I have always thought that Prince was very anti drug. Songs like Pop Life ("what ya' puttin' in your nose? Is that where all your money goes?") and the scene in Purple Rain when he tells Appolonia not to drink led me to believe it. But you always heard those stories about how Prince never sleeps and hardly ever eats. How he would just work in the studio for days on ened. And, he does mention the drug ectasy on SOTT's 'Play in the Sunshine. Plus , he always looked so keyed up (especially in the eyes) in those early 80's concert photos. Just wondering what people thought . . .
[This message was edited Fri Apr 30 1:02:38 2004 by chrisslope9]

I was watching Sheila E.'s Live Romance 1600 concert on video today & when Prince comes out to perform "A Love Bizarre" he sure acts like he's on something. I never really noticed it before but he looks like a freakin' lunatic on that performance. His eyes look crazed, he makes a lot of weird faces, keeps looking off into the distance & saying stuff to God-knows-who!
If you were to tell me he was high that night, it wouldn't surprise me.
Yet, I do believe he lives a clean life so maybe he was just weirder than usual that night.

Uh...no. Just look at him, how many other druggies look that good after years of abuse?

bananacologne said:

Co-Sign...

In the 80's? Yeah, probably. And the 90's, too.

morningsong said:

I do!

AsylumUtopia said:

yes ... he sure used ..... 1999 has to be influenced by drug abuse ... and, it's great

ThataintFunky said:

lol i don't think hardcore drug use
probably Marijuana and maybe coke
i know he use to pop alot of pills back in the day
and eat alot of twinkies lol
but i think around 87 he stopped usin
and became clean and sober

Didn't Susan Rogers say something about him using extacy in the book D.M.S.R. ? Where di I read that she said he called her up onw late night and wanted to "to come right away". When she got to Paisley all the lights were off and was acting really wierd.

She just left when she found out he didn't ask her to come over to record....

Supposedly, Ingrid Chavez got him into some stuff.

help me out here.....

chookalana said:

That was supposedly Prince's 'dark night of the soul' where he saw the letters 'GOD' in neon over a field or some such nonsense, and pulled the Black Album, and got 2 work on LoveseXy.



U have 2 keep this in a some kind of context however, 1987/88 seeing Ecstacy really becoming a 'social' drug on the dance/club scene etc. Im not saying that Prince used drugs regularly - but Im damned sure he experiemented. Hey, he aint infallible.

Also...u have 2 admit he was/is wierd at the best of times...so 4 SUSAN ROGERS 2 say he was acting strange is REALLY saying something!
[This message was edited Fri Apr 30 5:32:29 2004 by bananacologne]

but if course!
he wouldn't be a pop icon if he hadn't dabbled in the devil's candy...

XtrueX said:

I agree with you,that's a strange performance ,isn't it?

This are just my gut feelings-

In the 80's Prince almost certainly dabbled w/ some sort of chemicals. But I doubt it became a regular part of his life.

In the early 90's however... I'm not so sure. Have you seen the "lollipop" era photos? In some of them he looks so gaunt, thin and pale... its scary. If there were ever an era where Prince was regularly using something heavy (I'd bet coke or prescription pain killers) I'd say that was it.

But at the same time he *could* have just been driving himself into the ground, not eating or sleeping and looked that bad. So I would say I have my suspicions but I'm hardly convinced that he was ever a regular drug user.

I heard from a hardcore Stevie Nicks fan that Prince used to smoke marijuana. His affair with Stevie ended because her drug of choice was coke while all he did was pot. They just couldn't coordinate. I never actually believed it, but it's a rumor that's floating out there.

Listen 2 the lyrics of the outtake "Purple Music". It says it all...

'Don't need no reefer, don't need cocaine.
Purple Music does the same 2 my brain and I'm high...so high."

Mindbells9 said:

Umm.... lyrics are hardly evidence that will hold up in court! At best they confirm what we all know- that publically he has always been anti-drugs. But that doesn't mean he has never done them.

For instance just because he wrote "Raspberry Beret" does not mean he ever worked in a five and dime for Mr. McGhee!!

He once mainlined coke off Vanity's ass.

krebsne said:

Yeah, the man looked ILL!

AsylumUtopia said:

Okay maybe he tried some to see what it was like, maybe a bit recreationally. But he seems like a person that must have control of everything, I doubt he would let drugs have any control of his music.

bananacologne said:

there was a recent post on this topic posted by NouveauDance...VERY INTERESTING!

>>>>All the Uptown Prince books have something about the Black album, they are a very good investment.

Cut & Paste:

====

Prince was upset at the lacklustre reception of Sign O The Times in the USA, the 'white' press was saying it was great, the 'black' press was saying he had lost it (his funk), after ATWIAD and Parade, he was going too hippy-ish, too "white".

This had been building since Purple Rain, and was a (minor) factor in the split with Revolution (a whole other story).

You know, Prince was cutting edge in 1981/82, he was out there, was he Black, was he White, was he straight, was he Gay, was he funk, was he New Wave?

That was fresh then, but now, Black music had moved on, rap was here, N.W.A. were around the corner.

So he decided to put together an album of hard funk and 'black music' that would silence his critics who said he had lost his roots - the album, to be entitled - "The Funk Bible" (a title referenced in the opening lines of Le Grind).

The album was compiled entirely of previously recorded material (except for the newly recorded When 2 R In Love), and was to be released without any promotional at all, and without any information about the artist who had recorded the album.

It was labelled on the Warners release schedule as "Something" by "Someone" So it wasn't the follow-up to SOTT (That was scheduled to be the original Graffiti Bridge - which was already well underway with a script and a soundtrack).

It was meant to be a side-project, taking some of the ideas from the Camille album (a funk album with no reference to Prince as the artist) and some of the projects from around that time and earlier, Madhouse, The Flesh.

The album was made up of several songs Prince had recorded for Sheila E's birthday party, 1986, a few out-takes and odd songs.

With him being compared to rap - Dead On It was a direct commentary/attack on Rap, which Prince (at the time) derided - he thought, since rappers didn't play their own instruments, they were untalented (oh the irony come 1991!)

Prince was in a real unsure state at this time - The criticism didn't help - he had split up with Revolution, his long time band members and friends, who he had rose to fame with, and whom had become some of his closest ever collaborators (Wendy & Lisa), he'd broken off an engagement (Susannah, Wendy's identical twin), and Sign O' The Times was somewhat made up of older tracks from the Dream Factory and the Revolution era - so he had yet to prove himself 100% as an artist without the Revolution (even though their input on record was limited - they did have a prominent public image).

So what with personal and professional turmoil, and critical remarks biting where it hurt, he wasn't that confident, he had started to question his own ability.

So he put together The Funk Bible, an album that says 'You don't think I can do Funk (Black) music any more - Listen to this, this is the stuff I do on my day off, this is the stuff I DON'T put on record!'

He pressed up an acetate and took it to the club Ruperts in MPLS to test the waters (House was coming in then, no doubt it was trickling into Minneapolis from places like Chicago, and you can hear it in the first two tracks - especially with Cat's rap in Cindy C (a very slightly altered rendition of J M Silk's Music Is The Key rap - one of the earliest cross-over House hits).

At the club a certain number of events unfold, and this is open to interpretation, but according to several people close to Prince at the time, including Matt Fink (keyboardist since 1979) and Susan Rogers (Studio Engineer for years).

Prince took ecstasy (E, MDMA) that night, and met, poet and singer, Ingrid Chavez (Aura in Graffiti Bridge).

Apparently Prince had a bad trip and that night he went back to Paisley Park with Ingrid, after excusing himself with a stomach ache, he called up Susan Rogers and asked her to come to the studio (all employees are on 24 hour call, so it wasn't that wierd) - she recalls that he looked very spaced-out, and he asked if she loved him, and if she would stay with him, he freaked her out a bit, and she said she loved him, but would not stay. [This comes from Per Nilsen's DMSR, from an interview with Susan Rogers].

She soon left Prince's employment.

The next day, Prince called Mo Ostin (head of Warners) and requested that the album be cancelled (regardless of what you may read, it was *entirely* Princes decision to cancel the album). This was 7 days before the scheduled release date, and the album had already been printed up in the thousands.

Incidently, when Ostin left WB, it wasn't around the time Prince started vocalising his distain with Warners and the whole name change thing occured.

The album copies were destroyed, but obvious some escaped. Prince received several cases of LPs, which he gave out to friends and close associates - and copies also escaped to the collectors market.

A few days later Prince recorded the whole Lovesexy album in a matter of weeks, practically in the order it is on the album, although I Wish U Heaven replaced The Line (still unreleased, but circulating). And both Lovesexy and Positivity are both different from their original incarnations (Positivity originally had Cat's Cindy C. rap).

Lovesexy was originally scheduled as the lead single (official mixes and edits exist - uncirculating).

Anna Stesia pretty much tells the story of that night in the club on the bad trip - The beautiful girl is Ingrid, Greg is Greg Brooks - dancer and body guard from the Parade/SOTT tours.

When the album was released in 1994, it was part of (but didn't directly contribute to) Prince's contractual obligations to Warners. It had been under possible release several times before that, most notable as part a two-CD set in 1991 - the first CD to be a best of upto 1990.

After the failure of Lovesexy in the USA (worst selling album since Controversy), and the disappointment of Graffiti Bridge -

both film and album - Warners wanted to let the market rest a while, and put out a best of.

Prince had other ideas - a new batch of songs embracing the new form of Black pop music, rap, featuring his new protegee, Tony M. - Diamonds & Pearls.

You could say that The Black Album was the pivot on which Prince's career thus far rests - before it, album after album of progression and inginuity - after it, self-doubt, band-wagon jumping and technically fluffery.

=====

While the "dark night" on ecstacy that led to the scrapping of the Black Album seems a little sensationalized in Alex Hahn's "Rise & Fall of Prince" book I don't doubt he was probably tripping on something that night. Susan Rogers is a pretty reliable source and doesn't seem to have any particular axe to grind.

Plus, Prince did an interview with NME in 1995, when I think his 'weirdness' reached its peak, and they asked him what he thought about pot and other recreational drugs. He said "I'm open to all new experiences." They asked if that was a 'yes,' and (as usual) he wouldn't give them a straight answer. I was really surprised by that whole interview and got a little concerned about him.

I don't think Prince has ever been a hard-core drug user or ever had any real addiction, but he was pretty out there in the mid-90s. His appearance, odder-than-usual-interviews, the whole 'Tora Tora' mess, "SLAVE" on his face...something was up.....

I think there’s a few theories most seem agree on…this is mostly based on the multiple threads on this subject.

Many of the people he surrounded himself with…esp in the early days…got into drug abuse.

The Black Album/Night on E with (Pick one…Sheila, Cat, Ingrid) has been collaborated on a few fronts. Details are a bit sketchy…but something happened that involved drugs to make him want to pull the Black Album. Evidence however loosely translated is suggested in Anna Stasia.

Most of the anti drug messages came at a time when the music was really psychedelic and fucked up. Some of us feel that this was during the experimental drug phase. Sometimes when you talk the loudest about not doing drugs is the time when you are doing them the most.

Most of us feel that he really never abused them (i.e. got addicted) but used them for recreation and experimentation. The amount and frequecy differs in opinion. The people that were around him that went overboard with the stuff, he kicked out of his life/band.

Most also are in concurrence that he is certainly clean now and does not tolerate any thing like drugs around him.

Personally I don’t think he’s done anything since Emancipation. I believe he cut out drinking after converting to JH.

IMO Bob George was written on drugs. And I believe that Superfunky is all about doing ecstasy. I think the title is the feeling he got when using.

just my 2 cents...

Definately!!!!

I'm inclined to think he's done plenty of dabbling. E surely, other hallucinogens most likely. There have been allegations of heavy coke use at different times- no strong opinion on that. I don't tend to buy Alex Hahn's claim of prescription painkiller addiction, as there were never any signs of that. The only story I believe without a doubt is from an acquaintance who DJed private parties at PP and witnessed P smoking copious amounts of weed.

AsylumUtopia said:

I don't think P could smoke anything regularly and still hit the high notes, but there are so many references, some containing detailed knowledge like:
NOW--"fill us with the dope track lick us twist us..."
Style---smoking sounds "It's about me?"
dadada--"as I sit back with my blunt and gin" not prince, but he allowed it onto his record

His attitude at that time, at least towards pot, seemed pretty loose and humorous like most people's.

As for E, who knows, but the alleged Prince story describes a bad trip pretty well, as do the lyrics to anastesia.

andyman91 said:

I also doubt P smoked regulary,but I know that Kate Bush did and still managed to hit the high notes.