I know ppl like to blame bad ol' Larry for Prince's transformation in the 2000's (him becoming less edgy, cleaning up his lyrics, becoming more conservative) but come on, he was getting older it's something that happens naturally as you get older.

Just my random thoughts of the day.

I just can't help it, but my eye starts twitching whenver I hear that dude's name.

It's possible, but there was a very sudden change.

Prince was in a bad place and Larry helped with that, but also changed his direction musically.

On the 1997 tour Face Down was a crowd pleaser, in 1998 he didn't play it any more, because of the cursing. That didn't happen naturally because he got older. It happened because of religious dogma that f***ng Larry Graham taught him.

[Edited 7/3/25 11:10am]

Ndorphinmachina said:

"Turn Me Loose" has entered the chat "Screwdriver" says: Hi

too damn right!

I think Larry could have perhaps been a better friend to prince in that he might have
advised him a bit of temperance but prince just went all in, which is something i'm not
sure Larry either demanded or wanted or orchestrated.

Prince just ran with it and since there was this huge gaping hole to be filled it became
his entire world for a while.

But it didn't last all that long either since the first outwardly obvious cracks were there
from 2006 onward.

Still, once Prince was dead, Larry didn't seem to be as good a friend as prince might
have still thought he was, even if he wasn't fully into the faith anymore.

Then again, after prince died many people turned out to be less of a friend than they'd
supposedly been, turning coats from the day after until this very year. And not all of
those were very religious either.

[Edited 7/3/25 23:15pm]

Ndorphinmachina said:

"Turn Me Loose" has entered the chat "Screwdriver" says: Hi

Yeah by 2008 he said fck it lol

rockford said:

Yeah, but without Larry and his blood transfusion BS Prince would have been able to get hip surgery and perhaps not have been in the kind of pain he couldn’t manage without bootleg opioids.

He did get hip surgery tho becasue teh autopsy report confirmed that he had operation scar from a hip surgery. JW's are against any type of blood tracsfusion and otehr body 'mutilations' (lol) so it's proabbaly a religion thing again messing with the lives of people.

I'd really love to see Prince fans ease off on Larry a little bit. Enough time has passed now, maybe there's a chance for resetting the narrative there. Here's my reasoning...

1. My impression is that Prince was someone who always lived life on his own terms, including his various dabblings and obsessions with religion. To act like he was hoodwinked by Larry sort of denies Prince's agency in the matter. Yes he had a rough time of things in the late 90s but I don't think anyone could ever tell Prince how to live his life.

2, Larry is a bit of a bass hero for me, I love Sly & TFS, GCS etc. Hearing him and Prince jamming together is just perfection to my ears, it makes me so happy. Seeing Prince's hero-worship and adoration for Larry honestly is sweet and understandable to me, and Larry has a rep in the business for being absolutely the real deal, a super nice guy. My impression is that he was the right friend at the right time.

3. Remember, Prince loved the idea of holding all the answers, and sort of wielding that over people at times in a sort of knowitall way. This is the main who would ask his audiences if they believe in God, religion is all over his work. It isn't such a leap of logic that he would be drawn into a faith like the JWs and filling his lyrics with talk of "theocratic order", but at least he outgrew it in time.

[Edited 7/12/25 19:36pm]

JorisE73 said:

rockford said:

Yeah, but without Larry and his blood transfusion BS Prince would have been able to get hip surgery and perhaps not have been in the kind of pain he couldn’t manage without bootleg opioids.

He did get hip surgery tho becasue teh autopsy report confirmed that he had operation scar from a hip surgery. JW's are against any type of blood tracsfusion and otehr body 'mutilations' (lol) so it's proabbaly a religion thing again messing with the lives of people.

Ruth his assistant confirmed he got hip surgery. Also, Prince refusing medical treatments had nothing to do with LG. Remember the whole disaster with Mayte when she got pregnant (if anyone read her book) and that was before he met LG. He always believed in "God's will", "Let nature take care of it".etc etc

paisleyparkgirl said:

JorisE73 said:

He did get hip surgery tho becasue teh autopsy report confirmed that he had operation scar from a hip surgery. JW's are against any type of blood tracsfusion and otehr body 'mutilations' (lol) so it's proabbaly a religion thing again messing with the lives of people.

Ruth his assistant confirmed he got hip surgery. Also, Prince refusing medical treatments had nothing to do with LG. Remember the whole disaster with Mayte when she got pregnant (if anyone read her book) and that was before he met LG. He always believed in "God's will", "Let nature take care of it".etc etc

.
Exactly. He had the surgery in 2010.

[Edited 7/14/25 6:36am]

If not for Larry and Ps conversion to JW, he may still be with us today. Instead of having routine surgery that more than likely would have corrected his hip pain, due to his new found belief, and their unfavorable judgement on blood transfusions, he relied on pain pills that would eventually take his life.

Prove me wrong.

wonderboy said:

If not for Larry and Ps conversion to JW, he may still be with us today. Instead of having routine surgery that more than likely would have corrected his hip pain, due to his new found belief, and their unfavorable judgement on blood transfusions, he relied on pain pills that would eventually take his life.

Prove me wrong.

He did have a routine surgery for his hip bit it seems the pain didn't go away

paisleyparkgirl said:

it's something that happens naturally as you get older.

.

Nonsense.

nxx said:

1. My impression is that Prince was someone who always lived life on his own terms, including his various dabblings and obsessions with religion. To act like he was hoodwinked by Larry sort of denies Prince's agency in the matter. Yes he had a rough time of things in the late 90s but I don't think anyone could ever tell Prince how to live his life.

.

Him going nutso on not just JW stuff but also all the Egyptian stuff in the late 1990s/early 2000s does feel like someone feeding him all that. He went OTT with that and then seemed to calm down.

.

2, Larry is a bit of a bass hero for me, I love Sly & TFS, GCS etc. Hearing him and Prince jamming together is just perfection to my ears, it makes me so happy. Seeing Prince's hero-worship and adoration for Larry honestly is sweet and understandable to me, and Larry has a rep in the business for being absolutely the real deal, a super nice guy. My impression is that he was the right friend at the right time.

.

There is an "in their own words" book on Sly & The Family Stone which doesn't portray Graham as so innocent towards the end of his tenure in the band (IIRC). Of course, that is before his conversion.

.

His conversion also meant that it became pointless to interview Graham at a certain point, because "god" became his answer to just about everything.

.

bizzie said:

Him going nutso on not just JW stuff but also all the Egyptian stuff in the late 1990s/early 2000s does feel like someone feeding him all that. He went OTT with that and then seemed to calm down.

He was into "egyptian stuff" in the early 90ies already. Remember the whole symbol album with that "egyptian princess" narrative, "7", the pyramid in the symbol album booklet?