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Once again, Prince getting royal treatment

Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

March 14, 2004

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He's hardly the type to call it a comeback, but Prince is not too proud to pull out all the stops as he enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday.

The elusive Minnesota music legend, who has been practically invisible after years of dwindling popularity, is suddenly all over the pop marketplace. From his show-stealing duet with Beyoncé at the Grammys to appearances on talk shows big (Jay Leno) and small (Ellen DeGeneres), he's acting like a rock star again.

The reason, of course, is that he has something to sell: a new CD and his most ambitious concert tour in six years. Both conveniently arrive right after he's inducted into rock's elite hall in his first year of eligibility.

He also has something to prove: That he's not yet an oldies act.

"Critically and artistically, there's still tremendous respect for Prince," said Rolling Stone music editor Joe Levy, citing his influence on modern pop stars such as Beyoncé, OutKast and Alicia Keys, who will introduce him at Monday's event in New York.

That respect, however, "is for the work he did 20 years ago," Levy added.

Prince, 45, is vowing to play many of his old hits for the last time on a tour that begins March 29 in Los Angeles. That show will be shown live via satellite to movie theaters in 31 cities, including the Regal Stadium 20 in Brooklyn Center -- a new thing even for a big-screen veteran like Prince.

He is also releasing a new CD, "Musicology," which he intends to hand out at concerts. Rumors abound that Prince will soon strike a deal with a major record company after years of vehement independence.

Although he hasn't had a radio hit in 10 years, he remains a hot concert attraction. Phone calls to arenas in five of the 30 cities so far booked on the tour reported ticket sales about three-quarters sold-out.

"I think his promise to play the hits helped a lot," said Sara Barr, marketing director of Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, where he performs April 8. "The people that enjoy the old Prince songs are older now and have more money to spend on concert tickets."

A 'heritage act'?

Prince's Los Angeles publicist, Ronnie Lippin, confirmed that the singer is seizing on the Hall of Fame induction as a chance to "reinforce" his worth in the music industry.

"The impact of a highly prestigious honor like that is generally pretty nice," said Lippin, who also represents Hall of Famer Eric Clapton.

As Prince enters the "heritage act" stage of his professional life, Lippin said, his value to record companies is only going up.

"Artists like this are massively bankable," she said. "They're the ones with the loyal followings. They're the ones with [fans] of the age who aren't into downloading. Their fans are record buyers."

Prince's most recent work has barely gotten noticed outside of diehard fans. His last two CD releases each have sold fewer than 20,000 copies, according to Nielsen/SoundScan. A live DVD has sold 40,000.

However, those figures do not take into account sales on the singer's ambitious Internet site, the NPG Music Club, online at www.npgmc.com. The fan club, with its annual fee of $25, has served as the primary resource for distributing and marketing Prince's CDs since the late 1990s.

Prince, who has turned down all interview requests by the Star Tribune since 2000, does not provide any accounting of fan-club sales but they are "steadily growing," said Sam Jennings, a Prince business associate in Chicago who runs the Web site.

Jennings said the point of the fan club is to avoid industry accounting figures. When Prince changed his name to that unpronounceable symbol in 1993, he accused his record company then, Warner Bros., of improper business practices and virtual "enslavement" of artists.

Interest in Prince appears strong among prospective record companies, even though he would certainly demand an unusual degree of control. EMI executive Bruce Lundvall met with Prince before the Grammys. "We talked for about an hour," Lundvall said. "What he had to say about the record business was pretty profound. I don't think you can ever count this guy out."

New wife, quieter life

Even in the Twin Cities, Prince's profile has slipped in recent years. He now spends much of his time in Toronto, the hometown of his wife of two years, Manuela; they have a house there.

A follower of the Jehovah's Witness faith since the late 1990s, he leads a quieter, more conservative life even when he is at home in Chanhassen. Paisley Park, his once-thriving studio there, has seen little activity in the past two years. His old nightclub haunts, First Avenue and the Quest (formerly Glam Slam), stopped seeing him long ago.

"A big change happened for me in the year 2000," Prince said in a rare interview last month with PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley. "Once I changed my name back and the war was finished with my so-called enemies, I started reading the Bible intensely, and I came to find out that this is the truth."

Despite Prince's lower profile, the executive director of St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center anticipates that ticket demand will be strong when the Musicology Tour comes to the Twin Cities. The arena has put dates on hold for possible concerts in June, perhaps around Prince's birthday June 7.

"We did good business with him even when it wasn't being called [a comeback] tour," Larson said, citing two Xcel Center shows by Prince in 2001. "He's a hometown hero. We all know that his stature as an artist is incomparable."

Staff writer Jon Bream contributed to this report.

Chris Riemenschneider is at chrisr@startribune.com