E-mail a friendPrince
airdate April 28, 2009
Prince is among the most talented musicians of his generation. He's created a rich and varied music catalog and was partying "like it's 1999" back in 1982. That album, 1999, made him a star, and Purple Rain took him to another level. He's one of very few musicians who writes and produces all of his music and, on most of his albums, plays all the instruments, except for brass. The son of a jazz pianist, he's won seven Grammys and an Oscar and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004—the first year he was eligible.
Oscar-winning singer-songwriter talks about his experience with record labels and the Internet. (1:36)
Full interview. (16:19)
Prince
Tavis: Welcome back to night two of our conversation with my man, Prince. I'm still holding these papers from last night. I didn't even change clothes. (Laughter.) Then again neither has Prince, but he looks good all the time anyway.
When we last left --
Prince: Well, actually, I changed. (Laughter.) This is the double of all the same stuff. Tavis is the one who didn't change, though.
Tavis: Yeah, yours is double, you got two of those.
Prince: There you go.
Tavis: Well, if it works for you, it works for me. I changed, too. I got two of these. (Laughter.)
When we left you last night I had these papers in my hand. We were talking about some of the song lyrics on his new CD, "Lotusflow3r." You know it's out -- three CDs in this package: "Mplsound," "Elixer," and "Lotusflow3r." So three CDs in the package at Lotusflow3r.com, if you want to get it.
We were talking last night, though, Prince, about some of the lyrics, and we talked about "Dreamer." I didn't get to these other three. Can I ask you about "Colonized Mind?"
Prince: Yeah. "Colonized Mind" has to do with the state of the union right now, the state of the union for all of us -- not just Black, not just White, but all of us. Yesterday we spoke a little bit about how I was raised, and my father, he was a very strong individual who demanded a very high standard from me in everything.
You said something very interesting, is that I could have turned out a mean person. I do have that side of me, but what I try to do is I, to the best of my ability, funnel it back into the music. Larry Graham is a dear friend of mine, I just want to say what's up to him and Tina and Aaron and Latia -- I'll be home shortly. I'm having a lot of fun out here, though, so. (Laughter.)
I just want to say something -- Larry has got a volatile side to him, too. He told me a story once -- I hope you -- Larry, I got to tell this. This is -- I just got to tell it. (Laughter.) One time, Larry and Freddie from Sly and the Family Stone are on their way to a gig to open for Jimi Hendrix.
Now, right then I'm shaking, can't wait to hear what's about to go down. On the way to the gig they pick up some of their amplifiers and their car is loaded with these amplifiers, right?
It's hard to see, but they're driving and they're late trying to get to the gig. They either hit this guy or a guy runs into them, but there's an accident, right, in the middle of the street, New York. Larry jumps out the car, whups this dude's backside. (Laughter.) Freddie's with him. They're both from Oakland so you know what time it is, right? (Laughter.)
I don't even want to see what the other dude looked like, okay? So it's like he got that side to him, right? And I just -- I was just taken by that part of the story. But then I asked him, I said, "So when you got to the gig, like, what happened? Who won the battle between you and Hendrix?" And Larry said, "Oh, we spanked him." (Laughter.)
I said, "Wait, wait -- you spanked Jimi Hendrix?" He said, "Yeah, we spanked him." That's Larry Graham, man. So it's like, same thing with him -- if you listen to his music you can hear the bass and the funk. The anger is in songs like "People" and "Water" and "It Ain't No Fun to Me," and stuff like that. So that's what I learned from. That's my teacher.
Tavis: "Colonized Mind." Two more I want to ask you about. We referenced this last night on the show -- "Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful." I love the -- I love the song, but I love the title.
Prince: It's about telling folks to celebrate and stop hating. There are references in the song, though, to a record executive who we've had some pretty interesting conversations. And there's a line that says, "You tried to do me like my good brother Steve," all right?
What we believe happens in the music industry is this -- is that you can put out a record and SoundScan refuses to count as many as they actually sell, but you get paid on what SoundScan says that you sold.
So if it's a lone number then you only get paid on that number. Meanwhile, when you go overseas and you check some of the barcodes and titles over there, they've already ripped you off several different times in several different ways.
Also with the influx of the Internet no sales then you've really gotten your bank account emptied out. So we never really knew what "Purple Rain" sold. I don't know to this day. I only know what they tell me. We're conducting an audit, but who knows?
Tavis: A whole bunch.
Prince: Yeah. (Laughter.) Well, we suspect.
Tavis: "Old School Company" on "Mplsound."
Prince: Yeah, that's just an ode to how I grew up and what we used to listen to, and there's a few current references in regards to bailouts given to banks and things like that, whereas there's a lot of us in the 'hood still going through the same stuff.
Now, it's interesting -- I don't live there anymore but I have to take care of a lot of people that live back there, and it'd just be best to -- I hear a lot of talk about redistribution of the wealth and stuff like that. It'd just be best to let us try running things on our own for a minute. Give us our master tapes back. Let us sell, just like you sell.
If you go to the Internet you'll see artists with 51 million hits. They say there's, like, 200 million people on MySpace. That's a nation, okay? I would shudder to look at their bank records with the music that goes through there.
Tavis: Depending on one's perspective, you are either a genius for doing stuff like this -- doing it yourself, distributing it yourself, et cetera, et cetera -- you're either a genius or you are a hater of the industry, a hater of the way things have been done, ought to be done. Tell me the strategy behind your doing what you do these days.
Prince: Well, first of all, there's no hate involved. I welcome the industry to stay and remain the way it is. It's actually good because when I'm sitting talking with somebody like Anita Baker, we can point to the industry as the way we don't want to do it anymore.
We don't believe in free goods and we don't believe in 90 percent of the contract the way it's written now -- the standard contract. We don't believe in 360 deals. Anybody that signs one of those are absolutely crazy. But it's a free country; you can do whatever you want.
The thinking behind this was to introduce a new artist to the world, somebody who's very dear to me. And her music is soothing -- it soothes me. I'm not a big fan of male vocalists. Usually when I do ballads I use my higher register because I love the female voice doing slow music.
I spoke too soon and mistakenly compared Bria's music to Sade's music. I didn't mean that she sounded like Sade, but I did mean that there's a romance that is present in Sade's music that -- like the song "Love is Stronger than Pride." It's one of the most beautiful tunes ever, and there's a romance that was missing in today's music.
And the best thing I could tell Bria was try to do something that is not happening today. Try to get into a niche, because you have a beautiful voice but you've got to do something with it that you don't hear. And that's what she's done, and it's one of those sleeper records that if people play and listen to all the way through, she got you.
Tavis: Why am I not hearing a lot of this on the radio?
Prince: I think it's because I'm not signed with a major label. Target is not a record company; they're a distributor and retail store, and a very good one at that. Thirty million people go through their stores every week, so they get a chance to pick up the "Lotusflow3r" record.
The beautiful thing about the relationship is that they're treating us like any other record company. They buy the same amount and they pay the same price, so we've done quite well already.
Bria's taken care of, I'm taken care of. I hope to do more deals like this with artists like Anita Baker and John Blackwell, Rhonda and Renato. We're trying to work on some jazz things right now. But time will tell.
Tavis: It was pretty amazing to me, though, that without radio -- it's just me talking -- without radio airplay, with a sole, a singular distributor, you end up missing number one when this thing dropped by, like -- it's like Maxwell Smart -- missed it by that much. That was serious.
Prince: Well there again, that's when the fighter in me comes out and I think about Jack Johnson knocking somebody down three and four times, and then they still say he lost the fight or something.
SoundScan said that it was number two. Other charts say that it was number one. So it doesn't make a difference to me one way or another. What makes a difference to me is that history is told truthfully, and that's not always the case.
I love golf and basketball and sports and boxing especially because it's mano-y-mano and we hold our own at the box office. It would be wonderful if it was on the radio. It's shocking that it's not. There's stuff on there -- all of "Mplsound" you could put on the radio tomorrow.
But there's some resistance to it. You'll have to ask your friends at radio. The few I've asked haven't given me a straight answer yet, so I don't know.
Tavis: If you had a station or a string of stations that you were the program director of -- owner and program director -- what would it sound like?
Prince: I would just want it to be good music, and I'd want it to be littered with artists who own their master rights. Because without that, they don't own any wealth. They can't put back into their community. There's very few artists that do own their masters right now. When that changes in the future, you'll see more radio stations being purchased, you'll see airwaves changing ownership rapidly.
Tavis: Because you obviously are -- you told that Jim Hendrix earlier and because obviously you are one of the greatest guitarists of our time --
Prince: Man, I like this show. (Laughter.)
Tavis: You know why? We just tell the truth around here. We just tell the truth. I'm just trying to be a truth-teller.
Prince: No, you're (unintelligible) thank you.
Tavis: Thank you. What do you make of this Guitar Hero?
Prince: Oh. (Laughs.) Well, I ain't mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that. But I just think it's more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It's a tough instrument -- it's not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it's cool for people who don't have time to learn the chords or ain't interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things.
To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings, and I would -- I don't know, I wish it upon everybody. It's heaven.
Tavis: She's one of the three records -- "Elixer," by Bria Valente, in this new three-CD package at Lotusflow3r.com. Tell me how you found her. I'm going to talk to her in just a second, so you're going to give me the lead-in here.
Prince: She says that she met me first, and that's what she told me. I say that I met her first. I will say this, that Morris Hayes was very instrumental. He's my keyboard player. He's very instrumental in us actually coming together.
And once we got together, it was -- we clicked. It was pretty easy. And the most interesting thing about her is how rapidly she picked up understanding of scripture, because I pretty much talk about that with everybody I know because it informs my life so much now.
The other thing is that she's really funny and she likes to laugh, and you know, Travis, I love to laugh. (Laughter.) So -- no, I'm kidding.
Tavis: Yeah, he's funny. Yeah.
Prince: I'm kidding, I told her I was going to say that to you one time. (Laughter.) That was for her.
Tavis: You got it out. And on that note, you can get out of here. (Laughter.) His name is Prince. His new project is called "Lotusflow3r." It has not one, not two, but three CDs in it -- Bria Valente, "Elixer," Prince, of course, "Lotusflow3r" and Prince, "Mplsound." It's all good stuff. Prince, I love you, and there ain't nothing you can do about it.
Prince: (Laughs.) Love you back.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. Appreciate it.
Back to April 28, 2009