So Weird Al Yankovic is promoting his new record almost everywhere and every time I see him he mentions Prince and the whole 'eye contact' thing. It's kinda funny but when I saw Prince in Vegas 3121, I was talking to a cashier at the Rio Starbucks and they told me the same thing - that the entire Rio staff had been given a memo not to make eye contact with Prince if he were to walk through the casino. Anyone ever heard of other examples of this? It kinda seems like somethin he would do. Here is Al at about the one minute mark......

lol, grammer nerd...

lmao I constantly made eye contact with P when I saw him live, I was about 10 rows back,

It was probably creeping him out tbh haha

During the Celebration at Paisley Park in 2002, the bodyguards were shouting constantly: Don't stare at him !!.

He is weird.... but brilliant

I have a friend who produced a video for Prince back in the early 90s, who told me about the editor on the job.

I guess the editor was going through the rushes, selecting the best takes, and was informed that Prince would be coming in to look through material with him. A manager figure at Prince's end came in first and politely requested that, during the visit, the editor not look at Prince.

Prince walked in, sat down next to the editor and started talking, and, as any normal human would, the editor turned to Prince and looked at him as he talked to him, a reflex reaction before he could check himself.

Prince immediately got up and left the room. Shortly after the manager person re-entered and - again very politely and professionally - told the editor that they would have to let him go. No reflection on his work and he would be paid in full for the job he had barely started, but they were going to have to find someone else...

Ha... that's Prince, I guess.

Although, contrary to that, another colleague of mine directed a couple of videos for Prince during the 3121 era. They were always ridiculously quick turnarounds - 'Prince is going to be in X town tomorrow night for 24 hours. We want to shoot a video, are you up for it?' kind of thing... and by all accounts he was a very different person. Relaxed, fun, professional as hell as always, but very pleasant to be around.

Told this story already a few times here. A close friend of mine was his personal bus-chaffeur during the ONA tour in europe.

He never mentioned anything about this strange behaviour - quite the contrary - they had a really funny time - prince was joking and talking with him, even sometimes sat beside him while driving.

One funny thing my friend told me - he had to search for new purple bed linen in every city.

So - we are talking about a superstar here - they 4 sure have their tics - but they also can be very polite and funny.

btw. one fact for beeing so amicable with my friend might be, that he has nearly the same size (or shortness) like prince

netzverwalter said:

Told this story already a few times here. A close friend of mine was his personal bus-chaffeur during the ONA tour in europe.

He never mentioned anything about this strange behaviour - quite the contrary - they had a really funny time - prince was joking and talking with him, even sometimes sat beside him while driving.

One funny thing my friend told me - he had to search for new purple bed linen in every city.

So - we are talking about a superstar here - they 4 sure have their tics - but they also can be very polite and funny.

btw. one fact for beeing so amicable with my friend might be, that he has nearly the same size (or shortness) like prince

was gonna say the same thing; dude is pleasant to be around,,nowhere near the diva the org makes him out to be.. worked for joel gallen on RRHOF induction when he did the george clinton bit...Went up to dude room plenty of times to go over script revivons etc... never had an issue,,very professional and when i asked if the accomadations were satisfactory, he stated in a very matter of fact way , if they werent we'd just bounce...Ball headed bvody guard Aaron just laughed.. folks who have worked with him on numerius things in the past never, ever had a bad thing to say about him or his work ethic..he dont bring a crew to set and doesnt allow no disruptions.. Will there be artistic differencesm, absolutely,, much differnt then being a diva though

Rimshottbob said:

I have a friend who produced a video for Prince back in the early 90s, who told me about the editor on the job.

I guess the editor was going through the rushes, selecting the best takes, and was informed that Prince would be coming in to look through material with him. A manager figure at Prince's end came in first and politely requested that, during the visit, the editor not look at Prince.

Prince walked in, sat down next to the editor and started talking, and, as any normal human would, the editor turned to Prince and looked at him as he talked to him, a reflex reaction before he could check himself.

Prince immediately got up and left the room. Shortly after the manager person re-entered and - again very politely and professionally - told the editor that they would have to let him go. No reflection on his work and he would be paid in full for the job he had barely started, but they were going to have to find someone else...

Ha... that's Prince, I guess.

Although, contrary to that, another colleague of mine directed a couple of videos for Prince during the 3121 era. They were always ridiculously quick turnarounds - 'Prince is going to be in X town tomorrow night for 24 hours. We want to shoot a video, are you up for it?' kind of thing... and by all accounts he was a very different person. Relaxed, fun, professional as hell as always, but very pleasant to be around.

I guess it depends on his mood maybe. Thanks for sharing. Very interesting! I think it all just goes back to him being a very private guy who also happens to be a huge celebrity.

doesn't like men making eye contact or looking @ him. Women are ok...

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

doesn't like men making eye contact or looking @ him. Women are ok...

Exactly lol, was just going to write that, women can stare at him all they want, dudes are off limits. I swear if women did not exist we would have about 4 Prince songs total and no tours.

[Edited 11/4/14 7:02am]

I think this is the kind of thing that gets said about many celebs. Probably to stop staff aimlessly staring at people.

When he was doing the NPG Music Club fans were able to sit in on rehearsals and chat with Prince as if he was a human being under all those shiny clothes... if you can imagine such a thing.

How about printing this on tickets for shows?

"Do not take pictures. Do not look at the stage. Stare at your feet."

lombard said:

During the Celebration at Paisley Park in 2002, the bodyguards were shouting constantly: Don't stare at him !!.

He is weird.... but brilliant

Brilliant? You're either British and you're using brilliant to mean something else OR you don't know what the word brilliant means.

I have 1st hand experience with this.. in my case Yes its true.

Ego101 said:

I have 1st hand experience with this.. in my case Yes its true.

Ooh, share, share!

I looked at him a lot but I guess he was ok with me staring at him when I saw him live cus im a girl

Noodled24 said:

I think this is the kind of thing that gets said about many celebs. Probably to stop staff aimlessly staring at people.

When he was doing the NPG Music Club fans were able to sit in on rehearsals and chat with Prince as if he was a human being under all those shiny clothes... if you can imagine such a thing.

I chatted with him with a group of people in chicago after we found out ticketmaster had people in better setas then the NPG Club. He came right down & sat amongst us wanting to know what happened & apologized. Looked at dude directly & vice versa not a hint of pretension. Seems he picks & chooses when to be eccentric & when not to.

Yeah, it is not a dude thing. I made it to the front row center of the Kansas City ONA tour and he looked at me a few times. Not in a gay way. Just in an appreciative way. I somehow made it to the front rows of about 8 of those shows. Maybe he got nervous that I was stalking him - lol!

When I met him in NY he looked at me dead in the eyes. I almost sharted in my pants. Now I think I know why he puts that O+> on his mic stand. Watch the SNL video again. It clearly takes your eyes away from him or the area he is in, and diverts it to the other band members.

During the filming of the "Raspberry Beret" video,Prince got pissed and cussed out some of the dancers for.....looking at him

purplethunder3121 said:

ARGGGGGHHHHHHH BLINDED BY THE LIGHT BABY!!

steakfinger said:

lombard said:

During the Celebration at Paisley Park in 2002, the bodyguards were shouting constantly: Don't stare at him !!.

He is weird.... but brilliant

Brilliant? You're either British and you're using brilliant to mean something else OR you don't know what the word brilliant means.

Just out of interest, what do you think is wrong with lombard's use of the word?

I've heard this about a lot of famous people prior to arriving at a restaurant, hotel, event, ect.

Seems to be somewhat standard operating procedure - I don't think Prince is unique in this regard.

seriously though. it's mean to stare

leadline said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

doesn't like men making eye contact or looking @ him. Women are ok...

Exactly lol, was just going to write that, women can stare at him all they want, dudes are off limits. I swear if women did not exist we would have about 4 Prince songs total and no tours.

[Edited 11/4/14 7:02am]

That's why Eye don't understand, how anyone would think he is GAY! 90% of his songs worship women. Plus women love him.. But it is true! Most celebrities request not to be stared at! I've worked with many that have asked that. But Eye won't name names. It makes them nervous & self conscious. The very first concert Eye went to. Eye noticed staring @ a dude right close to me...

leadline said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

doesn't like men making eye contact or looking @ him. Women are ok...

Exactly lol, was just going to write that, women can stare at him all they want, dudes are off limits. I swear if women did not exist we would have about 4 Prince songs total and no tours.

[Edited 11/4/14 7:02am]

That's why Eye don't understand, how anyone would think he is GAY! 90% of his songs worship women. Plus women love him.. But it is true! Most celebrities request not to be stared at! I've worked with many that have asked that. But Eye won't name names. It makes them nervous & self conscious.

[Edited 11/4/14 18:19pm]

I worked with him around the rave era... Fall 1999..

He didnt want anyone looking at him or speaking 'directly' to him..

there were also rules about what to eat & not eat at Paisley Park..

& a few other things that stopped me being a fan for a few years.

Angelsoncrack said:

Ego101 said:

I have 1st hand experience with this.. in my case Yes its true.

Ooh, share, share!

I looked at him a lot but I guess he was ok with me staring at him when I saw him live cus im a girl