When I arrived at the New York Palace Hotel for my exclusive interview with The Artist we all used to know as Prince, whom we still think of as Prince, and whom even uses his real moniker a "his favorite producer" on his first major label release in three years, "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic ," through an arrangement with Arista Records, I found a horde of journalists gathered in the hotel lobby.
"Could all these journalists he here to talk to Prince," I thought. This is NOT the norm for this artist... ahem... I mean, The Artist, as he likes to he addressed This is a guy who used to NEVER talk the media... especially en masse. But it seems after his much-publicized, close to a decade long, excruciating public battle with Warner Brothers Records, Prince Rogers Nelson [The Artist's real name] seems a bit humbled. Not so much in the interview process -- he insisted he not be tape recorded, photographed or videotaped by ANYONE during interviews -- but just by the fact that he is now so willing to talk to those in the media who are willing to listen and, of course, publicize his new disc.
The insider's perception of The Artist, now 41, is a bit skeptical. Most of my friends, peers and the like, all have expressed a similar opinion on him -- "passe," was one word used quite often. "Has-been" came up even more during our many conversations. But yesterday's opinions and perceptions might be long forgotten if Mr. Clive Davis, the founder of The Artist's new label and the man who lured him in, works his hit-making magic.
The day before the interview took place, a group of about one hundred journalists and record company people spent the afternoon at New York's Equitable Center Auditorium for a very private listening session to embrace The Artist's new album. Hurricane Floyd was creating havoc outside so it was the perfect alternative to an otherwise dreary day. We spent about two hours listening to about seven or eight tracks [out of a reported fifteen to sixteen] with Mr. Davis the ever enthusiastic pitch man. And despite some sound system problems, the experience was a good one. In my opinion, "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" [due out November 2nd], is a well-written album -- not ground-breaking [this is NO "Purple Rain" or close to the level of any of his other classics] hut memorable. Guest performances with No Doubt's Gwen Stefani and Sheryl Crow stand out. And the first single [to be released September 28th] "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold," is a pleasant track. But success is not always determined by how ground-breaking something is or isn't. And if Mr. Davis's determination to make us walk away loving "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" [he played it for us three time.,;!], The Artist is in good hands. Right now, Davis is hot having just given another label act -- Carlos Santana -- his most successful charted album ["Supernatural"] of his long career.
And, of course, lest we not forget the consistent success he has bought to Whitney Houston: Yes, Clive Davis is the consummate hit-maker and that's exactly what Prince Rogers Nelson needs right now -- hits.
A surprise one hour concert that took place afterwards revealed one thing about The Artist -- his greatest love is playing music, being on that stage and rocking the house. Yes, he may like to show off the same old defiant attitude but, one thing is for sure, these days he is defiant -- with an agenda -- hoping to recapture some of his former glory.
The following is an exclusive with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, the producer who Is known as Prince, and Prince Rogers Nelson – one and all -- in a rare interview that is one of his most profound. He opens the door for the first time and gives us a look-see at his family relationships, his childhood, his views on freedom and politics, his look at his life, his strong faith in the Bible and what he calls "The Truth" -- and reveals that underneath that old defiant attitude and his current agenda, he may be just as human as you and me afterall.
OCA: WHEN WE WERE INTRODUCED EARLIER, YOU SAID TO ME THAT YOU HAVE YOUR FREEDOM FOR YOUR NEW ALBUM, RAVE 2THE JOY FANTASTIC. AND THAT FREEDOM COMES FROM THE SIMPLE FACT THAT YOU OWN YOUR MASTERS FOR THIS RECORD.
PRINCE: Yes?
OCA: AS AN ARTIST, I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT KEEPING THE OWNERSHIP TO YOUR CREATIONS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN BEING A FREE ARTIST.
PRINCE: Freedom. Mr. Clive Davis has allowed me to keep my freedom for this record. And yes I own all the masters. This freedom is key.
OCA: WHAT TS THIS FREEDOM ABOUT FOR YOU?
PRINCE: Larry Graham [of Sly and The Family Stone] taught me about freedom by helping me to read the Bible. And the Bible taught me The Truth. Once I understood that I couldn't go against The Truth in life, once I learned to give of myself, then I learned about the real meaning of freedom. When you achieve that, it opens you up, your senses, your creativity. For example, God got Adam. Adam ate the apple and once Adam ate the apple he discovered free will and -- literally -- all hell broke loose. [Laughs.] Hell came into existence. And that's it. We all have free will. We all have to make choices. But in those choices we must stick to the truth. It's like the stock market. It goes up and down and up and down but it doesn't tell you what's really happening out there. The bible tells the truth. Jimi Hendrix gave up his masters and the truth is out -his music's doing better than ever now. The truth is in the greatness of his music. All I have is this [points to his new CD]. If I give this up, what's left? This is all I have. This is my soul, my identity. If I don't own the thing I created, if I can't do what I want with it, then I'm lost.
OCA: YOU SEEM LIKE YOU'VE BECOME A VERY RELIGIOUS MAN SPEAKING ABOUT THE BIBLE THE WAY YOU DO ...
PRINCE: This is NOT about religion. I am NOT religious. This is about The Truth. Most people just don't get a chance to hear The Truth. And most people don't know it when they hear it. After they [might] know it when they hear it but they just don't want to respond to it. Remember The Truth and stick to it!
OCA: AGEING. YOU'RE 41 MAN.
PRINCE: I am?
OCA: THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN READING.
PRINCE: I'm 400! [Laughs.]
OCA: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE AGEING PROCESS. MOST PEOPLE WHEN THEY START TO REACH THEIR FORTIES, THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS DIMS. YOU'RE EXPLODING.
PRINCE: I'm gonna tell you the truth about this. And if you don't get this right, I'm on the internet and I'll find ya and I'll write, 'You didn't get this right!'
OCA: I'LL GET TT RIGHT. JUST TELL ME.
PRINCE: My mother was sick. She was really sick. She thought she was going to die. And I asked her, 'If you could have anything that you want, what would it be?' 'More time,' she said. 'I want more time.'I said, 'What?!' She said, 'I want more time to do the things I've always wanted to do.' So ultimately what she really wanted was more days. You want more days. You gotta break it down. ff there were only four months to a year instead of twelve, what do you have? You have more days. You'd think in terms of days. You see, what we really have here is like a mind prison. For example. if you could live to be a thousand, would you count birthdays?
OCA: MAYBE. I DON'T KNOW. MAYBE NOT. BUT I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON TO ASK THAT QUESTION TO BECAUSE I DON'T THINK THE AMOUNT OF TIME I WILL HAVE ON THE PLANET WILL EVER REALLY BE ENOUGH.
PRINCE: Do I.. Would I wanna live to be a thousand -- AND look like I do? YES!
OCA: IF YOU COULD KEEP YOUR GOOD LOOKS ...
PRINCE: But I can. If l control time and don't let Time control me.
OCA: EASIER SAID THAN DONE.
PRINCE: No there are ways.
OCA: YOU LOOK BASICALLY THE SAME AS YOU DID TEN YEARS AGO. YOU'RE AGEING VERY NICELY.
PRINCE: Because I've learned about. .. One thing I've learned is to he stress free. And there have been many times in my life in the past when I've had a lot of stress.
OCA: VERY IMPORTANT THING YOU JUST SAID. STRESS MANAGEMENT.
PRINCE: But the main thing I'm concerned with now ... time is a joke, you see. It's a trick. For example, the month of August was created because Augustus [during Greek times], he created it. So they added it to the calendar year. And where do you think they got July from? Julius. July. Julius Ceasar. They made it up. Why? Because of their ego. They wanted a whole month to he devoted ... all that time devoted to them. So now, they're like, I'm gonna make a whole month out of it. We [as human beings], we are always counting. But Larry [Graham]? Larry doesn't celebrate birthdays. He wouldn't tell me why but he just doesn't celebrate them. Knowing what I know and how I feel about age, I think I understand why.
OCA: IF YOU COULD LOOK LIKE YOU DO NOW, WOULD YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE TO 1000?
PRINCE: Yes. Think of how much more I'll k,1ow. How much more I'll burst the process. Creation... Masters... Slavery... Hushand and wife. THE CONTRACT. Whew! That's a big one! Mayte and I dissolved our marriage contract. Too many weird things are said in there. Meanwhile, so many people are in prison. Their minds are in prison, their bodies are in prison ... everybody's getting divorced. The divorce rate is sky high! Maybe it's got to do with the fact that there's just so many more people but I think it's much more than that -- and you can tell me what you think -- but I think it has all to do with that contract. There's a contract and a licence to be married. You have to have it. And then there are also some vows that are very weird. Too weird for me, man.
OCA: LIKE THE PART WHERE IT SAYS THE WOMAN'S SUPPOSED "TO OBEY" HER MAN?
PRINCE: Yes!
OCA: THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH.
PRINCE: You wanna get into that?! I could go on and on!
OCA: YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! BRING IT ON HOME!
PRINCE: I mean, look, between a man and woman you must ask this question: What could you do that I can't do? The answer? Have a baby. I couldn't do that. l'd fall out and faint if I had to do that! You have something I can't do and I as a man have something you can't do -- I can protect you. Cause most men are simply physically stronger. Larry Crraham and my friend Anonda ... she challenged him to an arm wrestle. He won every time. Men, for the most part, are physically stronger than woman.
OCA: LET'S FACE IT, MEN AND WOMEN HAVE MENTAL DIFFERENCES. AND THE ISSUE OF SEGREGATING WOMEN BECAUSE SHE'S TOO GOOD FOR THE JOB ... WE'RE SIMPLY DIFFERENT AND WE SHOULD UNDERSTA ND THAT. AND YET WE SHOULD GIVE EACH OTHER THE RESPECT THAT GOES ALONG WITH THAT.
PRINCE: But society is NOT based on the democratic oath. If society was based that way, you wouldn't have bad trust. You didn't have that trouble a long time ago.
OCA: BUT WE NEED MORE IN LIFE THAN JUST BEING A MAN AND A WOMAN? DON'T WE ALSO NEED A SENSE OF PURPOSE?
PRINCE: And where do you get that from?
OCA: ME PERSONALLY?
PRINCE: Yeah.
OCA: OKAY I'LL GO THERE ... MY SENSE OF PURPOSE COMES FROM INSIDE.
PRINCE: Exactly.
OCA: AND THAT PURPOSE. THAT STRENGTH IS SOMETHING I BELIEVE GETS DEVELOPED FROM CHTLDHOOD THROUGH ADULTHOOD. I BELIEVE EVERYTHlNG THAT HAPPENS TO YOU AS A CHILD EFFECTS WHO YOU BECOME, WHAT KIND OF PERSON YOl.J END UP BEING AND HOW STRONG YOU ARE AS AN ADULT.
PRINCE: That's exactly right. Yeah. So when you're a child and somebody's telling you, 'You are strong. You are ·intelligent. You are a prince .. .' Yeah ... That's what they told me when I was little. They told me, 'YOU'RE A PRINCE.' Your name is Prince. That's your name.
OCA: SO THAT'S WHERE IT ALL STARTED?
PRINCE: Yeah man. My sister named her son President! I said, 'What did you call him?!'
OCA: WHAT?! [LAUGHS.]
PRINCE: Wait.. Wait... she named her other son Sir. That's right, Sir. So people have to say 'Sir' to him. You know, because he's a black child. You understand? So he's got to come in a society where they will he... I don't know if it's right or wrong what my sister did. But I do see what her purpose is.
OCA: DO YOU THINK THE KIDS WILL UNDERSTAND?
PRINCE: They'll understand this entirely. This is what Arab children hear all the time when they're growing up when they're in Saudi Arabia. 'You are a King.' They call you that. 'Here's my little King.' 'Here comes my little Prince.'
OCA: I SEE.
PRINCE: And that's why what you see and hear as a child is so important. These are the foundations for a child. And that's why television is scaring me to death . When I watch certain stuff, I'm like, 'Oh no, no... you Just didn't go there on me!?!'
OCA: DID YOU EVER NOT UNDERSTAND? DID YOU EVER ASK YOUR FATHER...
PRINCE: Why he named me that? My father wanted to he a great musician. He played piano. He was very good but he wasn't great...
OCA: YOU PORTRAYED HTM LOOSELY TN "PURPLE RAIN," YES?
PRINCE: Very loosely. [Laughs.] Anyway, I remember being small and my mother showing me how to write it That's different than when you go to school and they ask you, 'What's your name?' I had a teacher who refused to call me that. Because it's like they're saying King or something. He was like, 'We're not going to call you that.' He just wouldn't say it. It was like, 'Eh, ah, uh, ug ... [makes all these sound effects noises]. .. He wouldn't say it. Uh-uh. [Laughs.] He'd call me everything BUT that, you know. One teacher, you know... one teacher once tried to tell me, 'You know, that's not your name. That's just made up!' Of course it's made up -- my mother and father made it up... for me!
OCA: THE SONG OFF THE NEW RECORD CALLED "I LOVE YOU BUT I DON'T TRUST YOU ANY MORE." THAT SEEMS TO BE A BIG PROBLEM GOING ON TODAY. NO TRUST BETWEEN PEOPLE. AND YET, WTTH SUCH A SERIOUS SUBJECT MATTER YOU WRITE THIS BEAUTIFUL MELODY.
PRINCE: Because love ultimately conquers all. I mean, you don't want to base it. .. I mean, imagine that thing [song] in all 11!inocr hords. I could play it for you and the melody would work, the lyric would work hut the feeling would be sooo different that you'd think instead he was going to shoot her. The 1nelodic line is the way it is because you gotta get home one way or another. Mistrust just doesn't work. It just doesn't work.
OCA: YOU HAVEN'T DONE INTERVIEWS LIKE THIS TN A LONG TIME. DO YOU ENJOY IT?
PRINCE: This is the best kind of day for me. This is better than gigging. Because I get a chance to see light con1e up. We all know it. We all know it hut we just don't have anybody to share it with.
OCA: INTERACTION WITH PEOPLE IS VERY IMPORTANT. WTTHOUT THAT, YOU'RE REALLY TN THE DARK. AND ISOLATED.
PRINCE: Right. I asked my friend Anonda Lewis [from MTV], 'Do you find it hard to talk to people?' And she said 'Yeah.' She said something interesting about the spraying of New York for those deadly mosquitos. On the news it said we're going to spray all up and down Manhattan to kill those deadly mosquitos that arc killing people.
OCA: I GOT SICK I THTNK FROM THAT BUG SPRAY.
PRINCE: You see! That's right. All up and down Manhattan. Except at a certain point, a certain street, we're gonna stop. You all know what street that was. We ain't gonna spray up there. What's up with that? Now, of course, Anonda wanted to say it on MTV. They're not going to let her say that on MTV. Excuse me, you all, but I'll take my chances with a mosquito biting me before I'd take a chance with you spraying with all the children and the pets. That's a whole lot worse! Ananda saw the trucks go by. And she called up instantly and told them, 'Are you outta your fucking minds?! This is crazy!' And then the hurricane was coming and what they want us to do is freeze. We want to know the real truth about these things.
OCA: THE TRUTH TS YOUR BEST DEFENSE.
PRINCE: Oh boy!
OCA: WHEN DID YOU FIND THE TRUTH? WHEN DID YOU START TO READ THE BIBLE? HOW LONG AGO
PRINCE: I started to read the Bible when I ran out of answers. When you can't come up with the answers. It's like you're asking and asking but you just don't know. When you know the truth, people can't lie to you any more. They can't steal from you. Strange people don't even want to be around you. If they're weird, they don't want to he around you because this is all you're gonna talk aboul and they don't want to talk about this.
OCA: IS THAT WHEN YOU STARTED TO CONTEMPLATE THE LETTER YOU USE TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF? AND WERE YOtJ ABLE TO FIND THE ANSWERS WHEN YOU WERE FIGHTING WITH WARNER BROTHERS TO GET FREE FROM THAT CONTRACT?
PRINCE: Yes. I couldn't find the answer how to get out of it. . And Londell (McMillan] said something that really stuck with me, 'You have to get them to agree.' What it is, is that you all are disagreing now. And it's based in that contract. The contract has stuff in their that you didn't agree with when you signed it. You see? And if you don't agree with it, it's not an agreement [laughs]. You know? I don't agree with the idea that I can't go record with Sheryl Crow when I want to. I don't agree with that.
OCA: THAT TAKES THE FUN OUT OF BEING A CREATIVE MUSICIAN. TO BE ABLE TO GET TOGETHER WHEN THE INSPIRATION HITS YOU AND JUST DO IT.
PRINCE: Right! For the music's sake.
OCA: DO YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH ARISTA TO DO A SECOND ALBUM?
PRINCE:I don't have a contract with Arista.
OCA: SO YOU'RE NOT SIGNED FOR A SECOND ALBUM?
PRINCE: No. I have an agreement with Arista. Not a contract.
OCA: RECORD COMPANIES... HMMM...
PRINCE: l had an argument with a record label many years ago on my second record. Earth, Wind & Fire was rolling at the time and they said, 'We gotta put some percussion on your disc.' And Maurice ... Maurice White is just the guy I want you to sit down and talk with. Well, I was like, 'Well, I don't want to put percussion on my album.' Everybody had it. Everybody had percussion with cow bells and all kinds of stuff. I said, 'I don't want that.' I want it to sound different. Standing up for something ...
OCA: I LOVE MA VTS STAPLES. I LOVE THE RECORD YOU DID WITH HER IN 1988.
PRINCE: I put out a few albums with her but nobody will play them ... She's just such a reason ... the point of making things out there that arc about something successful. That's what you pump up on TV. But Radio was like, 'Nah, that's not our format.' You just want to... excuse me [stands up and mockingly starts strangling the pillow the chair next to him as though it was a person's head] UGHHH!!!!!!!! [Screams.] Mavis Staples can still sing.
OCA: YOU MUST HAVE AN AMAZING GUITAR COLLECTION. I NOTICED YOU PLAYING A GUITAR IN THE SHAPE OF YOUR SYMBOL. DO YOU DESIGN YOUR OWN GUITARS?
PRINCE: I tell them what I want it to sound like. I'll play for them and tell them to make it sound like this. Give me more gut. I don't get into pick up positions or wiring ... I don't know technical terms.
OCA: IN TERMS OF COLOR?
PRINCE: That I tell them. Purple. Stuff like that.
OCA: HOW MANY DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE?
PRINCE: Guitars? Uhm ... probably about 30... no 40
OCA: AND YOU USE THEM ALL?
PRINCE: At one time or another. I get a lot of gifts too. Guitar players wil just give me stuff. ZZ Top just gave me a gift.
OCA: BILLY GIBBONS?
PRINCE: Yeah. He gave me a guitar shaped like Texas! [Laughs.]