A random day in the life of Prince Rogers Nelson goes beyond mere mortal conventions. For close to four decades, the confounding music star has made a career out of ruling the world of the gloriously ridiculousness. One minute, the 55-year-old bantam music giant is pulling off surprise club gigs with his indie band of guitar roaring Becky's 3rdEyeGirl—during one such recent outing in Hollywood, Prince channeled Jimi Hendrix during a four-hour (!) one-night stand, immaculately dressed in Purple, of course. The next, he's dropping a shiny, EDM-fueled, uber pop duet with New Girl cutie Zooey Deschanel with the curious backing of major label Epic Records. This, from the man who had supposedly sworn off traditional recording deals nearly 10 years ago and once declared the Internet as "dead."
But really, such eyebrow-raising moves are pedestrian Prince stuff. Over the years, the Minnesota-born funk-rock deity has reveled in double-take scenarios that have ranged from the jaw-dropping epic to downright insane. Deliberately going mute during a make-or-break national American Bandstand debut? Check. Pranking everyday travelers at airports just for shits and giggles? Sure. Destroying Michael Jackson in a game of Ping-Pong? Ditto. Prince simply struts to the beat of his own watch-me-change-my-name-to-an-unpronounceable-symbol, brazenly absurd drummer. And with a new album Plectrum Electrum on the way, there's no better time than to rewind time and look back on the 20 best WTF Prince moments. No blouses or high heels were worn during the making of this list.
1. The Godfather of Soul Meets the Future Purple One (1968)
In the late '60s, James Brown was at the height of Soul Brother No. 1, totally badass. And Prince Rogers Nelson was just your average child musical prodigy who had already written his first song at the age of seven. But as he told MTV in 1986, the surreal opportunity to share the stage with his legendary idol proved to be a life-changing experience for the future superstar. "James Brown played a big influence in my style," he said. "When I was about 10 years old, my stepdad put me on stage with him, and I danced a little bit until the bodyguard took me off."
Ironically enough, two decades later, Prince—now a platinum artist on the proverbial rise—found himself again sharing the spotlight with Brown alongside another disciple of the legendary Sex Machine: Michael Jackson. "It may have been the first time Prince had seen James since he was a kid," recalls Alan Leeds, a former road manager for both Brown and Prince. "He was just planning to see the show and leave, but Michael was brought up onstage." What happened next at Brown's August 20, 1983 gig at the Beverly Theater in Hollywood is another mind-numbing story all together. (See above.)
2. The Minnesota Neophyte Mounts a One-Man-Band Shock & Awe Campaign (1978)
Before his commercial and artistic dominance, Prince was at the bottom of the music industry food chain. Indeed, the ridiculously gifted visionary knew that in order to achieve mainstream notoriety he needed media exposure. So the bold talent cold called pioneering editor of Right On!, Cynthia Horner, in a dicey effort to land some coverage in the influential fanzine. "He kept calling me over and over again and I really wasn't returning his phone calls because I didn't know who he was and I really didn't care," Horner told VIBE online for its 2011 Prince/Michael Jackson oral history. "But he called me so much that I just wanted to get rid of him… He wanted me to go to the studio to see a jam session."
Horner was expecting to see Prince in a make-or-break exhibition with his band. "But what I didn't realize at the time was that the jam session consisted of just one person: Prince!" she continued decades later in a holy-shit!!! lather. "At that moment, Prince let me know that he was a songwriter that could produce, sing and play all these different instruments. This was an once-in-a-lifetime talent. Once I saw that, I agreed to interview him." Game, blouses.
3. Prince Is Introduced to Bob Marley, and Hilarity Ensues (1979)
If ever there were a strange-but-true meeting for the ages, this one would go at the top of the list. In November 1979, Prince was introduced to reggae god Bob Marley following the Minneapolis newcomer's concert at the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles. "The meeting was arranged by Don Taylor, who was toying with the idea of having Prince and Marley record a track together," Per Nilsen wrote in his 2003 biography Dance, Music, Sex, Romance—Prince: The First Decade. Taylor later said, "What the result of this might have been, however, I will never know."
Indeed, who knows what kind of musical melding would have come out of such an unlikely pairing before Marley's untimely 1981 death? But according to Taylor, the dreadlocked giant's reaction to the androgynous Prince was quite laughable. "When we called on Prince, he met us in this skimpy leopard G-string undergarment, which immediately aroused Bob's Jamaican macho feelings and so our stay was brief as Prince's G-string and Bob's discomfort was shown all over his face." Of course.
4. Mr. Nelson Creates the 'Prince Mythos' on American Bandstand (1980)
Source: RockPeaks
Every great rock star needs an air of mystery. But throughout his 30-plus year career, Prince has taken his otherworldly image to dizzying heights. Spotting the high-heeled, makeup-wearing, pancake-flipping funk-rock deity in a pair of blue jeans and sneakers would be as unlikely as witnessing a unicorn. And Prince is notorious for disallowing the use of tape recorders and notepads during interviews. When he does give interviews, it's often in Prince code. Which is why his national television debut on American Bandstand is so telling. It's here where you see the evolution of the Prince mythos.
The permed-out wunderkind—dressed fabulously in a shirtless jacket and tight gold pants—starts off his interview with the late TV icon Dick Clark with the chatty sensibilities of a crime lord being interrogated. Prince throws up four fingers in response to Clark's query about the first time he made a demo and tells the game-changing television host he's 19 (he's actually 20). And when asked how many instruments he plays, he coyly answers, "Thousands." But during a 1998 tribute to Prince, Clark looked back on his first meeting with the notoriously shy artist with reverence. "This kid had the look, the determination, and the talent to be a star," he said. "Was he difficult? Yes, but when you saw him perform, you knew it was all worth it."
5. Security! Prince Trolls Airports (1980)
If by chance you happened to be flying out of the same airport as Prince in the early '80s, you may have been on the receiving end of some professional punking. As former Prince guitarist Dez Dickerson told the New York Post in 2013 of his band leader's public exploits: "We would find an empty wheelchair and put Prince in it with sunglasses on, roll him into an area where there was a lot of traffic and leave him there. And then Prince would proceed to do something like fall out of the wheelchair and people would scramble to help him back up into the wheelchair."
But one prank got the singer arrested after he made the mistake of taking a bullhorn from the overhead airline emergency equipment. "So we are now sitting out on the tarmac and they announce, 'Ladies and gentlemen, someone has stolen a piece of airline equipment,'" Dickerson said, laughing. "There's actually a photo floating around out there of Prince in his mug shot from being arrested. Now that's a practical joke that went wrong, but it ended up being funny anyway because Prince ended up signing autographs at the jail."
6. That Skinny Motherfucker With the High Voice Steals Vanity Away From Rick James (1981)
It's the gift of a rivalry that keeps on giving. To say that the professional relationship between young upstart Prince and headlining punk-funk rebel Rick James was volatile would be a flagrant understatement. Prince's opening slot on James' 1980 "Fire It Up" tour is filled with notorious (and hilarious) tales worthy of Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories. One such incident was detailed by the James in his 2007 book The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak: "There was a birthday party for me," said the notorious habitual line-stepper. "Prince came, he was sitting at a table with some people not drinking. I walked up to him, grabbed him by the back of the hair and poured cognac down his throat. He spit it out like a little BYTCH and I laughed and walked away. I loved fucking with him like that."
Source: PanacheReport
But Prince would have the last laugh. The story goes that James attended the 1981 American Music Awards with the criminally gorgeous Denise Matthews as his date. While backstage Prince's manager spotted the model and asked her to escort his smitten client to the bathroom. Prince asked her if he could try on her jacket and Matthews gave him her phone number. Cue sexual explosion. A few months later, Prince changed her name to Vanity and made her a star. He originally aimed to christen the lingerie clad, censorship destroying threesome the Hookers and their lead pin-up girl Matthews as "Vagina." Thankfully, Prince settled on Vanity 6. A livid James charged that his rival stole his idea for a girl group. The music gods snickered.
7. The Rolling Stones' Fans Tell Prince How They Really Feel (1981)
Source: Telegraph
Prince stands as one of rock's most celebrated live performers. But in 1981, the genre-blurring change agent was still earning his stripes. Coming off his landmark critically heralded 1980 sucker punch Dirty Mind, Prince played setup man for British music royalty the Rolling Stones. But evidently, the mammoth, rabid and inebriated crowd at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum were not ready for the gender-bending rebel who decided to bust into a reckless rendition of "Jack U Off." Prince and crew were promptly booed 15 minutes into their set, but stayed with it. During the next gig, however, some of the 100,000 fans came prepared.
"That audience brought stuff to throw," Dez Dickerson was quoted in Dave Hill's 1989 book Prince: A Pop Life. "The first thing I saw was a plastic bag full of old gray chicken parts. Someone had taken the time to take the chicken out of the refrigerator on Friday and let it sit out in the sun for two days...it was pretty disgusting." Continues Dickerson of the brutal greeting: "Someone threw a fifth of Jack Daniels that barely missed Prince's head during the first measure of the first song. Going through that added to Prince's bravado." Yeah. Bodily hard will do that for you.
8. He Writes, Produces and Plays on Nearly 10 Albums Worth of Material in Little Over a Year (1981-82)
When dealing with the seemingly endless recording output of Prince, it's nearly impossible to pick his most prolific era. Is it the mid-'80s Parade/Dream Factory/Camille/Crystal Ball/Sign 'O the Times period? Is it the frenzied obsessive pace which led to his post-Warner Bros., three-discs, look-ma-no-hands 1996 statement Emancipation? Both would be solid picks, but Prince seemed to be at his scariest musical zone from '81 to '82.
This was an inhuman period in which the studio beast oversaw the recording of the Time's funked-up, self-titled debut and its even funkier follow-up What Times Is It? (both of which Prince wrote, produced and played nearly every instrument); recorded tracks for his own 1981 set Controversy; conceived and released the Vanity 6 project; and knocked out his breakthrough double-album 1999. Not to mention writing a myriad of unreleased material and classic songs that would pop up on future releases (among them "Raspberry Beret"); record one of his greatest B-sides ("How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"); and write a number that years later would end up on a 1987 Kenny Rogers set all while mostly on tour. Lazy bastard.
9. Prince (Playfully) Terrorizes the Hometown Music Writer (1983)
Source: TomShardware
When it comes to forging connections with journalists, Prince has historically taken a brazen arm's length approach to the media, except when it comes to longtime Minnesota scribe Jon Bream. The Star Tribune local writer has covered Prince since his virgin For You days and has enjoyed a friendly (and often times exclusive) relationship with the Grammy-winning maverick. And so the rule is when you get to become cool with His Royal Badness, you will undoubtedly experience his merciless sense of humor.
Such was the case during Prince's "1999" tour. The story goes that Bream was hanging out with the band in the hometown hero's dressing room when the pre-Revolution musicians broke out into a knock-down-drag-out fight. Bream stood horrified as the crew threw furniture at each other and flipped over food tables. The disturbing melee, complete with screaming matches, lasted five minutes before a laughing Prince walked in and thankfully put an end to the prank. As Bream discovered, it was all a plan concocted by the man himself. Funny guy.
To read the rest of this absurd, glorious Princely list, go to:
https://myspace.com/disco...e-moments/
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