Makes me sick to think how hard he worked with all that pain the last few years. Was he short on $$$ or he just loved touring so much.

I don't know that he "had" to, but the overhead to keep Paisley Park functioning couldn't have been cheap.

[Edited 7/5/16 18:53pm]

Bunsterdk said:

Prince seemed almost giddy at times in the footage I've seen from the last tour. Especially when he got up and danced to the audience singing Kiss. I think he just really loved sharing his music with others.

Performing was mostly likely his main source of income. The guy had lots of overhead with Paisley Park and all the taxes on his other non-income properties.

If you could make $2M for one show, wouldn't you do it?

Genesia said:

NorthC said:

Genesia said:

Performing was mostly likely his main source of income. The guy had lots of overhead with Paisley Park and all the taxes on his other non-income properties.

If you could make $2M for one show, wouldn't you do it?

Most of the shows he did in his later years were in theaters holding 1500-2000 people. How can you make $ 2,000,000 from that?

He did do private concerts for Billionaires, didn't he? Pretty sure that he charged a lot for those. I would estimate his fee for the theater-shows to range between 250.000 and 300.000 Dollars, per show. In most cities he did two shows per night. And he didn't carry a huge stage production with him, which made his touring cost-effective. He was paid a huge amount for the few european open air shows in 2010 by Live Nation, it's been rumoured that he was being paid a million Dollars per show by the Montreux Jazz-Festival organization in 2009. And he did do the odd performance almost for free. So, as much as his touring-income was based on mixed calculation, his desire for live-performances might have been a mix of 'have to' and 'want to'. I attended the fiasco in Cologne 2011. That was clearly a case of 'had to". Whereas at least the 2nd and 3rd shows during the NSJF a few days were heartfelt undertakings. As far as Prince "touring so much" is concerned, take a look at Pat Metheny's annual schedules. There's a guy who's really touring a lot. And he's over 60. But healthy...

I read somewhere that monthly expenses at PP were upward of 20,000. So I'm pretty sure he had to. He probably loved doing it though.

Let's be honest. Saleswise, there wasn't really much money to be had in record sales in the latter part of his career. Of course he loved touring, playing live and showing off in private gigs too. That involved a lot of money.

He was doing many private events for rich folks as well... parties in 'The Hamptons' 'Dubai' New Years Eve.. ect ...

NorthC said:

Most of the shows he did in his later years were in theaters holding 1500-2000 people. How can you make $ 2,000,000 from that?

It makes me curious also, why since he had his hard won freedom to do as he wanted. There wasn't a "need" to be on the go constantly. I'm looking for some kind of a goal, only thing that makes sense to my mind. But who knows what inside stuff was going on bills must be paid.

Baduizm said:

I don't that he "had" to, but the overhead to keep Paisley Park functioning couldn't have been cheap.

This. It's called "cash flow".

About the time he was giving away large amounts of money, his property taxes became overdue and almost into foreclosure. A few concerts and he bailed everything out.

PLUS, he obviously liked doing it.

MD431Madcat said:

He was doing many private events for rich folks as well... parties in 'The Hamptons' 'Dubai' New Years Eve.. ect ...

NorthC said:

Most of the shows he did in his later years were in theaters holding 1500-2000 people. How can you make $ 2,000,000 from that?

.

George Lucas' wedding, the White House concert......

luvgirl said:

Prince first true love has always been on stage. Take a good look at his face when he's performing. He glows there's so much fire...

Agree 1000%. Stage performances are what set his soul on fire. He WAS/IS music.

[Edited 7/5/16 16:36pm]

emesem said:

Makes me sick to think how hard he worked with all that pain the last few years. Was he short on $$$ or he just loved touring so much.

Prince explains everthing in this Rolling Stones interview: www.rollingstone.com/musi...y-20160502 He says, "I have giant bills, so I do have to do tours...but there is no need to record anymore".

CROWNS1 said:

I read somewhere that monthly expenses at PP were upward of 20,000. So I'm pretty sure he had to. He probably loved doing it though.

$20K / month is really not a lot of $$$. That comes to $240K / yr and I know Prince had to be pulling in 10's of millions per year.

I think he liked to tour. We always hear of celebritites being "cash poor", but I think that's by design because the assets have a more stable value than the hard cash.

tmo1965 said:

CROWNS1 said:

I read somewhere that monthly expenses at PP were upward of 20,000. So I'm pretty sure he had to. He probably loved doing it though.

$20K / month is really not a lot of $$$. That comes to $240K / yr and I know Prince had to be pulling in 10's of millions per year.

I think he liked to tour. We always hear of celebritites being "cash poor", but I think that's by design because the assets have a more stable value than the hard cash.

I had read it was $2.5 million per month at its peak

PaisleyPrint said:

Genesia said:

Performing was mostly likely his main source of income. The guy had lots of overhead with Paisley Park and all the taxes on his other non-income properties.

If you could make $2M for one show, wouldn't you do it?

He didn't tour much for years and just do those big festivals where he got a big payday, so I figured he mainly did it for the money, although he did put his heart and soul into it. But maybe his health just wasn't super great and he didn't feel like getting out there and playing a lot.

it probably didn't hurt his finances, but I believe prince loved the stage. It's what he lived for as it is for many of us musicians. there is no replacement for a live performance, no cd, no video can do it justice. One of the more ludicrous statements I heard was that prince had stagefright, i said, "he had stagefright like a guy had some butterflies right before he was about to make love to a beautiful woman". He loved it.

PeteSilas said:

also, traditionally, touring has been the one way a popular musician can generate income without all the shenanigans of the record companies. way it's always been. Little Richard made like half a penny off every single sold, so he wasn't getting rich like that, but he could always go on tour. Every musician is different though, not all of them are mentally or physically equipped for live performance/travel. marvin gaye was one of the worst cases as far as stagefright I've ever read about. then, some people have a hard time with the changing climates and time changes. Prince supposedly called off the PR tour after getting busted in the mouth with his guitar, backstage by a techie. He also didn't seem to go out of his way to tour behind his classic albums right after PR. I really do think he loved it but it is a grind. Seems like the older he got, the more he didn't mind tours. He had been in my neck of the woods two times in the last 5 years, probably would have come here on the last tour too if things had went well.

Prince loved performing live in concerts, this was everything to him.

Prince was a musician / performer deep into his soul....

laytonian said:

Marrk said:

Let's be honest. Saleswise, there wasn't really much money to be had in record sales in the latter part of his career. Of course he loved touring, playing live and showing off in private gigs too. That involved a lot of money.

He got some pretty sweet deals on albums in recent years through newspaper giveaways etc