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Prince is a strange cat, isn’t he? I mean, the dude looks about thirty-four years old when he’s really fifty-four. He’s also quite the erratic diva. Not only did he declare the internet to be “dead“ about two years ago, but he’s got a long history of changing his name from “Prince” to “The Artist formerly known as Prince” to some unpronouncable symbol and then back to “Prince” again. Maybe that’s where P. Diddy gets it from, right?
As odd and diva-esque as Prince often shows himself to be, he’s still an institution. I still love listening to his old tunes like “Raspberry Beret,” “Little Red Corvette,” and (my absolute favorite) “When Doves Cry.” Unfortunately, his new tunes aren’t nearly as catchy and are pretty weak. He’s got a new single out, “Screwdriver,” that proves this point. Still, Prince will always be able to sell concert tickets, and this May, he’s going to be honored honored with the 2013 Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards. So he sat down with Billboard for an interview to promote something indefinite. I don’t know what he’s promoting, actually, because his upcoming album neither has a name nor a release date, so I guess he’s just pimping his awful new single. Here are some excerpts:
He’s very paranoid: He remains adamant about not allowing reporters to record their conversations with him. (“Some in the past have taken my voice and sold it,” he says. “I can’t remember the incident that triggered it and it’s probably best that I don’t.”) And he still frowns at the idea of a reporter taking notes. (“That would be just like texting.”)
Why he turned against his record label: “It was always about Madonna. She was getting paid, but at the same time we were selling more records and selling out concerts on multiple nights.”
On Maroon 5′s cover of “Kiss”: “Why do we need to hear another cover of a song someone else did?” he quips in the interview, noting that he has no problem with artists performing covers during live shows. “Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what’s already there.”
[From Billboard]
Madonna and Prince have always disliked each other, and they’re both divas from the same era, so there’s definitely no surprise that they’ll never be friends, and Prince definitely is one to hold a grudge. He’s probably been stewing over their rivalry for quite some time (while Madge probably hasn’t thought of him in years), and now Prince blames her for making him dislike Warner Brothers when everyone remembers how he wrote “slave” on his face to express his true distaste with corporate music. He’s so fickle.
On the Adam Levine/Maroon 5 bit, I’m guessing that Prince isn’t so much offended that someone remade his song as the fact that he didn’t get a cut of the profits. There’s nothing wrong with a well-covered song (lately, I’ve been going crazy after reaquainting myself with Marilyn Manson’s take on The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams”), but I can also see why Maroon 5 would fail to impress Prince.
Here are some photos of Prince performing in France in 2010 and 2011. He’s got a great stage presence even if he is an incorrigible grouch.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and Billboard
Written by Bedhead
Posted in Adam Levine, Feuds, Madonna, Prince
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Bedhead, you’re too nice.
this dude looks like a typical plastic surgery victim – wayyyy older than 54 imo!
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Are we looking at the same pictures? He looks amazing.
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No he is 54. I know people who went to high school with him. He was very, very smart and very, very shy. And he looks great for his age, we should all be so lucky.
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Sandy… OMG I hope I look that good at 54!!! He looks GREAT:-) But beauty is in the eye of the beholder…
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Ha ha. I do love him, even if he has become a crotchety little thing.
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He has ALWAYS been a crotchety lil diva, but I can’t help but love him. I just want to bounce him on my knee!
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Prince is so, so full of shade. Never change!
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He is the f’ing KING! I finally got to see the above tour in Charlotte in 2010 and he was as freaking amazing live as ever.
Dude can say anything he wants, he is PRINCE! He is a real musician, a great guitarist and has a catalog of over 30 years of stellar music. I am not going to faulty him on one single.
You also have to give him props that he performs all his hits every night because he thinks his fans deserve to see the old, big hits. Not just his new stuff. I’d pay to see him again and again.
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I saw him last year at the stadium show and then at a small 200-person venue right after the show. He’s no longer on the pop charts, but the purple dude still has the voice, moves and presence of a superstar. You can tell he honestly loves music – he played the after party until 5 am, standing 8 ft from his fans, giving his amazing band the spotlight while he rocked out on bass. I’ve been obsessed with him since I was a kid, so it was like a dream come true for me.
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He is an AMAZING guitar player. He is such an amazing performer overall, but I don’t feel like he gets enough props for his spectacular guitar skills. He is seriously one of the best of all time. When people talk about Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendricks, Eddie Van Halen, etc., they should also be including Prince.
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Oh man.. I would LOVE to see Prince. He’s effin’ amazing.
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Oh man.. I would LOVE to see Prince. He’s effin’ amazing.
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I saw him at Madison square garden several years ago. I barely got tickets, All 3 shows sold out within an hour . The man can put on a show.. He Is king!
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Even if screwdriver is weak, for Prince, it’s still better than anything that most current pop artists could produce. A bad Prince record still tops a good Adam Levine one. The little purple man is a legend, and rightly so.
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Yep. He’s not resentful, he’s just honest lol, and people hate honesty!
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^^THIS!!
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That man is in his MID 50′s.Unbelievably good genes Just wow!!
Many people think it is funny how he changed his name to ‘the artist…There was however a very good explanation. His former record lable BANNED him from using his own name, saying they had the rights to it. It was all straghtened out in the end, but it would piss anyone off to not be allowed to use your birth name.
I get what he is saying though, everyone in Hollywood is either remaking a song, movie or book. A little creativity in song/movie writting would be great these days.
Price has VERY high standards, I mean he told Kim K to get off his stage. He knows what quality is and is not.
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I was at that show here in NYC. It was great when he kicked her off. She just stood there like a fool. And, he played for about 3 hours that night. I first saw him in ’89 and he was just as good. He is a bit weird, but I think he is is seriously underrated and genius. I don’t like all of his work but in comparison to the sh*t that has been produced the last 20 years, he really is great.
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What??? Kim K got kicked off the stage by Prince? When? How? Why? Details please!!!!
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She got her people to arrange her getting on stage at one of his concerts, Prince promted her to dance, and she JUST STOOD THERE. He laught and told her to get off the stage.
At that point I don’t think he knew who or what a Kardashian was.
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He played at Madison Square Garden about two years ago, and he brought various people up on stage to perform. For some reason K.K. got up there, and while I forgot what song he was playing, she was just kind of standing there, and he was like, “Get the f*ck off the stage,” or something like that. I loved it because I can’t stand her.
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Thank you; I was going to say the same thing regarding the name change.
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Prince and Madonna actually made a track together in the 80′s, but I don’t think it ever got released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC_ChkyiHqY
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I thought he wrote some of her songs too
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It was released on Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” album… was it the 1990′s? Think I may still have it somewhere.
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Yes, it was on Like a Prayer, I remember it distinctly. Wow, haven’t thought about that album in years .
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Prince, Michael Jackson and Madonna were born all in the same summer…
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Hmmm, interesting!
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3 Legends!
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Kate Bush, too.
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I love the cover of Annie Lennox’s “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson even though I always say, “Dude . . . your voice,” halfway through it.
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Prince was on Madonna’s Like a Prayer album. So at some point they liked each other. I think he sang on it too.
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I think it was called “this is not a love song”?
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“(This is not) a love song” was written and recorded by Public Image in 1983. There’s a very good cover version by a band called Nouvelle Vague too:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/nouvelle_vague/this_is_not_a_love_song.html
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Why would he not profit of the Kiss remake? He did write that song, didn’t he? So he gets paid.
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Actually I think alot of his so called grumpy wierd behavior is explained by the shitty deal he got from his label. The most valuable part of your recording contract is the publishing rights and I think he lost his (many artists don’t know not to sell them off for cheap in the beginning). Hence the name change and refusal to play the songs in concert for ages etc. So no, he probably got nothing from the Adam Levine cover. If you are curious, look up what happened to the guy from Creedence Clearwater Revival. He got sued by his old label for sounding too much like himself.
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Yep. John Foggerty. What a world.
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Legally, a cover is not the same thing as a the recording by the prior artist that’s part of their catalog. You can cover someone’s song w/o necessarily having to pay them – that’s not part of the “catalog” – but playing their recording, that is part of the catalog and might require payment. Laws in this area are kind of weird, but generally you can cover a song w/o it involving IP issues. A straight up cover is treated differently than use of a sample, which is treated differently than use of a catalog item. Like I said, weird.
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MJ (well, now his estate) owns a big chunk of the Beatles catalog, so the estate gets paid when a Beatles song that’s in part of their catalog gets airplay, but not every time someone does a Beatles cover.
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I love Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams. I was a teen in the 90s so it reminds me of that time.
I’m not impressed with Adam Levine either. I don’t understand how a squeaky voiced singer like him got famous. He has the most grating voice of this era. He sucked on American Horror Story too. I’m glad his part was tiny.
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Thank you! Adam Levine and Maroon 5 are incredibly overrated IMO. My father heard one of their songs on the radio and thought it was a woman or “is that the Taylor Swifty people talk about” Hate Adam Levine. Prince all day, every day and Purple Rain was awesome
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So funny your father thought Adam Levine was Swifty – thanks for the chuckle that is the best
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TX Lane, you’re dad is awesome! Lol!
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Can we talk about the turtleneck in those shots? Ugh! He used to be so hot. Who wears a turtleneck in concert?
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The best version of “Kiss” is done by Tom Jones and The Art of Noise – I like it better than the original!
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CO-SIGN!! Still have that one on my playlist.
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Late to the party, but must say “yes yes yes” to this. I like a lot of Prince’s songs, but Mr. Jones and Art of Noise owned “Kiss”.
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I love me some Prince but he is one crazy motherf*@ker I don’t think money is the reason he hates when people cover his songs. I am pretty sure its just control. There is the infamous story of him threatening to kill Sinead O’Connor for covering Nothing Compares 2 U because he wanted his protege to use it. And he has done plenty of covers himself he probably is just jealous and sending Levine death threats as we speak.
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Prince jealous of Adam Levine ? You must be mad.
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He wrote that song for Sinead because they were lovers at the time. So I highly doubt that he threatened her for singing it!
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Wait, what?!?! Prince and Sinead were lovahs??? I had never heard that before! Her rendition of that song is amazeballs, by the way.
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Bullsh*t. That song was written for one of his many side projects, “The Family”, and was released a couple of years before anyone ever heard of Sinead O’Connor. I know because I have the record it was on. I bought it in 1985, and Sinead O’Connor’s first album didn’t come out until 1987, and Nothing Compares 2 U was covered on her second album, in 1990.
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Bullsh*t. That song was written for one of his many side projects, “The Family”, and was released a couple of years before anyone ever heard of Sinead O’Connor. I know because I have the record it was on. I bought it in 1985, and Sinead O’Connor’s first album didn’t come out until 1987, and Nothing Compares 2 U was covered on her second album, in 1990.
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“Nothing Compares to U” was NOT written for Sinead O’Connor. It was part of Prince’s catalog waaaay before she did the remake. And they were NEVER lovers.
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I think she covered it without his permission, it was definitely an old song by the time she got to it.
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Yeah crazy trampy Primce from ’80s was fun, but lets be honest he really hasn’t had a hit since around 94. And he became soooo Godawful pretentious. Try to be cool again please!
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Dude. He’s been nominated for 17 Grammy awards since 1994, most for best R&B vocal, and he’s won 3 of them. I don’t know what rock you’ve been living under, but people who aren’t selling records don’t get nominated for best vocal performance, best song, best album, etc. at the Grammys. His last nomination was for best solo rock vocal performance in 2010, his last win was in 2008, for best male R&B vocal performance.
In fact, he’s had almost as many nominations and wins in the last 9 years as he had in the 10 years before his “dry spell” from 1996-2004, where I don’t think he recorded anything.
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Artist-songwriters like Prince, Corinne Bailey Rae and Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins blow me away.
To be able to sit down and write a song like Purple Rain, is pure genius. That kind of music is timeless.
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The name change was a contract issue and he chose a symbol so he could seamlessly transition back to Prince when that issue was resolved. It was not as strange as people think
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It was actually a lot smarter than people imagine.
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Prince is AWESOME, that’s all.
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All musicians get bitchier with age. I love him, but he can have a seat with Morissey, Johnny Rotten, and Elton.
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I love Prince for giving me the period in my life when I loved Prince.
But new Prince, uh, not so much.
And I’m actually a fan of song covers. It’s interesting to hear different interpretations of a song…and sometimes I even prefer a cover to the original
(i.e. Wonderwall cover by Ryan Adams vs original by Oasis)
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Totally agree with you mia girl – have you heard Annie Lennox’s album of covers, Medusa? It’s amazing – everything from Neil Young to Bob Marley.
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Two great covers:
Jack White singing Jolene
Adele singing Love Song
They both brought something completely different to those songs. Awesome.
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One of the worst things I ever heard was Jack White doing a live cover of Jolene. They were having technical issues, and he was basically screeching the lyrics over feedback. It was horrible.
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Jaded – Love “Waiting in Vain”
bluhare – YES! Adele’s – Love Song is amazing and is another cover I prefer to the original (was never my favorite Cure song). Her take on it made me love it!
Jack White = god.
Another favorite cover of mine is Ray LaMontagne’s cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” (I love the original as well)
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I love Adele but the Cure definitely do their own song better. Her version was kind of boring. Theirs had more heart.
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I agree with Babbie.
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I saw him in conceert last year and he did not disappoint. Massive presence….but he’s is beyond a diva. He would leave the stage after a song and only come back to do another if the crowd cheered loud enough for his liking. But Purple Rain live…I mean…it was all worth it just for that. Amazing.
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Would love to hear Purple Rain live! Alas, Prince has never come to Africa.
He actually said that every fan of his needs to experience Purple Rain live at least once in their life.
I think Prince has earned his stripes to be a bit of a ‘diva’ He is a living legend, many musicians have come and quickly faded. He is still around,music savy kids of today probably know his classics.
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I saw Prince in 2010 in Canada..phenomenal. He was so friggin hot & sexy..these pics are dreadful. Purple Rain live..best musical experience of my life. I actually cried, so moving.. and Prince`s guitar skills are so underrated. He was very gracious & did a three hour concert. Prince threw his head back throughout the concert laughing and smiling. He could feel the Canadian Love.
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YES!! I believe EVERYTHING Prince Roger says…
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Prince is amazing.
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Challenge him to a game of basketball! Then let him make pancakes for you!
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Great reference, that was so damn funny!
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BEST.EPISODE.EVER.
Seriously on my down days I watch it to make me smile, Charlie Murphy’s E-True Hollywood Stories are hysterical.
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Thank you for this post! I’m laughing from memory
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It was shirts vs blouses
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Prince is the shiznit.
If he had beef with Madonna, it’s her fault.
If he doesn’t like Adam Levine it’s Adams fault
If I found out that he didn’t like me, I would acknowledge the fault as my own and try to correct it.
The man wrote purple rain, wears bright yellow ass-less chaps and high heel boots. Clearly he is a gift from God. Praise b to the purple one!
(And if u r wondering if I’m obsessed….yes I am)
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Preach!
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Word. He can do no wrong. He’s simply an amazing musician. And watching him perform live i(I’ve been to about 5 of his shows, some big some small) is mind-blowing. Wether it’s an old hit or a new riff you’ve never heard of – and may not even particularly like at first – he makes magic on stage
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Preach it more!!!!
Prince just RULES.
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Love that comment. ‘I would try to correct it.’ I’m giggling like a goon.
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Will always LOVE Prince. The Purple Rain album is part of my life history. He’s a nutter & genius and he’ll just get more wierd as he gets older and I’ll still love him for it.
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This
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I love Prince and that is all I will say.
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Prince is a musical genius. The man bleeds sheer musicality. If you’ve never seen him live, make it a point to. He’s got more talent in his pinky finger than most artists have in their entire bodies.
My favorite Prince anecdote was from Fred Armisen (SNL). Armisen is a musician (he played in punk bands long before he was on SNL). He freely admits that the reason he started doing the Prince impression on SNL was because he thought it might increase his chances of meeting his hero.
Anyway, Armisen told the story of how he was at a party Prince was at, and he approached him to pay his respects. Prince was sitting and eating a plate of macaroni and cheese. Fred shook his hand and said, “I’m such a fan, I think you’re amazing.” Prince’s response? “You know what’s amazing? This mac and cheese!” LOL! I don’t know why, but I think this is hilarious.
If you want to be blown away, go to Youtube and look up Prince playing the solo on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It was at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for George Harrison, and the song is being played by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison (George’s son). What’s SO fun to watch is how blown away THEY are by Prince’s guitar work. Their faces are in awe, and they’re all looking back and forth at each other like, “Holy ****!” Then, what I can never figure out is that at the end of the solo, Prince throws his guitar up in the air and leaves…but you never see the guitar land! Lol I don’t understand where it went?
Prince is an extremely underrated guitarist, btw. He doesn’t get the credit that he should.
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I’ve got it on right now. They are awesome, and Dhani looks just like his dad. Thanks for the heads up!
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My husband laments the very same thing! He says during that rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” he just does that solo like nobody’s business and he never really was acknowledged for his guitar skills. And that’s on top of his piano skills and his writing talent. I don’t think I can fault him for finding today’s newer generation of “talent” a bit pale for his taste when it comes to pure raw talent.
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Prince had a great quote about today’s musical stars…something to the effect of, “It took me 4 albums to get on the cover of Rolling Stone! Four albums! Nowadays, artists don’t even have to wait till their 4th hit song!” And he’s right. Careers aren’t cultivated anymore. Artists like Springsteen, Prince, Fleetwood Mac, and so on, would never have hit it big if they’d started in this era of music. They would have never been signed in the first place. Well, maybe Fleetwood Mac, but only if the record companies could turn all their stuff into dance songs and make Stevie and Christine dance around half naked and lipsyncing…
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valleymiss: You forgot the part about Christine and Stevie talking in interviews about how being half naked and lip synching is empowering to women everywhere.
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I am more nekkid than my mind can even digest!
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I just watched it. I cannot condone much of what Prince does but I find him immensely talented and that was an amazing rendition. Thanks for alerting me to it.
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Great Prince story! That just reminds me of the Prince stories from Chappelle show. He whooped there ass in basketball(while wearing a blouse!) and then made them pancakes!
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I just watched it! I think I had a guitargasm! Prince definitely never got recognition for being a ferociously amazing guitar player. He made that solo his bitch!
And really…where did the guitar go? LOL!
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He throws the guitar in the air. I am getting too many chuckles out of this thread.
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But…it didn’t come down. LOL. He threw it up in the air and just strutted his fabulous ass off the stage. Where did the guitar go? A mystery for the ages…
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Maybe George caught it.
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HA! Perhaps he did.
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C’mon! “Seven”! “Let’s Go Crazy”"! “Delirious”!
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I raise you an “I wanna be your lover”
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Ah but Purple Rain is part of the sound track of my life!
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Yeah…the Purple Rain soundtrack was such a big part of my youth. But so were a LOT of Prince albums. I particularly loved the LoveSexy album…it had some really great songs on it. Under the Cherry Moon, too. That movie was kind of awful, but I remember my bff and I went to see it in the movie theater…we might have been 14 or 15 at the time. When that first guitar riff from “Kiss” started the audience went wild and started singing along to the top of our lungs. It was awesome.
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Maybe he should Madonna tell to act her age not her shoe size, and then maybe they can do the twirl. She doesn’t have to be cool to rule his world.
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I still feel his Super Bowl halftime show is one of the best I even seen. The man has earned his stripes and I would give up a cup size to see him live.
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Best one I’ve ever seen by a long shot.
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Love Prince but he is incredibly fickle. I wanted to download his music a couple years ago and I was astounded by his catalog. He has released so much music it’s insane.
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Some people’s bitchiness is like glorious manna to me. Prince is one of them. The man is a genius and I live for his side-eyes and smack-talkin. I hope one day to see him live in concert before I die.
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YES to all of this. He’s a legend.
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This…so MUCH! His side eye is glorious.
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He needs a porkchop–the guy looks like Liza Manelli.
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Many artists are total a–holes, which I think includes Madonna and Prince. But, at least Prince has the talent to back it up. He’s one of the singularly most talented singers of the 80′s (besides singing, he writes his own songs and plays all of the instruments in the studio). That makes me cut him a little slack when he acts like a pr-ck.
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Prince is the bomb. Always has been and always will be. Sadly under appreciated.
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Prince has such musical talent and work history and integrity that he’s allowed to be a diva. He’s one of the select few that I would pay to see in concert. And I will NEVER forget the assless chaps. Good God.
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well, he obviously has been influence by little richard, james brown and MJ….
so while he is right re: today’s ‘talent’ or lack thereof, all artists have been influenced by others-noone lives or expresses their ‘musical genius’ in a bubble…
oh, i read a coffee table book one day in the bookstore-it was by keith richards….and he was asked about different artists-of MJ he said ‘he’s a fantastic singer-but he must not like himself with all that surgery’ and for prince, he said ‘I’ve always thought he was overrated, an overrated midget’.
which i thought was strange-wonder if his diva antics have ruffled a few feathers?
Prince has his place, to be sure, but there are MANY musical geniuses that began before or during his era….
It’s just such a low point in music today-and yes i feel old saying that-every old person says ‘back in my day it was so much better’, right?
but really, there used to be MUSIC made.
Actual, real life music.
Somewhere around the early 2000′s is when it really went downhill.
At least just prior to that, we had some pop stars who could sing-and write their own songs.
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Yes, there were other musical geniuses in that era and before…does that make Prince any less a genius?
And Keith Richards always seems to have a bitchy comment about someone.
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Agree with you Irm Lived through the 80s and Prince dominated Also something happened to all genres in the late 90s that deflated the quality in all genres, i’m a rock fan and what passes for rock is weak not close to prince let alone zeppelin, but as long as people still pay for poor quality that’s what we’ll get. The best music of the 80s is much better than today rock, pop, urban. You’re not alone.
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I don’t read this as him blaming Madonna for anything. It sounds like he was selling as many records as she was and making the record company as much money, but she had a better contract and was getting paid more. He may even have been working harder than she was at the time. That would probably piss anyone off.
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Bedhead – Manson did proper covers of “Personal Jesus” and “Tainted Love”, for your collection
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Agree with a lot of you. Being responsible for Purple Rain, Let’s Go Crazy, 1999 etc etc Prince gets a free pass from me.
I don’t think we’ll be discussing Maroon 5′s contribution to Music in 20 years time
Or Justin Bieber’s either 
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He’s blunt and I relate to that. He’s right, there is nothing wrong with covering someone else’s song…. live. But when it comes to recording another’s song, it needs to be way more of a rarity. There is a true lack of creativity these days. I love the Internet and technology, but it is partly to blame. There are not enough of us that just put down our iPhone, iPad, walk away from the computer, tv and use our own imaginations to create something spectacular. Another example are all the damn movie remakes. I don’t even watch movie remakes. Unless it is another movie that is made from say, the same novel, etc. And I’m all about song writing, so I’m very particular and mostly disinterested in remakes of anything pertaining to music.
Regarding the business aspect of his situation (e.g., Madonna), I wasn’t there, so I have no educated opinion on what went down.
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Love reading about all these Prince memories. My Prince memory – STRANGE as it will probably sound to most – was going to see Under The Cherry Moon at the movie theater . . . less than 10 of us in the whole theater that afternoon I’ll bet . . . it closed after less than a week . . . but I LOVED THAT MOVIE for some reason. I was actually bawling at the end of it because I found it so moving (Mountains plays at the end). . . and seeing this movie is what made ME obsessed with Prince for a time . . . so weird . . .
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Prince isn’t getting bitchier, he is a born bitch and that’s a compliment. Remember when he was doing the group interviews, showing up whenever because ‘he doesn’t believe in the concept of time’ and telling everyone he was Italian (while hitting the Dark & Lovely)? I don’t even have anything to say about it, I just present to you: Prince!
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Yes! Thinking back on those interviews makes me chuckle now, but I hung on every word and gesture when I was 15. He was doing that avant garde artist thing before Lady Gaga was an itch in her daddy’s scrotum, but it didn’t come off as the least bit unauthentic…just Prince being Prince. I remember the MTV awards when he wore those yellow assless pants. My mom happened to walk into the room just as he turned around to reveal his little hairy ass. She just smirked and said “he’s a weird little biscuit, isn’t he?” and walked out of the room. Ah, Prince. How I love you.
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Purple Rain is my absolute favorite album and film of all time!
Prince is a genius and I just love him love him love him!!
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He’s a musical phenomenon, but I’ve always had the impression he sucks as a human being.
I caught “Purple Rain” last week on cable after a hiatus of over 20 years. I didn’t realize before how bad that movie is (Apollonia? Who were they kidding?) but the music was, and still is, unbelievable. “Purple Rain” was his best album IMO. It’s been all downhill from there. He should never have disbanded the Revolution. They were one of the best back-up groups of all time.
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New Power Generation = cramazing.
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YES! The Revolution was awesome, but NPG took it to another level.
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Prince is a legend.
He shouldn’t even be written about in the same sentence as Madonna, who is nothing but a talentless whore who is able to pay for great producers.
As for Levine, Prince wasn’t dissing him per se, just making a comment about the practice of selling covers rather than simply playing them live.
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Certain people get to a point where they have The Pass. Prince is one. Prince can do whatever the hell he wants and there is not a goddamn thing anybody can say about it. Adam Levine is talented, I think his voice has a vaguely Frankie Valli quality to it, and he can write a song – and even tho I know he’s a total douche, I find him sexy as hell and would let him do unspeakable things. That said, when it comes to PRINCE, Adam Levine is a speck of dust on a piece of the glitter that gets stuck to the bottom of Prince’s high-heeled boots. Tommy Girl WISHES he could rock those boots. I saw Prince in the late 90s and it was seriously an *erotic* experience. There is a vid on youtube that has JAMES BROWN, MJ AND PRINCE on the same live stage. I’m surprised the entire planet didn’t spontaneously combust that night.
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Screwdiver is pure funk. I love Prince.
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Wow, he actually came forth with that about his war with Warner Bros.? I’m proud of him. He used to be way too prideful to fess up about such things.
I’m in Minneapolis, and the man is still a demigod here, even though he only performs a couple times each decade. He has however earned it. And I don’t blame him for finding Adam Levine silly, given what Prince did to become what he is/was. He performed all the instruments on and fully produced his first album, and it sounded like what the “greatest,” most fiscally bloated producers -wish- they could do. His admittedly creepy Svengali projects throughout the 1980s actually worked. And he is one of our greatest living guitarists and frontpersons.
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P.S. I know a couple of shortish men who are hard on themselves about it. When I tell them Prince is five-four, they perk right up.
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he looks like the bad guy from Aladdin
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Adam Levine should thank his lucky stars Prince endeavored to mention his name in the first place. As much as I enjoy looking at Adam, I have no doubt he wishes he had even a 10th of the talent Prince posesses.
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