The Artist relishes total freedom

After severing ties with the record industry, it’s business as unusual for music’s wildly unpredictable rebel.

And business is good, says the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince - currently known as The Artist.

The dissolution of EMI Records earlier this year ended his pact with the label and inspired a self-employment plan that bypasses the music machine’s middlemen. “My success is no longer defined by others,” The Artist declared  Wednesday in an interview conducted online.

The radical departure from industry norms means The Artist controls all aspects of his career. He records at his Paisley Park studio and distributes releases on his NPG Records via phone - 800-639-3865 or 612-474-1751 outside the USA - and the Internet at http://www.love4oneanother.com

Less than a year after the lauded three-CD Emancipation, he’s offering three-CD set Crystal Ball ($50), with bootleg classics like Hide the Bone and Sexual Suicide, plus a free copy of an acoustic collection, The Truth.

A maverick considered daring by some and reckless by others, The Artist brands labels “capitalist dinosaurs” and sees the Internet’s direct sales potential as a threat to the old guard.

Without mass distribution, sales may slip but profits should soar. “If I was making the lion’s share of the profit from an album that sold 100,000 copies 4 $50 apiece (U do the math), I don’t need 2 go platinum,” he says. “At the bank, I’m platinum at 50,000 copies. And now that I am free 2 conduct business like any other American entrepreneur, I have no ill words 2 speak of anyone - inside the business or out.”

It may be a quiet victory, since he’s unlikely to shine by conventional measures like Billboard charts. “Charts, awards and grades at school R sociopsychotic illusion,” he says.

The Artist is also bucking the system on the road. He’ll tour through 1999 but is giving advance notice of only one week per show. It’s an effort to thwart scalpers and merchandise bootleggers.

“I pay no agent, no manager, no merchandiser and sometimes no promoter,” he says. “These R some of the things that make one feel born again. Never again will I be slave 2 a system I had no part in designing.

“Being unsigned 2 a major label is the most rewarding, least constricting way of life I’ve led in 20 years. Everything I do now is on the spur of the moment, which allows me freedom 2 better follow my own divine design. I mean this with no arrogance.”

The Artist’s reputation for aloof arrogance evaporates during his stint on Saturday’s goofy Muppets Tonight season opener. His enthusiastic involvement with Kermit and company demonstrates a growing connection to children, a concern underscored by his Love 4 One Another charity, which has raised $1.7 million since its inception in mid-1996. Proceeds will build a school, clinic and day-care center in Minneapolis.

“During the recording of Emancipation, I gained a greater sense of the connection we all share with every other living thing in the universe,” he says. “No one understands this better than children, who R the most nonjudgmental of all.”

He’s also headlining the Muhammad Ali World Healing Honors benefit concert Oct. 9 in Los Angeles. The Artist helped The Greatest organize the all-star show to aid charities battling bigotry and prejudice. The bill includes Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, Chaka Khan, Lenny Kravitz and Tony Rich.

“It was the least I could do 4 a man as great as the greatest,” he says. “My dream is that, 4 at least one day and night, the world stops 2 seriously ponder its future and how there is a consequence 4 every action. We have days 2 honor past presidents, and yet how many of us stop 2 honor one another (and) the divine that is deep inside every one of us?”

Any final thoughts?

“Peace and B wild.” 

• News-Press (Fort Myers, FL), 12 September 1997
• St. Cloud Times (Saint Cloud, MN), 12 September 1997
• The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), 12 September 1997
• Iowa City Press-Citizen (Iowa City, IA), 15 September 1997
• Public Opinion (Chambersburg, PA), 20 September 1997
• Lansing State Journal (Lansing, MI), 25 December 1997