When my co-worker/entertainment editor of The Michigan Chronicle said let’s go to Prince’s hotel after that show and try to get an interview with him, I was there. (No ruffled shirt this time. He sported a bright yellow suit like only he could). When Prince jetted north to the Motor City for a birthday show months later, I was there, having just moved to Detroit in 1985 for my first job.
When Prince released an album, a movie, an interview, a TV or magazine appearance or anything else in those days and until his death April 21, your boy was there or trying to be there, captivated like the rest of the world by the singular talent, the music, the message, the entertainment, the trip that he was always taking us on. When Prince protege, the late Vanity, appeared at the television station where I interned in Houston to promote her film, “The Last Dragon,’’ I was there to nab an interview with her for my first writing clip.
PRINCE MUSICOLOGY LIVE DETROIT MOVIE
I was on a family trip and went searching for an anniversary card for the parents and basically stumbled upon history in the making blocks from our hotel.)Ī year later, when Prince stormed Houston’s Summit with his torrential Purple Rain tour, I was there, drenched in celebration and nostalgia over the movie and the filming I witnessed (think Cloud Guitar and Appolonia scene). When my older brothers told me they saw Prince working the soundboard at a show for his protege group The Time in our little hometown of Jackson, Mich., I WISHED I was there.īut when Prince took over parts of a downtown Minneapolis mall to film a scene from the-movie-that-no-one-knew-would-become-the-rock-’n-roll-classic, Purple Rain, in 1983, yes I was literally there this time. (Did this guy just say what I think he said? my 16-year-old self muttered.) Two years later, when my older brother was looking for someone to tell about this amazing new Prince CD, “Dirty Mind,’’ I was there - all ears.
When Prince's first national siren calls energized the radio airwaves in the forms of “Soft and Wet’’ and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,’’ I was there.