simply ignores the questions and keeps babbling his own rehearsed promo talk. Go read the interviews from the Emancipation release: you wanna shoot your brains out after five because they're all the same crap over and over again.

(The same thing is true with photographs: look over Prince's career and you see the same poses over and over again, no matter who the photographer is. And plenty have complained that he refused to follow their instructions.)

And magazines/newspapers publish them because even though plenty know it's promo rubbish, they know there's little chance they're gonna get anything else and hey, for now they can put "Prince talks" on their front page and perhaps sell a few copies more.

(Except that Prince doesn't sell magazines; I recall that a British monthly celebrated their 100th issue by showing all 100 covers in an article and adding a little comment below them, revealing that their issue with Dido on the cover was their worst seller, closely followed by their Prince issue.)

Which is exactly why Ekow Eshun's article was such a breath of fresh air: he popped the publicity bubble and wrote an honest article.

BartVanHemelen said:

Revolution said:

At the time, Prince was having the time of his life, professionally. He just released his triple CD, Emancipation, outside of WB.

This openness was promotion for the CD, probably the last time he promoted as much for anything.

Losing the baby was a personal issue, which he separated from the promotion, which he felt compelled to do, still.

I kinda understand it.

Except that the entire album was tied to the birth of his baby: included in the artwork, his heartbeat used in a song, lyrics referring to his birth...

Later on Prince used the "well this is all personal and I don't want my private life all over the press" defense, but I bet that if his baby had been healthy he'd have sold the photo rights to the highest bidder etc.

You are one cold son of bitch. The CD was recorded before the child was born what was he to do not put out the CD or not promote it. He was in a difficult situation and handled it the best way he could. It is not for anyone to judge. In addtion, I do think he was right not to discuss it with the press and no I do not think he would have sold the picture rights of the baby to the press.

laurarichardson said:

BartVanHemelen said:

Except that the entire album was tied to the birth of his baby: included in the artwork, his heartbeat used in a song, lyrics referring to his birth...

Later on Prince used the "well this is all personal and I don't want my private life all over the press" defense, but I bet that if his baby had been healthy he'd have sold the photo rights to the highest bidder etc.

You are one cold son of bitch.

Really? Compared to the guy who was doing more interviews in two days than in the previous two decades combined to promote an album while he was going through an unimaginably sad event in his life?

The CD was recorded before the child was born what was he to do not put out the CD or not promote it.

Yeah, that would have been impossible, something unprecedented. Oh wait, there is the case of Prince pulling TBA from release while they were loading the already printed records into trucks and WB recalling promo copies sent out. And why? Because Princey had had a bad XTC trip and had decided the album was evil.

He was in a difficult situation and handled it the best way he could.

See above.

It is not for anyone to judge. In addtion, I do think he was right not to discuss it with the press and no I do not think he would have sold the picture rights of the baby to the press.

Oh please, dude let Oprah film the kid's room.

thebanishedone said:

I know you started hating Prince when Prince's team shut your fan site down,

There you go again, making shit up.

BartVanHemelen said: