I'm working on writing a bit about Prince's history of engaging directly with fans online, and am curious if any other folks have transcripts or chat logs from the old Paisley Park chats on AOL. (Or if you had direct message conversations with Hena2000 or NPG2000 or BedIScream, those would be great too!)

My goal is to capture some of the breadth of how he used to talk directly to us. Thanks!

I was not on AOL or any message boards, but I wanted to share something that might help with your work.

I was a member of the NPG Music Club, and in 2002 got tickets for his Detroit One Nite Alone tour + Soundcheck access.

During the soundcheck (which was about 2 hours before the actual show), Prince was onstage and in between jamming out he was actually doing a bit of Q&A. I was there with my sister, who urged me to ask him something but I wasn't up for it. Plenty of others asked questions and he answered. So this could be an example of him directly talking to fans.

One Q&A in particular stood out to me (well, not really a question, but Prince did answer): a female fan – who was very attractive, by the way – showed Prince her tattoo, which made him kinda shake his head a bit. He was not impressed.

He invited her on stage, which she probably was excited about, until he got out his bible and handed it to her. He asked her to go offstage and look up Leviticus 19:28 and then come back when she'd found it. I think she handed his bible back to him and just rejoined the group. The girl's "idol" had just shot down her new tattoo.

Leviticus 19:28: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD."

Se7en said:

I was not on AOL or any message boards, but I wanted to share something that might help with your work.

I was a member of the NPG Music Club, and in 2002 got tickets for his Detroit One Nite Alone tour + Soundcheck access.

During the soundcheck (which was about 2 hours before the actual show), Prince was onstage and in between jamming out he was actually doing a bit of Q&A. I was there with my sister, who urged me to ask him something but I wasn't up for it. Plenty of others asked questions and he answered. So this could be an example of him directly talking to fans.

One Q&A in particular stood out to me (well, not really a question, but Prince did answer): a female fan – who was very attractive, by the way – showed Prince her tattoo, which made him kinda shake his head a bit. He was not impressed.

He invited her on stage, which she probably was excited about, until he got out his bible and handed it to her. He asked her to go offstage and look up Leviticus 19:28 and then come back when she'd found it. I think she handed his bible back to him and just rejoined the group. The girl's "idol" had just shot down her new tattoo.

Leviticus 19:28: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD."

Sigh. I adored the guy... but he could be such an ass to the people who loved him the most.

Se7en said:

ya that's pretty fucked up but we love him inspite of it. It was him, I'd love him to tear apart my second rate imitations of his songs. I'd be honored and i'd laugh my ass off.