Margot said:

Who was the jerk star(2nd session) Peggy was referring to? She didn't name him

Dunno, I was curious about that too, professional not to name him, hope it was not Tom Petty when he recorded Southern Accents there in 85

runningbear said:

Margot said:

Who was the jerk star(2nd session) Peggy was referring to? She didn't name him

Dunno, I was curious about that too, professional not to name him, hope it was not Tom Petty when he recorded Southern Accents there in 85

Sounded like a piano player, @ least he demanded 2 pianos during one practice... I don't think it was Tom Petty.

steakfinger said:

JoeyCococo said:

steakfinger said:

You are. Prince wasn't one of the best by a mile. There are guys in every town I've lived in that could smoke Prince strictly as physically handling the instrument goes. His ideas and songs set him apart, not his physical skill in manipulating the instrument. I love Prince as a guitarist. Don't get me wrong. He didn't change the instrument or introduce anything new, though. He didn't even take what someone else has done and do it better than them. He's a legend because of the entire package, not because of skills on any one instrument.

I don't disagree....I would say he was pretty damn great but he wasn't a guitarist like those guys who played a million notes per sec. That stuff sounds like shit.

Prince had a wonderful feel for the guitar.

2freaky4church1 said:

Prince had to be mentally ill. He was so mean to people.

Stop it.

steakfinger said:

steakfinger said:

JoeyCococo said:

it was interesting that Dweezil asked about Prince's guitar playing on When Doves Cry. I have long loved that and have always felt it was not celebrated enough. Although Dweezil seemed to call out how great the playing was, he seemed to call Prince just a 'great player'...like he wasn't one of the best.

I'm probably being an over-sensitive fan.

You are. Prince wasn't one of the best by a mile. There are guys in every town I've lived in that could smoke Prince strictly as physically handling the instrument goes. His ideas and songs set him apart, not his physical skill in manipulating the instrument. I love Prince as a guitarist. Don't get me wrong. He didn't change the instrument or introduce anything new, though. He didn't even take what someone else has done and do it better than them. He's a legend because of the entire package, not because of skills on any one instrument.

Many guitarists have called Prince an incredible guitarist...Lionel Loueke (Herbie Hancock), Pearl Jam ("best guitarist weve ever seen"), Vernon Reid, Gary Clark...just to name a few. Tom Morello's article says it well...an extremely skilled and underrated guitarist...

https://www.rollingstone....ng-167873/

Margot said:

Who was the jerk star(2nd session) Peggy was referring to? She didn't name him

Piano player. Star at the time...hmmm...

My guess is Joe Jackson (not Michael's dad - the British pop star). Anyone know if he recorded there during this time?

Only reason I say him is because there's not too many piano playing names (Billy Joel?) and I had the misfortune of waiting on Joe Jackson in Philadelphia during the mid 80's and the guy was a grade A asshole to me and the staff.

[Edited 3/6/21 6:58am]

jdcxc said:

steakfinger said:

You are. Prince wasn't one of the best by a mile. There are guys in every town I've lived in that could smoke Prince strictly as physically handling the instrument goes. His ideas and songs set him apart, not his physical skill in manipulating the instrument. I love Prince as a guitarist. Don't get me wrong. He didn't change the instrument or introduce anything new, though. He didn't even take what someone else has done and do it better than them. He's a legend because of the entire package, not because of skills on any one instrument.

Many guitarists have called Prince an incredible guitarist...Lionel Loueke (Herbie Hancock), Pearl Jam ("best guitarist weve ever seen"), Vernon Reid, Gary Clark...just to name a few. Tom Morello's article says it well...an extremely skilled and underrated guitarist...

https://www.rollingstone....ng-167873/

Steve Vai.

herb4 said:

Margot said:

Who was the jerk star(2nd session) Peggy was referring to? She didn't name him

Piano player. Star at the time...hmmm...

My guess is Joe Jackson (not Michael's dad - the British pop star). Anyone know if he recorded there during this time?

Only reason I say him is because there's not too many piano playing names (Billy Joel?) and I had the misfortune of waiting on Joe Jackson in Philadelphia during the mid 80's and the guy was a grade A asshole to me and the staff.

[Edited 3/6/21 6:58am]

I think I may have to listen again as I thought it was a piano player but am not completely certain. I was surmising as I seem to remember her saying he was demanding a second piano.

I can't get over how matter-of-fact she is. It's like she was a sister to some of these guys.

I loved the part when Stevie Nicks was putting the moves on Prince @ a party and he

hastily said to Peggy, 'make believe you are dancing w/me".

Mumio, tell us why he acted like that?

I don't want to see the hair on my bosses ass. lol

2freaky4church1 said:

Mumio, tell us why he acted like that?

I'm interested as well.

2freaky4church1 said:

Mumio, tell us why he acted like that?

somehow related to challenges w/empathy...no clue about why.

Margot said:

herb4 said:

Piano player. Star at the time...hmmm...

My guess is Joe Jackson (not Michael's dad - the British pop star). Anyone know if he recorded there during this time?

Only reason I say him is because there's not too many piano playing names (Billy Joel?) and I had the misfortune of waiting on Joe Jackson in Philadelphia during the mid 80's and the guy was a grade A asshole to me and the staff.

[Edited 3/6/21 6:58am]

I think I may have to listen again as I thought it was a piano player but am not completely certain. I was surmising as I seem to remember her saying he was demanding a second piano.

Same, but I think I heard her say it was a "big (at the time) piano player" or something like that and, if I read her right, she didn't want to out the guy, said something about "editing it out later" (which is why we can't hear it) and also the fact that she earlier said something about being able to talk shit about someone who was already dead tells me that the person is still alive.

So, assuming this was around 1980-1985, that really limits the list of possible names.

- Male. Known as a piano player primarily.
- Fairly big and had a hit or two (at the time)
- Still alive
- Recorded at Sunset at least once, and seems like he was known as a solo act, not as part of a band

So I get: Elton John, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Lionel Ritchie and...?

She'd already gushed about Elton John so I strike him. I can't come up with a ton of piano players there and have never heard a ton of negative stories about the ones I looked up.

It was really cute listening to her crushing on Eddie Van Halen and really trying to bed the guy.

I'm going with Joe Jackson because he left me a 5% tip, sent back a glass of water for having "too much ice in it" and insulted another waitress who politely asked him for an autograph. That guy sucked.

I don't know Joe Jackson but will look into him.

I hope it wasn't Leon Russell who was Elton John's hero... He could be a diva @ times.

herb4 said:

Margot said:

I think I may have to listen again as I thought it was a piano player but am not completely certain. I was surmising as I seem to remember her saying he was demanding a second piano.

Same, but I think I heard her say it was a "big (at the time) piano player" or something like that and, if I read her right, she didn't want to out the guy, said something about "editing it out later" (which is why we can't hear it) and also the fact that she earlier said something about being able to talk shit about someone who was already dead tells me that the person is still alive.

So, assuming this was around 1980-1985, that really limits the list of possible names.

- Male. Known as a piano player primarily.
- Fairly big and had a hit or two (at the time)
- Still alive
- Recorded at Sunset at least once, and seems like he was known as a solo act, not as part of a band

So I get: Elton John, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Lionel Ritchie and...?

She'd already gushed about Elton John so I strike him. I can't come up with a ton of piano players there and have never heard a ton of negative stories about the ones I looked up.

It was really cute listening to her crushing on Eddie Van Halen and really trying to bed the guy.

I'm going with Joe Jackson because he left me a 5% tip, sent back a glass of water for having "too much ice in it" and insulted another waitress who politely asked him for an autograph. That guy sucked.

-

So, Warner Br. didn't like Prince being all alone in the studio, without a producer or fellow musicians (during the 1999 sessions), just someone to keep an eye on things ...

And they send Ray Parker Jr. to just do that ...

And he went straight back to tell WB, ''Let him go, he's got this'' ...

-

Or Prince and Jesse in the Sunset Studios asking Peggy to set up speakers so some girls they brought in could dance to his fresh recorded ''1999'' song,

to see if they would dance to it, and then laught at 'm...

-

Or Peggy singing a bit of a huge recorded hit by Culture Club (could it be ''Do You Really Want To Hurt Me''?) ... adn said immediately ''Stop! That's competition!'' ...

-

And so much more.

I mean how cool are these stories.

-

Fantastic interview. As a huge VH/P fan, I really enjoyed this. Some people in the comments are saying the "jerk" was either Joe Jackson or Jackson Browne.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Fantastic interview. As a huge VH/P fan, I really enjoyed this. Some people in the comments are saying the "jerk" was either Joe Jackson or Jackson Browne.

Jackson Browne. He was rough on a few girlfriends.

Margot said:

SPYZFAN1 said:

Fantastic interview. As a huge VH/P fan, I really enjoyed this. Some people in the comments are saying the "jerk" was either Joe Jackson or Jackson Browne.

Jackson Browne. He was rough on a few girlfriends.

That checks out. He shows up on the list of artists that recorded there. Forgot about him.

I wanna party with Peggy Mac!!!

2freaky4church1 said:

"White people don't have any rythem." Tony M anyone.

LOL. the statement still stands. Tony M just wasn't the best rapper but he can dance for sure.

nayroo2002 said:

I wanna party with Peggy Mac!!!

Same

She might be the most 'normal' person who has talked about Prince, no self-aggrandizement; very refreshing and believable.

[Edited 3/8/21 11:57am]

Great insights and, like Susan Rogers, she comes across really well in that she realises he was a genius but also he had a nasty side to him. Felt kinda bad she had to go through such a hard time working with some of those guys. She seems to have kept her sense of humour and definitely knows how to stand up for herself. I bet Prince liked that she was spunky.

Margot said:

JoeyCococo said:

I loved both episodes. I even loved Dweezil. For those that think he was stanning for EVH... for one thing, since the untimely death of EVH, he is currently doing a series going into the live and times of EVH: Runnin' With The Dweezil, so it's his current top of mind thing. I don't agree though, for instance, with the When Doves Cry he goes out of his way to talk about how the guitar tone of Prince on When Doves Cry is different than Prince's "regular" tone. This is true. Lastly... Dweezil comes from a rock and faster=better school of guitar playing. Personally, I think that's a lot of wanking (Steve Vai, Yngwie and, yes, EVH) and noodling (Frank Zappa and lots of jazz/fusion players) and I think Prince played circles around them. But that's just my opinion and there's a lot of "reader's-poll-voting-motherfuckers"* out there that feel differently.

.

Whiever way you slice it though (I think Peggy later on actually mentions the Jerk by name as in "the soandso debacle"), I think this is a great document and simply shows how we need to get Don Batts, Peggy Mac, David Z, David Leonard, David Tickle, Femi Jiya and all those engineers who I can't recall right this minute (finishing the wine bottle) together and give them a day of reminiscing and comparing and contrasting recording techniques/microphones/gear/etc.

.

After that we can do the same for assorted associates from Grand Central to 3EG, but to be honest, I think that would actually be less enlightning.

.

*1 (one) Internet for anyone catching that reference

[Edited 3/9/21 11:49am]