Cute story!

>

I had the honor of seeing Sonny Thompson live with his regular band once at Bunkers. He was warming up before the set by playing microtonal tunes like it was nothing. I've always been impressed by his range and expressivness on his instrument. Somebody always must teach the eventual master, so I believe that he was probably Prince's teacher on the bass.

dodger said:

RJOrion said:

1. Mononeon (unfortuantely we just didnt get to hear/see them together enough)

2. Andre Cymone

3. Larry Graham (by then, he wasnt the same cutting edge Larry Graham from Sly & The Family Stone)

4. BrownMark

5. no disrespect to Sonny, Levi, or Rhonda, but Prince was a better bass player than any of them

I think Sonny is massively under-rated. P used to rave about him and say he was his hero and I don’t think he was exaggerating either. I’ve seen clips of him on both bass and guitar and he’s something else. . Must admit I’ve got a soft spot for Sonny as well after naming our cat after him in 95. The idiot that I am I told him this last year at a meet and greet and he laughed his balls off

dodger said:

RJOrion said:

1. Mononeon (unfortuantely we just didnt get to hear/see them together enough)

2. Andre Cymone

3. Larry Graham (by then, he wasnt the same cutting edge Larry Graham from Sly & The Family Stone)

4. BrownMark

5. no disrespect to Sonny, Levi, or Rhonda, but Prince was a better bass player than any of them

I think Sonny is massively under-rated. P used to rave about him and say he was his hero and I don’t think he was exaggerating either. I’ve seen clips of him on both bass and guitar and he’s something else. . Must admit I’ve got a soft spot for Sonny as well after naming our cat after him in 95. The idiot that I am I told him this last year at a meet and greet and he laughed his balls off

I can imagine Sonny's laugh and everything(Clocking the Jizz)! Hilarious! As Sonny said before, "That's some wrong shit!"

dodger said:

RJOrion said:

1. Mononeon (unfortuantely we just didnt get to hear/see them together enough)

2. Andre Cymone

3. Larry Graham (by then, he wasnt the same cutting edge Larry Graham from Sly & The Family Stone)

4. BrownMark

5. no disrespect to Sonny, Levi, or Rhonda, but Prince was a better bass player than any of them

I think Sonny is massively under-rated. P used to rave about him and say he was his hero and I don’t think he was exaggerating either. I’ve seen clips of him on both bass and guitar and he’s something else. . Must admit I’ve got a soft spot for Sonny as well after naming our cat after him in 95. The idiot that I am I told him this last year at a meet and greet and he laughed his balls off

I can imagine Sonny's laugh and everything(Clocking the Jizz)! Hilarious! As Sonny said before, "That's some wrong shit!"

Germanegro said:

Cute story!

>

I had the honor of seeing Sonny Thompson live with his regular band once at Bunkers. He was warming up before the set by playing microtonal tunes like it was nothing. I've always been impressed by his range and expressivness on his instrument. Somebody always must teach the eventual master, so I believe that he was probably Prince's teacher on the bass.

dodger said:

RJOrion said: I think Sonny is massively under-rated. P used to rave about him and say he was his hero and I don’t think he was exaggerating either. I’ve seen clips of him on both bass and guitar and he’s something else. . Must admit I’ve got a soft spot for Sonny as well after naming our cat after him in 95. The idiot that I am I told him this last year at a meet and greet and he laughed his balls off

Prince himself said this quite often about Sonny, especially in his early to mid 90s interviews. He called him his teacher and his hero and that he learned a lot from him. Even Sonny was a bit surprised when he heard that.

I wonder how Prince´s career would´ve been if Sonny had been in the band earlier, like Prince originally intended to before he decided to give the gig to Brownmark. He even made Sonny lose weight and then, after Sonny had lost the weight, Prince changed his mind and chose Brownmark instead.