Prince (#16) | Evan’s 111 Artists

Pretty wild, Bill Wilson interviewed me at BMG Corporate nearly 30 years ago. Our 8 year run together there and at AOL changed everything for me, he remains my mentor and a lifelong friend.

Here we are together at my special place, which he too fell in love with- Playa Pelada, Costa Rica.

Yesterday after a late morning surf in trunks at Swami’s while birdy went for a walk and read on the beach, I told her I am writing about Prince next. Most days I listen to my digitized CD & bootleg collection on random, and today I landed on a live Prince track called The War.

How have I never heard this before?

I was 20 minutes in and thinking, wow, I just discovered a Prince gem. “The Evolution Will Be Colorized” and a jazz vibe that I related to Digable Planets from the early 90’s.

I first saw Prince on MTV when I was 12 or so, it was the video for Little Red Corvette. Pop, but there was more to it. He was glam, pretty feminine yet incredibly tough/mysterious.  I was not yet on to lead singers who danced, and his moves were something, I am not sure if I knew who James Brown was at this time, probably not.  

His guitarist in the video was really cool with a wide bandana on his head (a fan of Jimi?) and a hard rock ax. I felt a Mick and Keith moment when they shared a mic for his backing vocals.

The biggest fan at school was a girl named Donna, she was in love with Prince and talked about him all of the time, one night she asked us to come over and watch Purple Rain, it was her friend’s place (an apartment complex near our High School, where we did not yet attend!), and her mom had gone out.

I did like Purple Rain, both the music and the movie, yet, it was a few years later with the end of the video for I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man when I decided I knew who Prince was…

A guitar god.  

Once I left High School I didn’t think much about Prince or his music again for a real long time, until I met Bill Wilson, the SVP of Marketing at BMG corporate who hired me to move to NYC and head up online marketing in ’97.

A Friday afternoon at our CEO’s Bedford home, the best of times at BMG with Scott Richman and Bill Wilson.

Bill was to Prince, as I was to the Ramones, as were many to the Dead, and then Phish, and then Dave Matthews Band, a true fanatic. He traded live cassettes, and went to the infamous unannounced shows after the main shows in NYC.

It was pretty cool to have a corporate boss who was as big a music fan as I was. By this point I knew most of his records and also appreciated that he was a dynamic writer with hits for other artists, but now I started to see him differently, thanks to Bill.  

But I still hadn’t seen him live.

By ’03 we were all together at AOL Music and what we built was becoming pretty well known in the music industry and among our various divisions of AOL Time Warner.

As we gained traction at AOL, we ran full page ads in Billboard, Snipes all around NYC, and even a TV ad during the Grammy Broadcast one year.

I was asked to try and convince Prince to re-route his tour and play a private show for the AOL staff.
A senior executive owned the Arena in DC, where most of the staff was located.

We had it all lined up.

And then we were asked to unwind it.

Corporate felt it was not a good move in case it hit the press, the merger was under a lot of scrutiny at the time, they asked me to cancel and to try to get back our deposit, but if I couldn’t it would be ok.

With AOL Time Warner Chairman Dick Parsons.

He was so easy to talk to.

Deep breath.

F#ck.

I went from being the person who was responsible for a private Prince show, to the one who needed to re-neg the deal, or try anyway.

By this time in my career I had been screamed at for much lesser offenses by high ranking industry executives.

My plan was simple. I would share what transpired, and why, and see where it lands.

I called my Prince contact who helped make it happen, Paul Gangaware at Concerts West. He could not have been kinder. What a pro. He said don’t worry about the fee, we still have time to schedule something else.

He invited Diane and I to be his guest at the next show at MSG. Amazing seats, Paul came to say hello, and the show was a top 20 of all time. So many hits, insane musicianship, and the entire arena on their feet hanging on to every word and note of his acoustic guitar hits medley.

LOL with Bill and Birdy at Nido Del Alma in Pelada.

My next big Prince moments were shared live and then on demand with hundreds of millions of people. The ‘04 performance with Tom Petty for George Harrison’s Rock Hall Induction and then live, in real time was the 2007 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

This 12-minute set, I am nearly certain left everyone saying, HOLY SH#T. And he knew it.

I got Prince a little in the beginning, and then more each decade. Over time, he became one of my top artists, up there with Dylan, Lennon, and Davies.

__________

“Dad, you always say this song is a F*CKING MASTERPIECE… make a list.”

Prince masterpieces‍ are listed below, and more on my 1k+ song Spotify Playlist — Evan’s 111 Artists


Raspberry Beret, Pop Life, Kiss, Sometimes It Snows in April, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Let’s Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man, Sign of the Times, Hot Thing, Starfish And Coffee, If I Was Your Girlfriend, The War