The interview is great and very down to earth with a couple of great insights from Cymone, who comes across very honest. Very enjoyable and def. worth to listen the whole thing.

Andre is a REAL artist who believes in his craft just like Prince. Its not all about money to him. But he was evasive about him & Jody's relationship. They were secretly married! He didn't want NO ONE to know about it either.

Just a few minutes in, I do get the same ideas as KCOOLMUZIQ about his person.

Andre sounds pleasant and friendly, down to earth.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Andre is a REAL artist who believes in his craft just like Prince. Its not all about money to him. But he was evasive about him & Jody's relationship. They were secretly married! He didn't want NO ONE to know about it either.

A few years ago Jody did an interview where she was asked about Andre's wereabouts and she said she has spoken or seen him in years. Considering they have a son together I thought that was really strange.

Dsoul said:

TrevorAyer said:

um u should too ..

There's enough genuine problems without seeking to create make believe ones.

You know; if the Tuskeegee Experiment was just discovered today, many would be saying the same; that it's make believe, it couldn't be real.

Nice hearing from him. Great sense of humor and very personable. I hope to hear from more artists and associates from that period to shed light on what became known as the Minneapolis sound. People who were there in the making of a chapter in music history.

TrevorAyer said:

lust said:

Umm, no. Dsoul is spot on here.

so u have more respect for the intelligence of Dsoul over Prince and Andre .. ugh .. people can be a huge fail sometimes

laurarichardson said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Andre is a REAL artist who believes in his craft just like Prince. Its not all about money to him. But he was evasive about him & Jody's relationship. They were secretly married! He didn't want NO ONE to know about it either.

A few years ago Jody did an interview where she was asked about Andre's wereabouts and she said she has spoken or seen him in years. Considering they have a son together I thought that was really strange.

They have a daughter together not a son.There is a lot of info I know about their relationship & marriage, that I won't go into. But I just found it odd of him only acknowledging Jody as someone that "arranged" to show up just when he was visiting someone. Like she had intentions of getting to him. But not a woman that he married and had a beautiful daughter with! Also Andre disappeared for DECADES!!! Where was he? A lot of people were looking for him. Its similar to Jesse Johnson's disappearing only to return like he was never gone.

Anywho I admire both of them. They're both TRUE artist. I guess its only about the muziq huh...

BlackandRising said:

Dsoul said:

There's enough genuine problems without seeking to create make believe ones.

You know; if the Tuskeegee Experiment was just discovered today, many would be saying the same; that it's make believe, it couldn't be real.

That's true, though I would believe it because there's evidence.

Prince's goofy assertion that chemicals caused blacks in certain unnamed 'hoods, (though not the whites in nearby areas that would've also been affected) is ridiculous and generally unverifiable, even for him. Andre himself said that there were people of all colors living in his particular projects, so that is actual solid evidence that Prince's goofy ideas on Tavis Smiley's show were wrong. Not that he would know, though. He probably gets his ideas from Alex Jones.

It's really quite easy to settle this mess. I don't know why the idiot conspiracy nuts haven't tried yet. It's the same method we use to tell us what distant object are made of: spectrography

It's simple. It's how we know what Jupiter's atmosphere is composed of. It works like a champ.

Poverty leads to piss-poor education made worse by piss-poor nutrition and home conditions in addition to being raised by parents who may have come from the same shit. It's not black or white. THIS is what causes 'hood behavior, not government programs to secretly spray the public to get rid of blacks.

If you show me on shred of evidence, (spectrography results, for example) I'll change my tune completely. I just want proof.

steakfinger said:

BlackandRising said:

You know; if the Tuskeegee Experiment was just discovered today, many would be saying the same; that it's make believe, it couldn't be real.

That's true, though I would believe it because there's evidence.

Prince's goofy assertion that chemicals caused blacks in certain unnamed 'hoods, (though not the whites in nearby areas that would've also been affected) is ridiculous and generally unverifiable, even for him. Andre himself said that there were people of all colors living in his particular projects, so that is actual solid evidence that Prince's goofy ideas on Tavis Smiley's show were wrong. Not that he would know, though. He probably gets his ideas from Alex Jones.

It's really quite easy to settle this mess. I don't know why the idiot conspiracy nuts haven't tried yet. It's the same method we use to tell us what distant object are made of: spectrography

It's simple. It's how we know what Jupiter's atmosphere is composed of. It works like a champ.

At one time, the people being experimented on, when claiming that they were being experimented on, was probably a goofy assertion as there was no overt evidence like files, data, etc. Then, evidence came out and proved that they were indeed subjected to inhumane experiments.

To your first point; if the same people that conducted the Tuskegee Experiments were responsible for chemtrails in the "hood", do you think those same people would sweat a little collateral damage of a few whites? This is a hypothetical, of course, but still within the realm of being belieavble given what has happened in the past.

Prince isn't the only person to speak out on chemtrails, either. My point is, never, especially today, discount anything as a "goofy" conspiracy. I don't believe the chemtrails issue, but I don't discount the possiblity that there's something there.

I wonder why they didn't talk about Pepe Willie.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

getxxxx said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

They have a daughter together not a son.There is a lot of info I know about their relationship & marriage, that I won't go into. But I just found it odd of him only acknowledging Jody as someone that "arranged" to show up just when he was visiting someone. Like she had intentions of getting to him. But not a woman that he married and had a beautiful daughter with! Also Andre disappeared for DECADES!!! Where was he? A lot of people were looking for him. Its similar to Jesse Johnson's disappearing only to return like he was never gone.

Anywho I admire both of them. They're both TRUE artist. I guess its only about the muziq huh...

Jody and Andre have a son Arie who attends NYU not her daughter Lauren from a previous relationship with Leon Sylvers [Edited 4/8/14 18:47pm]

U right! Her oldest child is by Leon Sylvers. My bad..

Hald way through this interview and this is really good

bashraka said:

Excellent interview. I had no idea Andre was so funny! He had me cracking up. Lots of interesting details.

I came away from it with one word.."family" which is something we all tend to put in small print once a peer group produces someone of Prince's caliber. The mentions of unknown musicians and family members really brings the narrative down to earth, that once they were all just a bunch of kids who wanted to play. The basketball story is true, i used to play with Prince's cousin Charles who had a crazy fall away jumper. Andre did a great job of humanizing Prince (in the negative lol) and something that happens between friends. I could also see bits of his personality that probably made it a strain as Prince became more of a solo star as well-and it's cool. The story about Morris's mom being fine as hell and having a nice bass was so cool because we all had a friend like that. I guess i went into like any other Prince fan wanting to hear about Prince and was pleasantly surprised to hear a story we can all relate to, a group of kids growing up and apart.

I really enjoyed hearing about those very early days in Minneapolis, and the sense of community that existed among the families there. Never knew about Prince going to live with Andre, and he didn't seem to be particularly keen on revealing more details, can anybody shed any light on the possible reasons for this?

I would love those early days to be documented more thoroughly, I wonder if any of the people who were there will ever write a book about it. I'm not holding my breathe for Prince's autobiography, that's for sure.

Nevertheless, it was a very informative podcast, I'll probably go and listen to the Dez Dickerson interview now.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

I really enjoyed hearing about those very early days in Minneapolis, and the sense of community that existed among the families there. Never knew about Prince going to live with Andre, and he didn't seem to be particularly keen on revealing more details, can anybody shed any light on the possible reasons for this?

I would love those early days to be documented more thoroughly, I wonder if any of the people who were there will ever write a book about it. I'm not holding my breathe for Prince's autobiography, that's for sure.

Nevertheless, it was a very informative podcast, I'll probably go and listen to the Dez Dickerson interview now.

Prince has talked about running away from him Mom and Stepdad and going to live with the Anderson's.

If you Goggle around you can probaly find some old articiles.

What date was the Kool & the Gang support gig?

http://princevault.com/index.php/26_November,_1979 ?

laurarichardson said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

I really enjoyed hearing about those very early days in Minneapolis, and the sense of community that existed among the families there. Never knew about Prince going to live with Andre, and he didn't seem to be particularly keen on revealing more details, can anybody shed any light on the possible reasons for this?

I would love those early days to be documented more thoroughly, I wonder if any of the people who were there will ever write a book about it. I'm not holding my breathe for Prince's autobiography, that's for sure.

Nevertheless, it was a very informative podcast, I'll probably go and listen to the Dez Dickerson interview now.

Prince has talked about running away from him Mom and Stepdad and going to live with the Anderson's.

If you Goggle around you can probaly find some old articiles.

Thanks for the info, I'll check that up later. I see that Dez Dickerson has released a book, but of course he wasn't there from the very beginning, so it won't cover this really early period I'm interested in. I guess we need Andre to do it really, so he can deliver his promise of being able to bore us with all the stories he mentioned in the podcast. Still, Dez's book might be worth a look, but I've heard a lot of people have had trouble ordering from his website and not getting a copy so I'm somewhat cautious.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

laurarichardson said:

Prince has talked about running away from him Mom and Stepdad and going to live with the Anderson's.

If you Goggle around you can probaly find some old articiles.

Thanks for the info, I'll check that up later. I see that Dez Dickerson has released a book, but of course he wasn't there from the very beginning, so it won't cover this really early period I'm interested in. I guess we need Andre to do it really, so he can deliver his promise of being able to bore us with all the stories he mentioned in the podcast. Still, Dez's book might be worth a look, but I've heard a lot of people have had trouble ordering from his website and not getting a copy so I'm somewhat cautious.

Only difference Andre wasn't around when Prince became a MEGA SUPERSTAR. Dez was until he couldn't handle Prince's uninhibited sexuality due to his religious believes. I wonder will Dez come back if invited. Since Prince was christened into a new life by Larry,

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Thanks for the info, I'll check that up later. I see that Dez Dickerson has released a book, but of course he wasn't there from the very beginning, so it won't cover this really early period I'm interested in. I guess we need Andre to do it really, so he can deliver his promise of being able to bore us with all the stories he mentioned in the podcast. Still, Dez's book might be worth a look, but I've heard a lot of people have had trouble ordering from his website and not getting a copy so I'm somewhat cautious.

Only difference Andre wasn't around when Prince became a MEGA SUPERSTAR. Dez was until he couldn't handle Prince's uninhibited sexuality due to his religious believes. I wonder will Dez come back if invited. Since Prince was christened into a new life by Larry,

Yeah, Andre left before 1999 (and Controversy), but he did know Prince since his childhood, Dez didn't, and that very early period is really interesting to me. I think I might have even appreciated Andre's evocation of 70s Minneapolis more than I did the specific details of their relationship, although that was cool too. Has there been any word about old members coming back, that doesn't seem to be something Prince is particularly interested in, although he did apparently get Andre to do The Dance Electric (does anybody know when this was), and Bobby Z did perform once during the LoL tour. I suppose there's always the new Revolution reunion.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Only difference Andre wasn't around when Prince became a MEGA SUPERSTAR. Dez was until he couldn't handle Prince's uninhibited sexuality due to his religious believes. I wonder will Dez come back if invited. Since Prince was christened into a new life by Larry,

Yeah, Andre left before 1999 (and Controversy), but he did know Prince since his childhood, Dez didn't, and that very early period is really interesting to me. I think I might have even appreciated Andre's evocation of 70s Minneapolis more than I did the specific details of their relationship, although that was cool too. Has there been any word about old members coming back, that doesn't seem to be something Prince is particularly interested in, although he did apparently get Andre to do The Dance Electric (does anybody know when this was), and Bobby Z did perform once during the LoL tour. I suppose there's always the new Revolution reunion.

Andre is the only band member of his that knows the truth of how things really got started with Prince. He was there from the beginning. I know NO old members are coming back! Because Prince doesn't like to go back. But I mean as far as guest appearing when Prince decides to summons them at his command. Andre guest appeared on "Dance Electric" during Prince's Sayer's Club gig in Oct 2012 in the beautiful Hollywood Ca after his Jimmy Kimmel appearance.

Could Andre comment on the 'Uptown' song? (the reality of the backgrounds...)

getxxxx said:

Jody and Andre have a son Arie who attends NYU not her daughter Lauren from a previous relationship with Leon Sylvers [Edited 4/8/14 18:47pm]

Andre just visited with ?questlove at his lecture at NYU. i wonder if his son was there for the lecture

so andre didnt write do me baby as ppl on here have said he said the bassline was from him during demo sessions

[Edited 4/10/14 10:06am]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Yeah, Andre left before 1999 (and Controversy), but he did know Prince since his childhood, Dez didn't, and that very early period is really interesting to me. I think I might have even appreciated Andre's evocation of 70s Minneapolis more than I did the specific details of their relationship, although that was cool too. Has there been any word about old members coming back, that doesn't seem to be something Prince is particularly interested in, although he did apparently get Andre to do The Dance Electric (does anybody know when this was), and Bobby Z did perform once during the LoL tour. I suppose there's always the new Revolution reunion.

Andre is the only band member of his that knows the truth of how things really got started with Prince. He was there from the beginning. I know NO old members are coming back! Because Prince doesn't like to go back. But I mean as far as guest appearing when Prince decides to summons them at his command. Andre guest appeared on "Dance Electric" during Prince's Sayer's Club gig in Oct 2012 in the beautiful Hollywood Ca after his Jimmy Kimmel appearance.

being that prince likes the new age idealogies (i do too) i would think he would embrace the true notion that there is no such thing as past or future .. time is a man made construct that simply does not actually exist .. everything occurs NOW and therefore, to prevent oneself from experiencing anything that was in ones past, only serves to cut off part of ones true self .. as all past experiences and future hopes only truly exist in the now and make who we are now .. to label a part of the past as over, or not part of ones 'now', would be self destructive .. to be open to all of what made you who you are is to truly accept who you really are as a whole person .. there is simply no reason for prince to choose 'this' over 'that' .. the idea that he is more who he is by constantly discarding band members and starting a new is absurd .. the notion that he would refuse an oppurtinity to embrace those who influenced his personality with such richness, out of some dumb minded notion of 'the past stays in the past' is the equivalent of cutting off ones nose to spite ones face .. to deny that the past is a part of your present is to cause your self to suffer in in self hatred ... prince would do well to embrace the brighter personalities from his life and be inviting to creating again .. that is if he does truly love to create beautiful music .. if he is just in music for the pay day, than his current path serves its purpose, but only to the detriment of his artistic output and his very spirit and sense of self worth .. the idea that he likes his current music better than music he made in the past seems absurd to me .. how could he really believe this new music is even worthwhile .. so the real question is .. why would he choose this when he could choose that .. that being old collaborators who wrote the best music with prince in his whole life .. to discard the whole idea with just PRINCE DOESN'T GO BACK is such a lame excuse to decide something like that .. there has to be something deeper here .. it is likely ego .. or not wanting to pay band members much money .. or maybe some of those past band member did him wrong .. or maybe he did them wrong and feels to guilty to dive back in .. hard to know for sure but an excuse like Prince Doesn't go Back just does not hold up at all .... that cannot be the reason .. its too small minded to think that way if you want to make truly great music .. i would guess it is a combination of all the above ..

Great hearing from Andre. I'd love to hear how Michael Dean got this arranged. Long time Prince fans love to hear stories that bring him down to earth...carrying his equipment down the street, taking the bus, telling Andre to 'cool it' when Rick pointed the Love Gun at him etc...great stuff. Andre connected with us.

I did notice a few things -

- he seems to say he came up with the Let's Work bassline. Wow! One of the greatest bass lines ever. I would believe it b/c I have never seen Prince do that bassline live as I have never seen Prince do the Little Red guitar solo live. I say this b/c I bleieve Prince has some real old school values in this regard. He's not going to come out and credit Andre (or DEz) for those parts but he's not going to play them either.....I think....

- Andre seemed to want to leave the impression that he and Prince are equal talents. Maybe I'm wrong but that seemed to be the tone at times.

- I loved hearing his comments about Prince's dad and the work ethic and piano playing. Again, it reminds us that this whacked out character Prince is only the image he portrays. There is a guy who has played 1000s of hours to be as good as he is.

- NOt the right place but when Andre started some social commentary, it seemed to go over like a led balloon with Michael and his hosts. I wish talked more about this instead of switching the subjecdt to Jodey Watley.

Andre should write a book. If he's willing to talk after 35 years, give us some more.

It was also nice to know that Prince went to visit Andre's mom. I wonder if he helped carry those pizzas!