Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone on here would be kind enough to refresh my memory.

So years ago I remember reading about the night Prince had a bad trip on ecstasy. From memory he'd been out to a night club (the night he met Ingrid Chavez?). He'd brought her back to Paisley Park and that was where he'd had this bad trip.

I remember reading that while he was there he'd bumped into a member of his staff who was working late, or maybe he called and requested they came over. They claimed when they saw him he was visibly distressed with dilated pupils. That was the person he asked to pull the album.

Can anyone fill me in on any of the details I'm missing or have gotten wrong? I'm particularly interested in who it was that found him while he was tripping.

There's another detail I may have gotten wrong or confused, but am I right in saying that while he was tripping he asked this person whether or not they loved him?

Sorry for being so vague in my description but it's been a couple of decades since I read this story. I'm not even 100% sure where I read it from. If anybody can help fill in the blanks I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

Ruperts Dance Club [Minneapolis Minn.]
Paisley Park studios [Minneapolis Minn.]

Prince
Warner Bro.
Ingrid Chavez
Cat Glover
Anthony Keids

Karen Krattinger
Susan Rogers
Matt Fink
Gilbert Davison
Mo Ostin
Marylou Badeaux
Eric Leads

.

From the perspective of Warner Bros., the Black Album was emblematic of the label's concerns about Prince's career. Increasingly, his marketing decisions seemed designed to alienate the public rather than to increase his record sales; meanwhile, his material was becoming consistently less accessible. The company desperately wanted Prince to come up with catchy songs that would re-establish him as a potent hit-maker and guide him back towards Purple Rain-like levels of fame. What it got instead was The Black Album.

Despite Warners trepidation, plans for the release went forward and hundreds of thousands of vinyl albums, cassettes, and compact discs were pressed for distribution. As he often did just before putting out new albums, Prince went to a nightclub to audition it for an unsuspecting public. On December 1,1987- a little more than a week before its scheduled release-Prince went to Rupert's, a Minneapolis dance club. Entering undetected by the crowd, he made his way to the deejay booth and played songs without fanfare to see how club goers would react.

insert from: NightGod My source: Cat Glover

I filmed a behind the scenes video of her modeling shoot last year (the one many of you have seen on youtube), and spent a couple days hanging out with Cat Glover. She is very open and shared some amazing stories with me. This is one:

1987: Prince had never tried Ecstasy, and was curious about it after Cat told him what it felt like. He asked Cat to get him some (it came from her, where the common misconception is that it came from Ingrid). Cat was in LA when Prince made his request. She got some and flew in to MN and was staying at a hotel when Prince's limo showed up. While they were both in her room, Cat suggested Prince take half a dose "because he was so small". He took the full dose and told Cat to wait for him. He rode off in his limo and Cat didn't hear from him until much later.

Prince decided to go to a club while he was tripping. It was here that he met Ingrid Chavez, which eventually led them to Paisley Park. Cat said she didn't think Ingrid knew Prince was tripping on E. Prince called Cat later from the limo and told her about Ingrid. She was riding with him at that point, and the three of them went out to Paisley, making for a historical night in Prince's career.

Even more interesting is her source for where she got the Ecstasy in the first place: Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

As the music played over the sound system, Prince mingled with the crowd and eventually became involved in a detailed conversation with a singer-songwriter-poet in her early twenties named Ingrid Chavez. An attractive brunette with a serious and reflective air, Chavez had moved to Minneapolis several years earlier to work on music with a friend. But that collaboration had soured, and since then she had been working alone on her poetry and spoken-word pieces. Like Prince, Chavez had grown up in a strictly religious home (in her case, Baptist), but as an adult she too sought spiritual answers outside the confines of any specific religion.

Prince and Chavez seemed fascinated by each other despite an apperent lack of sexual chemistry, and, after a while, they drove back to the recently completed Paisley Park studio complex. They continued a lengthy and intense conversation about religious issues, love, and life fulfillment, but Prince eventually excused himself, saying he had a stomachache. Waiting to see where the strange night would go next, Chavez stayed put while Prince disappeared elsewhere in the complex.

At about 1:30am Karen Krattinger received a strange phone call. Speaking with uncharacteristic emotion, Prince apologized for having been so hard on her, said he had trouble expressing his feelings, and that he loved her.

At about the same time that night, Susan Rogers also got a phone call from Prince, asking her to come to Paisley Park. After four years as Prince's engineer, she had resigned that post shortly after the completion of the Black Album i October 1987. But she agreed to go to the studio. Arriving in the rehearsal room, she found it dark, save for a few red candles that cast ominous shadows across the walls. Out of the gloom she heard a woman's voice.

"Are you looking for Prince?"
Rogers, who would later learn this was Chavez, answered, "Yes."
"Well, he's here somewhere," Chavez replied.
Abruptly, Prince emerged out of the darkness, looking unlike she had ever seen him before. "I'm certain he was high," Rogers said. "His pupils were really dilated. He looked like he was tripping."
As he had with Krattinger, Prince struggled to connect emotionally with Rogers. "I just want to know one thing. Do you still love me?" Rogers, startled, said she did, and that she knew he loved her.
"Will you stay?" Prince asked.
"No, I won't," she said, and left the complex.
"It was really scary," she recalled of the evening.
Matt Fink confirmed the sequence of events, saying he was told by bodyguard Gilbert Davison, who was present at Paisley Park that evening, that Prince had taken the drug Ecstasy. "He had a bad trip, and felt that [the Black Album] was the devil working through him," Fink said. Chavez has also said that in the course of the evening Prince decided that The Black Album represented an evil force.

...

But something had changed. Prince believed that he had experienced a spiritual and moral epiphany, and that Chavez, serving as a guide, had shown him the way to greater connection with God and other people. The Black Album, he decided, represented the anger and licentiousness that he must leave behind. After casting about for months for a way to truly put the Revolution era behind him, he had found one.

Days after the ecstasy trip, Prince contacted Warner Bros. chairman Mo Ostin and insisted that the Black Album, with its release just days away, be canceled. "Prince was very adamant and pleaded with Mo," recalled Marylou Badeaux. Although Ostin ultimately agreed, halting the release was a logistical nightmare for Warners. Five hundred thousand LPs - which now needed to be destroyed - had been pressed, and were on loading docks ready for shipment to stores. A small number of vinyl records and cds escaped destruction, and The Black Album quickly became available on the bootleg market, with fans selling and trading cassette duplicates of widely varying fidelity.

Prince has never given a clear public explanation of the decision to shelve the album, but the program from his next tour included a cryptic discussion of the Black Album's "evil" nature, and refers to December 1, 1987 (the night he spent with Chavez at Paisley Park), as "Blue Tuesday."

Having shelved the Black Album, Prince immediately threw himself into the recording of his next LP, Lovesexy, which he conceived as a document of his epiphany.

...

Moreover, very few of Prince's associates related to the lyrical messages, and also wondered why Ingred Chavez, who seemed to some a bit odd, was playing such a huge role.

On the one hand, I totally believe Susan's account of her experience that night. On the other hand, taking into consideration the content of the Black Album, I don't believe in the "devil working through me" canard.

.

The Black Album was not a suitable follow-up to Sign o the Times, tbh. Hardly any of those tracks are true-blue, AAA Prince songs. It very much feels like an album of b-sides. Was that his motivation? IDK, not saying it is, but I don't think he was satisfied with the record.

.

To further make a point, Prince had much more lascivious tracks in the vault by then. Nothing on The Black Album (except maybe Bob George) feels particularly dark or angry. The album feels like exactly what it was - a result of Prince creating a playlist for a party (Sheila's B-day) and then getting the hair-brained idea to make this a flagship album (rather than an offshoot or protege record), probably based on the strong reception of the crowd at said party.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

.

Thank you so much old friend. That was exactly what I was looking for. Very much appreciated.

LoveGalore said:

On the one hand, I totally believe Susan's account of her experience that night. On the other hand, taking into consideration the content of the Black Album, I don't believe in the "devil working through me" canard.

.

I don't know mate. If he had just pulled the album and that was the end of it then I'd be inclined to agree, but what with the LoveSexy album, the live concert, the show's book. He may not have believed that the devil was working through but he clearly felt guilty about it. I'm guessing he probably felt guilty on the strength of 'Bob George' alone. He seemed to fear God's disapproval of his work (ie the skit during the Purple Rain concert & the end of Temptation).
.
Having said that, if he had genuinely believed it really was the work of Satan then he never would have agreed to release it in 1994

VaultCurator said:

LoveGalore said:

On the one hand, I totally believe Susan's account of her experience that night. On the other hand, taking into consideration the content of the Black Album, I don't believe in the "devil working through me" canard.

.

I don't know mate. If he had just pulled the album and that was the end of it then I'd be inclined to agree, but what with the LoveSexy album, the live concert, the show's book. He may not have believed that the devil was working through but he clearly felt guilty about it. I'm guessing he probably felt guilty on the strength of 'Bob George' alone. He seemed to fear God's disapproval of his work (ie the skit during the Purple Rain concert & the end of Temptation).
.
Having said that, if he had genuinely believed it really was the work of Satan then he never would have agreed to release it in 1994

I think it adds an interesting allure to a debacle that could've made him look really silly. And true enough, Lovesexy was a much more positive record (for the most part - it has its moments). But what a great storyline - he cans a weaker album which has at least one track on it that makes him look kind of like a dickhead and then puts all his energy into this other, more positive record and uses the experience as fodder for a whole stage show. Only Prince.

.

And that's exactly right - unless Prince's commitment to his religion comes with a pricetag!

LoveGalore said:

On the one hand, I totally believe Susan's account of her experience that night. On the other hand, taking into consideration the content of the Black Album, I don't believe in the "devil working through me" canard.

.

The Black Album was not a suitable follow-up to Sign o the Times, tbh. Hardly any of those tracks are true-blue, AAA Prince songs. It very much feels like an album of b-sides. Was that his motivation? IDK, not saying it is, but I don't think he was satisfied with the record.

.

To further make a point, Prince had much more lascivious tracks in the vault by then. Nothing on The Black Album (except maybe Bob George) feels particularly dark or angry. The album feels like exactly what it was - a result of Prince creating a playlist for a party (Sheila's B-day) and then getting the hair-brained idea to make this a flagship album (rather than an offshoot or protege record), probably based on the strong reception of the crowd at said party.

-

From what I remember;

-

He received criticism for (kind of) loosing his 'funk', like for instance through reviews and airplay that went from black radio stations and R'nB charts to more mainstream channels. His stardom grew from black community to a wider range worldwide.

Since the Parade alubm, he received stunning reviews in Europe, and I believe the SOTT album did also well in Europe, but not that well in the US.

So somehow he wanted to throw this album out there with no info at all.

People would soon find out that this was a Prince release. Just to prove them all he was still funky.

Turned out the difference was made with a bad trip.

Now, go figure...

Here you have a guy wanting to have everything in absolute control, always! And then...

...BOOM, bad trip, got scared as hell, losing all control (taking drugs is all about letting go and go with the flow with no control at all). Now, mix this situation with some foolish mumba-jumba god stuff and spooky electric shit, and realising he behaved like a drama queen as a rock star, asking people in an certain terrified position if they still love him... So there ya go.

A damn good and best ever sold bootleg in history of modern day recording.

-

WB granted him the option of releasing a second LP in 1987, in diplomatically pressuring him to reduce CB to a double album (the triple album itself being the outgrowth of management fears about a free-standing Camille release).

.

The idea of attributing the release anonymously/pseudonymously persisted (inherited from Camille, and as was the case with CB as late as its test pressings).

.

I believe the predicted marginal commercial fortunes of the record, its added harm to lukewarm-positive State-side reception of SOTT, and also (especially for P rather than his mgm't) a desire to kowtow to the demands of WB's suits-- to increase the likelihood of their vigorously backing another major film project (ultimately GB)-- are the true reasons it was pulled.

.

As I see it, that the record made it all the way into a production run, was part of a calculated appeasement effort till he inevitably was talked out of it, hostage-negotiator style. He had considerable leverage at the time, but had also already demonstrated some considerable missteps; it had to be handled with delicacy.

.

In the process, it became more legendary and vaunted than had it received proper release. It's wonderfully oddball, but no 'funk bible'.

.

[Edited 11/27/19 10:10am]

LoveGalore said:

The Black Album was not a suitable follow-up to Sign o the Times, tbh. Hardly any of those tracks are true-blue, AAA Prince songs.

I mean, and Lovesexy has those in spades? Even the most ardent Lovesexy fans seem to focus on the composite whole rather than individual components. I'd argue not a lot of "AAA"'s to be found there either...

[Edited 11/27/19 10:15am]

Say what you want...but that shit is funky!

Le Grind...funky!

Cindy C...funky!

Dead On It...silly funk!

When 2 R In Love...beautiful.

Bob George...funky!

Superfunkicalifragisexi...POSSIBLY THE FUNKIEST SONG HE'S EVER DONE, outside of "La, La...", "Housequake", "Erotic City", "Hello"...you get the picture.

2 Nigs United...bunch of noise!

Rock Hard In a Funky Place...Funky, with some of his best guitar solos EVER!

I would have loved to have had a released regular version, if it was released back when he should have released it! In my opinion, it is a Funk Bible!!!!

WhisperingDandelions said:

That the Black Album was a Prince-Album must have been one of the worst kept secrets ever.

In Germany we had a great weekly Funk and Soul radio show. The host was a big Prince fan and she always always played his songs. I don´t remember her name but she played almost the entire Black Album one week before it was about to be released. Then it got pulled.

I think she got in big trouble for playing it but many people (including me) recorded the songs on cassette from that show and did not have to buy the bootleg.

I loved that album and listened to it all the time.

[Edited 11/27/19 10:40am]

OldFriends4Sale said:

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

.

I don't know why people keeps saying that Prince had a bad trip with ecstasy. You're not supposed to have bad trips with ecstasy/MDMA, like you can have bad trips with LSD and other psychedelics. Unless you're taking something that's not MDMA, of course, which happens a lot with "street" ecstasy. I've heard that anxiety can be problematic with MDMA if you take a low dose, not a high dose as was the case here, though. Anyway, from this report, it looks like Prince had a regular MDMA experience, i.e. (re)connecting with people, reevaluating his life, etc.

williamb610 said:

Say what you want...but that shit is funky!

Le Grind...funky!

Cindy C...funky!

Dead On It...silly funk!

When 2 R In Love...beautiful.

Bob George...funky!

Superfunkicalifragisexi...POSSIBLY THE FUNKIEST SONG HE'S EVER DONE, outside of "La, La...", "Housequake", "Erotic City", "Hello"...you get the picture.

2 Nigs United...bunch of noise!

Rock Hard In a Funky Place...Funky, with some of his best guitar solos EVER!

I would have loved to have had a released regular version, if it was released back when he should have released it! In my opinion, it is a Funk Bible!!!!

imagine a much needed remaster of this gem....

The Black album was fantastic! I enjoyed LoveSexy too but the Black Album was exactly how I liked my Prince at the time: FUNKY!

[Edited 11/27/19 14:27pm]

theplejades said:

That the Black Album was a Prince-Album must have been one of the worst kept secrets ever.

In Germany we had a great weekly Funk and Soul radio show. The host was a big Prince fan and she always always played his songs. I don´t remember her name but she played almost the entire Black Album one week before it was about to be released. Then it got pulled.

.

Nonsense. That happened in March 1988. https://the-black-album.i...story.html

olb99 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

.

I don't know why people keeps saying that Prince had a bad trip with ecstasy. You're not supposed to have bad trips with ecstasy/MDMA, like you can have bad trips with LSD and other psychedelics. Unless you're taking something that's not MDMA, of course, which happens a lot with "street" ecstasy. I've heard that anxiety can be problematic with MDMA if you take a low dose, not a high dose as was the case here, though. Anyway, from this report, it looks like Prince had a regular MDMA experience, i.e. (re)connecting with people, reevaluating his life, etc.

.

https://www.verywellmind....mdma-22098

.

While most ecstasy users find the drug pleasant in effect, it can trigger feelings of anxiety and panic, which are heightened by the stimulant effects of the drug. Ecstasy also has hallucinogenic properties, so it can trigger a bad trip.

.

imprimis said:

WB granted him the option of releasing a second LP in 1987, in diplomatically pressuring him to reduce CB to a double album (the triple album itself being the outgrowth of management fears about a free-standing Camille release).

.

The idea of attributing the release anonymously/pseudonymously persisted (inherited from Camille, and as was the case with CB as late as its test pressings).

.

I believe the predicted marginal commercial fortunes of the record, its added harm to lukewarm-positive State-side reception of SOTT, and also (especially for P rather than his mgm't) a desire to kowtow to the demands of WB's suits-- to increase the likelihood of their vigorously backing another major film project (ultimately GB)-- are the true reasons it was pulled.

.

As I see it, that the record made it all the way into a production run, was part of a calculated appeasement effort till he inevitably was talked out of it, hostage-negotiator style. He had considerable leverage at the time, but had also already demonstrated some considerable missteps; it had to be handled with delicacy.

.

Nice story, but the album was already being distributed. They had to recall trucks and yank promo copies, and inevitably it leaked. It cost Prince millions to halt its release at that late point.

BartVanHemelen said:

LoveGalore said:

The Black Album was not a suitable follow-up to Sign o the Times, tbh. Hardly any of those tracks are true-blue, AAA Prince songs. It very much feels like an album of b-sides.

I like the album,but I agree with you.I think the album is a little overrated.Some cool jams,but this is not Prince at his best.

BartVanHemelen said:

theplejades said:

That the Black Album was a Prince-Album must have been one of the worst kept secrets ever.

In Germany we had a great weekly Funk and Soul radio show. The host was a big Prince fan and she always always played his songs. I don´t remember her name but she played almost the entire Black Album one week before it was about to be released. Then it got pulled.

.

Nonsense. That happened in March 1988. https://the-black-album.i...story.html

The first time I heard of the Black Album was in her show and I think she stated that the album would be released soon. If the album was already cancelled at that point I think she would have said so.

I heard about the cancellation shortly after she aired it.

Information about new releases was not as available as it is today in the internet-age.

Sorry, if I don´t perfecty recall the events 30 years later.

[Edited 11/27/19 14:32pm]

yeah I remember this story.What a strange night!

OldFriends4Sale said:

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

Le Grind is a top20 for me. Love that jam.

Rock Hard is great also.

jfenster said:

williamb610 said:

Say what you want...but that shit is funky!

Le Grind...funky!

Cindy C...funky!

Dead On It...silly funk!

When 2 R In Love...beautiful.

Bob George...funky!

Superfunkicalifragisexi...POSSIBLY THE FUNKIEST SONG HE'S EVER DONE, outside of "La, La...", "Housequake", "Erotic City", "Hello"...you get the picture.

2 Nigs United...bunch of noise!

Rock Hard In a Funky Place...Funky, with some of his best guitar solos EVER!

I would have loved to have had a released regular version, if it was released back when he should have released it! In my opinion, it is a Funk Bible!!!!

imagine a much needed remaster of this gem....

Hopefully they could get rid of the quiet hiss that is on the entire album.

LoveGalore said:

I think it adds an interesting allure to a debacle that could've made him look really silly. And true enough, Lovesexy was a much more positive record (for the most part - it has its moments). But what a great storyline - he cans a weaker album which has at least one track on it that makes him look kind of like a dickhead and then puts all his energy into this other, more positive record and uses the experience as fodder for a whole stage show. Only Prince.

.

And that's exactly right - unless Prince's commitment to his religion comes with a pricetag!

I wouldn't call TBA a weaker album in comparison to LoveSexy at all. Indeed, I think the darker tone and mystique may have given it a better boost than the poor showing LoveSexy received in the USA. Neither one was remotely geared toward radio but TBA was very edgy for the time, at least.

SoulAlive said:

yeah I remember this story.What a strange night!

OldFriends4Sale said:

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

that could be nice little short film lol

jtfolden said:

LoveGalore said:

I think it adds an interesting allure to a debacle that could've made him look really silly. And true enough, Lovesexy was a much more positive record (for the most part - it has its moments). But what a great storyline - he cans a weaker album which has at least one track on it that makes him look kind of like a dickhead and then puts all his energy into this other, more positive record and uses the experience as fodder for a whole stage show. Only Prince.

.

And that's exactly right - unless Prince's commitment to his religion comes with a pricetag!

I wouldn't call TBA a weaker album in comparison to LoveSexy at all. Indeed, I think the darker tone and mystique may have given it a better boost than the poor showing LoveSexy received in the USA. Neither one was remotely geared toward radio but TBA was very edgy for the time, at least.

I actually prefer the BLACK album over Lovesexy.

I listen to it all the way through way more than Lovesexy

OldFriends4Sale said: