Moderator note:

Continuation from previous discussion here: http://prince.org/msg/7/420869


Following a visit to Paisley Park earlier this year ahead of the release of Hitnrun: Phase One, reporter and editor, Miles Marshall Lewis, published on article at Ebony.com

http://www.ebony.com/ente...z3v9sAMrFN

On 22 December, a further interview by the same reporter was published on Ebony.com and then later removed.

Billboard then ran an article by Dan Rys on 23 December discussing the withdrawl of the interview, and which can be read here:

http://www.billboard.com/...-interview

including:

Lewis tells Billboard that Prince's team got in touch with Ebony yesterday, asking for the interview to be taken down, saying that Prince believed the conversation to be off the record. Lewis denies that assertion, mentioning that during at least one part of the conversation Prince did ask for a section to be kept off the record, and that that section was not published. Multiple attempts to contact Prince's team were not returned as of press time.

Below is an excerpt from the beginning of the interview, as previously published on Ebony.com.

In line with the org's approach to copyright observance, a proportion of the interview is featured below.

langebleu - moderator



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

This was posted online and then removed (beginning of interview quoted below)

Previously published at Ebony .com

By Miles Marshall Lewis

Prince asked me to keep some secrets. I may still have a few, truth be told. This past summer, a call went out to a few music journalists to visit the purple rock, Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis. Joshua Welton, 25, had a few words to share about producing his first Prince project, Hit N Run. The operative word being “few.” After 10 minutes of talk, Prince himself entered Studio A and took over the conversation for two enlightening hours, discussing everything from Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service to the origins behind “Purple Rain” and “The Beautiful Ones,” and the reformation of The Time. Bob Seger, Esperanza Spalding, Kendrick Lamar and beyond.

Our couple of hours raced by faster than the accelerated voice of Camille. Then Prince disappeared, pulling up later in front of Paisley Park in a Cadillac sports car to play his already finished, secret follow-up to Hit N Run. On December 12, Hit N Run: Phase Two arrived on Tidal for streaming and digital download. So now you know. The following is a feverish transcription of more of our August convo from the summertime, previously unpublished. There may be more; Prince is full of secrets.


EBONY: Do you ever see yourself writing a memoir?

Prince: You ever heard of checking your list to see who’s naughty and who’s nice? I just let people talk. I was talking to somebody about “The Beautiful Ones.” They were speculating as to who I was singing about. But they were completely wrong.
If they look at it, it’s very obvious. “Do you want him or do you want me,” that was written for that scene in Purple Rain specifically. Where Morris [Day] would be sitting with [Apollonia], and there’d be this back and forth. And also, “The beautiful ones you always seem to lose,” Vanity had just quit the movie. To then speculate, “Well, he wrote that song about me”? Afterwards you go, “Who are you? Why do you think that you’re part of the script that way? And why would you go around saying stuff like that?”
So we just let people talk and say whatever they want to say. Nine times out of 10, trust me, what’s out there now, I wouldn’t give nary one of these folks the time of day. That’s why I don’t say anything back, because there’s so much that’s wrong.


EBONY: But you could set the record straight.

Prince: There’s too much! They get down to, “See, what he was thinking at that specific time was… His mindset at the time…” They psychoanalyze you.
There was one engineer who said that their sole purpose in life was to get the stuff out of the vault, and get it copied so it wasn’t lost to the world. I’m trying to figure out if that’s illegal. Should I fear for my safety that you might need some medical attention? You want to come up in my vault and you feel like that belongs to you and that’s your purpose? You better find something to do. That’s scary.


EBONY: You’ve never had a producer. What made you choose Joshua Welton for Hit N Run: Phase One?

Prince: His faith in God really struck a nerve. And you know how you can just feel that something’s gonna work and it feels right, it’s a good fit? I knew the band was going to work, I knew the relationship with him was gonna work. I check people out now to see how faith-based they are and how real they are about it. That goes a long way, I gotta tell you. Because I can trust them. I can give him the key and don’t have to worry.

(Interview continues ....)

This was Prince basically firing back at his critics from former associates like musicians, engineers and even fans and I loved it. Although I understand why the inerview was withdrawn by EBONY.COM on Prince's orders, I liked that P put folks on blast for ascribing falsehoods or at least perceived falsehoods about his career-to let people know he hears what is said about him and who says it. Doesn't mean I agree with certain things he mentioned but who says a celebrity gotta roll with the punches and let shit slide. Probably will never get another interview like this, so I appreciate it from that standpoint.

You guys really feel like Prince was being honest? I really don't. I think he was being evasive and smearing everyone else on the team.

I think he sounded as though he was speeking from an emotional truth rather than a factual truth. The underlying issue, imo, is who gets control of masters and Prince wanting beaucoup dollars for himself as usual. Prince's control of the associated artists' albums and probably Prince and The Revolution and Prince and The NPG is not exactly airtight and he sounds jumpy about a potential challenge. Though I could be wrong on that at this point because there may have been some missed deadlines, idk. The point is, Prince feels like he should have complete control over things, that maybe, idk, by the letter of the law it may be more complicated than that. So he's talking a lot of shit about how every other member of the squad, is unimportant.

The ugliest thing he said, imo, was the Susan Rogers stuff, because she basicly built the vault, and is the person most responisble for talking all that 'Prince Mozart' stuff up for the last two decades. I remember just salivating, back in the day at some of her descriptions of unreleased material (Wally) and wishing I could have been a fly on the wall based on some of her description of Prince's outtakes. Yet he's talking about how he's 'afraid' she's going to rob him..

EBONY: But you could set the record straight.

Prince: There’s too much! They get down to, “See, what he was thinking at that specific time was… His mindset at the time…” They psychoanalyze you.
There was one engineer who said that their sole purpose in life was to get the stuff out of the vault, and get it copied so it wasn’t lost to the world. I’m trying to figure out if that’s illegal. Should I fear for my safety that you might need some medical attention? You want to come up in my vault and you feel like that belongs to you and that’s your purpose? You better find something to do. That’s scary.

Wow. This doesn't read to me like someone actually afraid of someone else "doing something" to his belongings. It reads more like paranoia that someone else would find out the man behind the purple velvet drapes has been full of shit, all this time. I'm more convinced with each passing day that there really is NO VAULT! If there ever was one, I think he's destroyed it already out of pure spite. SMDH!

[Edited 12/27/15 8:12am]

EBONY: But you could set the record straight.

Prince: There’s too much! They get down to, “See, what he was thinking at that specific time was… His mindset at the time…” They psychoanalyze you.
There was one engineer who said that their sole purpose in life was to get the stuff out of the vault, and get it copied so it wasn’t lost to the world. I’m trying to figure out if that’s illegal. Should I fear for my safety that you might need some medical attention? You want to come up in my vault and you feel like that belongs to you and that’s your purpose? You better find something to do. That’s scary.

I am with Prince on this one. If an engineer said his/her sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault, without Prince's consent, that person seems a little fanatical and scary to me, too. I mean, that person really could be unbalanced.

I also wish Prince would release more from the vault, but that is his decision, not any of ours.

[Edited 12/27/15 10:09am]

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

EBONY: But you could set the record straight.

Prince: There’s too much! They get down to, “See, what he was thinking at that specific time was… His mindset at the time…” They psychoanalyze you.
There was one engineer who said that their sole purpose in life was to get the stuff out of the vault, and get it copied so it wasn’t lost to the world. I’m trying to figure out if that’s illegal. Should I fear for my safety that you might need some medical attention? You want to come up in my vault and you feel like that belongs to you and that’s your purpose? You better find something to do. That’s scary.

Wow. This doesn't read to me like someone actually afraid of someone else "doing something" to his belongings. It reads more like paranoia that someone else would find out the man behind the purple velvet drapes has been full of shit, all this time. I'm more convinced with each passing day that there really is NO VAULT! If there ever was one, I think he's destroyed it already out of pure spite. SMDH!

[Edited 12/27/15 8:12am]

I think you're convinced of a lot of things but of course there is zero evidence and it's a little extreme in terms of logic.

Aerogram said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Wow. This doesn't read to me like someone actually afraid of someone else "doing something" to his belongings. It reads more like paranoia that someone else would find out the man behind the purple velvet drapes has been full of shit, all this time. I'm more convinced with each passing day that there really is NO VAULT! If there ever was one, I think he's destroyed it already out of pure spite. SMDH!

[Edited 12/27/15 8:12am]

I think you're convinced of a lot of things but of course there is zero evidence and it's a little extreme in terms of logic.

There's zero evidence of the contrary but either way-- the truth shall be known-- someday. For the record though, as much as I do enjoy being right about things-- I'd much rather be the one that's proven WRONG in this instance.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Aerogram said:

I think you're convinced of a lot of things but of course there is zero evidence and it's a little extreme in terms of logic.

There's zero evidence of the contrary but either way-- the truth shall be known-- someday. For the record though, as much as I do enjoy being right about things-- I'd much rather be the one that's proven WRONG in this instance.

The balance of probability is not in your favor as the Vault has been mentionned over and over again for decades now and all you have is your strong hunch that it's gone

We're gonna need something a little stronger.

Moonbeam said:

From this excerpt, it sounds like an interesting interview. Wish I could have read it all!

You can, I just did.

Amazing, truly amazing how much hate there is on the org...

Aerogram said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

There's zero evidence of the contrary but either way-- the truth shall be known-- someday. For the record though, as much as I do enjoy being right about things-- I'd much rather be the one that's proven WRONG in this instance.

The balance of probability is not in your favor as the Vault has been mentionned over and over again for decades now and all you have is your strong hunch that it's gone

We're gonna need something a little stronger.

Yes, while it is true that all I have to go on is a strong hunch. My strong hunch leans more towards the vault "non-existing" side. In the realm of something "mentioned over and over again..." meaning it's true...the balance of probability is highly in my favor as it is with the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Aerogram said:

The balance of probability is not in your favor as the Vault has been mentionned over and over again for decades now and all you have is your strong hunch that it's gone

We're gonna need something a little stronger.

Yes, while it is true that all I have to go on is a strong hunch. My strong hunch leans more towards the vault "non-existing" side. In the realm of something "mentioned over and over again..." meaning it's true...the balance of probability is highly in my favor as it is with the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.

There was the Crystal Ball set so there's at least strong evidence it's not just a legend.

CarolineC said:

I am with Prince on this one. If an engineer said his/her sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault, without Prince's consent, that person seems a little fanatical and scary to me, too. I mean, that person really could be unbalanced.

I also wish Prince would release more from the vault, but that is his decision, not any of ours.

[Edited 12/27/15 10:09am]

Fair enough, but Susan Rogers never said this. What she did say was she wanted to protect his legacy so she collected his recordings from the studios and created a vault - the vault that is now his legendary storage container. Go back and listen to the BBC documentary. Nowhere has she ever said that her "sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault." Honestly, Prince is the one who sounds unhinged and terribly petty here.

[Edited 12/27/15 17:14pm]

[Edited 12/27/15 17:15pm]

limoncello said:

CarolineC said:

I am with Prince on this one. If an engineer said his/her sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault, without Prince's consent, that person seems a little fanatical and scary to me, too. I mean, that person really could be unbalanced.

I also wish Prince would release more from the vault, but that is his decision, not any of ours.

[Edited 12/27/15 10:09am]

Fair enough, but Susan Rogers never said this. What she did say was she wanted to protect his legacy so she collected his recordings from the studios and created a vault - the vault that is now his legendary storage container. Go back and listen to the BBC documentary. Nowhere has she ever said that her "sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault." Honestly, Prince is the one who sounds unhinged and terribly petty here.

[Edited 12/27/15 17:14pm]

[Edited 12/27/15 17:15pm]

I've never read anything condescending or disrespectful from the 1980s crew. And Susan Roger has constantly said things that build upon the legacy of Prince. I don't know what is or why that he seems to have such a Hate/Love for people from that time...

Here's a possible way of looking at this situation in which Prince, while still a bit of a jerk, is maybe not as bad as he could be.

Yes, he says some pretty crappy things about people--particularly in his comments about Susan Rogers needing some medical help, which was way overboard, since her actual statements concerning preserving Prince's work are not creepy or disturbing in any way at all. But maybe that's exactly why he had the interview pulled. He was being a jerk, he was saying terrible things about people that they didn't really deserve, he let himself go and then realized that he was being unfair and unkind.

I don't know. I was amazed that anything like that made it into a published interview to begin with, but I strongly suspect that even if he had given some approval to the stuff being recorded (and it seems like it was--I mean, this certainly seems to be actual quotes, not the paraphrasing people are usually forced to do when they talk to him), once he saw what he actually said he realized he'd gone to far. He shouldn't have been ragging on former associates like he was anyway, and once he realized what he'd said, he wanted it to go away.

Sure, an apology and an explanation would be better, but I wouldn't ever expect that from him in a public forum. And if he did give permission (or could be honestly understood to have given permission), it's unfair to Lewis to claim it was off the record.

Actually, it doesn't help Prince at all. He's just a jerk in this story. Ah well.

Still enjoying the album, though.

OldFriends4Sale said:

limoncello said:

Fair enough, but Susan Rogers never said this. What she did say was she wanted to protect his legacy so she collected his recordings from the studios and created a vault - the vault that is now his legendary storage container. Go back and listen to the BBC documentary. Nowhere has she ever said that her "sole purpose in life was to copy stuff out of the vault." Honestly, Prince is the one who sounds unhinged and terribly petty here.

I've never read anything condescending or disrespectful from the 1980s crew. And Susan Roger has constantly said things that build upon the legacy of Prince. I don't know what is or why that he seems to have such a Hate/Love for people from that time...

Prince seems to have a problem with almost everyone from his past It's like he wants to erase these people from his life completely.He has a very unhealthy attitude concerning the past.

I thought it was a great interview - one of his best in recent times. Loved hearing his thought's on the Time and felt Prince over-all seemed quite balanced and optimistic.

I had doubts from the beginning about the authenticity of this interview: I find it hard to believe that someone may remember, from quick notes, such a lenghty conversation word for word. It'd have been better to report the basic nature of what P said than to try and recreate a whole dialogue like this. And to be honest half of it was such confusing English that it made P sound like a madman. IDK how much of it was really said but I ain't surprised P retracted.

And yes, for the record Susan Rogers never said what the interview says Prince said she said.

EddieC said:

Here's a possible way of looking at this situation in which Prince, while still a bit of a jerk, is maybe not as bad as he could be.

Yes, he says some pretty crappy things about people--particularly in his comments about Susan Rogers needing some medical help, which was way overboard, since her actual statements concerning preserving Prince's work are not creepy or disturbing in any way at all. But maybe that's exactly why he had the interview pulled. He was being a jerk, he was saying terrible things about people that they didn't really deserve, he let himself go and then realized that he was being unfair and unkind.

I tihnk you're right, but my guess is the interview was recorded and he likely didn't know / agree to it, that there was some confusion about that aspect. It reads like a transcript and the writer is not a rookie or someone prone to make up things. I worry this manner of talking trash about the people who helped create the Prince myth and legacy happens all the time. This time it just got caught on tape and he is fortunate Ebony agreed to his request to pull it down. Of all the people to trash talk, Susan Rogers is really the least deserving.

As Old Friends says, seems he has a problem with the 80s crowd. Must be some deep wounds.

limoncello said:

EddieC said:

Here's a possible way of looking at this situation in which Prince, while still a bit of a jerk, is maybe not as bad as he could be.

Yes, he says some pretty crappy things about people--particularly in his comments about Susan Rogers needing some medical help, which was way overboard, since her actual statements concerning preserving Prince's work are not creepy or disturbing in any way at all. But maybe that's exactly why he had the interview pulled. He was being a jerk, he was saying terrible things about people that they didn't really deserve, he let himself go and then realized that he was being unfair and unkind.

I tihnk you're right, but my guess is the interview was recorded and he likely didn't know / agree to it, that there was some confusion about that aspect. It reads like a transcript and the writer is not a rookie or someone prone to make up things. I worry this manner of talking trash about the people who helped create the Prince myth and legacy happens all the time. This time it just got caught on tape and he is fortunate Ebony agreed to his request to pull it down. Of all the people to trash talk, Susan Rogers is really the least deserving.

As Old Friends says, seems he has a problem with the 80s crowd. Must be some deep wounds.

IDK in the US but in France transcripts are usually being a little polished by the writer to avoid giving the impression the interviewee is mad or speaks poor language, and to make it a little easier to read by the reader. That interview was unreadable for some parts, Prince wasn't making any sense. However I fail to understand how the interviewer could have believed he was allowed to record if he wasn't: P's policy has always been very clear in that regard.

Dupe

[Edited 12/28/15 0:10am]

databank said:

I had doubts from the beginning about the authenticity of this interview: I find it hard to believe that someone may remember, from quick notes, such a lenghty conversation word for word. It'd have been better to report the basic nature of what P said than to try and recreate a whole dialogue like this. And to be honest half of it was such confusing English that it made P sound like a madman. IDK how much of it was really said but I ain't surprised P retracted.

And yes, for the record Susan Rogers never said what the interview says Prince said she said.

That was my impression, it seemed a whole lot of incoherent rambling was going on, I had a hard time making out what Prince was actually saying. I do think the reporter transcribed the actual conversation, Prince read it back and thought it was better to withdraw his permission. Maybe also because of all the bad comments.

Sydney said:

I thought it was a great interview - one of his best in recent times. Loved hearing his thought's on the Time and felt Prince over-all seemed quite balanced and optimistic.

'Comprehensive reading' must no longer be taught around the world then.

EddieC said:

But maybe that's exactly why he had the interview pulled.

But of course the interview isn't really gone. So Prince has lost in a lot of ways this time. (Censorship, talking bad about people, lying, sounding slightly insane etc etc).

Talk about a hit and run!!

jaypotton said:

Hmmmm so I have reread that section of the interview (the bits posted here as didn't see the actual interview on ebony) and I do not think Prince is referring to Susan Rogers! He says the engineer wanted to get things out of the vault and copied so they were not lost. That implies the vault already existed. Now I remember some years back another engineer (may have been Hans Bluff...not sure of that name) who was really worried that a lot of the songs in the vault were actually on analogue tape. Now analogue tape deteriorates over time unless kept in perfect temperature and humidity conditions and the vault was not like that. In fact the vault actually got flooded at one point. The same engineer also said that tapes were literally just thrown into the vault or stacked in corners with no cataloging or anything. The way you protect analogue tape (if I recall) is to "bake" the tapes but Prince was apparently not interested. Nor was he interested in getting all the songs copied onto digital formats. It was that engineer (as I said not sure if that was Hans Bluff) who wanted to get everything copied and preserved. NOT Susan Rogers. [Edited 12/28/15 1:38am]

I don't remember if this was Hans Buff but I think it may have been Chronic Freeze here on the Org. Whether one or the other people are freaking out over... claims by engineers who worked there 20 years ago. Whatever was in the vault seemed pretty well conserved up to 2001 when we had the last vault releases on NPGMC (and before than CB and the song Rave). People here keep saying that no effort was ever made to preserve the material. Well, maybe none had been made in 1994 (when Chronic was fired) or 1997 (IIRC Buff worked on CB so he was there as late as 97), only this is nearly 2016 and I don't remember a single interview or claim by any engineer who worked at Paisley Park after 1997.

Most likely if conservation or digitalization is a necessary process for the survival of the tapes, it's been done ever since. We don't know much of whatever occured at Paisley Park after 1996 or so, it became a very secretive place.

So IDK, but I wouldn't freak out over 20 years old testimonials.

databank said:

jaypotton said:

databank said:

I don't remember if this was Hans Buff but I think it may have been Chronic Freeze here on the Org. Whether one or the other people are freaking out over... claims by engineers who worked there 20 years ago. Whatever was in the vault seemed pretty well conserved up to 2001 when we had the last vault releases on NPGMC (and before than CB and the song Rave). People here keep saying that no effort was ever made to preserve the material. Well, maybe none had been made in 1994 (when Chronic was fired) or 1997 (IIRC Buff worked on CB so he was there as late as 97), only this is nearly 2016 and I don't remember a single interview or claim by any engineer who worked at Paisley Park after 1997.

Most likely if conservation or digitalization is a necessary process for the survival of the tapes, it's been done ever since. We don't know much of whatever occured at Paisley Park after 1996 or so, it became a very secretive place.

So IDK, but I wouldn't freak out over 20 years old testimonials.

Not sure if the freak out comment aimed at me or others but I certainly am not. My point was that I do not think Prince was referring to Susan Rogers. As for what goes on at PP well who knows for sure!

Ur comment just reminded me many times when I've read orgers stating for fact that tapes are rotting in the vault and that they're lost forever, based on those 20 year old testimonies.