"My first recollection of seeing him was a dress rehearsal
for one of his early tours. I was next to another musician, a couple
other guys that were up-and-comers and that thought they were hot shit,
and we were watching Prince. The guy turned to me and said, "I'm fucking
embarrassed to be alive." And that's how I felt. He was so good. It was
like, "What are we doing? This guy is, like, on a different planet than
we are." It was showmanship, it was rock & roll, it was fun, it was
great. I think it helped everyone around. It made us all think that
Minneapolis wasn't the dour town that we tried to pretend it was. He was
like a ray of light in a very cautious place. He was a star. He made no
bones about it. He was glitz to a place that wasn't used to it. I
remember a little scuffle broke out in front of the stage one night and
Prince said, "Stop fighting, you'll mess up your clothes."
The first time I met him was at a urinal at a nightclub in
St. Paul. There he was, and I said, "Hey, what's up?" And he answered,
"Life." One word: "life." And I can't say that we went on to be pals.
But we did record a lot at Paisley Park, and he became comfortable
enough to grace us with his presence, not bejeweled and not dressed up.
He'd be wearing maybe his jammies and sweat pants or maybe a pear of
jeans and sneakers. He could sort of just hang out. He may have been a
little more normal than he would've liked people to know. That's the
treasure that we got, to be able to sit in the big atrium where you're
taking a break and Prince shuffles by in his slippers and makes some
popcorn in the microwave.
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