The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: Purple Roundtable

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Team Supreme sits down with Prince biographer, Duane Tudahl, and a roundtable of Prince's associates to share stories about the legendary artist. Recorded at Sunset Sound, one of the studios to capture Prince's 'Purple Rain.'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated

the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies and gentlemen, what's up? This is Questlove. namesake of the Questlove Supreme podcast, the award-winning Questlove Supreme Podcast. No, no, no, the Webby

Award-winning. Questlove. Yes, the three times, I'm in the room right now with Sugar Steve, the multi, anyway. Welcome to QLS Classic. And of course, this is one of my favorite subjects ever to talk about. I love nothing else to nerd out on Prince conversations with fellow Prince fans. We did this episode back in 2018, I believe.

And I think an add a bit of trivia, Steve, we did this at the record plan. Was it? Or Sunset Sound. We did this in Studio 2 at Sunset Sound. I believe the same room that Prince created a lot of 1999 in. special episode. So it's sort of a purple roundtable. Of course,

you know, I got to have luminaries with me. Former QLSite boss Bill, Ruth Azarte. Prince is a former chief of staff, Ruth Azarte.

Dwayne Tadau, who wrote in my opinion, probably two of the best kind of prints anthologies as far as like his creative process. You need to get those two books. These are must-haves.

The first one, Prince in the Purple Rain era studio sessions. And his follow-up book, Prince in the Parade and Sign of the Time Studio Sessions, is kind of a daily diary of how Prince created those three masterpiece records and all the ensuing work he did in between. tween for his protégés like the time and Sheila E and the Apollonia 6 and whatnot. Last but not least,

Matthew Vitton, world-class photographer and, you know, he's done stuff with Chappelle and done stuff with Lady Kravitz, but, you know, he's probably the biggest

prince fanatic and collector. He has just monstrous I mean just listen to episode y'all It shouldn't be this long Welcome to the Purple Roundtable On QLS Classic You know ladies and gentlemen

Sometimes when the Name of the Show that you host Has your name in it Sometimes you get to do things that you want And We're going to do an off-the-cuff episode Of Quest Love Supreme right now

And we kind of have a, so I say a purple Supreme team committee. Yeah, we kicked everybody else out of the studio and brought in a new team supreme. No, no disrespect to our team supremac. But,

you know, one of the, I feel, though, in my life, the two most dangerous things to have, as far as discussions are concerned, is politics and purple. Yeah, politics, prints, and purple. And I try and avoid both. Somehow I've felt

very safe. I will say that This is a rare moment, which I'm certain that in the company of Prince Associates that I'm with, that this is the moment in which I know the least about Prince. And I'm actually fine with that. Yeah, same thing. I'm actually fine. So in our circle, of course, we have Bross Bill, producer, of course, Love Supreme. and to his left we have Ruth Azarte.

I know I got it wrong. It's okay. Azate. Arzati. Arzotti. I've never said your last name my life, even though I've known you for eons. I know. Ruth is, you know,

Ruth has been P's right hand for a significant period of his life, I guess, between the musicology period and up until 312 or a little bit after that. Lotus flower. So it was like almost 2010, like in the middle of 2010. So in Prince years, it had been like 144. Yeah. And I know that as knowing you as I know you, well, yeah, if you've seen the bit that I did about finding Nemo, Ruth was the person that had to make magic.

happen for me on my blind date. But, um... That's right. Yeah, Ruth is, uh, you know, she, she's a firsthand witness to his, his hard work. Um, and we're glad you're here. Um, and to her left, uh, we have Dwayne, uh, Tidal, who, Tudol. Two Dahl. I said, Dwayne Tudel.

You said, you put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable. Syllabble. With my caricatures, correctures. My curricicatures. Yes. All right. So, and, you know, there's, I feel, I feel like I'm always on dangerous ground when I'm declaring anything Prince-wise because it might be an over-exaggeration or, you know,

someone else will get offended. But I don't, I don't know. I just feel as though, DeWain's documentation of Prince's work, not his life, but his work, is personally one of my favorite documents, because if anything, I'm more interested about his work habits than anything. So Dwayne just released his newest Prince book in title. Give him the title.

First book, Prince in the Purple Rain era studio sessions, 1983, 1984. Which he thoroughly... Thoroughly. Yeah, I got questions for you, bro. Good. And to his left, Matthew B.ton. Matthew Bitton, the white guy.

From the Dave Chappelle special with the Pimp book. Yeah, photographer is extraordinary. And I, you know, I mean, you, your degree of purple ology is above, you know, I bow in your presence. You're making me blush. Your knowledge is amazing. So just briefly, and going in a circle, you know, I'm just curious at people's beginnings. So, Bill, when did you... When did I first discover Prince?

Yeah, this is kind of weird. No, this is actually a story I love to tell. Okay, hit me. And I hate telling stories about my life. My first memory ever is me and a pair of red footy pajamas in the basement of my parents' house in South Bend, Indiana, in front of the floor model television had the built-in stereo in it, and Little Red Corvette was playing on the radio. And that is my very first memory.

Really? Yeah. So did it affect you any way, or, you know... You just remember that... the song was on? Was it like, oh, shit, what's this? I don't remember why I don't, I don't know why I remember that, but I just remember that moment. And then another, one of my other early childhood memories is me and my sister at her friend Terry Hill's house listening to 1999 and 45.

How old were you in 82? Two going on three. Oh, that's an early, so you were three when you first? Yeah. Oh, okay. I see. Ruth, your first prince encounter? Encounter or memory? Memory.

Well, I mean, I grew up in church, so. So did I. I wasn't allowed to listen to any secular music. So I remember there's this kid that went to my school and he used to wear makeup and I didn't understand why he would wear makeup. And it was because he was a huge prince fan. And the only thing I knew about Prince is he was on our prayer list. because

you want to pray him to Jesus because he was, as my mother said, he's a homosexual demoniac. My mother's person was not English. So, too. So, yeah, it was like, that's my first prince memory. So when I got the, when I got the gig with Prince, I literally did not tell my mom for about four months.

What? Did you tell Prince that story, though? Oh, yeah, I did. Did he laugh? Well, he just, like, rolled his eyes. And I was like, what? You were like masturbating in a bathtub. Like, what are people supposed to think?

I don't do those things anymore. I'm like, well, you used to. Duane? Probably hearing controversy. It was my first memory, but... In real time, in 81? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then in college, 1999 was the album we used to play in our suite, our quad.

And just it was before it really hit. And it was fun just kind of... bunch of us just listen to that. And also, we'd go to dances. I was in college at the time when 82. And that was, the girls were listening to Prince and I wanted to be around the girls. So I said, I will learn to enjoy this music. Smart. I think you learned to do a little bit more than enjoy it. That's true. And once I started seeing the depth of what he had, you know, backs of 45s and stuff like this, and, you know, you start to become a completest. And so I just ended up buying

everything because, oh, horny toads on the back of this or something like that. So I just went nuts. And then, you know, Peruvraine. And Perverine was the date movie that summer. Ah, I see. Matt? Well, I came to visit my mom here in L.A. in 82 because she moved here in 82. I was from Paris.

I was still living in Paris. And I went to Tower Records on Sunset and heard, let's pretend we're married. So that's my first member. Oh, my God. That was your introduction song? That's quite an introduction. And I remember literally thinking, can we curse on here or no? Yeah.

Fuck Michael Jackson. That's what I remember thinking because I was such a Michael fan. And all of a sudden I was like, what is this? Forget Michael Jackson. And I became hooked. Yeah. That was my first. That was your introduction.

I didn't even speak English like I do now. But I remember thinking like, okay, this is cool. I went and bought the 12 inch. And then it was all over from there. I wish I could say it was, you know, for you. But that was my first real prince moment. That was an interesting. That is a hell of a way to get introduced.

I drove everybody crazy too with that song because, yeah. Even my mom liked it unlike Gila. That was my first traumatic Prince moment because... Punishment? No, but just the... When I heard, I want to fuck you so bad, it hurts. Like, I ran to this studio and took that shit off with the... I was like, yo, what the hell?

Like, I didn't know what I was getting into. Like, by that point, you know, he was... you know, well, not safe to listen to because my dad was like, you know, I don't trust that boy in a diaper. You know, that was his thing. And I was nine years old. You gotta remember that.

So that was like getting hooked on Prince through that at nine years old and bringing it back to France where they didn't really know what the hell he was saying anyways. Yikes. And so they let me, you know. That's crazy. I guess, I think I told it before, but I was, it's 1978.

So I was seven years old And My dad had just told my mom That hurt My grandfather had died And so this is like the first traumatic experience Of the household And my mom like

You just heard this blood curling scream And her on her knees crying and crying and crying and crying And so Wait, I thought this was an Ask Rufus story No No no no This is, uh, she's like on her knees crying and, no, I was crying that they had to go on the road.

Oh, okay. That's right. That's right. But, um, my sister Dorn, like, instantly scooped me up and was trying to figure out a safe place for me to be because, you know, I was like, oh, what's wrong with mommy? What's wrong with mommy? And she just, uh, grabbed some headphones, uh, plugged it into the stereo and said, here, put this on.

Now at the time, and she turned up the volume, uh, at the time, I remember, uh, Streetwave by Brothers Johnson was on. But Doug Henderson, our afternoon DJ of WDSFM, debuted soft and wet right after that. And the first thing I thought about instantly was Larry Graham. Based on his synthesizer work, and I later found out that he recorded... Did he recorded the same studio as Graham Central Station?

They record, both record at record plan. Yeah, so that sort of whorily synthesizer, like that's the same synthesizer that Graham Central Station would use. And so I always made the association that this has to be Larry Graham associated because of this worldly synthesizer thing and the whole tell me that you love me, you were 20 years early with that. Yeah, you were. No, I just felt that.

It didn't knock me out or anything. thing. Like it wasn't like a who-ho-ho-hoo moment because even then, like I was luke warm on Prince. Like my sister and her girlfriend's thought he was like cute and all that stuff. But, you know, it wasn't until I did the time association. I love the time. And then it was like, oh, they sound like, oh, I get it. They're associated with him. And then that's how I got in the prince. So I kind of had to catch up. I'm not one of those people like, yeah, I've been down with dirty mind since 1980. Like, you know, I kind of had to go backwards.

So it's kind of weird that the album that I take advantage of the most, which, like, because everything's so incredible, like controversy always gets lost in the sauce. But all of us are saying, practically half of us are saying controversy was the thing that pulled us in. When I first heard controversy, I was a, before that, I liked funk music, but I was a fan of, like, Kiss. And the biggest thing, you know, the dirtiest thing,

they were saying it was Christine 16. I was going to say, Christine 16. Exactly. And so it was like, that's all I knew. And I was like, oh, I saw you walking home from school that day, you know, which is, you know, looking back, it's really kind of bubblegummy. But the time, and letcherous, you know, you don't realize how letcherish Jean Simmons was. But I just found out Christine 16 is the sample for, what's Tone Oak second sequel? That's Christine 16. Really?

Yeah. Yeah, I found out a year ago. I was like that shit. Yeah. No, controversy was, I guess I definitely got my interest. The riff that you hear that ended up being in the family stuff. It's the same, you know, the same thing that used over and over. But I remember hearing that when I was running track.

And that was one of these things that I would use as a metronome when I was running. Really? Yeah. I did pole vault in high school. Oh, wow. I know, five, six. Pull on. I can see it.

I can totally see it. No, seriously, I did do it. So we're in Sunset Sound Studios right now. And which is why, you know, I guess Bill and I thought that it would be cool to sort of have this meeting because this is the place where a lot of his key songs and his songwriting and his craftsmanship really came to light. So, one, why did you, when did this, when did it come from an idea, oh, I should document the creative and two, you actually getting into it. Like, what was the? You're talking to me, I assume. Yes, I'm sorry.

The audience can't see. Sorry, do we. I used to work for a magazine called Uptown and with Pier Nelson. And we used to, we wrote The Vault, the book, The Vault. and we thought, wouldn't it be cool to expand that? You know, and I came to, a lot of the information for the vault was from here, Sunset Sound, and I came here and asked him,

you know, can I get the work orders? Just arrogant, that question, I guess. And they said, yes. And they let me Xerox. And the funny thing is, as I'm Xeroxing him, I'm thinking at any time they're going to come in here and say, who the fuck are you? Yeah, I was going to say, even with the vault,

like how did you get information? That's the thing. I just, I asked. And they said, sure. And when I got them, they said, you know, there's certain things we don't want you to show in here. And I thought, that's fair. You're giving me 800 pages of documents. And as I got them, I'm feeling like maybe I should go to my car fast just in case in the parking.

And I said, but that's the guy. Who is he? Right. And so I got him. And they've been great. They, I started looking through them. And they're not always as accurate as you as you want. Sometimes Prince would just say, what's your middle name?

And he'd write down Colleen or something like that. that. So it's not always as detailed as you want, but there's a lot of great stuff. Like in this room, I was looking through the things to see what was done here. I don't think he recorded much in here, but they remixed the let's work 12 inch in here. And ice cream castle was compiled in here. And I think probably edited in here as well. I think Steve Farknoli was in the control room doing that. We're in Studio 1. Yeah, he just basically mostly worked in three. and two. Two was the one he did a lot of stuff, but three became its own, it's its own,

um, uh, it's self-contained. It's got a bathroom and all the stuff. So when he was doing most of his big stuff, he would be there, so nobody goes into three. Two people, you know, see, and you see the basketball court right in between the two. Um, so he'd go out there and occasionally see people and stuff like that, but, uh, he did most of his work in two and three. And, and, uh, the first thing he did was in 81, August of 81, I think he did in Studio three. That was, uh, stuff for controversy. We still can't get in the Studio 3. Studio 3's book.

Studio 3 is booked tonight, but did you guys go to Studio 2? No, no, we didn't go to 2. Studio 2's open. Seriously, you should just think, look, we went over there earlier while you guys were yakking earlier. And it was great. I've been in a couple times, but it's, it's, just, you go in the room and you think,

this is where Prince, you know, and not just Prince, this is the Van Halen, the Doebbin, the Doebbin, the Doobie brothers. You get, so many bands, recorded here. This is, in Prince is kind of a footnote on all the stuff that they've done. This is a long-term studio. They used to do Disney stuff here. Right, right. So this is, and so I interviewed most of the engineers that worked here, Peggy McCreary and Coke Johnson and Susan Rogers, as you know, Susan. And they kind of told me the stories, and I started

realizing this is a book. And a couple years ago, my wife said, are you going to shit or get off the pot, basically? You know, are you going to write a book or not? And I thought, yeah, I I did, and I got finished with the book about a month before Prince passed. I finished it in March of 2016, and I thought, this is great. I'm all excited, and then Prince passed, and I literally thought, do I bother? Because I didn't want to seem like an opportunist. And so I got in touch with a lot of people I interviewed, and they said, no, this is history, you should put it out.

And so I found a publisher, and found a guy to write the foreword for me. And I tell you, I'm sorry, you're dead. Yo, I'm still heartbroken about Miko's comment to you. Oh, I know. He's like, who's Questlove? He's seen Miko Weber's comment. He's like, who's Questlove? I never met him.

And he's sitting in all caps, too. Yeah, God, I felt so small, man. I'm like, yo, dog, I'm like your biggest champion. And that's what I said, though. I was rooting for you during that fight. No, I'm playing, Miko. But he was, so, yeah, when you got attached to this, it sent it through the roof because you open so many doors. It's an honor.

I know I'm saying this brown-nosing right here, but it's an honor to share the cover with you. Because, you know, it's honestly the connections you have and any documentary you look at about MJ or Prince, you're in. And so it's any music documentary. Yeah. Period. Yeah, I know. So I'm just hoping to ride your tailcoat. Just music.

Not just music. Yeah. I think it's important. Like, to me, and again, I know that Prince's life is an obsession to a lot of people. but for me, the thing that I want people to take away from it, which is why I'm so obsessed with all the rehearsal stuff and all the sound check stuff and all, you know,

the work order things. And those, you know, how many hours did he take the track? This thing is because I really want to hammer the point home that the importance of, being true to your craft and rehearsal and and being bored and being creative and like that's the things that that I'm that I'm obsessed with when I remember when was it cam that gave you the couple sheets of this somebody one of the guys that have several guys that worked on this with me and the comment I got from you was holy shit because you

saw the stuff for August of 83. And that gave me so much hope because you're writing a vacuum and you never know if people were going to enjoy this. And I've been a fan. Here's the thing. I've been a fan for years. I've known Matthew. Matthew and I've known each other three decades. And we used to get together

and listen to, you know, back when you'd buy an album that had, you know, a song, pretty face. It was, you know. The bad title. Exactly. Bad titles on the chocolate box. Like God, convention of the prince-ner.

Yeah. So we were having a nerd off right now. What was your first bootleg? Oh, God. It was probably either chocolate box or it was Royal Jules, maybe. Matt, what was your first bootleg? I feel like on vinyl, it was charade.

Sharray was good one. Sharray was good one. I remember my friend Benjamin borrowed it, never gave it back, and I was super pissed because I paid like, you know, a hundred bucks for it. And you didn't think that you'd ever hear it again? Bill. Mine was the 93 Bagley's Warehouse after show.

because from 93. Sacrifice a Victor Anyway. Hey, I love this guitar solo on the ride. I saw it late night on BET once

and I had to find out if that audio was anywhere and I got on like the Paisley Park or the PPML. PPML. I remember the PPML very well.

And I remember AOL used to have the chats on Sunday nights. The Paisley Park chat room. I'm going to, like said, the Paisley Park chat room is actually how I got

my first job in New York. Really? Yeah. We'll tell that story later. Okay. Really. There's a lot of guys to get the jobs

from that because Sam Jennings used to be a, collector and he was the same way. He ended up working with Prince. Bill and I have kind of this joke with each other. He's mad at me because like in my head I always close the door after

88. Oh yeah. Like there's only room in my heart for 78 to 88. No, I mean I have everything and I acknowledge that there's greatness even after 88. But for me just you know, the things that I hold near and dear are just 78, 88. There's a big but

after 80. I'm kind of with you. And he, yeah, he always, like, put something in my face like, yeah, this is 94, you know, and I'm like. No, here's the thing. I had to write about those that would be a little tougher for me because my heart is 80 to 81 to 88. And maybe even a little bit of 89 because I love sexy tour ending. But after, you know, Batman, I'm like, graffiti bridge. I was like, you know, and diamonds and pearls, he was trying to be pop. And it was good for what it was.

But it's enough. I mean, exactly, exactly. Those 400 songs are enough to sustain us. And I was totally good with that amount. And if I just had to focus on that amount, I'd be good. But the guy's got another 30 years after that. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on

the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the

biggest mistakes franchises make, to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12

and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target.

He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So, Ruth, I have to ask, because during this particular period that we're talking about, I know that a lot of his time and a lot of his hours were in the studio. And he kept tireless hours of working around the clock. whatever. What was his

regiment? When did you first come aboard? Right as the musicology tour started. So 24? 2000. Ended 2003, 2004. And he you know, Dave Hampton, I think you know him.

The engineer. He created this mobile recording studio for him. So as he came into L.A., we would run out of places and he would be up to all hours of the night. But specifically one memory I have that stands out, we were, it was, we were on a break from musicology,

and we were in Minnesota. I mean, it was like the dead of winter. And actually, I made a comment to a friend on the phone, and I was like, damn, it is so cold out of here, my nipples could cut glass. And then, I'm not kidding, the next day, I walked into Studio A and he was playing a song called. Glass cutter.

I was like, motherfucker. Did that man just hear me? I was like, I got paranoid. I got super paranoid after that. But I was in there and you were, I was like, oh my God. Yeah, no, he's like, he was super, there's a couple of stories of him.

You said the entire building was, was miced, right? Yeah. So there was a rumor to that. Yeah. It was Mike, but it wasn't on, and there were no cameras there. There were never any surveillance cameras.

But he would creep up on you. And you rang. No, listen, he would, I was like, I was like, there was like a smashing pumpkins gold album or something on the while. I'm like, smashing pumpkins, what are they doing there? And then I hear, um, they recorded. And I was like, bleh. He's behind you.

Right. I screamed and I'm like, why doesn't somebody put a cowbell on you? And he's like, never mind. He's like, Kim, because Kim was with me and she was doing his hair at two in the morning. Anyway, we were, we were in the studio. and I was like, damn, I need to go to sleep. And it was three, it was about two in the morning. And we had been there since two in, like maybe noon,

two in the afternoon. And he's like, Ruth, I want a house. And I'm like, okay, what does that mean? He's like, I want to run a house in L.A. I'm like, okay. So find me one. I'm like, bitch, it's like two in the morning. It's like, what are we going to do?

So I go online. I end up finding this house, like, within an hour, because he comes back. Like, he wants it now. So, like, he comes back 20 minutes. I'm like, I just got on the computer. And he's like, okay, I'll be back. And so I find this home, and it's 31, 21. And then there's a street name after that.

I just don't want to, like, out where it is. But he looks at it. It's the title of the album, though. It's the title of the album. So he comes in. He looks at the, and he's like, have he found anything? yet and I'm like, oh my God, it's been an hour. I have like three. I have three places so far.

What do you think? He sees the first image and it's 31-21 and he's like, that one. I want that one. And I'm like, you don't want to look at the rest? Nope. Nope. That's it. And then he goes in and by now it's like maybe three in the morning. And he goes in the studio and I hear like

all the syncopation and I hear like you know the beats and I'm like, when am I going to be able to go? I'm so sleepy. And it's four in the morning. Like I get all the information. I email, you know, the agent for this home. And he's like, do we have the house? He comes back like at four and I'm like, do we have the house yet?

And I'm like, no, it's like three. It's like two in the morning in L.A. No, we don't have the house. And then he goes, okay. And then six in the morning, I hear the fully finished 3121. The whole song. So it was pretty much done by four because I could hear it. And I was like, that's kind of funky.

I really liked that song, actually. It was really funky because, you know, I got to hear, because he would open. He left, it was just he and I at Paisley, so he would leave the studio open. And I could hear him, like, mix in and, like, you know, and, you know, all the strains of, you know, each instrument. And I was like, wow, did he just do that? Like, just now. So now you have to find that house. Yeah, no, I was like, I was like, no pressure here.

Like, have no pressure at all. But, yeah, we ended up moving into that house. it was the start of like this whole era of like house parties and madness and I hated every minute of it. I loved every minute of it. I was going to say. You weren't working. You weren't working. You weren't hustling like, um, who's in town?

I'm like, I know, like, I know anybody. I grew up at church. Like I barely know who people. When you guys are speaking about bootlegs, it was all swahili to me. I was like, I don't know what y'all are talking about. Can I ask her a question? Sure. Yeah.

Okay. You were talking about something, and I want to see what your take on this is. A lot of people have said that Prince had an energy that he could either radiate attention, that you had to stay at attention, or he could be under the radar completely. Like, all of a sudden, like you said, just show up. Yeah, I mean, he was like, it was interesting in clubs because you could see him walk into a club, and you couldn't see him, but you could see the gravitational pull of people just, like, it was like he drew energy and attention, and he would also take your soul.

So, like, if you were, if you, like, talk to him, like, sometimes you would talk to you and you get a lecture for three hours. And I'd walk out there. Three, you're lucky. Yeah, right. That's a, that's a light night. Try. Yeah. There's a story behind that?

What's the... I mean, you know what? It's like the whole be careful of your... Meteor heroes. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'd caught... I mean, I joke and say that, you know, when black men find religion, like, lay low for, like,

at least three to five years because that's all they want to talk about and then they cool off a little bit so yeah I caught them right in period oh man and at first it was like you just walk right into the the trap like the first night I think it was me

who won American Idol the guy with the fake afro is that Justin Justin Barini? He didn't win he came in second he didn't win well yeah well Justin loves Justin was Kelly yeah it was like Kelly Justin me and Common at a...

That is a random... We were in Harlem somewhere, some Harlem restaurant. In a random place. Yeah, Justin, Kelly Clarkson, Questlove, and Common walking to... It's almost a start of a joke. Yeah, and it started there,

and we thought we escaped it, and then the next night, that's when he came to Electric Lady Studios. When we were working on Commons, Jimmy was a rock star. and he heard the mix, and then almost born on the start a quasi-mixing. He's like, no, no, no, no, turn it up his voice and turn this down. I was like, yo, is he producing this with this?

And then, and then, um... You have to pay him for that? And then, no, I mean, he was cool. And then he worked on Star 69. And then the only way I can describe it is the, the front cover of the whose the kids are all right. Remember the four of them sleep on it? that was me, Bilau, common, and it was a fourth person. I forget, but we were just sitting on the floor and he was, like, talking to us, like, a coach.

Like, if you imagine, you remember those Tom and Jerry cartoons where you only see the, the mom's, like, knees, Thomas, or even Muppet babies, we only see the nanny's knees. Like, we're all sitting on the floor, and he's just walking back and forth, like a coach. talking about you've seen this happen before I haven't you Oh my God, yeah Like, Bilau was new to this And he's, you know,

Balau was Muslim at the time So it's just like Muslim versus a Jehovah's Witness It was 2 a.m. And then it was like 6 a.m. And I just thought like, man, it's like You've been waiting all your life

to be friends with this guy. You guys didn't say anything? I started snoring. And he's still. And I'm like, sleep at me of snoring. Oh, my God. Oh, no. He did that to me.

And I was like, I grew up in church so he couldn't go far. He could not go far. Kim was like, don't start. And I was like, no, no, no, no. He's quoting some stuff that it. No, it's not going to happen. So then there was a period where he was like Debo and Friday to me. Like, I, there was.

There was a good part of 2001 to like 2003 where I would just run the other way. I'm like, wow, you're running from your idol. Like, I just can't. I mean, I just couldn't, I couldn't take another because he just wear you out. And you want to know things like, so the lindrum you used on. What's up with the edit at the end of I don't want to lose you? Right, exactly, exactly. And you don't want to talk about that.

So, and that's the thing. when the night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when Chappelle, me, and Neil Brennan went to see him perform at the after party, were you there doing this period? I was there, but I was in. I was at that show, too. Were we friends then?

No, no. So were you in that hotel? Yes, but I wasn't, we hadn't met yet. Yeah, I was about to say, I would have remembered you. And, you know, he invited us to the hotel thing. And so I didn't realize that the elevator opens up inside the apartment. So I'm thinking that, okay, we're going to a hotel, elevator's going to open, we'll be in a hallway,

and then we'll knock on the door and yada, yada, yada. So in typical television sitcom fashion, my back is to the elevated door. And I'm trying to give Dave and Neil... Advice. A 17-second crash course. Run. I said, guys, wait, I just thought of something. Look, he's really, really big on religion.

So, you know, because the thing was like, Neil was just like, hey, like, okay, this is going to be like weird. And I was like, no, like that prince you're thinking of, like he doesn't exist no more. It's religion. You know, they laugh like, religion. I'm like, no, I'm dead serious. Like, matter of fact, I said, we need a safe word. So. So the elevator doors closed.

I said, look, we need a safe word. Because what you guys don't know is that he's going like really big on religion. and stuff and don't curse and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da and and the door was open and I swear to God it and what ame like they yeah he was like continue ameer he was right behind me and it was but the thing was is that what I didn't know about Dave is Dave lives for an audience like the most awkward, I want Dave with me in any, he can talk you out in any situation.

I think Dave could talk, he could, I'm about to, give me the helter-skelter reference, what's his name, who just recently done, he could talk Charles Manson off of death row and out of,

he can talk out of any situation. And we walked into what looked like to be a prayer meeting. It was like the Rams, his then-wife, her Canadian family Manuela. Her family is from Canada, right? Her family

and instantly like I'm trying to give the eye like what was the safe word? And Dave was one of those people's words like if you tell him no it's a yes he got right he had a captive audience

and then I just once religion started then I just inched my way out of it and left but those guys stayed to like seven in the morning. And I would have stuck around to watch Prince and Dave Chappelle talk about a religion. I can only imagine what that conversation was like. Man, I just...

It's really interesting. I can imagine. Yeah. I mean, I used to listen to it as a fan. You know, I'd be like, okay, I'm such a Prince fan. I'm going to let him talk to me for three hours about this stuff. You know, but I remember there was a moment at that house, the 3121 house where we were talking about, you know, not religion,

and talking about music and something else. And he's like, follow me. So I'm like, I finally, all right, Prince said follow me. And I walked through the whole house, long story short, down the stairs, through the room, end up in his bedroom. I'm like, holy shit, he's got the symbol pillows and the purple da-da-da-da. And then he opens a closet and hands me like a Bible and all this stuff. And I was like, man, I thought he was going to give me an acetate for, I wish you haven't,

you know. And I ended up with his Bible. I've been saving this for you. Yeah, and he's like, I want you to read this to your kids because we were, That's where we were talking about my children. And I'm like, and I was like, well, I'm Jewish and I don't really do religion. And the next day, he said the next day, maybe Ruth, you gave him my address. The next day, people came knocking on the door.

I would never hear that. Listen, I had a Jehovah's Witness come to my door and I had boxes of Bibles and tracks. And I was, I had been into, I had gotten into a really big fight with Prince. And I was like, oh, we're here. I'm like, you know what? I work for a Jehovah's Witness. Why don't you come in the back and take your boxes because I'm about to burn them? And she was like, what?

Oh, no. And I'm like, you can bring your supervisor. You could come and talk to me about church and, like, Bible and stuff. I know my Bible. But you, like, I was so mad. I took it out on the poor lady. Wait, but they came in, they got the boxes of tracks. Was there ever, what was the end game to his religious talk or his wanting to convert?

Like, was there one person that I was like, okay, like, I'm Jamie Fox. Yes, I'll come with you to kingdom. Was he? Like, what was the... So part of the... You know, not to clown on any religion or anything, but part of, you know, what they do is they have to log in hours. So your name, Matthew's name, my name is in a calendar.

It says Ruth, four hours, a mere two hours, or 20 hours. You know, and he would write everybody's name down on this calendar, so it was kind of a log book of how many people he spoke to about, you know, the religion and all that. So it's kind of like, it is to convert people. It's their ways of proselytizing. But, you know, I would, I'm not a person. I'm a kind of a mouthy individual.

So you think? Real? This is a little bit. This is a little bit. So I had to pick and choose the stuff that I would, you know, combat, like, with him, like, that I would get into. And that would be one of them because it was like, you know, you can't, you can't, I mean, you can't really talk.

I grew up in church and all, an all, like, Pentecostal Zionist, you know, charismatic, Methodists, I've gone to all of them. And so, you know, I understand part of the lull of religion. And I knew what he was doing. And I was like, you can't, you can't, like, you can't swing me into this. Did you ever attend Kingdom Hall with him? Oh, all the time. And I used to look at him. Okay, so no dis to the Jehovah's Witness, but I am going to kind of dis, their music is awful. It's, it's Bible verses with no, no melody. It's like, they sing and Jesus came to the cross like it is like I would look at Prince like I'm like how are you even listening to this and he wouldn't sing he would just look at it and he would just kind of have his

little finger with his little pinky finger up and like follow the words in the hymn book and I was like I'm dying I don't even know what your musical brain is doing right now you're probably like thrashing this to pieces and creating like a like an opus of some kind because this is terrible a question is it true that he wrote a bunch of songs for the Jehovah's Witnesses? He has, like, I don't know that he did, but I know that he wrote, like, a lot of songs with overtures of, you know. But I heard, like, he actually has songs in, like, a hymnal or Jehovah's Witness hymnal. I could, I could imagine, like, after spending time.

Did you have an option to not go? Was the, oh, I'll stay behind, or? Yeah, but it was kind of like. there as his assistant? You know, I think that, like, you know, I wasn't going to church at the time. And, like, when I was in Minnesota, I would just go because it's Minnesota. There's nothing to do. So might as well go to Kingdom Hall and, you know, just see.

Yeah, I was very curious about the religion itself, you know, coming up in church. So I was curious to see what their belief systems and how they believe. And, you know, I've met a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses. They're phenomenal people. And then, you know, just like in all of their religion. a lot of crappy, shitty, shitty people as well. So, you know, I had a bunch of Jehovah's Witness come to me at a show. I think it was in Seattle somewhere, and they were like,

we're here for the after-party, and it was a super private after-party, and I'm like, there's no after-party here. Well, we're friends of Prince, and I'm like, I don't know who you are. They're like, oh, we're brothers and sisters. Well, he went by brother Nelson. We're his brothers and sisters. I'm like, yeah, no, I don't think so. Oh, no, we're Jehovah's Witnesses.

And they wanted to get in based on that alone. And I was like, okay, now you, no. Oh, I would have fell for that hook line and the sink. I'm like, oh, okay, my pet. Yeah, I was like, mm-hmm, that's cool. We good. I see. So, Duane.

Yes, sir. Yeah, so in your research, how are you able to find out as far as, like, the length of time that songs were spent. Like, this is one thing to see the work order. And I guess that's to explain to our audience that, I mean, now, because half this stuff is done on computers and personal studios, people don't keep meticulous logging like they used to.

Now, in my era of having in recording on our label, like back in the early 90s, when the Roots first got signed, the assistant's job was basically to snitch you know what I mean so if the label's credit card was on the room they would know okay how much we spent on food sure back then long-distance phone calls were big deals so I forgot about that yeah yeah like so like everything's you know like okay I see a mirror called uh yeah yeah exactly like so all my time in china all the girls that I met in you're whatever, I'd like call from the studio, that sort of thing. So assistant engineer's job was to keep meticulous, uh, detail of what we did and how long we lally gagged and all those

things. So what I, can I assume that these work orders were in the same way? Yeah, a lot of times they would have, you know, and they, like you said, this is also work orders are a place to hide things. Um, they would be the tattle things, but they'd also be like, there's times that he may work in two or three songs and they just were just scrambling through things and just he would write down a title often I would have to go back to um I went to the library of congress went to the unions that uh had musicians unions because eric leads was in the musician's union there's also a Minneapolis many musicians union which would list Sheila and other people like that so I could tell the time from that stuff and also when strings were done or when they

bring it on a person who played harp. So it was all this little detail like that. Because people had to get paid, you know. But the work orders generally had started this time, end at this time. But there'd be times that he would just get to the studio and say, Peggy, let's go see a movie. And they go to the movies and come back. Or, you know, he might step out for a couple hours and possibly be mixing it, but that doesn't mean they're doing it the whole time.

And that's where it ends up getting a little vague. people, you know, when I first started doing the interviews in like the early, the mid-90s, I remember asking some of these people, and they're like, I didn't think that some Prince nerd would be coming in and asking me about something 10 years ago. Now I'm asking them, they're like, I didn't know some Prince's nerd be coming and asking me about stuff that happened 30 years ago. Right, right. And memories get a little faded. You know, you work on stuff for five, six years with them guy.

You're not going to remember specific dates. But if you got somebody that just did strings, they might remember that specific session a whole lot more than somebody who's like I said Susan Rogers, who Susan Rogers got a phenomenal memory. Yes, thank you. And the cool thing about Susan, and you probably know this, is she's got a knowledge of sound on top of just her print space. She loves the funk. She loves that stuff. But the way she talks about how sound works and that sound is different at night than day or, you know, just the way music works. And you're just thinking, God, the level of knowledge from some of these people. And the engineers I actually engineered, I interviewed some of the engineers here in the studios where I'd come in in the evening and talk to some of these engineers.

I'd find their name on the work order and this is before Facebook or anything. I just look them up, call them in the phone book or call here and say, is Coke Rogers where? Coke Johnson working there. Yeah, where's Dave the Blade? Yeah, Dave the Blade is, well, there's several Dave the Blades. Dave Leonard is in, who's the original Dave the Blade. He's in Nashville right now. I did not interview him.

We were going to. He used to be married to Peggy McCreary. Okay. And they did a lot of sessions together, but he lives down there. Then Dave Knight, David Knight, became Dave the Blade. And he was one of the engineers here and also at Sunset. Oh, no, what's the other studio that you have? They have another studio here.

Sound Factory. Yeah, Sound Factory. So he did stuff there. He's interviewed in the book as well. I used quotes by Dave Leonard from other sources. So the books that he was interviewed or things like that, too. But I wanted to interview him, but it didn't work. out. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me,

Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends,

Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm curious about the live shows that were soundtracked. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like the 30-minute I would die for you, which obviously went to the soundtrack. Are there any studio log-ins for those sessions? and if that's the case,

were the Purple Rain shows also recorded? Purple Rain shows were all recorded for the most part. Every city? Well, pretty much, as far as I know, they were mostly recorded. So here's the thing, he's got vaults of stuff that,

well, he's first of I've got tons of cassettes and stuff like this. The engineers in the book talking about how everything was recorded to maybe down to a cassette, so it may be already mixed. You just got the mix of that. He may not.

have a 24-track recording left of all those things, but from what I understand, he has tapes of every rehearsal, every sound check, and he'd have six or seven tapes running for the day, and not labeled, you know, just boxes, here's a tape, and he just throw things in a shoebox, and so they're stuck. You know, we don't know who some of these things are, what dates these are, and so there's a novelty to some of this stuff, and I talk about that quite a bit in the book, where some of these engineers talking about all the stuff that exists. So how... I used to think that was a storage closet.

Have you physically seen the vault? Yeah, I've been there. I'd be like, ah, this is a big old storage closet. How big is the vault? There were two vaults. Yeah, there were two. There's like the opening section, and then there's stuff that there's like a, it's like a tier, like a, what do you call them? Like mud room?

It's like a mud room and then a real room. The other thing I've found to get information from is like people like Eric Leeds and things like that would have their, when they're, when they, would record, they would keep dates of when they would record and stuff like this. So that helped too. But again, there's always going to be stuff in the vault that I did no idea about. And like when Perma Raine Deluxe came out, we all were shocked when, uh, vocal possessed, but, uh, electric intercourse. Oh, yeah, yeah. All of us said, they're going, holy crap. Right. And Michael's sitting there nodding his head, but, you know, all of us going, whoa, thank you, you know, for finding this because that's something I didn't even know existed. Well, you know what's weird.

and I'm not going to hell for saying this. But it was, it was always my fear that he, you know, just in the last 10 years of his life. And this is, you know, speaking from, you know, of course you think like everybody's going to, you know, be 80, 90, you know, they're going to be super old. But I always thought that, man, I know one day he's going to turn. Like, if we think that some of his thinking is irrational now, just as far as like certain cutting off the nose despite the face moves that Prince has done in the past to some of his fan base. Like, why would I do that? What?

I'm just saying that it's, it's. It's, to me, I always felt like he would pull a move, like some Viking burning. Erase everything. Yes. I thought he would pull a wali on that whole entire, like in his 60s or 70s. And I was just like, I... He was storing magnets in the same room. What?

What? No, no, he was storing magnets in the room just to erase everything. Oh, yeah. No, he really didn't. He really didn't. I was just saying he could have. It's what he's saying. So I'm not saying what you think I'm going to insinuate as far as premature passing.

But I definitely felt like he would, first of all, I thought he would have a will. That's the thing. That would say, we talked about it. Burn everything if I die. Wait, you talked about what was said, will-wise? He didn't want to, at the time, he didn't want to ride a will. And I was like, because it was at Paisley Park, and I yelled at him like, well, you know who's going to get all your stuff? And he came, he doubled backed and he's like, who?

And I'm like, the government. The man. And he twirled and he walked out of the office. But, yeah, we did talk about it because I was really concerned because he didn't have a will. I'm going to be honest with you because, I mean, mortality is something that people don't want to deal with or talk. about. Even now, I mean, I have a will, but it was sort of like an afterthought thing, like, yeah, just leave it to the room. I don't care. I'm not going to die. I'll be here forever. But now I'm like, okay, I would like my records to go here. I want my unreleased drum stuff

to go here. I want to donate this stuff here. Can I have some? Yeah. Oh. The prints auction stuff goes here. Exactly. You're making a list. I don't line here. Can I get that notebook? No, it's just that now as I get closer to, you know, get old, you know, I'm way out of my 20s. Now, oh, okay, this death is going to be a certain thing in my life. Like, I'm definitely going to die. And I should, you know, but I guess at the time, you just put it off and put it off and put it off.

And it'll never happen to me. It'll never happen. And, you know, because for anyone asking, like, how could he never have a will? Like you just, you never think you're going to go. Right, right. Well, part of his reasoning also is like you, whatever you think is true. So if you create a will, it means that you're forecasting your death. So that was a big thing about it when we had a discussion about that.

He told me he once, he was from another planet. And that's why he didn't age because the sun revolved like, I don't know, 12 years, every 12 years. And he's like, I think you're from that planet too. And I was like, don't be calling me an alien, which old alien. I'm like, you keep your alien stuff to yourself. But he, yeah, a lot of it was denial and not wanting to face a certain future. But, you know, he carried around those keys to the vault, like, you know, a janitor. I always had him on him.

And then he... There was only one set of keys? You know, there was only one set, quote unquote, but there was another set that somebody else had. So what if he lost those keys? It was a, here's the thing. They'd break it open. Yeah, the wall next to it was just a, like drywall. Yeah.

So literally you could break into Paisley Park. He was so like not secured, no cameras, still no cameras. I'm sure they put cameras in now. That was his reasoning, right? It's Minnesota, who's going to stay? Yeah, no, seriously. He's like only, it's too, he's like all the, no evil people live here. The bad people move out.

Yeah, somebody had a story about, I guess who, they went to like a convenience store or something. And he left the car. They left the car. running. And Prince was like, yeah, because nobody would steal it. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's true. Like, you know, we would go into, what was it?

What's the store there, Byerleys? No. What's the name of the store there? I totally forgot. Barney's or? No, I think it is Byerleys. Is it Byerleys? Is that important?

No, it's a store in Chanhaston. But you would walk in there and if you were brown, I knew exactly what you were doing there. Oh, you were working at Paisley Park, aren't you? people. I'm like, uh, yeah? How do you know that? And then I realized, I'm like, oh, you look like you worked there.

And I was like, oh, okay. Stereotyping over here with some with that. I see. So how? Also, the vault was not kept up very well. I mean, there's, no, it's not. There was water leaks. It was not a place where there, yeah.

Some of that stuff is damaged, but I know that they did. Wait, what's damaged? Tapes? Yeah, but they reconstructed. constructed it. Yeah, there was a water leak one year. In the know. And they were, they were having to put the tapes somewhere else because it just, it was not kept up.

It was mold. Yeah. It was not a good vault. What they're doing now really does make sense. That's why I think it's funny that the family said that, you know, that they shouldn't move it to Iron Mountain. That was the number one thing that should have been done. The reason why it was kept that people want to kept to Paisley is for nostalgia.

Yeah. Yeah, but it was going to destroy all of it. Yeah, exactly. It would have been worthless. Yeah. Yeah. They managed to save, I think, 98%. of it.

Damn, now I'm obsessed with the 2%. Yeah, 2%. It's that 20 seconds that made the song. I know. I'm not going to sleep now. Tossing and turning. Learn that poem.

Trying to figure out. I have a question for you. You've looked through the book. What is your opinion of the book? And you're as big a scholar of this kind of stuff as I know. And I want to know what your thought of the book is. what did you like see the thing is is that okay it's weird because even when first of all the

the book is like what 700 no it's about 500 page okay so maybe when I was reading it on my thing it was like 700 some pages um I went through the here for insomnia all right well here's the weird thing I think from the time that you guys sent me the doc yeah document uh I easily think I easily think the first night I went through 400 pages. Same here. Same here. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing. I felt ashamed. Like I went from like... Shit, I'm going to write down my stories. 10 a.m.

I went from 10 a.m. till about, I think I gave up at like 7 in the morning. You're already the busiest guy on the planet. I can't imagine you having that much time. Yeah, but I just couldn't put it down. No, it was the same way for me because I started reading and the next thing I knew the sun was up, you know, so. Working in the studio with Prince.

I guess so. And I knew I was on something because I know that I have a tendency, at least of my friends, like over-exaggerate some shit. And I told him, like, yo, like, this is the book we've been waiting for. Like, this is the moment. I think, and the thing is that I don't know, because I try to explain this to my management and my people like, yo, this is the Prince book. I've been dreaming of all my life. Like, I could never write a book. And they looked at it and they were just like.

whatever. Okay, so he went to 7-Eleven on July. It's not quite that. Here's the funny shit. When I got here, the first thing, he ran to the basketball court. Yeah, I ran to the basketball court. I ran to the 7-Eleven. I saw your video, though.

There's the 7-Eleven and he walked in. That sort of thing. I don't know. I just, again, I've never been into who he was. Dayton or even the outcome of the thing, I'm always obsessed with how he built stuff. Artistic, yeah. And for me, a lot of my, anything that I would ever try to ask him was like in that book. So you learned things?

Yeah, I learned a lot. I mean, I, I, because you know a lot. So to hear that you actually got some out of it, it makes me really happy. Dog, I'm waiting for it. Like, how many books do you think you would have in you? I'd be happy to write books until the end of my life on this stuff. And it's my hope that the quote, powers that be, will at least see this. And because, again, I think that if you're coming from a non-sensationalist, respectful angle, like, I think it's just important to document how the greatness was made.

Well, in this book, so the people who haven't read it, this covers two years of his life, 1983, 1984. The 1999 just has come out, and it's just starting to hit. It covers Purple Rain, covers the beginning of 1984, is recording Sheila's album, The Time, The Rest of Purple Rain, Apollone 6, the family that summer. That's like, that's within like six months. That's two years? That's that, no, that's all, that's all within six months. Yeah. I know, it's insane.

And he does, most of himself. So when you see the kind of passion the guy had for doing this stuff. And we're sitting in the studio thinking it was in this building that he did the stuff. To me, it's, I mean, I went back and listened to the music again just over and over. And it was cool to listen to it with a fresh ear because after he died, it's, it's tough to listen to his stuff without through the prism of the fact that he's dead. hearing it again after reading the book, you're going, that's where it goes back. Exactly.

And you're hearing it for the first time again, and that's something I didn't expect. We should note that as, even though this is coming away later, as of this taping, I think we're falling into the actual 35th anniversary of... Oh, yeah. The Little Rick Corvette.

The edits for the 12-inch, which, what, January? The 7th. Yeah. Very good. I looked it up. in your book. In your book. What a brain?

I have a question for Dwayne actually, if I can. Sure. If I may. So, like, you know, that's like a lot of information. Why am I such a nerd? How did I ever get laid? Is what you're asking? This is amazing because, like, Ruth, the thing was,

Ruth was in such a position to get this information, but it was so amazing to me in all my years of knowing her. I'm like, yo, you're so not a fan. And she doesn't have an, I, of like, and a lot of women that are in Prince's life, especially in the last 10 years of his life, it's just like, ask Kim Barry about his music. She likes it, but she's not a big fan. Same thing.

It's like there's a lot of people around them. It's almost like it's a whole other person. Right, right, right. Part of it is I knew Prince the person. Right. Exactly. That's what they all said. I knew him.

I saw him. I was like, I interacted. But, you know, that musician dude was such a pain in the ass. It was like, ugh. But my question to you is because, you know, I know, I, and, you know, there is so much that I wish I had the fort. Like, you know, I had to, Sam Jennings was actually in the house in one of the houses. And Wendy was there. It was Wendy and Lisa, and they came up with their acoustic guitars, and he hadn't seen them in years.

And they sat around and they played this beautiful melodic song. And I'm like, what is that song? Sam? He's like, it's a song called Mountains. And I'm like, it's really pretty, but I got to work. Like, I got to go clean his bedroom. Like, you know, like, I couldn't, like, it was like, it was really pretty, and I wanted to sit and observe, and I knew I was missing out on something. But I was like, ah, fuck, I want to go to sleep.

I need to go, I need to, like, you know, I slept like two hours a night. So I needed to have some kind of rest. But my question to you is, how much of it do you think? Because for me, I saw different parts of it. And, you know, I also talked to Prince of a lot. Like, he talked about retiring for music. And I was like, shut up. You know, that's not happening.

And he's like, no. and he's like, he's like, I've done everything there is to do in music. And I'm like, you don't have an Emmy, you don't have a Tony, you don't have, like, I started naming off stuff. He's got him in the EGOT. Yeah, I was like, I named off stuff. But my question to you is, how much do you think was passion and how much do you think was compulsion?

Wow. I think his passion shows through on some songs. I think you can hear when he's inspired. And I think that compulsion would be like Velvet Kitty Cat and things like that. Or the Pope. The Pope. Oh, thank you for that. There's going to be, there's going to be songs that are obligatory.

I think to me what I understood having talked to everybody is he just had stuff in and he had to get out. And sometimes he'd be in the studio and just kind of record this traffic jam. And that would be it. And it would be like, got to get this out. And to be able to get this off my plate and move on to the next thing. Yeah. That's what I saw. But there's the inspiration when you hear that, you can hear that, you know, when something he elevates that he spends time on too.

I mean. Oh, I just have a really quick question for all the nerd print spots here. Sure. So. Thank you. That's all, that's everybody here. So Prince told me a story on New Year's Eve, maybe like in, I think it was 2009.

And basically he was talking about she's always in my hair. I told my two of this. And I was like, oh, and I had, somebody had already told me it was about a protege of his. I couldn't remember who is. Jill Jones. Jill Jones, okay. So I didn't remember the name,

but I'm like, isn't this about a protege? of yours because they played the song we were at the roosevelt club med uh bruce was uh we'd gone in and like um actually raoul who called me and was like um you need to come because prince is here by himself and i'm like oh man i'm already in bed so i like got dressed and like so we had like this very interesting conversation new year's eve and basically i the song came on and i'm like oh isn't this about like a protege of yours and he's like jill jones he's like no not her It's not about her. Here's the thing.

He did this a lot. I thought it was about Susan. Well, he said it was about an assistant that he had at the time. Teresa. I don't know who. I don't know. I can't remember the name. I asked Teresa and she was like, I'd never heard that story.

Okay. So he said, and I'm like, what? And he's like, yeah, she used to hound me about like making sure that I ate, making sure that, like, you know, that I was okay and that I was rested. And she went away, like somebody in her family got sick or something. Oh, so Sandy. Randy. Somebody. But they did that.

That's the story for nothing compared to you. Nothing compared to you, yeah. But I haven't heard that for she's always in my hair. No. Nothing compares to you was about Rand, but the chef? No, no, no, it's about Sandy. Sandy, and it was also, well, Jerome says it was about somebody, and there's somebody else that said it was about them.

I don't know. I mean, here's the thing with any sort of artist. But by the way, I've heard him lie to women and say that the songs were about one, and then he wrote it about another. Everything I've heard is when you're doing this stuff, and Jill said this, and several people said this, a lot of his music he'd do to meet women and things like that, or he'd be inspired.

But just because he writes, he may be inspired by one person. That doesn't mean everything in the song is inspired by that one person. You know, Wonderful Ass may be about vanity, but it also may be about Susanna Melvoin. Could be about the cat having a wonderful ass, exactly. Shit, he told me that song was about me now. See? Me too.

This is very sad. He lied to you, Matthew. I'm sorry to tell you. But so any sort of, any sort of, I tried to put whenever there was a thing that he had said or other people were saying it. But he was very adamant about beautiful ones, not being about Susanna. And sometimes I found that, and I didn't know Prince, but I found that sometimes he would get angry and vengeful about people claiming that it was about them. Yes, that's a true. And he would kind of just, he would just say, no, it was about them.

He would take it, even if it were true. Right, right. You don't know me. There was a story about how Questlove saved the Super Bowl. Speaking of Super Bowl. What? Yeah, so, but one of the... Share the story.

Yes. Questlove saves the Super Bowl. I don't believe this story, by the way. I think you just do it to make me feel good. No, I don't. So this is a true story. Like, I've told Matt to you, and I've told, like, maybe two or three other people. And I're telling the world.

This is a true story. So Prince and I got into a fight, and I was banished from going to the Super Bowl. So I was like, yes. I was so excited. I'm going to sleep. Wait, time out. Time out. Before you tell the story, and I'm trying to deflect the story because it's very silly to me.

No, I'm playing. But you're allowed to fight. Like, you, that's the thing. That's how I know you're not a fan because it's everyone that would know the history of Prince, or at least a fan of Prince, would sort of had this kid gloves approach. And you were just like, I don't care. I didn't.

I didn't. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, like, you know, I deal with people who are very creative and very volatile and mercurial, but also, you know, genuine. These are people that I actually like. And, you know, Prince was just another one of those type of individuals. And so what I noticed is it's kind of like with a child or with a small animal. Like you kind of have to break.

You kind of have to show them who's the boss. otherwise they will take advantage of you. And I had already learned that. And I already had my, you know, my mom is cray cray, so like I had already learned from, like, I learned from early on, you know, how to handle that sort of situation. So I was in a unique position in order to deal with him. And so actually one of the people that I worked with who's worked with him for almost 30 years was like, you talk to, he overheard me talking to him because I never spoke to him out of turn unless it was just he and I.

I never like, I was never really. Never in front of people. Never in front of people. It was always very, you know, it was always very respectful and diplomatic and professional because that's what he needed. He needed professional people around him, and he didn't have a lot of that.

And one of the, my coworkers was like, you talk to a prince like that. And I'm like, like, what? And he's like, like, you give him your opinion and stuff? And I'm like, oh my God, how do you think I get my job done? Like, I got to like, you know,

he gives me a lot of autonomy, but I also have to, like, you know, move forward with, I have to ask him questions. I have to, and, you know, when I think that there is a mistake happening, I pay the price for it, but I have to be vocal. And so I was always very vocal about Prince, and I have no regrets about my time with him.

There's, sorry, don't interrupt? There's a story I'd heard secondhand about an editor who came up to Minneapolis. We flew him up to Minneapolis to cut a music video for him. And supposedly he was doing the music video, and Prince came in and said, okay, to look at it and said, where's my red hat in the video? And the guy said, well, I thought the red hat looked kind of silly. And Prince said, oh, okay, no problem.

And at the end of the day, the guys go back to his room and his bags packed. And he's got a ticket out of town on the top of his luggage that they'd already sent him back home. So he's like, well, I'm not supposed to have my opinion heard here. So the fact that you got you, you know, but you're probably a lot cuter than that guy was. But he also, he knew, though, that you were, that you cared. Because even years after you guys stopped working together and I was with him and Lenny somewhere. And I mentioned you. And he was like, you could see.

He was like, oh, how is I told what I called you after. like how is Ruth? Yeah, no, I loved him. I mean, we had a very, just so I can make this, this is a very like sibling sort of relationship. There was everything, you know, there was nothing untoward. And it was after I left, you know, that I realized that people who worked, females

were sort of somewhat involved with him. I was like, ew, like, no. You know, interesting thing I've heard is, after he passed, I contact a lot of people I interviewed, and they almost all said the same thing that they loved him, and they protected him, and they felt territorial about him. And even to this day, there's a lot of people

that will block for him in a sense that... Yeah, I have a really hard time with that, though, because if there were so many people that loved him, I feel like he would be here right now. Right, but I'm going to say, over the course of a 40-year career, some of these people may have been around in the 80s. Yeah, no, actually, I met Cheryl Nick,

who was his big of artist, and she was like, she would tell me how she felt protective, and there was some, you know, she may be not as close, but she was just like, you know, because he's just, he has this child's, like, spirit about him. He's a man, but he's a child. It's a, it's a very interesting conundrum to see this person. And, and sometimes he's, you know, you know, sometimes he's a whiny kid and you want to, like, choke him out.

Half the time, I wanted to baby shake him. I mean, half the time, all the time. Who am I kidding? Let's be honest. But, but I loved him. Like, he was, like, he was, there was a, there was a, there was, there was, there was, misogynistic parts to him and then they were lovely generous parts to him.

How many times were you fired? A lot. What was the time period of being fired? No, this is a recurring story. For James Brown, for almost every great music has a thing where it's like you're fired. And then like, he never fired me.

Come back. Where's my drummer now? Yeah, exactly. So the way we parted ways, we parted ways he eventually stopped calling. He ghosted me basically. basically. But, like, he never fired me. And he always said, I'm not firing you. I could never fire you. And I was like, well, bitch, I'm not quitting. I was like, oh, we're going to do this. Let's do it. What was the distance between the argument and the, the radio silent? And, okay, I need some cornflakes. Yeah. It could go a couple of hours to, I think the longest was two and a half weeks.

Wow. We still on the payroll? You just thought like, okay. No, no, no. He just wouldn't call me, but I would get emails at all hours of the night. Oh, okay. But he just wouldn't speak to me. So there was one time, I got to tell you this one, there was one time we fought, and it was that it was one of the first parties that I threw at the 3121 home, and he was so mad.

I don't know, it was something I did, and I was like, whatever. And then Raoul, the driver was right there. He was like, five inches from me. I'm at the front door. Prince talks to Raoul, and he's like, um. tell Ruth that, and I was like, me, bro, are you for real talking, looking at Raul, and I'm in front of your face? I was like maybe 10 inches away from him, tell Ruth that we don't want this person here. I think he was mad because somebody got to the party that wasn't supposed to be there.

And I was like, I had nothing to do with that. The person wasn't on my list. He came with another person. And Raul turns around. I'm like, Raul, I heard what he said. He's right there. and I was like Prince I was so mad

I was like Prince I heard yeah all the time when I was mad like if I was in front of people or we were in a meeting with like Warner Brothers or executives I was yes sir no sir

I would call him I would say his name I'd say Prince like if I needed to get his attention but there was one time we were in New York and and he there was too many people and I'm like Prince

all crazy he turned around and he just just laughed because there was no there was no way of getting his attention otherwise and he was too far and I couldn't reach him but he snapped his head back like his mama called him and mama Sean did but yeah no there was like there was like probably two and a half weeks was the longest that the radio silence would go all right tell us about the so it was after a fight and so he calls me up and I land and now you know people are annoyed because you know the rehearsals have been going on all the

badges have been done. It's a, it's a huge production to get security clearance and all of that for the Super Bowl. You need like 20 badges and pictures and blood type and, you know, the last date of my period. So it was like an ordeal. And so they were annoyed that they had to rush it through in literally like an hour or two. So I get there and I can't, you know, I can't walk around the grounds or anything. So I'm waiting at like this holding cell area. And then, you know, Prince summons me and he's in his trailer. And so they have to escort me because I don't have any credentials. And so I get escorted. I go up there and Prince is like, um, the sound is bad. Fix it. I was like, you? Me? Fix it. Like sound. Like I look like a sound engineer. And I'm like,

oh, okay. So he basically was, uh, upset about the sound. I had nothing to do with. The producers already knew about it. Everybody already knew about it. There was in anything I could do. I didn't know why I was there. Um, uh, so I said, well, you know, they're working on it. And he's like, okay, well, we have an event to go to tonight. You're coming, right? And I'm like, well, yeah, I guess I am. So, you know, I was like, hey, be in the car, we're leaving at. No, the thing is, if nobody knows, Prince, he likes to speak in the plural and the third person.

So everybody else started to sort of pick that up, we, all this we bullshit. And it's just like you. It's just you. And so he's like, we're leaving at seven. And I'm like, okay, I go downstairs. I wait in the limo. And Prince was furious. He's really pissed about the sound and not, you know,

know, about what he was hearing, also in an empty stadium. And there was no, you know, there was reverb and all this stuff. And, you know, what was going to be televised. And he was just not happy about the whole situation. We get into the limo to go to this event the night before the Super Bowl. And he is like stone, cold face killer. Like he gets in the car, doesn't even look at me. And I'm like, where's everybody else?

And I ask Prince the question, he doesn't answer. And Ra was like, oh, it's just you. And I'm like, you motherfucker. I'm like, you left me in the limo, it's just me and Prince. And it was just like you could feel the tension in the air. It was just, it was just so thick with, like, rife with just, it felt like anger. I wasn't sure what it was. And I was like, God damn, I'm going to be in this car with it.

I don't know what to do. So I'm like, and we start to leave. And I'm like, okay. And the driver says, oh, you know, the destination is like 15 minutes away. Well, it's South Beach. The night before. for the Super Bowl, it is bumper to bumper. It's 20 minutes and we don't move, but like maybe a foot.

And so Prince is getting highly annoyed. And I'm starting to panic because I'm like, I can't sit here for two hours with this dude just fuming. Yeah, just stewing. I was like, oh, this is super uncomfortable. And I was like, fuck it. And I'm like, so this is out speech, right? This is where they said, did they film that movie? Say hello to my little friends.

That's all that could come to mind, you know, and he was like, he looks at me, he gives me a side eye. Meanwhile, I only get his profile. He's never once really looks at me. And he's like, yes, silence. I'm like, fuck. And then he's like, Raoul, how long, you know, how long before we get there? And he's like, we're calling a police escort. So we're waiting for a police escort.

And so I'm like, I can't stand in. And I'm like, so, like, have you ever been here before? You suck a tall talk Well, because I couldn't My brain wasn't working because it was so I was stressed out because he was stressed out And he was like, yeah, I used to I used to have a club here.

It was really cool. It was called Clam Slam. And I was like, and then suddenly I remembered So two days before, now I had, Amir had sent the Muppets tonight and he had sent me a CD version. I'd never seen it.

And it was the, if no one's ever seen it, you have to look at it. tonight with Prince. It is... We know it well. The essence... We're having a nerd off. Yes.

The essence of... So what kept me around was that spark that you see in the Muppets tonight, that childhood sort of elation that Prince would come out with. That's what... When I would see that, that would kind of like fuel me. Raspberry Survey. Yeah, all of it. So he...

I'm like, no, you know what's cool? I'm like, I'll tell you what's cool. What's cool is you be... on the Muppets tonight and he whips his head around. It's the first time he looks at me in the hole, like, by now it's been like 45 minutes and he's like, what do you know about that? And I'm like, Amir sent it to me. He's like, why?

Yeah. He's like, why is Amir sending you stuff? And I'm like, well, because you're in it and I'd never seen it before. And I'm like, oh my God! And so I go into this and I'm like, how about when Fazi Wazi Bear goes, you're pretty mouthy for a guy with no name? And I

literally, because I'd just seen it, I take on all the like, and How about when Godzo? Like, where's the corset and the fishnets? And he's like, dance, do you anything sense? Like, I literally, like, reenacted the whole thing because I'd just seen it. Right. So we spent the next hour talking about the Muppets tonight.

And what a magical thing is, I, after like my 20, 15 minutes of reenactment, because I had to reenact it. I was laughing so hard at my own jokes. I was like, I entertained. Raoul turned around and he's like, what the fuck is going on? And I'm like, dude. I'm in my moment. It was like, it was like musical. theater for the five-year-old in me. And I, like, went through the whole thing. And I was like,

how about when you were, like, wearing your little cute little overalls? And you had that straw on your mouth. And, like, you know, and so we talked about how he, he was like, and this is where where I bring back when you were saying, Dwayne, about how he would, like, if he was upset at someone, he would, like, not give credit to that person or whatever. So he's like, I don't remember who told me to do The Muppets tonight. And I was looked at him. I'm like, yeah, you do. Because I could tell the way he phrased it, I found out later, Maite, his first wife, I'd encouraged him to do it.

But he was like, but it was the best thing I ever did. He was like, it was the most magical experience. Jim Hensstown's Studio's is like the most, the most magical place you could ever be in. And we had this really, you know, really long conversation about it. And it was during the course of the conversation, then I realized he wasn't angry, that he was nervous. And it took me, like, you know, because he's Prince, like, you don't think about it.

And when I saw him soften up and when, you know, I saw the look on his face and then I was like, and I'm like, fuck it. And I'm like, Prince, you're Prince. Like, no matter what happens tomorrow, like, you're going to kill it. You're going to slay it. And there's nobody who's going to ever do what you can do, not here, not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow. So I'm like, just know that, like I said, I guarantee you. And I'm like, and if you come back for that money back guarantee, I got about $2.50

because you don't pay shit. What were his feelings after it was done? Because you couldn't have asked for a better. It's the best. I was, we ran down, Kim and I and I think it was straight show, we ran down to the front, like, because I was like, we were in the box seat and then we, because they wouldn't let us in. There were other people in there that didn't want us in. I was like, whatever.

And then we ran down to the field. We got drenched. I was drenched. head to toe. Like, I look like a drowned rat. Prince, like, we run back up, because we're like, we gotta go see Prince. So we run back up after he's done. He's already in the box. I'm like, motherfucker. We left before you got off the stage. I'm, you're in the box. And I'm like, I'm not kidding, my hair is pasted to my forehead. My dress is like tissue paper all over the place, showing

things that no one should ever see in public. And I look at him. I walk through the door, kind of like that little kids, do you remember that episode where the little kids in Jurassic Park where they walk through the left of have to have been electrocuted and they walk in all dumbfounded like to the foyer with food? I walk into the suite and I'm all with my face just like all like crazy. Hair plastered.

Prince, he had two droplets on his shoulder pad. I was like, I scream at him and I'm like, Prince! How? Do you not have any water on you? you go home and I just go and I grab and he like we give what no he came up he stopped talking okay okay no he stopped talking to come up to me okay I didn't just do that out of nowhere like he like made the he made the he like he stopped his conversation and came right up to me and I just give him

the biggest bear hug and he just laughs and he's like thank you and that was it and then he moved on and he said talk to Kim and Tricia but I'm like I took that thank you and I was like yeah that's right yeah I did I did that but actually they amir saved the Super Bowl because if it wasn't for you, I would have literally lost... Had no material to work with. None. None. And the Super Bowl would have been a bust. It's amazing when you think about somebody like that

being nervous. Because we all look at him as this guy's almost infallible and when it comes to music. And then to hear, I mean, there's a story in the book about Alan Leeds. Exactly. Going to the premiere of Purple Rain and he's having, almost holding Alan Leeds hand

because he's terrified and just you picture this guy who at the time you got to remember when purple rain came out 24 25 26 years old i mean that i look back at that age and i'm like that's that's a child you know and i can't imagine having that kind of control and if that movie bombed it would have he would have been a punchline but i think a lot of his the mysterious standoffish nature is due to the fact that you know kind of like the wizard viz like you don't want anyone to see what's really behind the curtain sure sure because you might be disappointed, that sort of thing? There's a lot of that, but I think also is that, you know,

a person like that doesn't, you don't trust anyone, so it's very hard to be vulnerable. And so vulnerability is, is a commodity, you know, that he can't afford to share. He's a guy that's never, I mean, he's always cool. The thing I said before, somebody, is you never see him trying to grab a straw with his tongue or missing it, you know. That's not true. I've seen him. You have. But we, us mortals, haven't seen him doing this stuff. You don't see him tripping or, you know, he's, we also see the footage of falling off the stage

at James Brown. We know, we've seen that, you know, but, and again, the nerd off. But you don't, we don't, we don't, yeah, exactly. All of us are saying. Quincy Jones was telling us about that. Really? Yeah, yeah. What do he say?

Oh, he was just saying he made an ass out of himself then. He didn't have a good night that night. No, he didn't have a good night. You ever hear Alan's version of that? No, tell me what, I may have what, tell me. Oh, no, I asked Alan, like, what happened on, in the ride back home. And it was, again, they were sitting in traffic.

Jill was there too, right? Yeah, Jill was there. Traffic is a bitch, man. Well, it was Wendy, Bobby, Jill, Allen, and Prince. And chick. Yeah, check. Yeah. And it was, obviously, Chuck was there.

It was dead, dead silent. But that's, what was so important about that night, and Alan agrees that kind of the I will not I will never you will never catch me

unprepared or that sort of so the genesis of his meticulous I mean it's always been there right but what led to all the stop on the dime shit all the you know

ain't nobody fucking with us sort of thing that's the night it was born because and I even asked Wendy I was like so if he didn't say anything in that whole ride home and she was like, yeah, it was bumper to bumper traffic.

No one said anything. I said, did you... It's so uncomfortable. No, because I asked the next day, like, in rehearsal, was there a look of like, I wonder if you two told the others, like what happened to me, like that sort of thing? And, you know, it's like a fear thing. Like, I don't want to mess up my good thing.

No, no, no. Like, it's unsaid. But she sensed that that night changed. it was necessary to change that. That was the motivation to like, okay, I will be the greatest, I will be, you know, that sort of obsession. I talk about that a little bit in the book where it talks about his control and how important control was in any situation.

And that would be part of what you said and how the man had to have control over whatever it was with a conversation holding it, you know, religion to you guys or whatever. It's interesting. You're right. He was definitely a control freak. But then there were certain things that he would, like I was autonomous.

a lot of the stuff that I did. That's right. Because I don't know why I was going to say because, but I don't actually know why. I think I was just basically, part of it was that, that, because he, not only was he a control freak, but he also liked to instigate stuff. So he could tell like 12 people to do the same thing. So there'd be some kind of weird rivalry competition and he, and no one would talk to each other, so we would all do the same job.

So he could be above the whole thing and let you guys battle it out almost. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let the minions kind of take, you know. I ain't have none of that. Like, I got too much stuff to do. But that was the thing. I would be like, but he would say stuff at least, well, if you can't do it, I'll have such and such doing it. I'm like, I can do it.

I would get mad. It would be like he would like stir you up in some way. Ruth, do you remember that super embarrassing moment we had at the Beverly Wilshire in his bedroom? I have to tell this really quick because it's the most embarrassing story of my life. But our friend Afshin Shahidi, photographer, was his dear friend. we all met through all that through Prince, had his camera and we were in Prince's bedroom thinking Prince was somewhere else.

Okay, so first of all, we weren't in his real bedroom. No, that was the, we were at the Regent. I threw, I had six hours to throw a party for the Oscars. And that's the one that Tom Cruise came to and the one that. At the Beverly. Yeah, Cameron Dias was. Wait, you had six hours for that? He gave me six hours to find a place and throw a party.

And that's the one where Cameron Dia is like, Yeah, Justin Timberlake. fought with Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel was there. It was like a hot mess. Six hours. I was so mad. And then I had, I was like, like, I literally became an evil bitch. I was yelling at everybody.

And we, before the party started, though, I was super stressed out. And there are many rooms in this, this penthouse. Yeah, it was the big pet house in the top house. So there's like, several rooms. No, but I didn't know about this night. So there's like, there's like five, there's like maybe five or six different rooms. You know, it took you six hours, though. Six hours.

Well, that was the best part of it is that I had to be like a, like, you know, I, I spoke Prince Bonics before, you know, and so like I was like a bit of a mind reader. So I would, and he hated that. He hated that I would like try to. You know him? Yeah, he really did. So sometimes he would flip it on me, but I was ready for that one too.

So if you try to flip the script, I got, I got that. So I had like 12 plates running. But so we throw the party and we get there before. No one's there yet. Right? No one's there. Yeah, there was a few people. Just few people.

But we walk in, okay, so now we walk into one of the, so. I just don't want to say it's Prince's bedroom. Okay, it wasn't a prince's bedroom. It was one of the bedrooms in his suite. And Afshin has his camera and me and my dirty mind and being French and all the stupid shit I say. I say we should do like a little sexy photo shoot, like a little porno. So Afshin, you take picture of Ruth and I, Ruth gets on the bed and I get behind Ruth. And I'm like, oh, no.

Enacting this thing. And I'm like, and Afshin like, I don't even know if he has the photos, but I'm standing there behind Ruth. and dude just walks right into the world. And he goes like, he looks at me and he goes, uh-uh. No, he goes, uh-uh. And walk right back out. And you were like, you looked at me like, you just got me fired. You just got me fired.

I'm like, I'm done. Yeah, she was like, you just got me fired with your stupid ass. You dumbass. And Ashinen was standing there like, okay, this was awkward. And then I'm thinking like, I don't know how to go back into the room now because he's going to see me in the room. Right, right. And then he was cool. I don't know.

He had a sense of humor that night. That wasn't the first time that somebody's like come up behind me and done something they shouldn't have and they got fired. That was funny. I got all kinds of stress. I had to tell that because that just came back to me. That was really funny one. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way. this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to be

care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh hell no, I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, I'll go around the room. I would like to know, Mike, what is, in your, in your mind, what is your, you're, in your, goal to see as far as his legacy concern and how would you like that

uh yeah I mean because the thing is he's he's not coming back and I know I think well he would never want his he would never do a Nike commercial he would never do it but it's like

we live in a society in which people forget quickly and And, you know, it's the battle of, well, do we put him in Bob Marley terms and have him everywhere? Or, you know, and we've had a lot of eye-rolling moments like the Empire episode or whatever. Or maybe what's going to happen. I can tell you, though, for one thing for sure, he would never want Purple Rain licensed. I have that in writing.

The song? Yeah. That's in writing. You have it in writing, wow. Yeah. It was a work order that he had to Universal Publishing. Purple Range should never be licensed, not ever. Oh, okay, well, that's one thing in his will. That's not a rule.

I mean, it's just a right. Whether anyone's going to honor that or not. Matthew. Yes. What would you, as the ultimate Prince fan? First of all, what's your rarest artifact that you had? I kind of misrepresented you. I mean, your artifact game is crazy.

I mean, you know, I have a couple of black albums, a German one and a U.S. one. which is pretty, I feel that's pretty cool, but I have some handwritten things. I have some acetates and test pressings that I'm proud of, like, for you, the very first. Yikes. Which I've had for a long time. A lot of, I mean, it's funny. Like, I have cassettes.

I have, like, cassettes for that song, The Voice, and I hear your voice from Warner Chapel with handwriting, you know, that has like the thing they sent him, things like that that are one of a kind. So, but, you know, I have a lot. And at a certain point in my life, I got rid of some things around like gold experience. I kind of disconnected a little bit and people came after me. Why did you get rid of things? Because I was, you know, at a certain point I was buying my first house with my then wife and

kids. And it was like, we need money quick, you know. I had these, my regrets are that I wish you haven't, that's why I mentioned that earlier, I had these two, so four sides of I wish you have an acetates that had completely different mixes of the extended thing. Somewhere I have a cassette of it, so maybe you can find that. But that's something that, but I got so much money. And at the time, you know, I was like, I don't know, 30 years old, somebody gave me like $15,000 for, you know, I was like, that's a lot of money. Do you know who you gave it to? It was some, some, no, it was something.

I had Japan. I could maybe find... Of course it was Japan. Of course it was Japan. But I had like, you know, I had some, you know, a couple pairs of shoes and Prince shoes and... Couple pairs. Couple pair, pair, you know.

Damn, I'm just, it just hit me that I forgot I have. Like, I... Yeah, you have a lot of shit. I gave up. No, even in here, I'm like, man, I wish I had some... Oh, wait a minute. You just stepped up your game, like, on a big... No, I got lucky, man.

And I will not... probably have a house in the next three years. You'll sell it all to me for 20 bucks. No, even, you know what? What's weird is that what I have, it's so sacred to me that my, I think my plan is that I want him to really have a nice wing at the Smithsonian in D.C. Sure.

So I believe that I will I mean because right now as we speak I mean you know The shit's on the floor like it's it's it's it's high You have your version of the prince box It's seven figures worth of shit that is sitting on the floor and you know I mean you know and I'd rather it just be in I'd rather put it to awesome no

My apartment I'd rather have it put to great use So I think that I will probably donate it to my apartment. The Smithsonian. I need some stuff for the walls. In D.C. So. Our friend Timothy. Damn.

I wish you we haven't. Yeah. That's my, you know, that's one of my regrets. And there's still a lot of other stuff. I mean, I have things, you know, in storage and things in closets that I forget about. But it's pretty crazy. Like some of this stuff. You have that love God?

Well, one time I stalked him at Warner Brothers. A friend of mine was working in an international. You talk about the... No, the one you found at Amiva. Oh, that was crazy. No, that says stay wet. Actually, this is crazy. I found a 1999 thing.

This was when, like days after he passed. And this is like, you know, holy, whatever you call it, divine intervention. But long story short, I get a 1999 record that inside has a napkin, 100% authentic sign, stay wet, love prints in purple marker. And we have the story goes deep, but yeah, that's so that yeah, that's one of those things. Wait, what made you look? I mean, no, no, they, it said like, you know, something.

I can't remember. It didn't even have it like on the outside. It said like it didn't say, it was weird. It was like a few hundred bucks. So they knew it was something. But I just saw the guy putting it up. They hadn't put it up yet. I saw the guy in the middle of putting it up.

And I was like, let me have that. And I figure, you know, I look inside. I see the thing. And I was like, yeah, I'm buying that. And then. Yeah, that was crazy. But I also had like, you know, I had him sign some stuff. My friend used to work at International at Water Brothers.

And I came to the, I guess it was for graffiti bridge. And then he had the Diamonds and Pearls where they performed on the lot. That's when I met Jeff Aeroff. You remember we were hanging with Jeff back in 2009 in New York, got me here. The guy who signed Lenny and Ben and Evan and Harper and everybody. But anyways, Jeff, you know, it kind of stuck me in to watch Prince perform the Diamonds and Pearls thing on the lot. And then I had him sign a thing. So that's the one that's in my bedroom because he signed it to me, not to my name, but signed it.

The fact that he signed it is hard. Yeah. I think I have a napkin from the first wedding. Really? Yeah. Sign? No, not signed. Oh, just a napkin?

Just a napkin? I believe. But it's got the M and the symbol. I got one of those. I'm such a geek. It was a gift. Somebody gave it to me. And the way that he signed that he sharpied the, um, the gift.

off 12 inch. Yeah. He did something similar to Shacadalica. Right. So I think... Word? Yeah, I have the... I have the Shacadilica, or I have, like...

Whatever. He said that he told Alan, like, have da-da-da play this record, and he signed it. And, you know, Camille, Shacadelica, and... That's cool. ...gave it to Alan to give to the DJ to play it and then bring it back. So... I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on, I wish you haven't. Yeah, they were like forced as fast as it.

And the get off 12 inch you're talking about. I was there when he got it. We used to hang out back then. And he had it before anybody else. And he said, look at this. And he still, he's got a package from Paisley Park one day. And I'd been, see, I was consulting for like anti-piracy. I was a total hypocrite because I was collecting all the shit in bootlay.

I can tell you. And they were paying me to like do anti-piracy work. But basically it was, you know, I was just compiling. He was a purple pigeon, stool pigeon? And I was like, you know, these are the, I would make databases and all that stuff. And so they started sending me, you know, test pressings and. Yeah, this guy, honestly, but it was, it was crazy because he'd always had some crazy stuff. He was always getting amazing stuff.

And you still had a relationship with Lenny way back then. Yeah, because I had no Lenny for 30. But he, when he got the 12 inch of get off, he, like, showed me and Brian, who we used to hang out with. And we were just dumbfounded by this thing going, this is the coolest thing. And nobody had it. it was weird. He shipped it like two weeks later or so three weeks later. So I was like, maybe this is the only one. And I was trying to see

like, wait, is this the actual writing on it? And he still has the FedEx package that it came. Yeah, from Paisley because I'm because I'm a geek. And then I got the one. I got the Aunt Esther fan. Yeah, well, I have I have one of those. My mom threw that shit away.

What? Well, I used to work at Ruffel's records intern there and they sent like five of those Aunt Esther fans. Really? And my mom threw this shit. The package I got for that is another Paisley thing, and it's got the gold sexy MF wrapped in underwear with the sexy MF with the fan and a card from print saying, you know, the new blah, blah, blah, blah. And I still have that thing pretty intact. But, you know, there was at Zanzibar, the night we were at Zanzibar. That's what I was working on the Ultimate Prince thing with Warner Brothers.

And I had like the, he really like got in my head and about about it. and he got in advance for it. He knew it was a real thing, and he was down with it, but he asked me to take off certain songs because of his belief. So I had to take off erotic city, soft and wet.

There was one more... The 12 inches isn't on the ultimate print stuff. No, we had to take it off. So, you know, thanks to Michael, now it's out in the right sound on the purple rain thing. So I said, can I put Let's Work instead? So we replaced Let's Work.

And then for Soft and White, he wanted the acoustic version of 7. So it was like, okay, that's not really the same thing. But that night, he had a, I still have this. It was an acetate of, I don't know why I got that. It was like a parting gift. I don't know. Maybe it was for somebody else, and he thought I was somebody else.

But it's a sexy MF remix with, mixed with, like, Ice Cube wrapping. I remember that. But it's an ice cube track. It's not Ice Cube on print. It's like a medley kind of thing. Yeah, mashup. but so I'll dig that up for you I'll send you that it's just but you know so things like that

I'm sure if I someday I'm gonna actually you know organize my stuff so Duane what is your wish to see as far as the legacy is concerned what's your I think there's so much potential to do I would first of would love to see a serious XM station that is

just Prince or something like that I would love to see Did you not tell me that at the time you guys were having that conversation. Did you? Because I would love to see, to me, you got a Tom Petty station, you got a Bruce station. No, we were in the talks with that.

And I would love to see it right now. I mean, because you could have all the different shows. You have a live show. You have a Bobby Zee doing the DJ thing that he used to do. I think something like that would be amazing. And the problem right now is that the legacy of Prince is going to start to get smaller and smaller and smaller. And it's our job to keep expanding it.

you know, Michael Jackson is important to us, but Michael Jackson's legacy is drifting because the reissues are having. Yeah, exactly, and the reissues they're having are the Halloween thing, I didn't care. He did have that. So it was like what the, you know, but with Prince, he's got such a vast vault of stuff,

some great, some not as great. It's up to us to kind of get, you know, well, there's enough for at least 20 great records. Oh, yeah, yeah. he's got a lot of great stuff. And I'm hoping what the state does and what Warner Brothers. First off, I hope everything goes to Warner Brothers. I want it under one house.

He may have had problems out with Warner Brothers at certain times, but it seemed that Warner Brothers is never going to release what they have. I would like to see everything going to one place. So you can have a greatest hits. Completely. Exactly. And then you don't have to fight about when he did a session in 85 that didn't come out. Well, that would be under this umbrella,

as opposed to somebody saying, well, that didn't. didn't come out. He also did a lot of albums that, as you know, he did a lot of albums that he gave to Warner Brothers saying, released this, and they didn't. So when people complain that, well, he didn't intend to release this, no, he actually, there's a lot of things he wanted to release that Warner Brothers are something that said no. Undertaker album. Yeah, there's a lot of things like that.

And on top of that, he would be very interested in something for Monday and Tuesday of a week, and that would be the most important thing. And then Wednesday come along and you get a new idea and he said, no, screw Monday and Tuesday. This is Wednesday. That didn't mean Monday and Tuesday stuff is bad. It just meant that he all of a sudden had a... He had a very short attention span. And I think he was really good at starting projects

because that's when it's fun. You're dating somebody and you're falling in love with the thing. But wrapping it up is a little more difficult because it's the end of a relationship. So he would get interested in the new girl, the new girl, the new song, the new song, the new song. And I think that he has a lot of unfinished projects. I'd love to hear the flesh out there.

I'd love to hear a Madhouse box set. I'd love to hear Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 box set. I'd like to hear an unreleased Revolution album, the Roadhouse Garden. Even though some of that stuff was released on that album, there's more stuff there. And I'd love to hear that stuff. I'd love to hear all the songs. I'd love to see a sign of the Times. Multi-disc set of all the stuff that came out for that, you know, with Dream Factory and all that stuff.

There's so many projects that the guy did that it seems like you could be released. these things for a long, long time. I would also like to see them taking some of the rehearsals and sound checks and saying, okay, this is when he taught the band Purple Rain or this is when he taught, you know, and have, let's say a year-long process where once a month or twice a month, they come out with a tape, you know, just a tape that is the rehearsal of something. And you do a subscription to the year and you get this download and that to me would be the best thing. Because, and it doesn't have to be perfect. It can be a flawed tape. We all understand this was a consistent. This was a set tape. Yeah, I'm not used to clean prints.

Yeah, exactly. By now it's weird hearing something that sounds good. I know. It's like, wait, I don't understand this. But there's so many things that, you know, I think are out there that I think should be. One of the cool things about doing the book and stuff like this is because

I get an idea of some of the things that are out there. And I'm thinking about doing a book that's 85-86, which would cover Under the Cherry Moon, which would cover Madhouse, which would cover Sheila's second and third album, which would cover the flesh,

Crystal Ball, which would cover it's a jazz group he did with... During Christmas, here. Yeah, exactly, exactly. In the other building. I played for you. So it would be that, and then that album end, or the book ends, the second book would end with the revolution breaking up, the family

breaking up, and then Prince breaking up with Susanna. And then the last thing he does that year is recording Wally. You know, and that's right before the sign of the Times band got formed. So it sets up Sign of the Times, which Sign of the Times is kind of a way of him saying, you think

it was all about them. I'll show you what I can do with a new band, almost a completely new band, and you know, almost feeling he had something to prove. So that would be the book after that. I'd love to keep doing books, you know, and like I said, until this is done. I have enough material right

now to do one about 81, 82, 8586, and 8788. And I'm hoping that along the way... It's 3,000 pages. I know. Your wife is still with you? Barely. My daughter, it's funny, my daughter's eight,

and all she knows is dad sits and writes. So she'll try to, I just wrote a book too, dad, you know. And it's very nice, but she doesn't understand that on every vacation, every night and every weekend, dad's sitting there writing. Damn. You know, and it's obsession, you know. And the interesting thing is I see it almost like Prince, when he got obsessed with doing his stuff, working all the time.

And it's almost like a life lesson when you see what Prince accomplished. There's a reason why he's got a vault full of stuff is because he was always working. And the reason why he was so good is he was always playing. And before a concert, he would play for hours while they were still setting up the lights he'd be playing. You know, when you know that kind of stuff, there's a reason why he's that good. And there's a reason why nobody touches him. And that's the reason why there's no next prince because he... Prince never, never not showed up to rehearsals.

Right. He just, that guy lived music. He talked music. I think that his communication with people was based on music. There was one story I heard that would be in the second book where his engineer, he's talking his engineer. He said, we should make a TV show called Drum Talk, where one drummer's going, and the other drummer is going, and answering each other like in drum talk. And I thought, that's pretty. But again, this is how he thinks. This is how he thinks.

and you know this. And so, yeah, again. One thing I just wanted to add to what you think, sorry. No, real quick, is that because of the haters, and we deal with a lot of haters, is that let's remember that Prince was back at Warner Brothers. When people, you know, say, oh, Warner Brothers, he was back with Warner Brothers.

That's why Michael was his A&R guy, you know, when he passed. And the other thing is when people talk about he didn't want this, he didn't want that. I have first-hand experience, Ruth, there many times where, because before I was a photographer, really, I was doing all the, I still do a lot of the lessons. photographer he was taking a little pictures

at the deluxe editions and all that stuff and I used to give him those things and when I give him the Miles Davis Bitches brew

40th anniversary box that I did the first thing he said is we got to do I want to do this with all my albums so when people say he wouldn't want this

he was a Gemini so he would you know one thing one day but I just wanted to put that out there that he did say that on many occasions and that he was

back of Warner Brothers that's all right all right Ruth your turn what would you like his legacy to be. You know, I think it started during, I mean, it's always been there, but during my 10 years when he wanted to create a museum, right at the beginning. A Paisley Park?

At Paisley Park. So it was Dave Hampton, myself, Sam Jennings, and Rick Pelliquin, who managed, you know, Paisley at the time. And, you know, I haven't been. I don't know what it looks like right now. I've seen kind of pictures, and I'm a little disappointed, only because, you know, You know, it's going along the lines. It's a very different...

I don't want to put words into Prince's mouth. I knew what he said to me at the time and the time frame during when I was with him, what he wanted. But then he could change his mind on a whim. I mean, there's a movie that he made. It's a terrible movie. But there is a movie. 31.

31. 31. Really bad. And... It is? It's awful. The performances are... The music?

Yes. The performances are... Do you know about this, Dway? I know about the movie. I've just never seen it. It's amazing. Is this something I should see? Apparently not.

No, you don't want to waste your time. I'm here. I've wasted my time on a lot of bad things. It's so great. You said that. They're lying. They're lying. People say that about the studio.

The studio bits are cool because it's him performance. Yeah, the studio bits are like really impactful. Wait, studio. Yeah, we filmed inside of days. And the jam session with Sunny and Michael. Wow. There's some really good performance parts. Nice.

But the project, whatever. Anyway. It makes Under the Cherry Moon look like Gone with the Wind. Wow. I didn't love Under the Cherry Moon. I didn't watch Purple Rain for the narrative. I love Under the Cherry Moon. I don't know.

But, I mean, the idea... Is it better than the hard life? I don't know what that is. Oh, low-blow, man. You don't want to know. That's a horrible movie. That's a horrible. Are you a fan of the Hard Life?

Come on, man. We know Prince and movies or whatever. Yeah, it's like a short 15-minute film. that they, I think they like, The Madhouse thing. Yeah, they did it on a random way. Okay, let me say this. The hard life is Casablanca next to

Wow. Wow. Wow. That's sad. I'm sorry to. The performance pieces are redeemed. I love you. Don't stop serving me tea, please.

Anyway, go right. I think, I think just because Prince would say, you know, so one of the, the ideas, not have quotes from like my work notebooks of what he wanted. He wanted, he wanted, Paisley Park to be an interactive, um, a multi-dimensional

place where fans new and old could come and discover and rediscover music. And part of his, you know, saying that he would say all the time is I am music. And, you know, one of the ideas was like, he was like, we could hang a guitar here, you know, underneath some acrylic. And I'm like, no, that's not what you do. You hang a guitar here.

You have a suspended in like suspended animation. Have a twirling. You can have a hologram. of all the music or the shows of what that guitar played on. And I don't know anything about Prince and his music and, like, the songs, but I, you know, I think would be cool to go into an interactive museum. And kind of like, you know, the Met Museum where you put on, like, the headphones. And either they can be guided or they can be, you know, via headphones.

And as you walk through each area, you are, you know, you walk into an experience. Because that's what the parties were. The parties were a multi-dimensional experience. You were assaulted through sound, through smell, through taste. We used all your senses, and that was what we were trying to do with Paisley Park. Now, what I saw in a picture, I mean, I'm not to diss anyone or anything, but I saw like a utility closet popped out, an acrylic, not even the door jams are taken out, and like there's a guitar just lying there.

Just because Prince tells you to do that, that's not how I work anyway. I don't like that's the basic of what he wants the bare minimum the bare minimum and if it's done like that you know he's a he's a quick moving guy so if it's already done he's just going to keep it moving but what I would love to see for his legacy is the things that we talked about but implemented in the most so thank you thank you took the words right out of my mouth where classy it not beyond it's not classy it's more like it's got a change so whatever is implemented has to be able to morph just like he did. He morphed and he changed, he changed, but he didn't. Like,

there were the core things. His core thing with Prince was always the record company. Like, he was always going to fight the record company. It didn't matter whether he was friends with them or not. He was always, he was always going to look at an attorney side-eyed,

always. He didn't trust attorneys, no matter who tells you what. He didn't trust them, you know? You can say that, like, three decibels lowered.

It'll still be true. Like, he, he, you know, there were certain things about him. And, And like Dwayne and Meteu and everyone here says, like he would change his mind, then he would change it back. So what I can say to you right now could almost be like solid truth, but then, you know, the last couple of years, a lot of things happened that I would have never even foreseen because of all the things that he said to me, you know, over and over and over again that he would never do when some of the things were done. Therefore, you know, who's to say?

but the best the best implementation of his legacy would be to have the music released but in a timely manner after it's been well curated and and you know all the anthology the Prince Anthologists that are present or whoever needs to be involved with that

knowing what needs to what you know come to a consensus and agreement like my dream and I had already I had told him this when we were talking about his the day we talked about his will. And he was like, oh, why? Because he asked me why he should have a will.

And I'm like, because somebody needs to manage your state. And he's like, why? You think you're going to manage it? And I was like, you know what? I did a very good job. If you were going to ask me the question, he's like, oh, all by yourself. And I'm like, no, I would have like a tribe of people managing. You would take one old band member, not all of them, because there's a lot of stuff

happening. And you would rotate. There would be two positions you would rotate. It would be the band members. and it would be maybe some sort of super fan base. The other 10, they would be executives. There would be, you know, music industry executives. There would be your counterparts like Lenny Kravitz or, you know, somebody like that.

And then you would have, you know, maybe one former employee. But even that should be rotated because power just as strange when it comes to Prince. It's where I learned how to hate everybody. So it would literally be a tribe of people sort of curating and finding the best alternative for, you know, because everybody's got their version. Well, that prince would never do that. Well, no, you wouldn't do it, but he didn't lead direction. So you have to take the next best things in order to secure his legacy, to move it forward and to introduce it to the masses. Like I, like, Matthew, like when we talk, he tells me something new all the time that I didn't know about Prince.

Because I only knew the person, really, the musician is something that I am still discovering. And that would be like a dream. To have that sort of cemented if the estate could just sort of set a hard and fast guideline or something that's concrete, like a serious documentary, which I've talked to other people about, and something that just takes in everything. And you don't have, there's not enough time to go over it. It's like a documentary would be like 10 hours. There's just too much he did on so many different levels.

Can I add one or two things real quick? You would mention a documentary. We were talking earlier about Ken Burns type thing. I'm watching one of a Vietnam, or he did the jazz one. Imagine a 10-hour PBS documentary about him, I know, which would be crazy. And I make documentaries for a living. This would be something I would love to do. But one thing I wanted to make, you brought us something that reminded me,

something that I think has been forgotten in a lot of the stuff that's being done is all the people that worked for them. the Pieran alumni and people like that that really were there like you were saying there's a lot of people who understand his legacy because of the pocket they were in right and to have and and i think that there's it's it's going to waste by not um by the estate not kind of checking in with some of these people i would love to see them do a a prince day at just for the people who used to work for them and say you guys can all come to paisley park take out your cameras take pictures and make like a picnic day for all you guys to kind of get back together and have a fun day, but it seems to be so secretive right now. And they don't like to do that. To me, I'd think that there's engineers and there's band members that have stories to tell. And that's one of the reasons I wrote a book. And it's one of the reasons we all love articles and stuff like this about this stuff. And that's one of the reasons people come on your show because we want to hear these stories. And these stories are going to die if these aren't told. And these stories are what keeps Prince alive. And when I hear these, it's like he's back again. And, and, we're never going to get them back. And again, there's never going to be another

prince. So it's up to everybody else to tell these stories. And to put the pieces together, we're never going to get the full picture. But the responsibility of everybody right now is to tell the truth and to tell what they remember. Good look with that. I know. But I'm saying to tell the truth as much as they can.

So many revised historic lessons. Well, that's true. But I think that people are getting ignored and accidentally ignored or actually written off. And there's a lot of people that had, you know, I would never have known the glass cutter story. And now I'm going to always think about that when I hear this on my nose. Exactly. I mean you think about your

nipples when I hear it goes to. HR. I've got to be fired. Hashtag me too. But I think there's stories like this. I mean, somebody, Joe Wills was telling me that there was a the song, Shake. He was going to make a shake in the kitchen. And he came

with shake. He's like, I'll be right back and you know, goes, and so that kind of stuff. There was another one. Somebody told me that the housequake was he was walking across the floor. going out to dinner here in one of the studios and his feet made that sound and he was like dinner's off and he went back to the drum and went pung poon you know and you go this guy's always feeding the machine so he's always looking for that that like you said a casual conversation somebody could have

becomes a joke you throw away becomes a song title or becomes a part of the song he was one of my jokes about ovulation he would steal that stuff all the time with people this song is so good I'm starting to like ovulate. And what do you do? He made it into like a weird lyric. That was terrible. Exactly. He would, he would pull whatever he had.

I was like, Prince, that's not good. That's not good. But he would pull this kind of stuff from everybody. And that's one of the fun things is you can tell his work based on who was around him. You can hear a Susan Rogers influence. You can hear a Peggy McCreery influence. You can hear each one of these band members that, you know, Fink was around for this long period.

And so he's got stories to tell. It just, to me, I think it's almost criminal that these things aren't being... Well, hopefully if there's like a documentary that comes out. Documentary just on the oral history of Prince stories. Yeah, that's true. That'd be the ultimate. Listen, I'm going to start my book right now.

But I do want to see because I did mention the hashtag Me Too, just I don't want to be slight about it at all. Prince, even though he could be slightly misogynistic and kind of a jerk sometimes, he was never, ever, ever, as far as I know, inappropriate with women. And I just want to put that out there because there's so many people like, you know, getting thrown under the bus and Dave Chappelle, I just saw him and spent some time with him. And, you know, a lot of his comedy is on that. But Prince, even though he was all about sex and all kind of crazy, whatever the wild and crazy songs you were talking about with those lyrics.

he was never ever not to me not to the like anybody that was involved was there because they wanted to be there he was never inappropriate he was never I think the majority of his fan base happens to agree with you but I don't know who listens to this

and I just want to make that but I just want to make that like a like a very clear statement about who Prince was and he was always a gentleman he might have been like you know an asshole sometimes but he was never is well you know I definitely learned a few things from him

Ruth get me some cereal we went on a cereal one night that was one of my favorite Ruth moments we went to the Ralphs we was like where's the slowbook? We went to rock and roll Ralphs to get him some cereal and I thought he did that just to break up his suspicion if I was trying to see Ruth and not I don't know but no you know what he had

he had a thing about why is Amir talking about who is that he's like tell him he can't come because he talks too much She's like the police. He's like, he's like, he's like, bringing Amir is like having him go snitch to the police. Yeah, you know. I mean, come on. But then he was like Relent and Amir would be there. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger. than I ever imagined.

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Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft. prospects, from hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else.

If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either.

We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. so they take matters into their own hands.

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All right, Bill, we got to wrap this up. Bill, what's your wish for his legacy? I actually would love to, it's all pretty much been mentioned, but I'd love to see like an app or a subscription service that's like based around an app where they can continuously rotate content in and out. The idea of the MBG music club.

Yeah. That's a Sam Jennings thing. Exactly. But done properly. Sam Jennings. But done properly. No just to Sam Jennings. No.

Well, I mean, you know, he was, that was a lot of Prince. Right. Like, you know, Prince wanted to have like those weird, whatever, that hide-and-seek thing. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I didn't pay attention to that. That was another thing that was started and then just.

I was too busy getting cereal or calling up Samahyak. Shots fired. Well, I'll close in saying that probably. I mean, yeah, you guys, everything that you guys said, of course, I agree with. I actually say that I want to be selfish enough and maybe grumpy old guy enough. I would like to see the analog version of that. idea where it's like maybe it's just me in my my middle age wanting to revisit my childhood i don't have room for all that shit i do we always have room for i'm just saying that for me especially with there

being two record store days you know i would hear record store days yeah i'm like a recastow series where it's like you know all this stuff remastered on wax of course uh the stuff being you know in 45 culture right now. So get the original 45s reissued the same way mastered, you know, the same way like the excitement of a new Prince 45 coming on what's on the B side, that sort of thing.

But even then, like having... You know what? I would rather see that done with the new stuff that comes out, like in the future, not the old stuff. Like see... The new old stuff. Get a new print song that I've never heard before

on 45 with the... Well, yeah, that too. I mean, you know, even the stuff that we have, I mean, I'm just saying there's plenty of of youth stuff out in the world. But you know, Prince didn't like, the reason why he didn't like the digitized stuff was because of the compression

and that it would lose the sound and that you couldn't hear certain sounds and certain tones. And so it didn't have the same life as a record does. Nowadays, though, you can stream lossless audio and it's much easier to do than probably... You don't make a Neil Young poem joke. But the Jack White, the way he has his vault, I subscribe to it.

My son subscribes to it. Those things are amazing. Like every three months you get a ridiculous box set, you know, colored vinyl, this, that books, that kind of stuff for guys like us, we like this. When Tower Records, is it Tower Records that was on the corner of something? Yeah. When that was going out of business, Prince wanted to buy it. Really? You wanted to buy it an open a record store there.

And he's like, and I want you to write it. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Call it Reckisto. Recostoe. He wanted to do a recastow. Did he say recesto? Yeah. Nice.

Nice. He also wanted me to open a Caroline's out here and I was like, no. Comedy club? Yeah, he was like, you could be like Caroline. Interesting. You know what? For all the talk of like,

Quest, you should be there and curating. I don't, I want to, I want to be a fan. I want to, you know, when record store day happens in April, I want to, you know, the feeling that I had, hearing the

that the reissue of Weak and Funk or fuck whatever Yeah Like I knew That was The last

Time that I'd have that Feeling I had When I was like 11 Like hearing the Little Red Quervette Remix for the first time Like what the hell is he Like staring at the speaker

It's hard to please Prince fans I'll apologize to all the orgers And all the Who are What other chat room people and stuff? All the Facebook groups. Yeah.

BML people. I feel like there's no link. They are still around, aren't they? There's no level of happiness. There's just like making them angry the least. Yeah. Glass half empty. No, my fans just like you guys are.

Pretty much. I wonder about some of those people. At the end of the day, this is just a conversation. with friends, purple friends. I wanted to do that. Except maybe Michael. You're it off. I thank you guys for...

Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Thank you for letting me crash this. Wait, this is my post script. Ruth, do you have a silly story? Anything? Like something super... Oh, yeah, I've got one.

Just, yeah, quick. Speaking of being in traffic. Yeah. So one time, Prince's driver couldn't pick him up from... I think he was from here. No, it wasn't from here. was another studio on the west side. He was editing the movie that we shall not speak of.

Great movie. Shut up. Oscar winning movie. And so I had a hoopty at the time. It was an infinity. It was like a nice infinity. The red card. No, it was in infinity.

It was like in 2005, 2006. And like I got it at a police auction so the front seats were ripped up. That's true. Ruth can be so ghetto. she's so good listen it was on set I like I like to buy new use I am frugal with my money

anyway stupid sometimes but definitely so I regardless I was in the car and I was like damn it

I'm in my car he's gonna clown my car it looked nice from the outside but once he sat in it so I go to the trunk and I had some my musicology t-shirts in there but this one had like

it was like a prototype or whatever and it had his face on it and I'm like I'll just put the t-shirt on because I didn't want his like he knew what he was wearing that day and he had like some silky

slinky pants and they're like sky blue and so I was like oh he's gonna get all he's gonna be you know mad if you get some snag so let me put the t-shirt on so I go all the way to the west side in Santa Monica and I go and um you know Ruth where are you like he's coming and I'm like I'm ready now I was like dude I'm like it's traffic and I get there and he's standing there waiting for me person like sucking in his cheeks and pursing his lips you know it's just annoyed that I was doing what Santa Monica happened? No, it was somewhere in Santa Monica. I can't remember.

Was it at the village? It might have been. It might have been. So I go and I pick him up and, you know, I don't get out of my car because, like, you know, he just walks over to me or he doesn't walk. And Prince never walks. He floats or flutters or whatever it is that he does. And then he sort of like appears in the seat. I never see him actually get in.

And he looks at the seat and he sees the t-shirt there. And I'm like, you have to sit on the t-shirt because I don't want your clothes to snag. And he doesn't say anything. he starts scowling at me and he's struggling with the seatbelt and I'm like, ugh. And I'm like, let me get the seatbelt. So I reach over like a child and I'm like buckle him in. So I buckle him in the car. And then it's rush hour traffic.

It's like five o'clock in the afternoon. And he's sitting in there and I could tell he's mad. And I just see him from like the side of my eyes is fingering the phrase of the of the stretched open leather like a pig's guts. You know, he's like just touching it and he's like, um, why did not, uh, Stacey Snyder or Ali Shermer buy you a new car? And I'm like, what? And he's like, why didn't your old bosses buy you a new car? And I'm like, that's, that's, that's, that's not how it works.

Brent's like, unless it's a company car, like, why would they buy me a new car? And I was like, why won't you buy me a new car? And he's like, you shouldn't be riding around a car like this. And I'm like, why? It runs. And he was like, look around. and we were like in, you know, deadlock traffic. And he's like, do you think anyone would believe that Prince is in this car right now?

I was going to ask you, were the windows tinted? No, they weren't tinted. So like people in the cars around could see the Prince. Wow. And so it was a long, it's a long story, but it was a long-ass trip. Back to freaking Beverly Hills or wherever he was staying at. He was staying at the Boozer House. Oh, those are them stories at the Booser House too.

Did you ever get the car from him? No, but I did end up getting, and he was like, when I dropped him off, I finally dropped him off. And he was like, because he started, you know, there were people walking by, like, he would taunt people and he would like look at them. Would they believe it's him? No, people would double take because it was odd to see somebody like him. And then he's a very definitive look. And then they would go back and be like, oh, no, it's just something to do that looks. He's like, see?

See? Nobody believes princes in the car. Well, you should want that, though. Yeah. We didn't think, but there was something about it. He didn't like that. No, I get it. But we had, like, there was another, like,

that had a couple of car things. Like, there was one time that we were in the car with Guy O'Syri, and he rolls down the limo window because these kids in the car next to us, they're singing loud. They're like, blah, blah, blah. And he rolls down. Guy's trying to talk. He has a meeting with him in the limo,

and he rolls down the limo, like halfway, and it goes, zzz. He looks over them, and he just goes, he puts his finger to his mouth. to shush, but he doesn't say it. He just goes like this. The kids turn around and they go, oh my God, he just got shush my friends. Like, they literally go off.

And then he goes, all the while, Gaiosiris talking to him, like trying to do some business. I couldn't stop it. I started cracking up. I couldn't help myself. Thank you. Well, that's a great note to end on.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is Questlove signing off. Questlove Supreme. We will see you on the next go round. Thank you. West Love Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio,

visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm brink. bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest, the director of the NFL's East West Shrine. Brian Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on Tim. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an eye. Heart Podcasts guaranteed human.