Celebrity e-mail

To: heat@ecm.emap.com

From: The Artist

Subject: Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Q. How do you feel about hitting your 40s? You’re 41 now...

A. I’m 400!

Q. Would you want to live to be a thousand?

A. Yes. I can control time and don’t let time control me.

Q. Have you learnt any lessons from time?

A. My mother was really sick, thought she was going to die. I asked her, “If you could have anything you want, what would it be?” She said, “I want more time to do things I’ve always wanted to do.” Think about it. If there were only four months in a year, instead of 12, what do you have? You have more days and you’d think in terms of days. What we really have here is a mind prison. If you could live to be a thousand, would you count your birthdays?

Q. What happened with your marriage?

A. Mayte and I dissolved our marriage process. Too many weird things are said in there. Meanwhile, so many people are in prison... everyone’s getting divorced. I think it’s all to do with a contract. It’s all too weird for me.

Q. Do you think childhood’s important to how you develop as an adult?

A. Exactly right. So when you’re a child somebody’s telling you, “You are strong, you are intelligent, you are a prince.” That’s what they told me.

Q. Is that how the whole Prince thing got started?

A. Yeah. My sister named her son President. She named her other son Sir, so people have to say Sir to him. You know, because he’s a black child. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I do see what her purpose is.

Q. What’s the most important thing about your new album?

A. Freedom. I own all the masters. Freedom is the key.

Q. How important is freedom to you?

A. The Bible taught me the truth. We all have free will, we all have to make choices. But in those choices we must stick to the truth. If i give up my music what’s left? This is all I have, this is my soul, my identity?

Q. Have you become religious?

A. This is NOT about religion. I am NOT religious. This is about the truth. Most people don’t get to hear the truth - remember the truth and stick to it!

Q. You’ve used the Internet for years to promote your work. Tell us about that.

A. It’s someone else’s creation and I don’t want to judge somebody else’s creation. That’s like somebody talking about my work.

Q. You’re not usually as open as this. What happened?

A. This is the best kind of day for me. This is better for gigging. I get a chance to see light come up.