PRINCE

IN 1984
PRINCE

INTRO
Prince was already a star by the time 1984 came around.
But that was the year he became a legend.
4

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 6

PORTRAIT OF STIFF
THE ARTIST AS A COMPETITION
YOUNG MAN Prince faced a lot of healthy competition
Growing up with musician parents, in 1984—including Bruce Springsteen,
it was only a matter of time before Prince Madonna and Van Halen. But there was
CHAPTER 4
discovered his own talents. And when no bigger rival than Michael Jackson.
he did, he was unstoppable. THE 64
14 ALBUM
Purple Rain sold over 13 million copies,
three times more than 1999, and took
home two Grammys. More than that, it
cemented his status as a musical genius.
CHAPTER 2 44 CHAPTER 7

VISION OF THE
THE FUTURE IMPACT
Prince decided early on that he wanted The success of Purple Rain gave Prince
mainstream appeal, so he did everything even more influence over music, fashion
possible to achieve the level of fame he CHAPTER 5 and even morals—but not everyone
craved—without ever “selling out.” agreed with his expressive sexuality.

24
THE 74
TOUR
The Purple Rain tour was a colossal
production in and of itself, showcasing a
different side of Prince as a performer and
solidifying his crossover coronation.
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 8
54
THE LEGACY
MOVIE Prince’s untimely death on April 21, 2016
By 1983, the singer became transfixed on at his Paisley Park complex shocked the
elevating his popularity by starring in his world. But the singer’s musical legacy
own movie. That film, and the album that lives on—most likely forever.
accompanied it, made him a superstar.
84
34

2
PRINCE

INTRODUCTION

Between 1978 and 1982, Prince Rogers Nelson Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Van Halen and Michael
released five albums. The first, For You, only Jackson. Nothing and no one could beat out Prince.
reached No. 138 on the U.S. charts but earned him a He became the first solo artist since Elvis to
reputation as a prodigy. The second, 1979’s Prince, have the No. 1 album, movie and single in America
went platinum. The third, 1980’s Dirty Mind, gold. simultaneously. Both “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s
The fourth, 1981’s Controversy, went platinum again. Go Crazy” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And the fifth, 1982’s 1999, peaked at No. 7 on the U.S. Prince’s dynastic purple reign catapulted him from
charts and went quadruple platinum. Based on this do-it-all renegade to mainstream pop icon, an artist
work alone, Prince was a superstar. who would sell over 150 million records, bring
Then came 1984, the year he became a legend. the Minneapolis Sound worldwide, and win seven
On June 25 that year—a year that experts would Grammys—and an Oscar.
later call the greatest in pop music history—Prince Prince’s prolific talent was not depleted in 1984.
released Purple Rain, an album so remarkable and He went on to create more music, influence more
genre bending that some people forget that it was a artists, win more awards and ultimately earn
movie soundtrack, the sonic bookend to the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
semi-autobiographical film of the same name that 2004. But after his tragic and untimely death at
packed theaters starting July 27 and put America on age 57 on April 21, 2016, many fans looked back
notice that forever more, no one would forget the nostalgically at 1984 as the moment they first took
5-foot-3-inch virtuoso from Minneapolis. notice of his genius.
Purple Rain reached No. 1 on the Billboard Prince’s achievements that year were not an
album chart in early August and stayed there for accident. He worked feverishly to create the
24 straight weeks—holding its own against other moment that defined him. This is the story of how it
career-defining work from Madonna, Bruce all came together.

4
5
PRINCE

T H E E AR R LY Y E A RS
Priincee, in New York Cityy, on his
Dirrty Mind d tourr in 1981. At right,
cellebrratinng Purrple Rain n’s reeleasse at
Minneeapo olis’ Fiirst Aven
nue in n 19
984.

6
S T R IK
K E A P O SE
Priincee & The Neew Powe er Ge
eneraation
po
ose fo or a portrrait durin n Actt II
ng an
touur sttop in The
e Netherlland ds on
n
Auug. 9, 19993.
PRINCE

10
 PRINCE

TO URR DEE FO O RC E
Prince rarrely stop
pped worrking,
prooduccing 39 studio albuums in his
life
etim
me and d touring
g neaarly every
yeaar bettween 19979 and 2016.
 GO N E TO O S OO ON
Fanss create a puurple shrrine to Prin
nce
outside his Paisley Park compllex
after learrnin
ng of thee mussic icon
n’s
untimely deaath on Ap pril 21, 20116 .
13
 CHAPTER 1

>
Prince poses backstage at the Paradiso music venue on May 29, 1981, in Amsterdam
where he played his first concert outside the United States.
15
B
O O ZIN G S EX A PP PEAL
Prin
nce seerenaades thee crowd at Cobo Hall on n
Decc. 20, 1980 0, in Dettroit. The musiciaan, wh
hose
lookk wass hype ersexuaal, often played clubs dressed
in very little clothing
g.

ambiance dazzled Prince. “I was a piano player for

strippers down on Hampton Avenue in Minneapolis,
having fun,” John Nelson said, downplaying his
musical ability, in a 1986 MTV interview. Prince
learned to play as many instruments as he could.
However, Prince’s parents divorced by the time he
was 10, and while the musical prodigy split time
between two homes, he mostly lived with his dad.
Under his father’s strict tutelage, Prince recorded
music well into the night and listened to the radio
station KQRS, which played a mix of white and Black
music, whenever he could. In high school, he formed
his own group, Grand Central, and by early 1977,
they were playing small gigs around town. That’s
Born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, to musical how he caught the eye of producer Chris Moon. In
parents who made up two-thirds of the Prince Matt Thorne’s 2012 book, Prince: The Man and His
Rogers Trio—frontman John Nelson and singer Music, Moon described a night where he ended up
Mattie Shaw—Prince initially didn’t seem to inherit alone in the studio with the prodigy. While Moon
their talents. As a young boy, he was a bit of a worry drank a “pop,” within a matter of minutes, Prince
for his mother and father because he suffered from displayed his prowess on drums, piano and bass.
epilepsy. One day, when he was 7, he told his mother “If I only have one artist, I don’t have to worry about
an angel said his sickness would go away, and it soon the drummer not showing up and screwing up the
did. Two majestic qualities took its place: a singular whole session,” said Moon, who helped his protégé
obsession with music and the determination to land a manager, Owen Husney, who had more
constantly create. “We’d go to the department store industry pull.
and he’d jump on … any type of instrument there By the end of the year, Prince had signed a six-
was,” his mother told Minneapolis’ Star Tribune figure, three-album deal with Warner Bros. Records.
newspaper in 1984. “Mostly the piano and organ. I’d “I can’t read music,” Prince told the Star Tribune in
have to hunt for him, and that’s where he’d be—in 1978. “It hasn’t gotten in the way yet. Maybe it will
the music department.” later, but I doubt it.” Brimming with confidence,
His love of music only escalated. Prince’s father Prince released his first album, For You, in 1978, and
regularly played a local jazz club, and one night he his second, Prince, just a year later. On Jan. 5, 1979,
took his young son with him. The music and the the musician performed at a big venue, the Capri

“I’d have to hunt for him,

and that’s where he’d be—in the
music department.”

16
 PRINCE

17
18
 PRINCE

L IV
V E FR
R O M NE W YOR K
Prin
nce makes his deb but on Saturrday Night Live
on Feb. 21, 19981. Aftter performing “PPartyu up,” he
threew th
he miccrophon ne stand to the grroundd and
ran into the au
udiencee, out of thee cameera’s view.

Theater, for the first time, alongside bandmates

André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar,
Doctor Fink and Gayle Chapman on keyboards, and
Bobby Z on drums. Despite the record deal, Warner
Bros. executives believed the band needed more
time to develop.
Instead, Prince focused on honing his solo
stylings, where he played most of the instruments
by himself and mixed them together in the
studio. Some of his early singles portended future
success—“I Wanna Be Your Lover” reached No. 1 on
the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart—but neither
of his first two LPs broke out into the mainstream.
In January 1980, Prince performed on Dick Clark’s
American Bandstand with his backing ensemble,
but in an awkward interview afterward with the
star-making Clark, Prince suddenly realized that
millions of people across the country were watching.
“How many instruments do you play?” Clark asked.
After a too-long pause, Prince, who’d already lied
and said he was 19—he was 21 at the time—replied:
“Thousands.” Following that appearance Prince
rarely gave interviews that he couldn’t control.
If Prince longed to be anything more than a fringe
artist, it was hard to tell in the early days. The lyrics
to his songs were often too sexual for top 40 radio.
His look was also hypersexual. Prince often played
clubs dressed in little more than lacy lingerie.

O
n Oct. 8, 1980, Warner Bros. released
Prince’s third album, Dirty Mind, which
arrived in the aftermath of the disco
backlash. When Prince signed his initial
deal, he’d told the label’s vice president,
Lenny Waronker, “don’t make me Black.” He didn’t
say it because he denied his Blackness. His point was
that, musically, he craved crossover appeal.
Perhaps with that end in mind, Dirty Mind’s
opening track begins with a pulsing disco beat. The
problem was dance music was fading fast in terms
of popularity. Unlike Prince, the album did not go

19
platinum. Prince toured to support the release, PUS S H IN
N G BO UN D AR IES
Preddomiinantlly whitee audiencess in the early
which led to the fortuitous addition of future 19880s were not quitee ready for the ennigmaatic
Revolution mainstay Lisa Coleman joining the ger, whose
sing e comfo ort with his sexuaality on
n stage
couurted contrroversyy.
backing ensemble.

E
ven though Prince had not yet arrived
at the place he wanted to be, he was
growing as an artist. He found deep ready for a sexually free Black man to open for a
approval for the direction he was predominantly white audience. The impact of the
headed when he started playing regular horrific tour was another key factor in his rise to
gigs at a local club on the corner of Seventh Street stardom. Prince would never perform as an opening
and First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. He act again.
played his first show at Sam’s—soon renamed First The titillating song titles alone fulfilled the
Avenue—on March 9, 1981. Prince’s electric style promise of the album’s title (and title track):
saved the club. (Downtown denizens often mistook “Sexuality,” “Do Me, Baby,” “Private Joy” and “Jack
the charismatic singer as the venue’s owner.) He U Off.” Controversy deftly melded Prince’s seductive
was his own band, and he demanded perfection voice with social consciousness. The cover art
from his backing ensembles. Sometimes recording features fictional headlines from The Controversy
sessions stretched through the night and into the Daily blaring such missives as “Do You Believe in
next day. He would often stop rehearsals to tell each God?” and “President Signs Gun Control Act.” The
band member exactly what he wanted from them. seven-minute, intro title track featured the lyrics
This penchant may have grated on his bandmates, “I wish we were all nude,” and “I wish there were
but it made him an undeniable force. He made his no Black and white. I wish there were no rules.”
first appearance on Saturday Night Live on Feb. 21, The song “Sexuality” solidified his libidinous ethos,
1981, performing the song “Partyup.” At the end of echoing some of the shrieks of the Godfather of
the song, he defiantly threw the microphone stand Soul, James Brown, and the anti-nuclear weapons
on the ground and ran off the stage toward the track “Ronnie, Talk to Russia” was one of his most
audience, out of the camera’s view. political songs to date.
On Oct. 9, 1981, five days before the release of Wanting the full spotlight, Prince hit the road
his fourth album, Controversy, Prince opened for for his Controversy tour with fellow Minneapolis
the Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Memorial band The Time, fronted by friend and rival Morris
Coliseum wearing a trench coat and black bikini Day, as his opening act. But this backfired. Many
briefs. As he played, the 90,000-strong crowd critics thought the less challenging, and therefore
bombarded him with bottles—a fifth of Jack Daniels more fun, band was The Time, which overshadowed
flew by his face—food, and homophobic epithets. He the supposed main act. Prince dropped Day’s
was booed off the stage. Prince didn’t want to finish group from the bill for some dates. Prince also
the tour, and he left for Minneapolis before the set began working with a young singer named Denise
ended. The Stones convinced him to return in time Matthews, better known as Vanity, who fronted the
for the second show two nights later. But the same lingerie-clad girl group Vanity 6 (they had their own
thing happened again. America, it seemed, wasn’t hit “Nasty Girl” in 1982), and recorded music for

The impact of the horrific tour was

another key factor in his rise to stardom.
Prince would never perform as
an opening act again.

20
 PRINCE

21
PRINCE

22
 W H AT’ S
IN A
NA M E?

THE MANY
NAMES
OF PRINCE
ROGERS
NELSON
> Despite his parents bestowing upon him
a royal birth name, Prince Rogers Nelson
dreamed of being someone else. When he was
18, Prince told the Minnesota Daily that one
a new album, one he hoped would finally attain a day he would make jazz recordings under an
wider audience. If he failed, it wouldn’t be for a lack alias. Even then, without a worldwide fanbase,
of effort. he understood the power of a pseudonym.
Prolific, Prince produced five albums from 1978 It was a lesson he likely learned from his
through 1982, a prodigious pace the singer would father, John, who performed under the stage
keep for much of the first 10 years of his career. name Prince. The elder Nelson once said: “I
The fifth of these, 1999, a double LP released on named my son Prince because I wanted him to
Oct. 27, 1982, catapulted Prince into the top 10 and do everything I wanted to do.”
included singles such as “Delirious,” “Little Red With such a memorable and showy given
Corvette,” and the namesake “1999,” with its catchy name, it’s somewhat surprising that Prince
refrain “two-thousand zero-zero, party’s over, would ever use another. But he did. As a child,
oops, out of time.” Prince earned his first Grammy he was called Skipper. In Minneapolis circles,
nomination—best R&B male vocal performance—for Prince was known simply as The Kid. As
“International Lover,” which showcased his bass- Prince’s star rose in the early ’80s, albums by
to-falsetto singing range. He also became one of his protégé groups The Time and Vanity 6 were
the first Black artists to have music videos in heavy credited to producer Jamie Starr. Everyone
rotation on MTV, the new all-music network that suspected that Starr—a recluse who could
had started a year earlier. The most noteworthy suspiciously never be reached—was Prince. In a
part of the album might not be the hits, the Grammy famous 1982 interview with Los Angeles Times
nom or the fact that it was Prince’s first top 10 music critic Robert Hilburn, the singer attempt-
album on the Billboard 200 chart; the double album ed to clear up the rumors swirling about him.
was Prince’s first collection recorded with The “One, my real name is Prince,” he said. “Two,
Revolution as his backing band. I’m not gay. And three, I’m not Jamie Starr.”
1999 was a hit. But a bigger breakthrough was Other pseudonyms Prince used included
coming. As Coleman told biographer Alan Light Alexander Nevermind, Christopher, and his
for the 2014 book Let’s Go Crazy, “Growing up, like astrological sign, Gemini. Prince also wrote
anyone would practice their instrument, [Prince] country music star Kenny Rogers’ 1986 song
practiced his face; he practiced what he looked like “You’re My Love” under the name Joey Coco.
on camera … he just decided, ‘I’ve gotta be famous.’” And, of course, there’s “The Purple One.”
In 1993, as a means to get out of his Warner
Bros. record deal, Prince changed his name to
P RII N CE
E ’S P R OT ÉG É a symbol that nobody could say because there
Dennise Matthews, be etter known
n as Vaanity, was
the fronttwom man for the lingerie-clad singinng was no way to say it. That’s how he became The
group Vaanity 6. Princce took the young g sing
ger Artist Formerly Known as Prince. He went back
undder his winng in thee 1980s.
to using his given name in 2000.
 CHAPTER 2

>
Prince, seen here on stage in 1983, made it his mission early on to achieve mainstream appeal.
However, he also refused to “sell out” to reach the level of fame that he coveted.
26
 PRINCE

O
fellow Minneapolitan, Neal Karlen, according to the
writer’s 2020 book, This Thing Called Life, “because
I wanted them to concentrate on what music was
coming out of my system … and not on the fact that
I came from a broken family.” Prince admitted the
only thing he wanted to be true was his music—and
he wanted that music to be heard by everyone.
Prince’s bandmates understood this because
Prince drove home the point all the time. What they
didn’t know was if their leader’s vision was realistic.
The group had a funky, edgy sound that might have
been too niche for mass-market success. Prince
didn’t agree. He wanted to conquer other pop acts
and slay the critics as well. Bandmate Lisa Coleman
put it succinctly in Alan Light’s book Let’s Go Crazy:
“It was Prince against the world.”
With a propensity for X-rated song titles and
lyrics and the specter of inevitable tour fatigue,
some journalists questioned if he could build upon
the success of 1999. “My songs are more about love
than they are about sex,” Prince would say to deflect
attention away from the racier lyrics. The first time
On April 28, 1983, Prince appeared on the cover of Prince played the Dirty Mind album for his father,
Rolling Stone magazine for the first time. His then- his dad said, “You’re swearing on the record. Why
girlfriend Vanity peered over the right shoulder do you have to do that?” Prince retorted, “Because I
of his studded purple leather jacket as her fingers swear.” No one could convince him to do anything he
inched down his tight jeans. This wasn’t just an didn’t want to do. For Prince, the sky was all purple
iconic image. This was a vision of his future: fame, and there were people running everywhere—as the
sex, egotism, breakups, provocation, adoration and lyrics to “1999” stated.
tellingly, the color purple. Prince & The Revolution continued touring to
Yet something was missing, some magical piece support 1999 from November 1982 into the spring
of the puzzle. In the vacuum of fame, Prince wanted of ’83. By the end of March, the group pulled in
more. He wanted mainstream appeal. He wanted $7 million. But, being on the road, problems arose.
to expand his audience without losing his artistic Despite having a more than capable band, Prince
expression, which was decidedly too dangerous for increasingly acted like a solo performer, living up
the mainstream. Prince didn’t want to “sell out” to to the headline of the Rolling Stone cover story,
achieve the level of fame he craved. He wanted “Prince’s Hot Rock: The Secret Life of America’s
to remain true to himself, which meant being Sexiest One-Man Band.” Prince rode in a separate
uncompromising, competitive and cunning. And
though he rarely gave interviews, he used the media
to his advantage, sometimes telling falsehoods to do
so. (He fibbed that he learned the facts of life from
pornography he found around his mother’s house.)
He created myths to heighten his appeal.
It would have been easy to remain true to himself
and not care how many people liked him. But
Prince wanted it all. “I used to tease journalists
early on,” Prince told his journalist friend, and

D E S T IN
N ED F O R FA AME
Prin
nce (aat left) gives an impassiooned perforrmance
at th
he Auuditorrium Thheatre in Chicago o in Jan
nuary
19883. Thhe singer (at right) appeears on n the cover
of th
he Ap 8, 1983, issue of Ro
pril 28 olling Stonee
mag gazinne witth then--girlfriend Vanityy.

27
bus than The Revolution for most of the tour, CHA N G I NG O F TH H E GUA RD D
Prin
nce an nd guuitarist Dez Dickersson (bbelow)) take
causing friction, not least of all because of his the stagee at thhe Pallaadium in Neew Yorrk Cityy on
roster of girlfriends. Also, Dez Dickerson, a devout Decc. 2, 1981. Dickersson later lefft the band after
growwing g disilllusioneed with the direction Prrince
Christian, wasn’t comfortable playing some of wass taking. He was replaced in The Revolution by
Prince’s sexually explicit songs. “He had consciously Wenndy Melvo oin (at right).

built his notoriety on being controversial,”

Dickerson recalled in Alex Hahn’s 2017 book, The
Rise of Prince: 1958-1988. “There was a conflict
between what he knew to be right and what was duo even used to pick Prince up from the airport.
working in his career.” Dickerson showed up less Given her friendship with Coleman, Melvoin
and less at sound check, and eventually he left the traveled on the bus for a good portion of the 1999
band because of his growing disillusionment with tour. In late March, in New York City, on one of the
the direction Prince was taking. Dickerson later days Dickerson missed sound check, Prince asked
told the biographer Light that at first Prince needed Melvoin to step in; Prince was aware of her talents
a power band with backing players who could help because he’d heard her practicing one night as he
him with his quest for mainstream success, but by walked past her hotel room. “She worked hard and
this point he was established enough to mix things she made it happen,” synthesizer whiz Matt Fink
up a bit. said in the book Let’s Get Crazy. “I’ve got to give her
One step Prince took to try and remedy the a lot of credit for that because it’s not easy to come
situation, as well as widen his fan base, was to add a in and be in that role that was suddenly thrust upon
new female guitarist: Wendy Melvoin, the daughter her.” Within a year, Melvoin’s twin sister, Susannah,
of a top L.A. session musician and a friend of Lisa would also become one of Prince’s girlfriends. He
Coleman’s. Whenever Prince recorded in Los was also dating Jill Jones, one of the tour’s backup
Angeles, he crashed with Melvoin and Coleman; the singers, as well as Vanity, a budding star.

28
 PRINCE

29
 COM MA A ND I NG T H E S TAG E
Prin
nce (aat left) makess his first ap
ppearaance on the
TV show w Solidd Gold on Jan. 29, 1983, performing
“19
999” with The Revvolution baccking him up.
Thee sing
ger (att right) on tour in th
he U.S
S. with
h The
Revvolution in 1982.

needed to be more magnanimous in letting the band

help him reach the stratosphere. He would only go
so far as a one-man band, and with a knowing nod,
Prince added an ampersand to the band in 1983.
They became Prince & The Revolution. Why had
he been so reluctant to use other musicians on his
records? “The reason I don’t use musicians a lot of
the time had to do with the hours that I worked,”
Prince admitted for another Rolling Stone cover
story in September 1985. “I swear to God it’s not out
of boldness when I say this, but there’s not a person
around who can stay awake as long as I can. Music is
what keeps me awake.”
Melvoin and the band began to understand this
fact as they recorded music for the next album.
The new fashion sense, the new music and Prince’s
steadfast perseverance would take them all where

P
rince’s stagecraft also blossomed after Prince wanted to go—if they simply followed his
the addition of Melvoin. They wore the lead. Against this backdrop, Prince also made
same clothing size and often compared another crucial observation during the 1999
notes. The band began to choreograph tour. Bob Seger—a white, blue-collar rocker from
dance moves and wear wilder costumes. Detroit—was on tour supporting his album The
When Prince first formed a band in high school, the Distance at the same time, and sometimes Prince
members wore suede suits with their zodiac sign would play a venue right after Seger. One night,
embroidered on the back. Now, Prince wore eyeliner Prince asked Fink, The Revolution’s synthesizer
and boasted a peacocking, rococo-rockabilly style. player, why the audience reacted to Seger with such
In its cover story, Rolling Stone pushed the envelope reverie. Fink answered it was Seger’s ballads—songs
even more by calling him the “Man Sex Machine.” such as “We’ve Got Tonite” and “Turn the Page”—
Instead of going to a traditional college, Melvoin and that swayed the crowd. A power ballad. Always
Coleman went to Prince University. private, Prince didn’t really have one. He figured if
After initial reluctance to Melvoin’s addition, he did he would reach millions of new listeners. He
The Revolution bloomed. Prince also realized he first began working on one such song in late 1982,

“There’s not a person around

who can stay awake as long as I can.
Music is what keeps me awake.”

30
 PRINCE

31
PRINCE

and soon it would mesmerize the music universe. GE T T IN

N G INN SY NC C
Prin
nce annd Reevolutioon guitarist Wend dy Melvoin
“I think the secret to our working relationship was perfform onstaage at the Joe Louiss Arenna in Detroit
that we were very non-possessive about our ideas, he Pu
durring th urple Raain tour in 19
984. Despitte
som
me pu ushbaack in th
he beginning g, Thee Revo
olution
as opposed to some other people that have worked blooomed d with
h Melvooin’s additioon.
with him,” Melvoin told the music mag Mojo in 1997.
“We didn’t hoard stuff, and were more than willing
to give him what he needed.”
During this time, Prince came up with an even On Aug. 3, 1983, Prince & The Revolution
wilder idea to become a crossover idol: He would performed their version of a power ballad—“Purple
star in a film based on his life. It was audacious, if Rain”—publicly for the first time at the club First
not a little crazy. Prince had never acted, but the Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. It was a benefit
star insisted that he could simply because he said for the Minnesota Dance Theatre, and at the end of
so. Prince’s renowned publicist Howard Bloom, who a 10-song set, none of the fans in attendance were
also managed Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper expecting the local singer who had mostly immersed
among other acts, marveled at Prince’s work ethic, himself in controversial lyrics to “dim the lights”
calling it one of the singer’s keys to mega fame. and take down the tempo. When Melvoin played the
But Bloom also cited something more compelling initial strains for nearly five minutes, the crowd did
that made Prince’s audacity to make a movie not cheer in recognition. Yet a year later, in 1984,
understandable. “He had this astonishing executive some of the footage shot that night made it into the
capacity, this prefrontal-cortex discipline,” Bloom finished film of the same name, and everyone in
articulated in Let’s Go Crazy. “Ninety percent of the America sang along.
time when an artist of this caliber makes a decision In his heart, Prince knew the moment was
out of pure passion, he is right, and you have to inevitable. He knew it because that’s the vision he
defend him for all you’re worth.” set his mind to achieving.

32
 TH E G LOVED ONE VS. THE P U RPL E ONE
Michael Jackson, wearing his signature single
sequined glove, performs in concert circa 1983.
In the minds of many fans, Prince’s chief rival will
forever be the King of Pop.

his shirt. Prince was passionate, but MJ

—arguably—was more polished. Jackson
certainly seemed to think so; he had
video of the event that he’d occasionally
watch with delight. (Anyone can now see
it on YouTube and judge for themselves.)
If rumors are to be believed, Prince
was also not pleased with how the whole
thing unfolded. In 2018, music-industry
impresario Quincy Jones told GQ that,
after the show, Prince waited in his
limousine to supposedly try and run
over Jackson, his sister La Toya and their
mother. Jones also told the magazine
what Prince said about the video: “Prince
told Michael he’d kill him if he showed it
to anybody.”
singer at a time could “cross over” and When Prince achieved a similar level
POP
BAT TLE
appeal to all fans. As a result, a mytholog- of fame with the 1984 album Purple Rain,
RO YAL E ical rivalry emerged, one that appears to the rivalry escalated, and some people
have become somewhat real. believe the first line of Jackson’s 1987

WAS Released on Nov. 30, 1982, Jackson’s

Thriller album still dominated radio play
hit song “Bad”—“your butt is mine”—is
directed at Prince. The Minneapolis star

IT A
throughout 1983 and well into 1984. was rumored to have been wanted as the
Prince oozed funk and sex while Michael villain in the Martin Scorsese-directed

RIVALRY?
exuded a child’s ebullience, a kid star music video (a part that went instead
who caught fame with his contagious to Wesley Snipes). In late 2006, during
smile. However, the fabled MJ-Prince Prince’s Las Vegas residency, he loudly
tug-of-war reached a fever pitch on played bass in Jackson’s face during a
> As Prince plotted his success in 1984, Aug. 20, 1983, during a James Brown performance—the pop star lived in
Michael Jackson was riding high as the concert at the Beverly Theater in L.A. Nevada at the time.
undisputed King of Pop thanks in large Both stars were secretly in attendance, There were other Prince foils, including
part to Thriller, the album that trans- and Brown called Jackson onto the stage Rick James, who thought Prince imitated
formed him from R&B star to global to perform. Of course, Jackson dazzled his style, and childhood friend Morris
phenomenon. For Prince to finally arrive, the crowd with a Brown-homage dance, Day. But, in the minds of many fans,
he needed to bump Jackson from the a spin and his signature moonwalk. Then, Prince’s chief rival will forever be Michael
airwaves and MTV. according to legend, Jackson whispered Jackson. Publicist Howard Bloom, who
Musically, their styles were different, in Brown’s ear to call Prince up to the worked with both artists, may have had
which would suggest there was room for stage too. It took a few shouts before the most accurate take. “Prince’s job was
both to succeed. But in the early 1980s, Prince hopped on stage and proceeded to be Prince,” he said in Let’s Go Crazy.
there was still a sense that only one Black to jam on a borrowed guitar and tear off “There was no competition.”
 CHAPTER 3

>
The movie poster for 1984’s Purple Rain features a purple-clad Prince straddling a purple motorcycle,
while leading lady Apollonia Kotero looks on from above.
E
Elvis, Little Richard, the Beatles—even Bill Haley—
all elevated their musical popularity by playing
versions of themselves on the big screen. So why
not Prince?
Well, there was the small matter of never having
acted in anything. His life may have been worthy of
a movie—but maybe not one that starred him. Few
entertainment insiders believed he had the ability
to be a successful leading man on screen. One studio
executive suggested that John Travolta, of Saturday
Night Fever fame, should play Prince’s role in the
proposed film that would tell his story. But Prince
told his management team he wouldn’t re-sign with
them if it didn’t happen with him in the lead role.
Prince also told bandmates he’d make the film with
his bodyguard “in the snow with a camcorder” if
that’s what it took.
Determination is one thing. But Prince also
needed a seasoned Hollywood hand to help him
make this foray a reality. Even with Prince and
his managers each contributing $500,000 for
development, financial backing and Prince’s one-
man-band confidence still wouldn’t be enough to
bring his ideas to fruition. (In fact, this was Prince’s

N E W L E AD IN G LA A DY
Apoollonia Kottero and d Prince in a scen
ne from m the
19884 mo ovie Purple Rain. The acttress and siinger
replaced d Vaniity in th
he film after the laatter was
unaable too reacch an aggreeable finnanciaal deal and
left the produuction.

36
 PRINCE

37
38
 PRINCE

second movie attempt. A concert film—to be called C HA R GI NG A HEA AD

Desspite havin ng no accting experiience,, Princce
humbly The Second Coming—was shot during the (at left) was determined to star in a fillm bassed,
Controversy tour but never was completed.) Prince’s howweverr loosely, on his life storyy. Thee wom
men of
Apoolloniia 6 (aabove), formerly Vaanity 6, in a scene
manager Bob Cavallo needed to find a screenwriter. m Purrple Rain: Bre
from enda Benneett, Ap pollon
nia
He hired William Blinn, the executive producer Kotero and Su usan Mooonsie.
of the TV show Fame, who had also won an Emmy
for his work on Roots, to write the script. In May
1983, Blinn submitted a script titled “Dreams,” the
standard story of a young musician trying to make Two days later, Magnoli was in Minneapolis
it. Prince was pleased enough. Now Cavallo had to meeting Prince—at midnight. Magnoli detailed the
unearth a director willing to work with his star. three-act arc of the main character overcoming
A 30-year-old USC film school alum, Albert an abusive father who had been a musician and a
Magnoli, won the job through a series of fortuitous cycle of violence to reconcile with his band. In a
events. He was working as the editor on the 1984 2019 interview with Variety, Magnoli recounted the
film Reckless, directed by film school friend James meeting: “Prince responded, ‘How is it that you just
Foley, and Magnoli screened a cut that Cavallo told me my life story in the last 10 minutes?’”
happened to see. Spurred by Magnoli, Cavallo then The two worked closely on the script for months,
sent the “Dreams” script to Foley. Magnoli had no but was the film autobiographical? Prince wanted
idea he was on the cusp of his big break. Foley didn’t the film to be his version of The Beatles’ film A
like the idea, and Magnoli called Cavallo to inform Hard Day’s Night, making a global impact with
him. But Cavallo still wanted Magnoli’s feedback, “an exaggerated version of his own life story,” as
and the two met for breakfast the following day. Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin later said. In
There, Magnoli had the gumption to tell Cavallo that the film, the Kid’s father is abusive, but Prince said
a writer-director needed to meet Prince and work on his father wasn’t. In the film, the Kid’s parents are
the story from the inside-out, not outside-in. interracial (Black father, white mother), but Prince’s

39
 TH E PL AYE R S
Couunter-clock kwise frrom left: Felllow Minneapolis
singger an
nd rivval Morrris Day playys the villain
n in
Purrple Rain; actor Cllarence Williams III tak kes the
role
e of Prrince’’s fathe
er in the film; Apolloniaa Kotero
at th
he mo ovie’ss Hollyw
wood premiiere att Mann’s
Chinese Theatre on July 26, 1984.

father said they were both African American. The

film did mirror some aspects of Prince’s life: the
competition that occurs within a band, late-night
songwriting and his rivalry with fellow Minneapolis
singer Morris Day, who would play the villain. “It
was a story, a fictional story, and should be perceived
that way,” Prince told MTV in 1985.

P
rince originally planned to have his
girlfriend Vanity, who had appeared in
several small movies, play the female
lead. Except Vanity demanded a better
financial deal from the producers, and
when it wasn’t granted, she left the project, as
well as her spot in Vanity 6. The producers quickly
scrambled to find a new leading lady. After singing
a rendition of The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four”
at her audition, Patricia Kotero, a California
native and the daughter of Mexican immigrants,
was chosen. Unlike Prince, Kotero had previous
acting experience. The former Los Angeles Rams
cheerleader appeared in music videos for Ray Parker
Jr. and Eddie Money and also portrayed a Native
American woman in the TV movie The Mystic
Warrior. Whether Kotero’s star-making name,
Apollonia, was bequeathed at birth or emerged
as a product of Prince’s imagination is debatable.
Apollonia claimed it was always her middle name,
while Prince said the name came to him by way of
a minor character in The Godfather. In any case,
Apollonia was charismatic and unintimidated by
Prince’s fame. The casting of veteran actor Clarence
Williams III—Linc from The Mod Squad—to play
Prince’s fictional father raised the professionalism
of the untested cast and especially helped Prince
play the dramatic beats of the script.
Magnoli set up a production office in Minneapolis,
and soon, the movie was happening. Acting and
dancing coaches gave members of The Revolution
three months of lessons to get ready for the
movie. The fact that Prince had no previous acting
experience may have been a boon. Band members
later admitted the longer-than-usual development
time on the movie helped Prince’s songwriting. He
was forced to slow down. After all, the songs for the

40
 PRINCE

Caption Header
Mus escius que periaspicium harcienima
vollacesequi conesto bla doluptatio cor
accusam ellorio destis quae cus essi

new album would either make or break the film. On aforementioned lake, she strips half-naked and dives
Aug. 3, Magnoli sat in the mezzanine of the club First into the nearby water. Only afterward does Prince’s
Avenue when he heard Prince & The Revolution character tell her it’s not Lake Minnetonka. It was
perform their new song. The director ran downstairs fall in Minnesota and freezing. Apollonia nearly
to get the name. Prince replied, “Purple Rain,” and went into hypothermia after her fourth plunge into
asked if it could be the movie’s title. the frigid water, and on the radio years later said it
With a new name and title track in place, filming was Prince’s warmth from hugging her while saying,
began on an auspicious date: Halloween. Weather “Please don’t die,” that allowed her to keep shooting.
didn’t become an issue until later when they shot Midway through production, Magnoli decided he
one of the film’s most memorable scenes: the “Lake needed a montage in the middle of the film to help
Minnetonka” sequence. On the Kid’s mention synthesize the movie’s themes. He commissioned
that Apollonia needed to “purify” herself in the Prince to write another song, and the next day

“It wasn’t a Black movie, it wasn’t

a white movie, and I think that may be
why it had its tipping point.”

41
PRINCE

42
 WO RTH
AN D TH H E OS C AR G O E S TO.. . . TH E
Prinnce, accommpanied d by Revolution memb ber WATCH ?
Lisaa Coleeman, acceppts the Academy Award d for
ginal song sccore for Purp
besst orig ple Raain in 1985,

THE
the last year an Oscaar would be prese ented for
thatt cateegoryy.

the star handed the director “When Doves Cry.”

Filming wrapped in January 1984, and “When
REVIEWS
Doves Cry” would become the year’s biggest hit.
In anticipation of the film, Warner Bros.—also the > It’s always tough to evaluate cultural-touch-
film’s distributor—released the single on May 16, stone movies like Purple Rain based on critical
1984. Soon, the popular song was in heavy rotation reviews. To fans, such films are perfect as they
on MTV. Now Prince hysteria was starting to swirl. are and almost defy close examination.
Purple Rain premiered on July 26, 1984, a day But, on its own, Purple Rain holds up. MTV’s
before the national theatrical release, at Mann’s Kurt Loder, writing for Rolling Stone, thought
Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Prince the film “may be the smartest, most spiritually
arrived in a purple stretch limousine. None of ambitious rock ’n’ roll movie ever made” and
the cast and crew really knew how the film was called it a “creative coup” for Prince.
going to be received, though some felt inklings of The Chicago Tribune’s Gene Siskel and the
a hit. On the red carpet before the film, singer and Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert both lauded
percussionist Sheila E. detailed what she was most Purple Rain. In a nice seal of approval for the
excited to see: “Prince … Prince … Prince.” Midwestern-set movie, Siskel said that the “film
ought to be studied for the way it uses music

T
he film made almost all of its $8 million dramatically” and favorably compared it to
budget back on its first weekend ($7.7 Saturday Night Fever. Ebert heralded Prince’s
million), knocking Ghostbusters—the Rain as “one of the best combinations I’ve seen
top-grossing movie of 1984—from its of music and drama.” The duo each placed the
perch for a week. It would go on to gross film in their top 10 list at the end of the year.
just over $70 million worldwide. Yet Prince worried The Hollywood Reporter also gave Purple
the moment might be the pinnacle. He later told Rain a glowing review, describing the film as
Paper magazine that “we looked around, and I knew “sensitive and highly visual, [and] an accom-
we were lost. There was no place to go but down.” plished and sophisticated example of story-
In fact, the opposite happened. Prince continued telling.” And what did the trade outlet think
to rise. He was a global sensation, singing, acting, about the acting? It was equally rave: “The
performing. And the movie that Revolution guitarist charismatic Prince and strikingly attractive
Lisa Coleman first believed would be a “cult movie” Apollonia Kotero as his love interest are (in the
was much more than that. Prince & The Revolution best traditions of musicals) a pair you root for.
revolutionized the music film and, as witnesses to Morris Day, lead singer of The Time, and Jerome
the purple mania, knew their lives would never Benton as his sidekick add notes of humor to
be the same. Indeed, in early 1985, Prince won an [the] emotionally charged production.”
Oscar for best original song score for Purple Rain, Noted New York Times reviewer Vincent
the last person to receive the award for the now- Canby didn’t like the film overall, but did call
defunct category. it “probably the flashiest album cover ever to
Purple Rain remains a cultural touchstone for be released as a movie” before a harder dig,
millions of Americans. The Library of Congress describing the film as “a cardboard come-on to
added the film to the National Film Registry in 2019. the record it contains.”
Jill Jones, a Prince backup singer and erstwhile The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael, one of the
Purple One lover who appears in the movie as a club most influential film critics ever, was probably
waitress, had her own take on the film’s success. “It the most practical of all: “It’s pretty terrible
brought all the races together,” said Jones in Let’s (there are no real scenes—just flashy, fractured
Go Crazy. “It wasn’t a Black movie, it wasn’t a white rock-video moments), but those willing to
movie, and I think that may be why it had its tipping accept Prince as sexual messiah aren’t likely to
point. [Prince] was speaking that language already— mind.” She also called Prince “a supercharged
he just caught hold of a shooting star.” version” of James Dean.
 CHAPTER 4

>
Prince attends the British Record Industry Awards, also known as the BRIT Awards,
at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Feb. 11, 1985.
45
O
WHH E R E IT B E G ANN
Thee Firstt Aven
nue club, seen at right in
n 1989
9.
Prin
nce peerform med regularly at th
he loccal
Minnneap polis venue during his eaarly years, and it’s
wheere hee deb buted “P
Purple Rain” for audien nces
for the first timme.

had been other such groups before them, it still

wasn’t certain that America was ready to embrace
what The Revolution symbolized.
“We were Black and white, we were girls and
boys, and we were traveling together,” Coleman
told Spin in 2009. “We’d go to truck stops in Bible
Belt country, and people would look at us like they
wanted to kill us.” Added Melvoin: “Pre-Purple
Rain, we were still seen as part of the underground,
psycho-punk scene.”
Prince wanted to make the “underground”
mainstream. If he could pull it off authentically,
the rewards would be enormous: not just popular
On April 10, 1983, Prince performed at Chicago’s success but an act that would be difficult—or even
UIC Pavilion, the final stop of the tour supporting impossible—to match.
the 1999 album. The album was, by all measures, Prince also understood that the timing was right
a huge success—selling 4 million copies in the for such a bold move. Michael Jackson had proven
U.S. and another 300,000 in the U.K. It was also that the world was ready for “crossover” artists if
groundbreaking for Prince: his first album to crack the music was right. And more and more young
the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and the first to result people were watching MTV—a 24-hour music
in a Grammy nomination (best male R&B vocal channel that offered something greater than radio
performance for “International Lover”). play: the chance to see what artists looked like as
But as the roadies cleared the stage in Chicago, they performed.
Prince felt he was facing a musical and cultural Of course, Prince was not the only performer who
career crossroads. How could he top his greatest saw the opportunity. The competition was fierce—
achievement to date—an album that produced two Jackson, Madonna and an entire roster of U.K. acts
top 10 hits (“Little Red Corvette” and “Delirious”)? that was vast enough to represent a Second British
Prince felt that the only way to expand on what Invasion about 20 years after The Beatles led the
he started with 1999 was to attract a bigger, and first charge. Author Michaelangelo Matos details
broader, audience. this transformative period in music history in his
Achieving that goal was the start of The book Can’t Slow Down. “You have a lot of music
Revolution. When his career began, the front- being made in this mid ’80s period that is attempting
line backing Prince were three Black men. The very strongly to reach beyond its own boundaries
Revolution was diverse in ways that were obvious and formats,” Matos told Forbes while promoting his
as well as subtle. Keyboardist Matt “Doctor” Fink book in 2020. “I think why that moment in music
and drummer Robert Rivkin (aka Bobby Z) were history feels relevant now is because it did that first.
white. Bass player Mark Brown was Black. Multi- Now nobody thinks about genre boundaries and
instrumentalist Lisa Coleman and lead guitarist limiting themselves.”
Wendy Melvoin were two white women. They Outwardly, Prince was a cocky and fluid
were also a couple, a fact that wouldn’t publicly be performer who seemed not to care what people
revealed for two decades. thought about him or his music. But, inwardly,
Prince saw The Revolution as an amalgam of Prince was a thoughtful observer who calculated
Fleetwood Mac and Sly and the Family Stone, his career strategically and planned his moves
another way to push his sound to a place that surgically. According to guitarist Dez Dickerson, the
transcended race and genre. But even though there 1999 tour audiences got “whiter and whiter each

46
 PRINCE

night.” Prince not only noticed, he filed it away in closer together because Prince—for perhaps the
planning the next album. first time—opened himself up to a freewheeling
With the preposterously ambitious Purple Rain exchange of ideas. In later years, Prince’s bandmates
movie well in the works, this album was destined said he was less of a lone wolf when it came to
to be a soundtrack. That meant it had a deadline: creating this new album. “There was a lot of
The release had to coincide with the film. Unafraid influence and input from band members toward
and notoriously able to work without sleep, Prince what he was doing,” synthesizer maestro Fink
went into overdrive. He and The Revolution spent told online magazine Pop Matters in 2009. “He
much of their time in a spacious warehouse in the was always open to anybody trying to contribute
Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, where Prince creatively to the process of writing.”
had a soundstage and recording studio built. It was In mid-1983, Prince delivered to Purple Rain
a cavernous space, but it actually brought the band director Albert Magnoli 100 songs he thought could

“There was a lot of influence and

input from band members ... He was always
open to anybody trying to contribute
creatively to the process of writing.”

47
48
 PRINCE

T HE PU U RP L E O N E
Prin
nce perforrms onsstage in a sccene frrom thhe
Alb
bert Magno oli-direccted Purplee Rain. The movie
andd the accommpanying album were huge hits,
tak
king th
he mu usician’’s fame to neew heeightss.

go into the film. Magnoli heard future hits “Let’s Go

Crazy” and “Darling Nikki” within the first 20 songs.
On Aug. 1, Magnoli arrived in Minneapolis to set up
shop for filming, but the soundtrack song list still
had not been finalized. Meanwhile, Prince & The
Revolution prepared for a 10-song benefit gig at the
local rock club, First Avenue, a venue they hadn’t
played in almost two years. At the last minute,
and just two days before the performance, Prince
decided to bring in a mobile recording truck for a
professional taping of the benefit concert.

I
t was there, for the first time, that Prince
played a ballad that he had secretly been
working on with crossover appeal in mind.
The song began with a long guitar intro by
Wendy Melvoin. The pace was far different
from the fast tempo of other new numbers like “I
Would Die 4 U” and “Baby I’m a Star,” both of which
would also end up on the movie soundtrack. By the
time Prince took the microphone, the audience was
not only transfixed, they were almost hypnotized.
Then the vocals cast the spell:

I never meant to cause you any sorrow

I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain

Thanks to Prince’s decision to record the moment

professionally, the first public performance of
“Purple Rain” not only ended up being the rendition
used in the film that would bear the same name, it
would also be the recording (with a few engineering
tweaks) that ended up on the album.
During editing of the completed film, Magnoli felt
he needed a new song to use in a montage. Prince
wrote “When Doves Cry” in a day and recorded it
in L.A. over nearly 40 hours across two days. “The

49
 FIN
N DI N G IN N SP IRA A TI ON
Prin
nce played d French h composerr Maurrice
Ravvel’s (at leftt) “Bolé
éro” constan ntly, to servve
as in
nspirrationn for wriiting songs for th he Purp ple
Rainn albuum. The sing ger (at rightt) perfforms at the
Ameericaan Mussic Awaards in 1985 5.

Ones,” one of Prince’s most intimate songs. Prince’s

father, John Nelson, wrote the bridge of the song
“Computer Blue,” noteworthy for the Jim Morrison-
like intro in which Lisa asks Wendy, “Is the water
warm enough? Shall we begin?” The version played
at the First Avenue show was over 14 minutes long,
double its final length on the album.

A
fter that August set, Prince unveiled
another batch of songs to the band.
Their reaction was that they seemed
too pop—not enough edge. Prince
responded with the risqué love song
“Darling Nikki,” with the infamous lyrics, “met her
in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine.”
Stylistically, the song stands in contrast to most
of the tracks on the album. It harkens back to
something that might have appeared on an earlier
work like Controversy. But if The Revolution was
worried about “selling out,” this song brought some
first time I heard it, I knew it was gonna be big, just balance back to the album.
from the piano hook,” road manager Alan Leeds To help inspire him, Wendy and Lisa introduced
told Rolling Stone in 2020. “It wasn’t a typical R&B Prince to classical composers such as Stravinsky and
lyric, but that hook was license to get crazy with Ravel. (Prince played Ravel’s “Boléro” constantly.)
everything else.” Lisa and her brother David arranged the string riff in
Winnowing the final track list was one of the the center of “Take Me With U,” the album’s second
most difficult aspects of the Purple Rain album. track. The movie plot twist about Melvoin trying
Two songs that initially made the album but were to get Prince’s Kid to listen to her new song comes
later cut included “Wednesday,” sung with Jill from a place of truth. “I think I influenced ‘When
Jones, and “Electric Intercourse.” The latter song, Doves Cry’ to the extent that Prince was engaged in
though played that August night at First Avenue, a healthy competition with us,” Lisa later said. “He
was jettisoned to make way for “The Beautiful was always thinking, ‘How can I kick their ass?’”

“The first time I heard it, I knew it was

gonna be big, just from the piano hook ...
that hook was license to get crazy with
everything else.”

50
 PRINCE

51
PRINCE

The collaborative—and competitive—mélange O N T H E R E D CARP ET

Devvo meembers Bob Casale, Marrk Motthersb baugh
worked. The Purple Rain soundtrack landed in withh then-wiffe Nanccye Ferguson
n, and
d Geraald
record stores on June 25, 1984, a month before the Cassale attend ollywood premierre of Purple
d the Ho
Rainn on July 26, 19844.
film, featuring nine songs and running 44 minutes
in length. It blended pop, rock and funk, along with
the trademark ballad, “Purple Rain.” Prince became
synonymous with the color purple, and the hysteria
surrounding the album pushed him into the realm of
immortality. Purple Rain sold over 13 million copies, said he was a “Prince groupie.” The strange celebrity
three times more than 1999, won two Grammys brew portended the wider audience Prince garnered
(best rock vocal performance by a duo or group for for his magnum opus. And for his part, Prince played
“Purple Rain” and best score soundtrack for visual the role of musical genius megastar to a T. For
media for the film), produced four top 10 hits from instance, he made the revelers wait before he took
its five singles, and stayed atop the album chart for the stage. MTV host Mark Goodman asked Melvoin
24 straight weeks. if there were any plans to go on tour. None had been
announced, but Wendy answered, “Yes,” nine times

F
ollowing the film’s premiere at Mann’s in a row.
Chinese Theater on July 26, Prince Finally, at 12:20 a.m., minutes into the same
bathed in his crossover success at a day the film would hit theaters nationwide, Prince
storied album release party held at the stepped on stage and performed the song “17 Days,”
Hollywood Palace. Sheila E. performed an unused track from the Purple Rain sessions,
four songs, including her hit “The Glamorous and a B-side hit from 1999, “Irresistible Bitch,”
Life,” and an eclectic group of celebrities attended before leaving the crowd in a frenzy by closing with
including Little Richard, Lionel Richie, “Weird Al” “When Doves Cry.” Prince ruled the night. Next up:
Yankovic and a bare-chested Eddie Murphy, who Conquering the world.

52
 an exception—and the singer’s reliance HI TMA K ER
TH E Purple Rain achieved the crossover
M A K ING on The Revolution. “Prince has chosen to appeal Prince had worked toward.
OF A
H IT reveal himself to us in a more meaningful
manner than the sexually explicit verbal

THE striptease of his best-known earlier

songs,” Palmer continued. “The band’s
of racial integration as the keys to the
crossover kingdom. “No album since

ALBUM
contributions do make the music sound Funkadelic’s Let’s Take It to the Stage
more alive and more sensual.” has so amorously bedded down black

REVIEWS
Even Prince opened up to the media and white pop,” Tate wrote. “It’s the
to review his own work because of the record Prince has been wanting to make
album’s blazing success: “I think Purple all along.”
Rain is the most avant-garde, ‘purple’ Perhaps the biggest praise for
> In assessing Purple Rain on July 22, thing I’ve ever done,” he told Ebony the album came four years after Prince’s
1984, New York Times critic Robert Palmer in 1986. death when the enthusiasm of novelty
made a prediction about the album: Hot Press writer Bill Graham was blunt could be replaced by perspective. In
“This listener suspects that long after about why the album succeeded. “If 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Purple
this summer’s hits are forgotten, and the Sam Phillips sought a white man with a Rain the eighth greatest album of
Jacksons and [Bruce] Springsteen albums Black sound and found Elvis Presley,” he all-time—four spots ahead of Michael
are packed away, ‘Purple Rain’ will still be wrote, “on Purple Rain, Prince oft adopts Jackson’s Thriller—describing it as “a
remembered, and played, as an enduring a reverse play, mocking up as the Black testament to Prince’s dream of creating
rock classic,” he wrote. man with a whitened sound.” a utopian top 40, a place where funk,
Palmer also credited Prince’s main- The Village Voice’s Greg Tate, one of psychedelia, heavy-metal shredding,
stream departure from salacious solo the country’s leading Black music critics, huge ballads and daring experimental-
efforts of the past—“Darling Nikki” was also picked up on the album’s context ism could coexist.”
 CHAPTER 5

>
Prince puts on a show for the audience at the Ritz Club on Sept. 13, 1984,
a prelude to the Purple Rain U.S. tour.
56
 PRINCE

I
It’s almost wrong to call the traveling live show
built to support Purple Rain a tour. It was more
like a mobile ecosystem. With a $300,000 stage,
13 equipment trucks, a crew of 125 people, three-
hour sound checks and 98 dates in 32 cities, Purple
Rain was a colossal tour. And the itinerant carnival
almost stopped before it started.
In one of the final dress rehearsals for the tour, on
the first time he tried it, Prince fell out of a clawfoot
bathtub, similar to the one that appears in the
played-all-the-time “When Doves Cry” music video.
While ascending on a hydraulic lift, Prince leaned
back in the fiberglass bathtub, which teetered, then
flipped over completely. Prince didn’t get up for
several minutes. But luckily for everyone, he was
only bruised.
Then there was the small, and unavoidable,
matter of anxiety. Three days before the first show
in Detroit, Prince worried that despite all of the
tireless preparation, the tour wasn’t ready. He
thought he would be “embarrassed.”

O N T H E RO O AD
Prin
nce, at his piano, and Apollon nia taake thee stage
durring a Purpple Rain
n tour stop in 198 84. Thee tour
had
d Prinnce & The Re evolution plaaying 98 daates in
32 citiess acro
oss the United Statees from Novvember
19884 to April 1985.

57
 Prince’s trademark confidence ultimately kicked PR I NC E FAN N CLUB
Fan
ns (ab bove) wait ouutside on thee firstt day of
in. He knew the staggering amount of work put Prin
nce’s six shhows att the Cow Paalace in Dalyy City,
into the show, and he didn’t want anyone, least of Caliif. The
e sing
ger (at right) perforrms at the Joe
Lou
uis Are ena in
n Detroit on Nov. 4,, 19844, the first
all himself, to get discouraged. For example, early stop
p on the to our.
in preparations, when five costumers swarmed
guitarist Wendy Melvoin as she stood on a box for
a fitting, the enormity of the show overwhelmed
her. This was her first full-fledged tour as the new
guitarist in The Revolution, and she felt self- repeated throughout the tour and almost became a
conscious while a costumer took her measurements. superstition. Then Sheila E. was sent out on stage to
Watching nearby, Prince called her aside to work up the crowd as the opening act.
talk. “You have to allow this to happen,” he said, Twenty-two thousand screaming fans sweltered
according to Melvoin’s interview with Rolling Stone inside the arena as Prince & The Revolution jammed
years later. “You have to allow them to do what it is for an hour and 45 minutes. The Detroit News
that they do. That’s why they’re here. And don’t feel review lamented the loss of Prince’s ribald style:
bad about it.” “Gone for now, and maybe forever, are the bikini
briefs, the leering sexual confrontation and lustful

O
n Nov. 4, 1984, the tour jumpstarted androgyny and the erotic outlaw posturing. This is
with a seven-night stand at Joe Louis clearly not the Prince of old.” Strangely, Prince was
Arena. Prince & The Revolution now being criticized for keeping his clothes on, and
had toured before, but as a club ditching the oversize bed of past shows for the less
band. Now they’d be playing arenas, sexually provocative bathtub. The band’s rococo
and expectations mushroomed. So did security. outfits, which changed numerous times through the
The band now had bodyguards. Prince prayed performance, and choreographed dance moves were
with the band before the show—a ritual that was also a new wrinkle. Prince was there to please.

58
 PRINCE

By the end of the tour’s first month, the band’s Cities for a series of five Christmas shows at the
groove improved and fan pandemonium accelerated. St. Paul Civic Center, Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich
The frenzy was surreal. In Washington, D.C., declared Christmas week “Prince Days.”
fans bought 130,000 tickets for seven November But not everyone was happy. Prince filled venues
shows in 10 hours. The Washington Post dubbed it across the country, but his show became a constant
“Princedemonium.” While in the nation’s capital, target of the Christian right. The ire was most
Prince closed down a salon and had the windows vitriolic from a hometown minister named Dan
blacked out just so he could get a haircut. He invited Peters of the interdenominational Zion Christian
former guitarist Dez Dickerson to one D.C. show, Life Center in North St. Paul, Minn. He chased
and when trying to meet up to go shopping, told him Prince across the country for five years, and the
he couldn’t go anywhere anymore for fear of being Purple Rain tour especially triggered his outrage.
mobbed. When the roadshow arrived in the Twin Peters implored protesters to show up at every

“Gone for now, and maybe forever, are

the bikini briefs, the leering sexual
confrontation and the lustful androgyny ...
This is clearly not the Prince of old.”

59
 AL L WA A R MEED UP
Mussiciann Sheiila E. (aat left) openss for Princee &
Thee Revoolutio
on durin ng a stop onn the Purplee Rain
tour in 1984. Critics were surpriised by the tour’s
morre poolished
d naturre and the faact thaat Prin nce
(at right) had ditched d the bikini briefss in favvor of
morre clo
othes..

come-ons, at least once asking, “Do you want to take

a bath with me?” Bruce Springsteen and Madonna
made on-stage cameos—joining Prince to sing
“Baby I’m a Star” in Inglewood, Calif.—which
solidified the fact that Prince owned the year despite
stiff competition.
The concert film of the tour was filmed at the
Syracuse show, held in the massive Carrier Dome.
Playing before a crowd of nearly 40,000, keyboardist
Matt “Doctor” Fink complained of the echo that
prevented the band from hearing themselves. He
later said it was a problem at all the large football
stadiums. This was just another wrinkle in the life
of a momentous musical event. Other problems
arose occasionally, like in Birmingham, Ala., when
Prince performance. One particular song really the hydraulic lift didn’t work. Nonetheless, they
enraged the minister: “Darling Nikki,” a fan favorite made the most of being on the road by editing the
that Prince usually played at each stop on the music video for “Take Me With U” in Houston.
tour. In the song, Prince croons, “I am fine, fine Prince also continued working on Sheila E.’s
because the Lord is coming soon.” It wasn’t enough debut album as well as writing new songs. He even
for Peters. incorporated a “conversation with God” portion
“The filthiest rock ’n’ roller ever to prance across of the show on tour, in which he would play the
the stage,” he told People in 1984. “Kids come up to song “Temptation”—a track that wound up on his
us and say, ‘See, that shows he is a Christian.’ And I subsequent album Around the World in a Day.
say, ‘As far as we can tell from listening to the lyrics,

T
his Lord is a penis.’” All the Peters controversy he band grew extraordinarily close. They
did was create even more fan interest, locally and even created their own visual language
nationally. (Prince’s mother and father, who had for improvisation. “The fun part was
raised him under stringent Christian adherence, watching him, because a lot of things
came to the St. Paul shows, but on separate nights.) didn’t happen unless he gave us visual
On the last night of the St. Paul shows, Prince added cues,” Lisa Coleman told Rolling Stone. “It was like
a whole-souled coda. “We belong to you forever.” a game watching him run around the stage, and he
With its pageantry and passion, the Purple Rain would do a slight move of his hand, which would cue
tour was wildly successful. “It was the greatest a riff or something.”
show on Earth. It was the greatest band,” Susannah The tour’s last show occurred on April 7, 1985, at
Melvoin recalled in Let’s Go Crazy. “It was perfectly the Orange Bowl in Miami. The final show was full of
sequenced. The lighting director, LeRoy Bennett, carnal impulses—on Easter Sunday, no less. Prince
was practically another band member. It was all just commanded the stage, declaring, “Happy Easter,
dialed in so perfectly. Every single night, I couldn’t South Florida. My name is Prince, and I’ve come
wait to see it.” to play with you.” Then as he rose on the hydraulic
Rolling across America, Prince & The Revolution lift, the star wailed into “Let’s Go Crazy.” The Miami
tried to give the audience something unique every Herald dubbed Prince the “Sultan of Sex,” going on
night. Prince often teased the crowd with suggestive to declare: “Not since 1969, when Jim Morrison of

60
 PRINCE

61
PRINCE

62
 P LAYI NG
TO THE
CRO WD

THE TOUR
REVIEWS
> After the Purple Rain tour’s first show in
Detroit, the early reviews did not bode well for
Prince & The Revolution. Billboard music critic
Nelson George wrote, “Prince has led us to ex-
pect him to reach for greatness, and this show,
for all his appeal, simply doesn’t do it.” Rolling
Stone’s Chris Connelly submitted that after
Prince’s strange stage prattle during a three-
song solo on the electric piano—and before
the final encore of “Purple Rain”—“many in the
audience filed out.”
These reviews were in the minority and most
criticisms lessened as the show progressed. In
January 1985, Maureen Downey of the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution surveyed the scene at The
TA K IN G IT H OME Omni, writing: “If Michael Jackson stimulates
nce (aat leftt) return
Prin ns to his nattive Minnessota,
perrforming att the St. Paul Civic Cente er Arena in the imagination, and Bruce Springsteen the
St. Paul on Deec. 26, 1984. Above e, the Purplle One conscience, Prince plays to the glands. His
launnchess intoo a guitaar solo on th
he tour’s seccond
night at the Rosemont Horizon, near Chicaago. 16,000 fans, male and female alike, showed
their appreciation with piercing screams of
approval and squeals of delight.”
On March 19, the New York Times’ Robert
Palmer opined: “One might have expected
The Doors was arrested at a Miami concert for Prince and his band to be a little tired of the
lewd behavior, has a rock ’n’ roll star come so close show after putting it on almost every night for
to depicting onstage what Ann Landers calls so long, but there was no evidence of that. The
The Act.” timing was briskly paced, the energy substan-
He played “Purple Rain” as the encore at the end tial … his current show is the most exciting and
of shows, and Miami was no different. But in the diverting pop spectacle we’re likely to see for
final show, he launched into a 20-minute rendition, some time.”
one of his longest ever. Entering that last show, By the time purple mania reached L.A. for
Prince had said he was going to retire from touring— six dates at the Forum, critics had few negative
at the pinnacle of fame—“to look for the ladder.” His things to say. “Embodying elements of James
road manager Alan Leeds didn’t even know what Brown, Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix, the
Prince was referring to, and it didn’t matter because brocade-clad dynamo belied his delicate
the singer continued to perform live anyway. appearance with some moves that should
What was clear was that the Purple Rain tour left go right into the rock hall of fame,” wrote Los
Prince tired of performing the song “Purple Rain” Angeles Times critic Richard Cromelin. “In the
and just tired in general. He later acknowledged best one, he made a diving swipe at the mike
the price the tour and the song exacted, saying, stand and hit the floor in time to catch it and
“It’ll be hanging around my neck as long as I’m keep on singing.”
making music.” Following the final show, the Miami Herald’s
Ultimately, his restless soul kept him going. His assessment of the show cut to the core of
next album was released on April 22, 1985, just two Prince’s crossover coronation, calling him “the
weeks after the Purple Rain tour ended. most sizzling act in rock.”
 CHAPTER 6

>
Prince performs at the Hollywood Palace to promote the opening of his movie
Purple Rain on July 26, 1984, in Los Angeles.
B
unimpeachable,” Jody Rosen wrote of Prince in the
New York Times a day after his April 2016 death.
Prince’s first 1984 target was obviously Jackson,
the “King of Pop.” Jackson’s Thriller stood atop the
charts as the year began, and remained No. 1 through
the week of April 14. Van Halen had launched their
aptly titled album 1984 in January; it rose to No. 2,
where it stayed for five weeks behind Jackson. Eddie
Van Halen, who guested on Thriller, and the rest of
the band, which featured playful singer David Lee
Roth, had their only No. 1 single “Jump,” and two
other top 20 hits, including “Hot for Teacher.” On
April 21, two months before Prince’s Purple Rain
album dropped, the Footloose movie soundtrack
reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. No
one could avoid the title song’s ubiquitous cry,
“Everybody cut footloose!” Next, after Huey Lewis
and the News’ Sports had a brief one-week stint,
Springsteen’s classic Born in the U.S.A. moved into
the top album spot for one month.
Then came Prince. Starting on Aug. 4, Purple Rain
grabbed, and held, the No. 1 spot on the Billboard
Between the movie, album and tour, Purple Rain 200 album chart for the remainder of 1984. The
was a total pop-culture phenomenon. It took an Purple One also overcame Cyndi Lauper’s She’s
achievement that immense to overshadow 1984’s So Unusual, breakout groups like the Eurythmics,
other top-selling acts, which included Michael Duran Duran and Culture Club, and legacy stars
Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Van such as Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Lionel
Halen. “With every song, every note, he aimed to be Richie and Tina Turner, all of whom were in their
the best, the baddest, the most wizardly, the most prime and still producing quality albums. With
Purple Rain the film, Prince even gave competition
at the box office, knocking Ghostbusters and its
breakout theme song by Ray Parker Jr. to second
chair for a week. Who you gonna call? By the end of
summer, the question was replaced with: Did you see
Purple Rain?
Who did Prince view as his competition? Maybe
it was himself. Having worked with both Jackson
and Prince, publicist Howard Bloom was in a
unique position to expound. “It wasn’t that we
were looking for competition and there wasn’t any,”
Bloom told Prince biographer Alan Light for his
book Let’s Go Crazy. “It was that, in [Prince’s] world,
everything dropped out of sight except for Prince
and the audience.” In the studio, creatively, few of
Prince’s contemporary acts, if any, wrote, arranged
and composed their own albums, as well as played
three or four instruments while doing so. (At least

TH E OT T HER R GUYS S
Prin
nce faaced a lot of healthy com mpetittion in
n 1984,
not leastt of which waas Michael Jackso on (at left,
with
h Edd die Vaan Halen n). Madonna (at right) was
o a rissing sttar at th
also he time, releeasing
g her second
dio allbum,, Like a Virgin, thatt Nove
stud emberr.

66
 PRINCE

67
VY IN G F OR T HE TO P
Rick James (below) was once seen
as Prince’s top rival since both their
debut albums came out in 1978.
Bruce Springsteen (at right, plaid
shirt) also provided competition for
Prince on the charts.

68
 PRINCE

not as well as Prince.) Few also had his endurance. equipment. Later, James told Rolling Stone, “I can’t
Whether Prince would admit it publicly, however, believe people are gullible enough to buy Prince’s
there were several musicians with whom he jive records.”
competed—and at times, exchanged fisticuffs. By the time Purple Rain caused the sonic quake
that it did, James was tired of the comparisons

I
nitially, because their debut albums came between him and Prince, especially because James
out in the same year (1978), Rick James was was 10 years Prince’s senior. Upon reflection,
the Purple One’s biggest rival. In November James later admitted a different root cause of the
1979, Prince went on tour for the first time as conflict: He didn’t believe Prince or his music were
James’ opening act. The tour comprised 11 very authentic. “I always felt our competition was
club dates, and then went on to 42 bigger venues in healthy, although I was jealous when he started
February 1980. James claimed Prince was stealing getting big,” James said. “More than jealous, I was
his moves. Teena Marie, then a James backing pissed … because I felt his songs and a lot of his stuff
singer, said James retaliated by stealing Prince’s wasn’t real.”

“I was pissed ... because I felt

his songs and a lot of his stuff
wasn’t real.”

69
KINN G OF PO OP
Michael Jackso on and producer Quincyy Jone es
arrivve at the 1984 Grrammy Awards. Jo ones tried to
dge th
brid he gapp betweeen rivals Jaackson
n and Prince
on more than one occcasion, but his atttemp pts
provved unsuccessful.

P
rince’s rivalry with Jackson was real, if
only because the Minnesota kid had to
overcome the massive Thriller craze to
achieve his own greatness. Before the
Purple Rain tour was even announced,
Prince whisked off to Dallas to catch The Jacksons’
Victory tour; he wanted to know exactly what the
competition was doing. Bloom says Prince viewed
Jackson as the Yankees to his Red Sox. The Victory
tour ended in December 1984, just as Prince was
stealing the spotlight.
Producer Quincy Jones tried to bridge the gap
between the two stalwarts by offering Prince a
chance to sing on the Africa-benefit song “We Are
the World” first. He turned it down. The exact
reason is steeped in lore, but it was recorded after
the 1985 American Music Awards—where Prince
won three. Was the snub because he didn’t want to
sing with Jackson? Some accounts say Prince was
upset he couldn’t play guitar. To save face, Prince’s
team said he wasn’t feeling well. Instead of laying
low, the “sick Prince” cover story became a problem
when the star and his entourage went to a club on
Sunset Boulevard the same night the “We Are the
World” track was laid down.
Prince waged a more playful rivalry with
Springsteen and Madonna. On Feb. 23, 1985, during
the fifth of the six L.A.-area shows at the Forum,
Prince invited them both to join him on stage
during an extended version of “Baby I’m a Star.”
Approximately seven minutes into the impromptu
jam, he said, “Bruce, do you want to play?”
Springsteen played some guitar riffs, and soon
Madonna joined in on the tambourine. Notably,
neither of them sang. They deferred to Prince.
There was another, closer-to-home Prince rival,
someone who could push and provoke him in equal
measure: Morris Day. Prince and Day had known
each other since high school. They were both in the
band Grand Central, which Day’s mother managed.
A few years later, Day’s band The Time served as the
Purple One’s adversary in both reality and fiction.
Prince overshadowed Day because The Revolution
ringleader created The Time and is believed to have
co-written two of their popular songs, “Jungle Love”
and “The Bird,” using the pseudonym Jamie Starr.
(Though, Prince denied that he was Starr.)

70
 PRINCE

71
PRINCE

T
ension between the two always A G O OD D TIME
Morrris Day (leeft) and
d Jesse Johnsson off the band
simmered. Because Day had been Thee Timee perfform att First Avenu
ue nightclub b in
bandmates with Prince as teenagers, Minnneappolis, Minn., in Decembeer 198 85. Prince
and
d Day spen nt most of their adu ult livees as rivals.
he wasn’t intimidated by Prince’s fame.
According to Morris Day’s book On
Time: A Princely Life in Funk, during the final show
of the Controversy tour, Prince’s band hurled rotten
garbage while The Time performed. Day writes Jackson-dig lyrics: “My voice is getting higher /
that it got “violent” after that, escalating to a fight. And I ain’t never had my nose done / That’s the
Another time, during the Purple Rain film shoot, other guy.” Shortly before Jackson died, he wanted
Day arrived to set late. Prince fumed and shoved to break Prince’s record number of shows (21) at
him. Prince’s bodyguard and The Time drummer London’s O2 Arena, and planned a 50-date showcase
Jellybean Johnson intervened before the altercation at the venue. Unfortunately, it never came to be.
went any further. “Of course, it would have went my “Mr. Jackson was always competitive about being
way,” Day jokingly told the New York Post in October compared to Prince,” Jackson’s bodyguard Bill
2019. “I outweighed the dude by a good 25 pounds!” Whitfield recalled in Let’s Go Crazy.
In the aftermath, Prince booted The Time from the Prince did smooth things over between him and
Purple Rain tour, or Day quit, depending on who you Day before it was too late. In January 2016, a couple
ask. In 1990, Day appeared in the unofficial Purple of months before Prince died, he invited Day and
Rain sequel, Graffiti Bridge, but after a 1999 concert The Time to play at a Paisley Park show. Afterward,
at Prince’s Paisley Park complex in Chanhassen, the former rivals talked for an hour. At the end of
Minn., they drifted apart. the conversation, Prince hugged Day and told him
Yet Prince still remained in a roiling competition he loved him. Day told an interviewer in 2017: “That
with Jackson, and vice versa. In 2004, Prince caught me off guard because that was the first time
released the song “Life ‘O’ the Party,” and its he ever said that in all the years I’ve known him.”

72
 play a show in Los Angeles, he sent the TH E BAN G LES
P E NNE D Vicki Peterson, Michael Steele, Debbi
BY
all-female band two songs he wanted Peterson and Susanna Hoffs.
PRI NCE them to record, one of which became the
group’s first hit. Prince reportedly was

THE attracted to Bangles’ singer and guitarist

Susanna Hoffs and offered the song to cosmic meaning in everything. I think

SONGS
the group because he also liked their we just took that song as far as we could,
debut-album anthem “Hero Takes a Fall.” then someone else was supposed to

HE GAVE
An infectious jingle, “Manic Monday” come along and pick it up.” The song be-
reached No. 2 on the charts in the U.S. “I came an international hit in 1990, rising

AWAY
remember going in and singing that song to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
and being on the mike and it was kind of O’Connor’s accompanying video—with
like red light fever,” Hoffs recalled to the its tight close-up—became a cultural
website Songfacts. When Prince listened touchstone. Prince later released his own
> Prince could be super competitive as to the track, “he was really thrilled with (live) rendition in 1993; it reached No. 62
well as ultra generous. In the landmark how it came out,” she added. on the R&B chart.
year of 1984, in addition to composing In 1985, “Nothing Compares 2 U” On June 7, 2019, what would have
tracks for Purple Rain, Prince crafted two didn’t make many waves when it was been Prince’s 61st birthday, his estate
songs that became future hits for The released by one of Prince’s protégé acts, released the album Originals, with 15
Bangles (“Manic Monday”) and Sinéad The Family. Then, in 1989, O’Connor demos the Minnesota legend recorded
O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U”). recorded a haunting version of the Purple before handing the songs over to other
Prince originally wrote “Manic One-penned song for her second album musicians. Both “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Monday” for Apollonia 6, but they never I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. “I and “Manic Monday” were among
recorded it. After hearing The Bangles love it, it’s great!” Prince said. “I look for the tracks.
 CHAPTER 7

>
The Purple One arrives at London’s Gatwick Airport on Aug. 10, 1986, for the first leg of his Parade tour,
which kicked off in the U.K. with three concerts at Wembley Arena.
P
Prince reveled in freedom. “I find freedom sexy. I
find freedom so sexy I can’t even explain it to you,”
Prince told NME in 1996. “You wake up every day
and feel like you can do anything.” Prince did just
that. After Purple Rain’s breakthrough, this innate
drive gave Prince the ability to affect musical genres,
fashion, and even morals.
He wore high heels, keened carnal lyrics,
created his own brand of “Uptown” funk, took
pop music in new directions for the music-video
age, experimented with drum machines, helped
popularize the new compact disc technology and
had paint colors named in his honor. Prince’s Purple
Rain era defined and refined him, and it became his
standard bearer in a far-from-standard career.
Eschewing gender boundaries and inspiring
a generation of the world’s youth to express
themselves as they pleased, Prince made an
indelible stamp on fashion. Early in his music
career, Prince didn’t wear many clothes at all. He
rode around Minneapolis naked on his motorcycle
to attract attention for his early bands. Sex sells, and
Prince knew it. Later in his career, he shocked with
butt-baring pants and sported ruffled collars and
numerous purple outfits and accessories.

76
 PRINCE

While his fashion evolved over the years, his C E N T E R STA AGE
A shhirtless Priince (att left) comm
mands atten ntion
bare-it-all approach put sexuality front and center. durring a showw at Cob bo Arena in Detro oit on June
At a performance at New York City’s Bottom Line in 7, 1986. The singer, pictured abo ove in
n the 1980s,
unddersto ood thhat sexx sells and ussed th
his facct to
1980, he appeared in a zebra-print, Tarzan-inspired greaat advantaage.
two-piece ensemble. Androgyny, and every shade of
gender identity, became less taboo in part because of
Prince and his wide-reaching popularity. Perhaps the most lasting societal reaction to the
By 1984, he rode around Minneapolis on a purple Purple Rain frenzy was Tipper Gore spearheading
motorcycle—clothed—turning a rock-star staple on the formation of the Parents Music Resource Center
its head by colorfully subverting the idea of the rider (PMRC), a committee advocating for warning labels
in black. The fact that the rider was Black was also on music containing explicit content. The wife of
part of the reason he jolted America’s sensibilities. future Vice President Al Gore formed PMRC with

“I find freedom sexy. I find

freedom so sexy I can’t even explain it to
you. You wake up every day
and feel like you can do anything.”

77
three other political wives in 1985, in the wake of PA R EN T A L A DV ISS O RY
Tippper Gore (bbelow),, representing the Pareents
hearing Prince’s lascivious lyrics. Mussic Reesourrce Centter, appearss at a Senatte
Tipper Gore compiled a list of songs that she heaaring on mu usic waarning labels in Washin ngton,
D.C., on Sept. 19, 1985. Dee Snider (aat righht)
called the “Filthy Fifteen.” Prince’s “Darling Nikki” testtified againnst the labels at thee sam
me heaaring.
was No. 1, and Sheena Easton’s “Sugar Walls”—
written by Prince—was No. 2. “I bought Purple Rain
for my daughter. We heard the song ‘Let’s Go Crazy’
on the radio, and Prince is a musical genius. I agree
with that, and I like some of his music,” Gore said in
a Today show interview with Bryant Gumbel. “But I Frank Zappa, John Denver and, memorably, Twisted
didn’t think the song ‘Darling Nikki’ was appropriate Sister’s Dee Snider testified before Congress,
for my 11-year-old, and my 8-, and my 6-year-old.” arguing the stickers would cause record stores to not
“Do you want to read the couple of lines from carry such albums. It was a legitimate fear; Walmart
‘Darling Nikki’ that you find offensive?” Bryant didn’t carry them. “A lot of people have the idea that
asked Gore. I’m a wild sexual person … To some degree I am, but
“I’d be glad to,” Gore responded matter-of-factly. not 24 hours a day,” Prince said in a Sept. 12, 1985,
“It says: ‘I met a girl named Nikki, I guess you could Rolling Stone cover story. “Nobody can be what they
say she was a sex fiend. I met her in a hotel lobby, are 24 hours a day, no matter what that is.”
masturbating with a magazine.’”

T
Gore wanted to impose a letter-rating system on he PMRC disbanded in the late 1990s,
music like the one the Motion Picture Association but the “Parental Advisory” labels
of America used for movies. The letter X would be remain. The brouhaha didn’t affect
used for profane or sexually explicit lyrics, O for Prince, and if anything, it helped drive
occult references, D/A for lyrics dealing with drugs more sales. “Any time Prince got bad
and alcohol, and V for violent content. The Record publicity, it helped him,” said Prince’s manager
Industry Association of America compromised, Bob Cavallo. (After Prince became a Jehovah’s
affixing black-and-white warning stickers to Witness in 2001, he removed “Darling Nikki” from
potentially offensive albums that proclaimed: his set lists for a time.)
“Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.” Musicians Prince was responsible for other innovations that
affected future generations. Aside from being an
early adopter of synthesizers, on 1999, Prince also
used a Linn LM-1 drum machine, and he perfected
the sound on his follow-up album Purple Rain. The
Linn LM-1 is most distinctive on that album’s “Let’s
Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry.” Today, people
still share stories online about trying to figure out
how he created the sounds on those songs. The
drum machine gave Prince a burgeoning electronic
resonance. (Trax Records co-founder Vince
Lawrence, a Chicago dance music pioneer, bought a
Linn drum machine to emulate Prince.)
Deejays also benefited from the Purple One’s
reign. Detroit radio deejay “The Electrifying
Mojo,” who hosted a renowned show on Detroit’s
WGPR, introduced Prince to Motor City listeners—
sometimes playing “Controversy” three times in a
row. The city became a hub for electronic and house
music producers such as Carl Craig. At his Chicago
club Warehouse, house producer Frankie Knuckles
constantly played “Controversy” as one of his
staples. In June 1986, during a rare on-air interview,
Prince thanked Mojo for playing his early “Uptown”
records before he was famous, which helped the
young Prince grow a Midwest audience outside of

78
 PRINCE

79
80
 PRINCE

L E AP S A N D B OUN DS
Thee sing
ger reeturns to his homettown venue e in
Minnneapolis,, First Avenue, to perform a reehearsal
shoow foor his Paradee tour on March 3,, 1986
6, in
suppportt of his eightth studio alb
bum.

the Twin Cities, and later America and the world.

Prince’s music became so popular that, when in a
bind, deejays anywhere on the globe can still turn to
one of his songs to maintain the dance energy.
“There’s no context required to appreciate the
genius,” electronic music titan Tiga told Vice in
2016. “You put Prince in any culture, any time,
anywhere in history and he’ll blow their f--king
minds. That’s mankind at its most potent. ‘This is it.
I’m one person and I will blow your mind.’”

T
his burden to wow the crowd had a
deep psychological impact on Prince.
It especially strained his relationships
with bandmates and girlfriends, of
which there were reputedly many.
Revolution members Wendy Melvoin and Lisa
Coleman coined the nickname “Steve” for Prince
during the Purple Rain tour. “Steve” was the guy who
wasn’t the narcissistic superstar, the one you could
go to the supermarket with and buy ice cream. The
fame affected Prince’s relationship with Wendy’s
identical twin sister, Susannah, who dated Prince
briefly in his peak purple period. “He had found
the thing that was going to throw him into the
stratosphere of stardom, but also that he couldn’t
stop,” Susannah Melvoin said in Let’s Go Crazy. “He
became more moody, more superstitious, more
compelled to keep his image solid and not break the
mold, and that became confining.”
Nevertheless, one positive effect of Purple Rain’s
megahit status is Prince improved his relationship
with his parents. Several of his father John’s
compositions are interspersed throughout the
album; Melvoin said Prince had a “reverence” for
his dad, for whom Prince bought a house. Around
this time, Prince also bought a home for his mother,
Mattie, where the one-time jazz singer turned social
worker lived until she died in 2002. His father died a
year earlier.

81
PRINCE

MAA S T ER O F T HE S TAG E
At le
eft, frrom to
op: Prin
nce shares the miicrophhone
withh guittaristt Wendyy Melvoin du uring a Dettroit
sho
ow thaat landed on n his birthdaay on June 7,
19886; thhe singger onsstage at Nasssau Coliseuum in
Uniondaale, N..Y., on March 22, 19 985.

I
n a way, the aftermath of Purple Rain never
arrived. There was no backlash because the
album avoided overplay. Prince released his
seventh studio album Around the World in a
Day on April 22, 1985, just 15 days after his
final Purple Rain tour show in Miami. The single
“Raspberry Beret” rose to No. 2 on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart, but the album, which featured a
more psychedelic sound, only sold 3 million
copies—a respectable number, though one that
paled in comparison to Purple Rain’s 13 million.
But funk legend George Clinton told Prince he
liked the first post-Purple Rain album, and that’s
all the praise that Prince needed.
“I think the smartest thing I did was record
Around the World in a Day right after I finished
Purple Rain,” he told Rolling Stone’s Neal Karlen.
“I didn’t wait to see what would happen …. That’s
why the two albums sound completely different
… I don’t want to make an album like the earlier
ones. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to put your
albums back-to-back and not get bored, you dig?”
One of the songs on the new album was called
“The Ladder,” and this seemed to explain Prince’s
near-the-end-of-the-tour comment about retiring
to find “the ladder.” It likely was a marketing tease.
Wendy Melvoin scoffed when biographer Matt
Thorne asked about Prince retiring after Purple
Rain. “Artists all say that. ‘I’m gonna quit,’” she said
in Thorne’s book Prince: The Man and His Music. “I
don’t know one bestselling artist … who doesn’t say
it. Just go have a sleep and a good meal.”
Prince did feel saddled by his big year. He knew
everything that followed would be compared to
his Purple Reign of 1984. “This is a business, and
when [the right] people are involved in it, you have
successes, and I understand that,” Prince told
CNN’s Larry King in a December 1999 interview. “I
knew there would be times where records wouldn’t
sell as much when I got away from those particular
people, but I was cool with that because success
pretty much is what you make it to be ... once I do
the music, it’s a success there, that’s it for me.”

82
 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis, in HO NOR IN G A L EGEN D
PLOTTING After Prince’s death in 2016, Paisley
the dead of winter—January 1986—and Park was repurposed into a museum.
HIS
ESCAPE Paisley Park opened on Sept. 11, 1987.
(Some facilities were in use prior to the

BUILDING official date.)

The $10 million, 65,000-square-foot height mimicked an arena space, with

PAISLEY
complex included world-class recording the capability to hang 2,000 pounds of
studios, a professional soundstage for rigging from any point in the ceiling.

PARK
tour rehearsal and film and video produc- Prince had an engineering team available
tion, offices and other production spaces. to him 24/7, so he could play in his play-
Prince craved the sprawling expanse. ground whenever he wanted—sleep be
“Space is a sound too,” he told Larry King damned. He recorded 29 of his 39 studio
in 1999. “It can be used very inventively.” albums at Paisley Park. According to
> Paisley Park was born in Prince’s mind Paisley Park was the perfect place for Thoeny’s website, it was “a very progres-
as a “place in your heart where you can Prince to invent. Working in conjunction sive, radical concept at the time.”
go to be alone.” After a grueling tour, and with Thoeny, acoustician Marshall Long Today, Paisley Park’s most important
recording not one but two albums, Prince designed the soundstage with noise location is The Vault, a secured room one
needed a full-service escape pod. control, vibration isolation and room-to- floor below the studios, where Prince
After coming up with the concept room sound separation and customized stored all of his output—song masters,
in 1985, during the height of his fame, the studio interiors. Long designed the live recordings and films. The complex
Prince hired a young Los Angeles acoustical isolation so that the sound- now serves as a museum. Fans can take
architect named Bret Thoeny to design stage could be used at concert levels guided tours and view artifacts from
his purple passion project. They broke even while the other studios were in use. Prince’s personal archives: memorabilia,
ground in Chanhassen, Minn., about At 12,500 square feet, the soundstage’s instruments and a purple piano.
 CHAPTER 8

>
Prince performs at the Grand Palais in Paris, on Oct. 11, 2009. Years of wearing heels during his performances
created hip problems for the singer, and he reportedly declined double-hip surgery that same year.
P
TH E ARR TIS T
Prin
nce (aat righ
ht), who
o changed his naame to
o an
unppronoounceeable syymbol from 1993 to 2000—
the one on dissplay heere—performs att the
Hollywood Paalladium m on March 8, 2014.

Larry King in 1999, the new symbol emblazoned on

a chyron across the screen.
If all that greatness was in the past, what did The
Artist think of it? Did it bring him any joy or pride?
From 1984 to 1992, he released an album a year. All
but one reached the top 10—two were No. 1. The run
of albums was amazing: Around the World in a Day
(No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart), Parade
(No. 3), Sign ‘O’ the Times (No. 6), Lovesexy (No. 11),
the Batman soundtrack (No. 1), Graffiti Bridge
soundtrack (No. 6), Diamonds and Pearls (No. 3),
and Love Symbol Album (No. 5). The Revolution
segued into the New Power Generation, and then
into other backing acts. Hit songs in his post-Purple
canon included “Kiss,” “Alphabet St.,” “Gett Off”
rince is dead.” The (the 1991 VMA performance in which he surprised
words flummoxed journalist Neal Karlen. It was us all with his ass-baring jumpsuit), “Cream” and
1993, and Prince discussed burying a time capsule “Sexy MF.” That last song kept Prince’s randy lyrics
at Paisley Park. He had also decided to change in the forefront with the obscene refrain, “You sexy
his name to a symbol that had no pronunciation. mothaf--ka.” The music produced in this period
“Prince” had been going nonstop for 15 years, the solidified his status as pop’s prolific royalty, but
nine since 1984 at a pace that could not be sustained. it was a breakneck pace. He had to do something
“Prince is dead,” the artist repeated, according profound to stop the ride. So Prince was no more.
to Karlen’s book This Thing Called Life. “That’s the On Valentine’s Day 1996, The Artist, then 37,
point of the time capsule … This is for history. He’s married 22-year-old bellydancer Mayte Garcia. The
done. There’s nothing more I can do. There’s nothing couple had grown close while traveling the globe
more I can add. I’m not needed.” together touring. The private ceremony was held
After critically successful albums in the 1980s and at the Park Avenue United Church in Minneapolis.
into the early ’90s following Purple Rain, the artist (Prince’s father wasn’t invited; it was during a down
wanted to reinvent himself. “[The name change] in their relationship.) All the while, Prince was at
sort of divorced me from the past and all the hang odds with his label, Warner Bros. Records. He did
ups that go along with it,” The Artist Formerly not control his masters, and therefore, he felt he was
Known as Prince—as the media dubbed him—told a “slave.” He split from the label in December 1995,

“Prince is dead ... He’s done. There’s

nothing more I can do. There’s nothing
more I can add. I’m not needed.”

86
 PRINCE

87
88
 PRINCE

LOO V E A N D MA RR R IAG E
Prince and hiis first wife, Mayte Garciia, see en here
in the Netherrlands in 1995, gre ew clo
ose wh hile
on tour. Theyy marrieed in 1996, but diivorce ed in
20000 aft
fter th
he deathh of their so
on, Am
miir, an
nd a
misscarrriage put straain on their relationship.

scrawled the controversial word on his face during

performances and continued his astounding pace of
music production. “My ultimate message is a cry for
solidarity amongst artists and a reprieve from the
greed of entertainment executives,” The Artist said
in a statement in February 1996.

M
uch worse tribulations loomed on
the horizon. On Oct. 16, 1996, Garcia
gave birth to a son that the couple
named Amiir. Health rumors swirled
about the newborn, and Prince
appeared on Oprah to dispel them. She asked about
the baby’s health and The Artist replied, “Our family
exists. We’re just beginning it.” Prince even showed
the famous host the baby’s nursery. But in truth,
their son had already died after a week from a rare
congenital disorder (Pfeiffer syndrome). “We had
to show people that we were strong, that we had
faith, and that we would try again,” Garcia told a
Hollywood blog in 2016. Soon after Amiir’s death,
Garcia had a miscarriage. The couple spent time in
Spain, but the tragic strain on the marriage pushed
them apart, and they divorced in 2000.
In 2000, The Artist returned to using his original
birth name. But he was no longer at the pinnacle
of the music industry. Because of his prodigious
output, his music had become too familiar. There
was no space to exist, let alone grow. By the end of
1999, Rolling Stone wrote about—and wrote off—
Prince’s decade, claiming he was “off the deep end …
settling into a routine of haphazard albums with two
or three good songs apiece.”
There were other strains. Wearing heels in
performances for decades created hip problems.
He reportedly refused double-hip replacement in
2009 because of his religious beliefs—he became
a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001. There were rumors
that he was addicted to painkillers. Yet Prince

89
 SE C O N D C O MIN G
Prin
nce an nd hiss secon nd wife, Man
nuela Testollini (at
left)), arriive att the 77th Annual Academy Aw wards
at Hollyw wood’s Kodaak Theater on Feb b. 27, 2005.
nce (aat righ
Prin ht) onsttage with musiciaans Do
onna
Graantis and Id da Nielssen at Warner Theeater on
Junee 14, 2015 5, in Waashington, D.C.

an aware guy,” Testolini explained to Rolling Stone

in 2017. “From his earliest music, he was talking
about social change and telling people not to be
complacent.”
Complacency certainly didn’t apply to Prince,
even as he secretly struggled with painkillers.
Despite not feeling well, he still played what would
turn out to be his final concert in Atlanta on April
14, 2016. The drive to wow still burned within
him. After that concert, Prince’s flight made an
emergency landing at Quad Cities International
Airport in Moline, Ill., because he was unresponsive.
Doctors injected Narcan, a lifesaving drug given
for opiate overdoses, and Prince recovered. This
fact wasn’t known widely until later. At the time,
Prince’s publicist said the star suffered from “flu-like
symptoms.” Then, on the morning of April 21, 2016,
a bodyguard found Prince’s lifeless body slumped on
the floor of an elevator at Paisley Park. The coroner
still produced new music. In 2014, he returned to ruled that his cause of death was an accidental
Warner Bros. after 18 years away with a deal that fentanyl overdose. Investigators later found several
gave him back ownership of the masters in his prescription drug bottles at Paisley Park that were
catalog. All told, Prince released 16 more studio in other people’s names.
albums in the 21st century.

T
But Prince kept something else mostly hidden he world was shocked. Most people
from fans. He was a generous philanthropist, had no idea of Prince’s struggle with
donating untold sums of money to various charities painkillers. Mourners turned the Paisley
over the years. Prince even met his second wife, Park complex into a repository for
Manuela Testolini, in 2000, through his Love 4 One emotional tributes, and many stayed
Another charity (at the time she was trying to keep outside for days. “Few artists have influenced
several nonprofits afloat). Although they finalized the sound and trajectory of popular music more
their divorce in 2007, she wanted the public to know distinctly, or touched quite so many people with
about his philanthropic side. “He was definitely their talent,” President Obama wrote on social

“Few artists have influenced

the sound and trajectory of popular music
more distinctly, or touched
quite so many people with their talent.”

90
 PRINCE

91
92
 PRINCE

PA
A Y IN G T RI B UTE E
A faan vissits th
he makeeshift memo
orial createed
outtside Princce’s Paisley Park ho
ome and stu udio in
Chanhaassen,, Minn.,, on April 233, 2016. Two o days
beffore, the siinger was found unnresponsive in an
eleevatorr and pronou unced dead shorttly aftter.

media. “As one of the most gifted and prolific

musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B.
Rock ’n’ roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a
brilliant bandleader and an electrifying performer.”
Prince died without a will, and his death caused
one of the largest—and most complicated—probate
court proceedings in Minnesota history. His heirs—
sister Tyka and five half-siblings (one of whom has
since died)—have wrestled for control of his estate,
which has an estimated value of $300 million and
is now administered by the Dallas-based bank
Comerica. Troy Carter, Comerica’s L.A.-based
entertainment consultant, serves as the manager of
Prince’s remaining trove of music, which is stored
in the basement “Vault” at Paisley Park. As many
as 8,000 songs are believed to be stored there. “I
want to make sure that Prince isn’t somewhere in
heaven giving me the side eye,” Carter revealed to 60
Minutes in April. “Whenever we find things that fans
haven’t heard, it’s like a victory.”

W
hen Carter first visited the Vault
to begin the process of digitizing
material, he discovered Prince
hadn’t been inside the space for
years before passing. It wasn’t
because the star didn’t have music to deposit. He’d
forgotten the password, so new material started
piling up in an adjoining room. A new album,
Welcome 2 America, will be released in July 2021,
and it’s expected there will be many more Prince
albums in the years to come.
The new music will undoubtedly be welcomed.
But it won’t be the reason why Prince will be
remembered. Prince will be remembered because
he can’t be forgotten. Funk, rock, soul, dance,
electronica, spoken word: He was a genre all his
own. Even his B-sides were hot—case in point,
1984’s “Erotic City.” His pop music dominion stands
in perpetuity, the guitar strains, the falsetto voice,

93
PRINCE

94
PU RPL E R E IG N P RIN CE
Prin
nce ellectrifi
fies thee crowd duriing hiis Super LIV E S
ON
Bowwl Halftimee Show performancce in 2007 in
Miaami, despitte getting pummeled byy pourring
n. He ended
rain d the nine-song se
et withh whatt else
butt “Purrple Rain.”
THE NEW
the sexual verve. He wasn’t Black or white. He was
ALBUM
the artist creating a painting, and as he believed,
we were the “paintees.” Prince’s talent was so
preternatural that when he told Detroit deejay “The > On July 30, 2021—11 years after it was re-
Electrifying Mojo” during a 1986 radio interview, corded at Paisley Park Studios—a new 12-track
“my way is usually is the best way,” it wasn’t Prince album, Welcome 2 America, will be
arrogance. It was a statement of fact. released by the administrators of Prince’s
estate. The enigmatic album is the first com-

I
n 1981, before he cemented his legacy, a prised of wholly unheard new music from his
New York Times headline asked: “Is Prince storied Vault since the singer’s death.
Leading Music to a True Biracism?” Within Beginning in 2010, Prince embarked on a
the piece, critic Robert Palmer made an astute two-year odyssey of the same name, playing
observation, writing “the music transcends more than 80 concerts. However, despite the
racial stereotyping precisely because it’s almost all tour, the album was never released, and Prince
Prince.” (He played all 27 instruments heard on his never explained why he opted to shelve it.
debut album, For You.) That was three years before “Music, it ain’t milk. It don’t expire,” said
Prince certified his genius in 1984. Prince vocalist Shelby J. on 60 Minutes in April.
On April 14, 2016, Prince staged what would be his And though the album was recorded more than
final concert, at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. As his encore, a decade ago, Shelby thinks the album is “right
he sat alone at a piano, his hair picked out in a round on time” given the current state of American
Afro, and performed an emotional final song. It was, culture. “He calls it exactly like he sees it,”
of course, “Purple Rain.” she added.
Seven days later, at age 57, Prince was dead. But In a press release, the Prince estate de-
the legacy he created is destined to live on—most scribed the album as “a powerful creative
likely forever. statement that documents Prince’s concerns,
hopes and visions for a shifting society,
presciently foreshadowing an era of political
division, disinformation and a renewed fight
for racial justice.” The 12 songs, in order, are:
“Welcome 2 America,” “Running Game (Son
of a Slave Master),” “Born 2 Die,” “1000 Light
Years From Here,” “Hot Summer,” “Stand Up
and B Strong,” “Check the Record,” “Same
Page, Different Book,” “When She Comes,”
“1010 (Rin Tin Tin),” “Yes” and “One Day We
Will All B Free.” The deluxe edition of the album
also contains live concert recordings from April
28, 2011, amid a 21-show run at the Forum
in Inglewood, Calif., during the Welcome 2
America tour.
The title track, a spoken-word-infused
groove which is already available on streaming
services, begins with a slow bass line and the
intonation, “Welcome 2 America, where you
can fail at your job, get fired, rehired and a get
a $700 billion tip.” Prince also waxes prophetic,
saying calmly, “truth is a new minority.”
PRINCE

EDITORIAL DIRECTION BY
10TEN MEDIA, LLC
Executive Editor Bob Der

Creative Director Ian Knowles

Managing Editor Scott Gramling

Senior Editor Vickie An

Art Director Crhistian Rodriguez

Writer Xavier Van Allen

Production Editor Corinne Cummings

Copy Editor Monica Riese

Researcher Erika Berlin

BAUER MEDIA ADMINISTRATION

CEO, President Steven Kotok

CFO Bill Houston

Executive Vice President, Group Publisher Jeff Wellington

Executive Vice President, Consumer Revenue Eric Szegda

Executive Vice President, Production Gena Kelly

Vice President, Consumer Marketing Holly Oakes

Vice President, Sales & Shopping Marketing Melissa Meredith

Consumer Marketing Director Melanie Piselli

Circulation Manager Bill Fiakos

Published by Heinrich Bauer Publishing, LP. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without prior permission of the publisher
is prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A.

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96
PRINCE
IN 1984
 “TRY TO CREATE. ...
JUST START BY CREATING YOUR DAY.
THEN CREATE YOUR LIFE.”
– PRINC
CE