At the beginning of 2016, Prince was in the midst of two unprecedented projects coinciding with significant change in his touring entourage. He was about to perform to audiences around the world alone with simply a piano and a microphone and he was concurrently in the midst of writing his first highly anticipated memoir, The Beautiful Ones. The Piano & A Microphone Tour and these autobiographical notes intended for his memoir would be an expression of the introspective frame of mind the artist was in at the time, as he would reflect on the family and relationship dynamics that would shape his upbringing and his musical journey. The tour would be an opportunity for the artist to translate this story into a live setting while performing in a context he had not done previously. The memoir, which would materialise into The Beautiful Ones would be a creative venture for Prince to challenge himself with as he entered a new literary medium, bursting with ambitious ideas, enthusiasm and tenacity reminiscent of the beginning of his career.

3RDEYEGIRL

By mid 2015 Prince’s musical entourage was at a transitional stage as the addition of new musicians began shaping the latest incarnation of the New Power Generation. The heavy rock influenced group 3RDEYEGIRL, comprised of Prince on a variety of instruments, Donna Grantis on guitar, Ida Nielsen on bass and Hannah Welton on drums had toured extensively between 2012 and 2014, playing alongside other groups of musicians including the NPG Hornz, forming an extended musical family. As 2015 was drawing to a close, Prince would re-structure his core live band in preparation for performances at Paisley Park during his iconic and spontaneous “Paisley Park After Dark” dance parties that would be open to the public. One addition to this new collective would be bassist MonoNeon who would capture Prince’s interest via the Internet. The bassist recollected in an interview with Okayplayer, “Prince became aware of me from my videos on the internet. One of his former managers contacted me via email telling me Prince wanted me to come to Paisley Park. I officially started working at Paisley Park in early 2015 with Judith Hill as her bass player for a band Prince created for her. In late 2015 until early 2016, I started working with Prince as his bass player. Prince wanted to form a band to play some live shows at Paisley in the NPG Music Club Room. The band was Prince on keys / guitar / vocals, Donna Grantis on guitar, Adrian Crutchfield on saxophone, Kirk Johnson on drums and myself on bass.” As many collaborators would attest, Prince’s supreme musicianship and attention to detail would consistently be on full display, whether it be in front of 15,000 people at Madison Square Garden, or a dozen during a pre-show sound check. MonoNeon would elaborate on how this would help nurture his own creativity and ability as an artist, “I was the new guy with Prince. The rehearsals and the Paisley Park After Dark live shows we played together were otherworldly… at least for me. To be on stage with someone like Prince made me better as a creative. The command he had with his instrument(s) and [his] creativity was mad crazy. To be around that energy is something I will carry with me till I leave this world.