Former Prince says he's happy to be 'free'

TORONTO - After years of saying little in public, the former Prince has had more to say about his new three-CD set, Emancipation, than on anything else in his 19-year music career.

"This is my record company. I call this play. I'm the quarterback now," says the diminutive singer who has been using a symbol for a name since 1993.

But there's one subject so intimate that it remains under a strict verbal blackout.

The Artist as he's now known, wont answer questions about the reported loss of his first-born child, a refusal that has bewildered fans and the music community alike, especially now that the baby's death has been documented.

His hometown newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, says it found the baby's death certificate, filed Nov. 4 It reports "Boy Gregory" died October 23 of the rare Pfeiffer syndrome type 2 — a condition in which the skull's bones fuse together, causing pressure on the brain.

The Artist, born Prince Rogers Nelson, has always been guarded about his privacy, and under normal circumstances it would come as a little surprise that details would be kept hush-hush.

However, in his new incarnation as a media-friendly celebrity, the singer and his wife, Mayte Garcia, 24, have been particularly open about the pregnancy.

He included a sample of the unborn child's heartbeat on the song Sex in the Summer, and a pregnant Garcia appears in the video for Betcha By Golly Wow, his first single and cover of the 1972 Stylistics hit.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Garcia sat nearby wearing a dress with the word “baby” written across her chest and an arrow pointing toward her stomach.

Whatever his reasons, EMI, the record company distributing Emancipation and handling publicity, says no statement is expected from Paisley Park, the Artist’s studio and home base outside Minneapolis.

Asked if he has anything to say to fans about the matter, the Artist replies softly: “Everything is wonderful. They should stop worrying.”

And so the mystery continues, a sad and tragic footnote to an otherwise joyous time for the Artist, who says he’s delighted to be discussing his new mega-release, his first since leaving Warner Bros. after 16 albums.

“This is what freedom feels like,” says the smiling 38-year-old, wearing a small goatee and no longer writing “slave” across his face.

He may now carry the ball, but he’d never be mistaken as a bulky footballer, though on Monday he wore a brown-and-yellow jersey with his band’s name, New Power Generation, stitched across the back.

His emancipation came after he cut ties with Warner, in part because the label wouldn’t release his albums as fast as he was recording them. He released Emancipation on his own NPG label.

“Warner made me appreciate freedom.”

He arrived in Toronto around noon with a small entourage, including a hair-and-makeup artist and a bodyguard.

Surprisingly, in this television age he limited interviews to print reporters, seven in all, before heading for Montreal by nightfall for another half-dozen today. He has, however, done some big U.S. talk shows, including Oprah Winfrey’s.

While the Artist says he’s “free” to talk now because he’s no longer a paid employee, he clearly is out to sell records. Emancipation, which debuted in Billboard’s Top 200 at No..11 three weeks ago, has dropped from 38 to 58 this week.

But the Artist doesn’t look worried. In fact, he laughs heartily recalling jokes about his name.

“I hear tons of them,” he says. “I went on David Letterman’s show and he had a whack of them.”