The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Morris Day

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

Ok we have said it before, but this time we really mean it. This episode of Questlove Supreme was on the bucket list and not to be missed! Morris Day has been on our list since day one and finally our (yours and our) dream has come true! Listen as Morris schools Quest and Team Supreme on his early days in Minneapolis, transitioning from drummer to band leader all the great history that came with it! Love to the Purple Army! We did it!  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee 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,

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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. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I bowed. 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.

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Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. All right, y'all, this is going to be a long one. You ready? And I'm talking about the introduction. All right, here we go. All right, let's see how good I am at winging this. You got it. Here we go.

All right, so, ladies and gentlemen, this is Questlove Supreme, and we're with Sugar Steve, Laia, and Unpaid Bill. Yeah. Fonteigolo, I got to pour out some wheatgrass for the brothers who ain't here. Well, he's missing out. At the picnic. Yeah, so I just want to tell you guys alone, you know, my distinguished QLS co-stars that I'm offering in advance.

a full apology because, you know, we already, we already know that I'm cuckoo for anything purple-related, but unlike our distinguished guest today, I'm throwing all of my cool out the window. Yeah. All my professionalism and whatever so-called journalistic integrity I had is gone. I'm going full Chris Farley, Paul McCartney, S&L interview mode right now. Yeah. Let us out.

You guys aren't encouraged. You're encouraging me, trust me. This is going to be bad. And let me also preface by asking my guest to forgive me for all my levels of nerddom for this particular episode. Our guest today is probably the last plank of the original purple squad or army to whom I have not revealed my true geekdom. I've exhausted my, I've exhausted my batteries on name of Jimmy, Sheila, apples, Jill, Mark, Wendy, Lisa, Susanna, Susanna, Alan, James Schupe, Bobby, Jesse, Terry, even Brenda, Susan, and I, like St. Paul, I've exhausted my batteries asking dumbass questions to every member of that squad, except for our guest today. And that's on purpose.

It's on purpose because I knew there was going to be a day in which we would get him as a guest on our esteemed Webby winning podcast. Let's get up for us. All right. And so, okay, that was the preface. Here's the actual introduction. Oh, shit. Yo, man, you only get this one moment once. All right.

So, ladies and gentlemen, as I was as I was prepping notes earlier, notes, it's like a small post-it. As I was prepping notes, I realized that almost in every case of history, like once you reach that 20-year mark, revisionist license sort of kicks in. So that said, I'll say it right here that our guest is probably, you're going to. my gateway drug to the Purple Kingdom. And I'm just saying that because I remember when Prince's debut was on the radio back in 78, when Soft and White debuted on the radio, it was only because I remembered it because it was literally two minutes after my dad had to break the news to my mother that my grandfather just died.

So for the longest, my Prince Association was that song I was listening to while my mom was sobbing on the kitchen floor. you know, crying to death. And so for the next four to five years, Prince was more of a fixture on like my sisters, girlfriends, bedroom walls and all that high school write-on magazine stuff. And don't get me wrong, I mean, I'd duck some joins as a kid, but, you know, I was kind of team Jackson.

And then shout out to my friend in sixth grade, Reginald Cheves, who told me that his older brother told him that our guest today and Prince were down with each other. And then he pulls out a radio, one of those realistic radio shack, cheap things. And he transforms my life by playing me the entire 10-minute version of cool. And instantly, as a sixth grader, I was obsessed.

I mean, records were $5.99 back then, so, I mean, I broke the piggy bank, purchased the album. And I turned the album down on the bad parts, whatever. My parents were like super Christian. But the next thing I knew, me and my entire sixth grade squad for the first time in our lives had brand new heroes to look up to who were not born in Gary, Indiana. So that entire summer, like all of our Jordas, Sergio Valenti, begging, all that went out the window.

And thanks to my science teacher who thought that the time guys looked like the second coming of, like Louis Jordan and the Tempani five, he told us, well, if you guys want to dress like those guys, you got to go to the five and time. So, you know, I've been avoiding going to the goodwill all of my life. No one wants to go to the Goodwill Salvation Army. But now me and my whole crew are privy to a secret that the world doesn't know about, which is basically you can cop a pair of baggies for five bucks, look sharp as hell, pull all the joins in sixth grade. Shout out to Monaco Jordan. It looks just as awesome now as 50 as she did when she was 10.

But basically, our parents are related because now we're buying all these cheap suits looking good and they don't have to spend the money. So yes, only because of our guests, our guest gave Prince the Greenlight, not the opposite in my world, that I gave Prince the Greenlight in 82 and then caught up afterwards. So, you know, because Prince fans want to swear

that they were all down since the beginning. And no, make no mistake, if it wasn't for Morris E. Day, my entire music direction probably would have went to either, I don't know, Luther Mandros or Lilo Thomas. I don't know. God is here with us, ladies and gentlemen. Please give it up for Morris E Day.

This is probably the longest introduction I've ever done. I was going to say. That was like a thorough. The show's over now. You got to do the disclaimer. This is the first right now. But it's okay. Yeah.

You know, when I really love a guest, I'll geek out. So thank you. I can't even think you enough. I have a gazillion questions. Actually, I want to jump ahead to a question. I've been dying, dying. dying to know. So every interview that I've heard you recall your story, of course, you get to the part where you realize that Prince is about to choose Bobby Z as a drummer and not you, clearly,

the more skilled drummer. And, you know, most Prince fans and most QLS listeners know, kind of know what time it is, whatever. So we kind of dig the reason why Prince did the band outfit the way he did sort of after Sly and the Family Stone. But what I want to know is, in light of everything that's happened for you, if you were able to have a time machine, and this is not even a, you know, to bring Prince back a live thing, but if you were able to get back in a time machine and go back to 1980, and you knew there was a chance for you to get in the revolution as a drummer instead of the path you're on right now, what path are you choosing?

Are you choosing to still be his drummer or your career? Well, first of all, Brother Quest, I want to thank you for that grand intro, my brother. Thank you, man. You know, I almost forgot that I was a guest. I was just like dig it. I forgot I was the host. Like, how many pages? You know, but that's an interesting question.

I like that question because in the moment back then, I definitely would have chose to be the drummer because I was all about drumming. And that was my life. You know, my security blanket and that's what I did every day. That's what I skipped school to do. That's what I aspired to do. But looking back now, you know, hindsight, you know,

I'm glad that I was kind of pushed, if you will, into the position that I'm in because, you know, I found another aspect of my abilities that I didn't really know about. Hmm. Okay. Because I still feel like, and I try to think of the logic. I'm like, wait a minute. You were given, you were either given a choice to be,

like for my personal position, like my dad wanted the opposite for me. My dad wanted me to be a session drummer because, you know, in my mind, And I'm like, no, I want a career. Like, I don't, I don't want to drum for Anita Baker. Like, I want to be the guy that owns the stadium that she plays in. Like, I always thought that.

So for me, I would just read when you would say, like, ah, man, he ensues me as his drummer. And I'm like, yeah, but you got something better. But then I thought about it. Maybe playing with Prince as a musician is fun. And perhaps in him, you found someone that's like a level, musicianship that you respected and you know it wasn't about being lucrative or or having more money or whatever it was about like oh this this is where my joy really is and so i always wondered that well the thing is

it wasn't a choice like that and i never thought that drumming for prince would be fun because he was probably one of the uh worst of tashmaskers yeah if you will you know that that you could work under So it wasn't about that. But at that point, I never really considered being a lead singer. I was a drummer. And so that's all I knew. And I wanted to play drums. And I'm thinking, you know, my man's got this deal, man.

He's like Warner Brothers. He's about to hit the big stage. I want to be a part of that. And that was, you know, all that I was thinking about at that moment. Okay. Okay. I see. So you didn't think like, oh, this guy's going to be so prolific that he's going to need

other outlets and channels to. express himself. And so I could be that outlet or something. Absolutely. Yeah. The time didn't exist in that moment. So I get it. That came, that came about later. And, you know, like I said, I'm very glad that it did because, you know, I found something that I can do even better than drumming. So, you know, it all worked out. Yeah. As when and where did he hear your voice to think that you needed to make another decision? You know, we were in a, I was in Prince's group, Grand Central back in the day when we were like

teenagers. And, you know, I would sing a couple of songs from the drums, and I would even come out in front, and our percussionist at the time would go back, play drums. I'd come out and sing. So he knew that I could sing, but he didn't know about the front man, you know, but he did. He's the one responsible. You know, we tried, when we were putting the time together, we tried Alexander O'Neill, we tried a handful of other singers, and it just didn't work out. And so, you know, Prince was like, well, why don't you do it? And, you know, I had to like stop out and think about that. I was like, because I'm going to be the drummer in the band.

He said, no, you need to be the singer. I said, I don't know how to lead a band. He said, put your hand in your pocket and be cool. And I said, I can do that. That's good advice. All right. So it's funny to say that because I'm actually working on, I'm working on a book right now.

there's a part there's a chapter where I actually kind of explore the idea of what black cool is Alice Walker's daughter Rebecca Walker she does this she does this essay about a woman on the New York subway and this black woman gets on she's like gorgeous she sits down and Alice Walker immediately knew that her number one weapon was the way that she ignored people so like this drop-dead gorge just walks on the train. She sits and immediately Alice Walker notices like five guys like kind of oogling her. But the more that she ignores them, the more that they want her. And it's almost like she said that that's the story of Black Cool where, you know,

normally we're taught to please and placate, you know, Motown's thing was like, you know, go to charm school, you know, we're the right thing. or, you know, minstrelsy era entertainment where you got to sort of shuck and jive your way into people's hearts and disarm them. Whereas cool is where you're holding everything back, which leaves mystery and it makes people want to know you more, like that sort of thing.

It's so weird now seeing her breakdown of what cool means and now kind of revisiting what the time represented. Because, you know, I guess for people that weren't around at that period, like you, you guys to me were kind of what NWA thought they were. And I don't mean, and just in terms of, you know, NWA arrived like the most dangerous group of all time, like that sort of thing. Rebellious. But the thing is, is that they overdid it.

So it became cartoony and then entertainment. Whereas the time was like dead pan serious, like De Niro, like, you don't know if they're serious or not. You don't, it's like hide your daughters, like that sort of thing. So, I mean, there was, I've never seen a black group not so eager to please or sort of like unbothered, like, you know, we could take or leave you. Like, that's how it looked to me when I was seeing you guys when as a kid like, oh, these guys don't care. Like, which you just never seen that before in a black group because most black groups like were, you know, happy to do that. Was that the plan more?

Like, was that the plan? Y'all already knew what your cool was going to be. And it was no going back and forth. as to what we're doing and what we're going to look like and how are we going to wrap? Well, you know, there was an evolution of cool. Okay. And quite like Quest was saying, in the very beginning, it was a very laid-back cool where people had to invite themselves into the room with us.

But, you know, I think, you know, as it evolved, you know, it became more of an extrovert type of cool. And, you know, it was just, it was an evolution. But, yeah, we definitely, you know, back in the. in the early days had that mystique. It's like, you know, when we did, when I did do my laugh or whatever, you know, it's like, is he laughing? What, you know, what's he laughing about?

You know, what does what time is it mean? You know, what is all this about? So, you know, we kind of had people guessing, you know? Yeah, wanting to be in on the joke. Yeah. It made you want to be down with them that way. Yeah. Mars, what was your first musical memory?

It went way back, you know. because I kind of just came into the world with the notion that I was going to be involved with music, you know, born in 56, you know. And I can remember listening to the Beatles on our little AM radio that we had. And, you know, then later I remember doing, you know, the James Brown running around my, you know, the house in the projects and Fruit of the Looms on, doing the splits, trying to. Duke James Brown and all that. And then 64 comes around. We were one of the first, you know, let you know what priorities were back then.

But we had one of the first color TVs in the projects. Oh, wow. Back then I was watching Bandstand, man. And I'm watching the Supremes, the Four Tops, you know, all these Motown acts on bandstand. And I was like, that's what I want to do, you know? So those were my early memories, you know, music, but it was just in my blood.

Okay. And what was it about the drums that, how did you come to be a drummer? And were there any other instruments that you played? Yeah, I went through them all. You know, I went through, I wanted to play drums first and foremost. But, you know, you probably know, in school, everybody takes drums first. So the drums were never available. You know, and I was always late to to register for what I wanted to play. So, you know, I played the saxophone. I got pretty good at that. That was the first time I got invited to be in a band,

but I didn't want to play saxophone in a band. So I passed on that. Then I went to the base. The only base they had was the upright bass. I said, well, I'm not lugging this home to practice. So, you know, I played a few different instruments, but the drums just stood out. And so I beat on my mom's couch and pots and pans until she finally caved in and bought me my first drum set.

And, you know, that was just really love at first sight or whatever you want to call it. But that was it for me. So I know that you're a left-handed drummer along with Jelly Bean is also a left-handed drummer. Or at least, am I assuming that you're also left-handed? I am. Okay. That's weird. I'm left-handed too, but still I play I play drums the traditional way. Yeah, yeah. So.

Or, yeah, back-handed. The thing is, is that, you know, I first saw my first backhanded drummer, like, in the late 70s. So, like, when you're setting up the drums and you decide that this is the way I want to face and this is my positioning, like, no one tried to correct you and say, well, you should be ambidextrous or. drum on both sides or like how did you wind up drumming what we would call in reverse they see brother you you asking me questions that making me question myself right now welcome to quest love supreme oh man this ain't gonna be the so tell us about jungle love like I already told you you've heard that question I already told you man I'm a nerd out no for real I appreciate that I don't know I just think when I got my first drum set you know I'm down in the basement, you know, pulling out the box and setting it up.

And I just gravitated toward having my snare, you know, on my right side. Right. And, you know, I just, that's just how I set them up. And I just continue to play that way. Okay. So doesn't that make it hard to, quote, casually sit in? Like, do you have the ability to actually play the opposite way? No.

No, I always, you know, I can't switch. whole set around, but I can at least switch the snare in the high hat. It makes the feel sound interesting when you're going backwards around. Okay, okay. I see that. I know that Garibaldi is, is, is, is holds dear to your heart, but like, was he, was he your, who is your first drumming hero? Oh, my, my drumming heroes were, were definitely all the James.

brown drummers, you know, and listening, you know, back to Can't Stand it. And I got the feeling and stuff. I mean, to me, the pockets and the meters that brothers came up with was nothing short of incredible. And I definitely see where Garibaldi got his chops from listening to them. And but I just, there was a technical way that he put it together that I just thought was very clever. But definitely all the J.B.'s drummers in the early days and still to this day from me. Okay. Well, I know that at some point you guys were all under the same management. Have you ever gotten to talk or get cool with Dave Garibaldi at all?

We've talked a couple times. You know, I go, you know, to a show whenever I can catch him when I know he's drumming. And, you know, he knows, you know, that I dig his style. But, you know, that's about the extent of it. Okay, so just like nice, pleasant trees, but never like. Yeah, yeah, that's it. You guys call yourself, yo, man, check this thing out. Yeah, I'm not like that, man. So, you know, we asked Jimmy Jam, his version of this.

Can you break down your version of growing up in Minneapolis as far as, you know, the side of town you grew up on, where the cool side of town was? side of town you don't go to radio socially like could you just give us a kind of a run of what your your preteen life was in in Minnesota my preteen life you know in Minnesota was I pretty much lived in the don't go to areas oh you live on the quote the other side of the tracks yeah okay you know both sides south side and north side were the areas that if somebody said, hey, where should I not go in Minneapolis? They would have said both sides of town that I lived on. But what my experience and my takeaway from Minneapolis is I can't hate on it because

that's obviously where I really found myself and musically and a great circle of musicians. But at the end of the day, my experience in Minneapolis, I'm not surprised with the whole George Floyd situation because I'm. I saw Minneapolis as being a racist town. And it just doesn't, it didn't surprise me. First Avenue, which Prince chose to glorify, didn't really even cater to black at all. You know, it was all about rock bands and, you know, yeah, we didn't hang out there at all and never really felt welcome there. So, you know, that was just, you know, it was interesting that he chose that and it worked out.

But that's not the, you know, the Purple Rain Minneapolis is not the Minneapolis that I grew up in. So you guys had to build that utopian because like, okay, yeah, I was one of those people that like, you know, that the modern air theme, the modern air scene where, you know, you and apples are sitting in the audience with your champagne and all these black and white and mix. race people or just dancing. Like in my mind I thought like oh Minnesota is this utopian sort of you know this mythical utopian place that we need to go to but

that was basically something that you guys had to build hey you know what you know I just there's good and bad people you know but you know Minneapolis grew to be that because so many people saw Purple Rain and I think Prince did a great job of making Minneapolis really look like this music mecca and this melting pot.

And, you know, it, I don't know, but it, it wasn't like that, you know, and I think he helped, he helped the city a lot by choosing to use First Avenue and glorify it like that. You know, I'm not trying to, you know, sound lean in one direction or the other. I had a lot of good white friends and all of that, but I was, you know, stopped by the cops a lot. You know, thrown on the hood of my car

in front of my five-year-old daughter at the time over really trivial stuff. So, I... Oh, when you were Mars Day? Like when you were... No, it was on the way. It was on the way, you know. Okay.

Right. But still, you know, I had one of the first, you know, I was one of the first brothers, you know, bought a porch back in 1980, you know, two. And I stopped for, you know, just had to... having a high-end car.

So, you know, it was just, it was, it was crazy stuff, you know. So wait, can I ask, with that being said? Now I want to know about your people then. Because, like, where were your parents from? And what was their background? I know you said you grew up in the projects, but who were your parents? Well, my parents, we're all out of Illinois. Okay.

So I was born in Springfield, Illinois. And, you know, all my folks were like Springfield, Decatur, Illinois, Chicago, that circle down there. and a couple of my relatives moved up to Minneapolis, and the story goes, and like I always like to say, it's in the book, you know. But, you know, my mom took us up to Minneapolis. We were supposed to be going to Cali,

and I was so looking forward to that. And we stopped in Minneapolis to visit my sick aunt, so my mom said, and we ended up there for the next 20 years, And I was a little bitter about that. I understand. But it got good. You know, it got really good. You know, I met some really good people.

I met Prince. I met Andre Simone and all of my guys, you know, because I couldn't find myself. I wasn't an athlete and I wasn't popular in school for no particular reason. So once I got in the band and once I found myself with the music, then all of a sudden, you know what I mean? Life changed for me. So Minneapolis, for me, was the place to be. Okay. In the idea of, well, first of all, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that, and I'm going on Jimmy Jam's account about how radio was at the time. How are you guys getting culture? Like, it's baffling to me that for a group of people, and meaning that all of you in Minnesota, who basically dictated what black culture would be in entertainment from the 80s on.

And that's, you know, music, attitude, style, all those things. For you guys to not even have that foundation to even know to build upon it. Like, how are you learning about whatever was hip and black in the day if it's not in Minnesota? Like, how are you getting, what's your internet? How do you know about the meters? How do you know about a group called Hewitt? like how are you getting hip to this? Okay. So, you know, first of all, you got diverse parents from different parts of the country,

moving from Chicago to Minneapolis, moving from California to Minneapolis, and they're bringing their record collections. And then also we had back in the day it was called KUXL, an AM radio station that played all the soul music. And it broadcasted from maybe eight in the morning until sundown and had like a five block radius. But you could listen to, you know, you could get, you know, all of the new music there.

And then so then we would hear the new parliament funkadelic. We would hear the new Commodores or whatever. And then we would go to the mom and pop and we say, hey, when is this record coming in? And they would tell us we'd be waiting on this record. And then on the other hand, you know, we could listen to the groups like the Commodores and Diana Ross and Lou Rawls that had surfaced the pop radio when we hear their music. And then we would hear the pop music. And then so this is in our brains when we sit down to say, we're going to write a song.

And then we're thinking Parliament Funkadelic. We're thinking James Brown. But then we're hearing, you know, all of the pop bands in our brains. And so, you know, these melodies, you know, kind of meld together. And I think that's how we really came up with what we ended up with. Oh, okay. I see. I see.

I'm familiar with the kind of mixture of Enterprise slash Grant Central slash flight time amalgamation. But were there any other bands in the area that you were frightened of or just like, yo, they're going to make it? or even other people who were from the area, like the D-Train guys or even the, what's his name, Rocky Robbins, like, were the Lips Incorporated people, like non-purple-associated Minneapolis musicians, like the other guys. How fierce was the competition,

or was it just like the four main groups that eventually wound up working all together? The competition was amazing. It felt like there was a band on every block. But for some reason, I always felt like, you know, and flight time, you know, was amazing. You know, there was a group called the family that Sonny Thompson, I think Sonny plays in one of the spin-off Prince bands right now.

And he's the guy that came by, and he plays everything like Prince did. I think he taught Prince some things. And he's the guy that really came by and taught me my first really. drum beat and how to really start mashing on the drums and he was that kind of guy. But, you know, there was, the competition was fierce, but the reason why I got in Grand Central was because I went to a high school dance. I thought I was going there to see a girl to meet up with a girl. I saw them playing and I forgot all about the girl.

That you were on the day. I stood there right in front of the band and I was mesmerized. You know, you got Prince. 13 years old on the guitar. Andre Simone, his, Princess cousin, Charles Smith, they call him Chas. These guys are playing Santana,

Hendricks. They're playing everything like they're 21 years old. Prince is doing the amazing guitar solos at that age. And I just said, man, you know, and I've been woodshed on the drums for years at that point. And I said, I got to be a part of this. And, you know, my whole point is I got to know, Andre Simone, he came by my house one day.

It's in the book, Quest. You know, and we were skipping school, and he heard me play drums, man. And I play some Garibaldi's soul vaccination, what is hip, you know, and I'm firing up all my grooves and I stopped playing. And he's looking at me like, eyes all stretched. I was like, what's up, man?

He's like, I didn't know you could play like that. And he said, you know, we're going to play like that. having trouble, you know, with a little, you know, our drummers chasing women. He's not showing up a rehearsal and everything. We're looking, you know, to replace him. We're looking for somebody serious. You should come by, bring your drums, you know, let Prince hear you. So I take my drums over there.

I set him up. I start firing up the grooves. We do some of the songs. I'm, you know, doing my thing. And, you know, so we stopped. And Prince, you know, was a man of very few words, even back then. He's looking at me very mysteriously. And, you know, never really said shit.

to me, but then Andre came to me and he's like, man, you know, Prince loved it. You're in. So my point is that I felt like I was getting into a superior situation from the time that I got into Grand Central. So I already felt like I was in a band that was even as fierce as the competition was, I felt like I was in the best band in Minneapolis at that point in time. Wow. Okay. 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, 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network

work 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 podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers, Anchorman,

Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.

I'm working my way up through. And I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall

and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your

podcast. Often this name comes up anytime we do these types of episodes and I never ask, and I got to ask you, the common denominator between everyone associated with Minneapolis that the name holds wholly is the name of Sonny Thompson. But is there a reason why he was never in the first draft of any of these projects coming up? Like was he, did you guys ever figure like, oh, how can we get Sunny down with us? Or was he just so advanced that, you know, you guys never even considered that he'd be down with y'all? Because everyone speaks of Sonny Thompson with this, like, religious, like,

is the best thing I've ever seen. He's an amazing musician and way ahead of his time. And his name, I do believe, came up to be in the time. But I had different idea myself of what the band should be. And I already had my eyes focused on, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because I had heard them play. I knew Flight Time was an amazing band

and I heard they had done some songs, produced some songs on Cynthia Johnson, who was the one that ended up saying Funky Town. And Lips Incorporated. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I already had that in mind and, you know, he didn't argue with me on that.

But I believe he wanted Sonny in the band and, you know, he had his idea what the time should be and I had mine. And fortunately, you know, he went with my version of the time. Okay, cool. So how do you wrestle? Like, what is the story of how you got kind of your own All-Star draft, if you will, grabbing these people from various groups and making your own band?

Well, you know, it was pretty easy, actually, because, you know, everybody knew that, you know, Prince had done his thing. he had this big deal of Warner Brothers. He showed up. He went and got the deal. And, you know, he always used his pick for his afro, you know, cake cutter. I don't know if you remember the cake cutters. You know what I'm saying? That was that pick with the

handle on it. Oh, that one Yeah. Yeah, with that. Oh, cake cutter, yes. That's what you use, right of me? I'm very familiar with that. He always had his cake cutter. So he went and got his deal with Warner Brothers. They cut him

a check for 80Gs. We had never seen nothing like that. They had his name on it and just to, you know, seal the deal. He said it's cake cutter right next to the check, you know, so we got out. That was his for real. But anyway, you know, I just wanted flight time, you know, Jimmy, Terry, and Monty. And I really wanted Jelly Bean to be the drummer, but I was the drummer. So at that point, we were looking at different singers. And that's when Prince said, hey, why don't you sing? And, you know, at first I wasn't fond of that idea.

But then when I thought about it, I said, hey, that means jelly bean could be in the band. And so everybody's in. And meanwhile, you know, when I was playing an enterprise band of pleasure, you know, I had heard about this guitar player down in Rock Island, Illinois, who was doing 20-minute solos where his band would leave the stage and he'd just stand up there and solo for 20 minutes. And I said, this has got to be our guy. And so, you know, I told Maridi Holmes, who told me about Jesse, I said, can you have him come up? Had him come up, he started, he stayed in my house, in my little townhouse and in my living room on my couch. And, you know,

he started playing with Enterprise, amazing guitar player. You know, I played Prince, a tape of him planned, and Prince said, oh, yeah, that's our guitar player. So, I mean, you know, the rest of That's pretty much how it came together. Dang, was anybody hard to get? Was it a struggle with anybody to convince? No, because we were all struggling already. So just to be, you know, in a group that, you know, under Prince's production company, with some promise to do something big, you know, everybody was in, you know.

Okay. So when you guys are in this period of your lives, am I assuming that you guys had like day jobs to go to as well? and how do you balance like rehearsal versus pocket change? Yeah, well, I pretty much failed at everyday job I attempted. You know, I think the longest I last was maybe six months. And, you know, pretty much every job I ever had, the manager would end up, you know, I'm that guy singled out that he'd be looking at, you know, two hours into every shift.

He's like, call me to his office. She's like, you don't want to be here, do you? I don't know how to answer that question. So anyway, by the time we got to putting a band together, I was pretty much living with a girlfriend of mine. She was working and paying the big bills, and I was doing the musician thing, you know, and making $50 a show or whatever, $35 a show or whatever I made.

And that was pretty much what I did. It was just all about music at that point in time in my life. Okay, I see. I do want to know is at any point was, was Alexander O'Neill at all, like, at any of these rehearsals? I mean, before, you know, the eventual fallout or his exit or whatever, but is there any point in which it was the seven of you or I don't know if Jelly Bean was there? No. At that point, it was pretty much songs that either Prince had cut or Prince and I had cut. And we were just trying singers out in the studio.

Never as a band. But, you know, Alexander was the lead singer of flight time. So they were actively working together at that time. Okay. I see. I know that you also, like, I assume traveled with Prince when he was touring. Well, I assume that the first major tour he did was Rick James. So I guess you were on that tour with him.

Am I correct? Were you at all, like, present during the Rick James print shows? I think that was over. I caught the next round. When I came to town, he was doing the dirty mind. I think that's when I went out with him. So, okay, were you eyewitness to the Rolling Stones incident? Yes, I was.

Boy. It's in the book. Okay, so I've heard that you, you know, well, first of all, I know that you were like recording these shows and being a collector of these shows, I'm assuming that maybe one of these shows that I have is your camera work. First of all, yeah, it's, it's who even has the vision to know to record themselves every night to judge? I mean, that's an amazing technology to have because it wasn't like everyone. Remind us of a story. Oh, okay. Well, I believe that the legend is that, you know, Morris would set up the tripod camera and record print shows on VHS or Betamax, whatever.

So that Prince could watch himself. And of course, like, suckers like me, who indulge a lot in the bootlake market in the last 25 years, whatever, like all these tapes. surfaced and whatnot. And I'm not saying that maybe or maybe not. I paid a... How much? Mid five figures for stuff. I don't know.

No, do what you got to do. Do what you got to do. History. History. But I'm playing. Anyway, but my, my question is, yeah, like, who's...

For me, in 80, 81, who's thinking of, like, purchasing a video camera recorder? And... And recording these shows night after night. Like, because it's, a rare technology that wasn't a household name yet until at least 83, 80, 4, 85.

So yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it wasn't, it wasn't compact technology either. We're talking big VCR and some pretty nice size cameras that. Yeah, and how do you get the tapes on night after night after night? Like the big, like the big was like this, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. And, you know, I'm on a tripod. And I had a, I had my own robe case case that I was.

Oh. And so, you know, anyway, that was me after Prince said, hey, Bobby Z's my drummer. And he said, but I'll offer you a gig to take the shows. So, you know, I pay you $150 a week. I'm like, I can travel and, you know, go to shows and at least, you know, somehow be a part of this for, you know, I said, I'll take it. And so, you know, I was video on the shows. And that's something that's stuck with Prince throughout his career. I don't care, you know, even when we did the musicology tour with him, or the dates that we did do, he would make everybody his band and everybody had to go to whatever club he rented out afterwards.

And he would have that show on the projection. Right. And everybody had to watch it. Everybody had to watch it. Did he critique it? Yeah. Peek it. Yes.

That's the next level shit. In the nightclub. Like a coach. Like he was a world coach. Did you have a nightclub if you fucked up? Getting on the musicians. Hey, you were behind on that song. Yeah.

The whole thing, the whole show. Every show he did that. In the nightclub, though? In the nightclub. But it wasn't nobody in the club, but damn, you know that. You know, he rented it out. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

I feel like you should start some shit with the roots where you just start playing back. Like if you go for it. But here's the thing, though. Here's the thing, though. Now I don't feel so bad. because, you know, my nightclub story is the fact that he took me off turntables and wanted to watch

Finding Nemo in the nightclub. You were there, Laia. Yeah, I know. I said I remember that. Yeah, and it's such, like, you don't know the embarrassment. Wait, I'm sorry. You don't know any embarrassment it is being a world-class DJ. For those that weren't there, what's the story?

So the story is basically Prince is in Philly for the Musicology Tour. Great time. And I get 10 tickets. And in true a mere fashion, I forgot to count myself as part of the 10. So I got 10 friends. And so we're walking in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10. And I realized, shit, I'm 11.

Fuck. So who you said home? It was, well, it was like more than sold out. And it just so happens that Ruth and him happened to be in a golf cart whizzing by. And I was just like, man, shoot a shot. And I said, look, I know I got 10. tickets from you guys, but I forgot to include myself in the 10. He thought it was silly.

He thought it was funny. He laughed and was like, all right, you could sit under the stage. That was the girl that was with you just so you know. Well, there was 10 of you. Ten girls. In a card moment. Yeah, anyway, my point was that I sat under the stage and watched the show. But then

towards the end of the show, Ruth rushes to me and says, Prince says this thing with me, like my relationship with him is like I Prince has this thing where he tells you to do something and automatically you're like oh I work for you yes sir so I'll go to the club hey we're on the sound board okay and I'm like at the sound board like I don't know what I'm doing but Prince told me run the sound play bass I'm gonna play this is a whole era more it was an error right so Prince would have me just do shit I'd never did

a month like I've going to the supermarket to get milk I've played bass I'm like wait I don't play base. So this one night he, this one night he asks me, well he, he, he, they command me to find him a nightclub to have, uh, an after party. And so then of course, I hit up our, our good friend, Stacey Wilson from Philly. Stacey's find me a, a nightclub. She finds me a nightclub, but it's a five story walk up. And then at the last minute, Prince is like, and I want to play pool. And so now they got an hour to find a pool table. and dismantle it and lug it up five stories to the rooftop of this nightclub. And I want you to DJ.

So now I got, it was before Serato, so now I got to run to my dungeon, grab all these records. So, you know, I do it. And three records in, Prince obviously didn't take a liking to Fela. I was playing Afrobeat. And they're like, put this on instead. And I'm looking as a DVD, and it's finding Nemo. And I'm like, wait, what am I supposed to do with this? So, Morris, can you translate that?

What was he trying to say to Amir in that moment? I still don't understand. Oh, really? You don't understand when a person's telling you he's getting fired right now? Well, I was hoping that wasn't it. Maybe it was something else. No, well, he just, I just never seen someone put a videotape on in a nightclub. Like, we're in, and the thing is, it's like, it's 2004.

So our version of the nightclub is more like Diddy era, where it's sexy, and, you know, smoky and lasers and stuff. And then all of a sudden, like, you hear Ellen DeGeneres and, and, you know,

Albert, what's his name? And finding Nemo, we're watching a Pixar film in the club like it was normal. And now that I know that Morris has told us that, okay,

that he just puts tapes on it. Anything but music on the club just seems weird to me. So, yeah, well, I'm surprised he wouldn't making everything.

everybody watched the show because that's usually what he did. It was a, oh, man. It's like he had to see himself. Wow, okay. I love that he was a coach. I think that's dope. That means he's an athlete, like he's a real athlete when it comes to this.

I get it now. That is the approach. So I gotta ask, so can you give us your version of the Rolling Stone show? Oh man, that was traumatic because, you know, you know, I knew this brother, you know, to his level of professionalism and his need to be accepted as an artist. And so I think he's going up there thinking, you know, he's straight up in Billy Idol mode, you know, half-man. Yeah, you know, half-necked, you know, I'm going to rock and roll, you know, with the bikinis and the leg warmers and all that on.

and, you know, you're straight up in front of a hardcore rock and roll crowd. A lot of these guys were bikers and, you know, and they just wasn't hearing it, man. So, you know, he comes out and he's doing his thing and uptown and all that. And all of a sudden, you know, you start hearing the booze and the beer bottles start flying up on stage. And I knew, you know, right at that moment that it was time to start making my way, with my, you know, little cameras, camera equipment

backstage because it wasn't going to be nice. So that show is on tape? I never saw it on tape, but I taped it. You know, I don't know what happened to it. Somewhere in this earth is that show? Somewhere on this planet,

that show is on DVR. You're going to find it. No, VHS. It's labeled, it's labeled Finding Nemo. That's right. Oh, my God. Wow. Okay.

And Morris, how long did you keep this job? This camcording, this gig? Well, see, that's the whole thing. You know, I was just staying close, you know, because when I moved away, you know, when you got his record deal, I was living down in Gathesburg, Maryland, which is outside of D.C., you know?

Yeah. And so, you know, things didn't work out well for me. So I moved back to Minnie. And once he found out that I got back, he was real happy that I was there. So I started hanging out, going to rehearsals, and that's when I kind of said, you know, hey, man, I'd really like to be the drummer.

And he's like, no, I have a drummer. And that's when I got offered the job to video the shows. And so, you know, he told me, you know, he said, you know, you can use the studio anytime you want. And of course, I took advantage of that. And so one of the first songs I cut was this slow funk track. and, you know, I put the drums down, then I put the bass down,

and it was the party up bass line, but I played it way funkier. You know, I was in a funk mode with it. And he's like, you know, and so I go home and I come back the next day to cut some more stuff, and he's like, you know, I like that track that you cut. He's like, if you give me that track,

he said, I'll give you, I don't know, 10K, I forget what he said. He said, or I'll help you put a band together. You pick it. I said, and he said, I'll get you a record deal. I said, of course, I'll take the band and the record deal. My money. Yeah, so that was pretty much the end of my video career, videographer career. And, you know,

from that point on, it really, really happened fast. You know, we, he sent, he had me sing a couple songs. He sent them the Warner Brothers. They signed the band and the concept of the time, sight unseen. And so then we had like two weeks to complete the record and it was just a whirlwind from there. Okay, so it was 10,000. In my mind, I thought it was substantial like 20, 2530. And I was doing the math. And I was like, wait a minute.

Well, 20 back in 1980, that was like $70,000 today. Like, I don't know. Like, of course, yes, you made the right choice by choosing the band situation. but I'm also thinking, you know, you could have had your cake and eat it too because I don't know if he's, is he even expressing again the need to have other outlets to express them? Like are you seeing this, this OCD obsessiveness to channel more music through other acts yet? Because in my mind, I'm like, wait, why couldn't you get both? Yeah, well, you're right. But, you know, that was probably his inside his brain.

Right. But my brain is, you know, I can, you know, I know that we can put something nice together. And he'd already played me as, he had played me Get It Up, which he had cut, believe it or not, for the group Brick. And why? Absolutely. And he had cut it for Brick. Brick, he sent the song to them. They didn't want it.

Oh, my God. They didn't want it. And I was like, man, I will take it. So, that's so random. Yeah, yeah. So,

why would he give it to break? Yeah, it's crazy. I know. Because they were hot at the time, you know, and he was just thinking, you know,

he had cut a song that they might like. But that's real, that's a true story, though. A lot of people don't know that. I don't even know if that's in the book,

though. It's definitely not in the book. By the way, yeah, brick, Bricks, you guys, that's sleepy Brown's,

that's right. That's right. Yes. Yeah. Sleepy Brown's father. Okay. So this is what I want to know. The hearing you speak right now, and I'm assuming that this is your natural speaking voice,

when you're in the character of Morris Day or when Prince is in the character of Jamie Starr, who is the figurehead that you guys are, who's the figurehead? head to whom you guys are mocking or or imitating or like where did this this character you know the that that pre cat what yes i've talked to cat williams himself and he even said that yes you guys were kind of his impetus for that voice ice so ain't nobody bad like me except who is who is that voice to which you guys took and perfected. Is that how brothers talked in Minnesota? No, you know what? You know, it's really everything that you hear from my laugh to when I

get into that zone, you know, there's a way that you talk, you know, when you just send chill more regular mold, then there's a way that you talk when you have hyped up talking to your partners talking shit. You know what I mean? So it's just, it's just an elevated level. level, if you will, of, you know, of my normal self, you know. So when I go into that mode, that's pretty much how we were when we were just talking shit to each other, you know, laughing and, you know, and, you know, when I got in that mold, I would laugh loud like I laugh. And Prince was like, man, we got to put that on the record, you know.

So it was just, you know, it was kind of our inner circle, the way we talk to one another, you know? Okay. All right. This is my favorite part of the interview. Okay, so now I finally get to figure or ask you, grill you on the work mode operation of the TV. So are you the complete drummer on most of the time's albums?

I play drums on most of the early albums, and I played drums on a few Princess songs as well. you know so that's what i wanted to know what what prince songs or other non-time records have you drummed on that i might not know about i did part of let's work i played all of that's work um yikes and prince you know he kind of he played on it as well so he kind of took parts of his his track and mine and yeah i played drums on controversy i play yeah new power generation um yo Yeah, man, I played on a lot of his stuff, but I never, you know, got credit, just like he didn't necessarily in those days take credit for playing on the time stuff. But I played on a lot of Prince's songs as well.

Okay, so I've been trying to explain to people what the process is because we all, you know, most purple heads or whatever, they're very familiar with chlorine bacon skin. which was initially, I guess the impetus of it was, it was supposed to be a workout that would eventually morph into an actual song. But then I guess it was so good, y'all just let the workout be the song. So if you guys aren't familiar, chlorine bacon skin. So Steve is my engineer. So Steve, you know, like when you set up a click track for me. So basically Prince would play the role that click track.

So Morris would just drum a beat and to keep Morris sort of, you know, in the zone or whatever. Prince would set up his bass, set up a microphone, the way that I talked to the guys on the show, whatever, talk shit, whatever. And then you record the drum thing. And then, of course, that morphs into something else. In this one particular case, chlorine Bacon Skin, actually wound up being so good, it stayed. on its own. That's what I want to know. A song? Yeah. It's just a 15-minute song where Prince is just talking shit.

And it's mad hilarious, but it's also mad funky. So for that song alone, I know that it was intended to be a work song that turns into something else. But when it was over, why didn't you guys turn that song into something else? Because I think we were both, you know, just kind of. kind of really cool with the way it turned out. You know, he was talking shit, you know, in the beginning of the song, we start the song, and he's talking, and, you know, he's getting on me.

He's like, yeah, the headphones. Right. And my headphones were on the floor, so I'm laughing. And I put my headphones on in. At the end of the song, we got done, and, you know, it was like, it was just so hilarious. We said, we gotta leave this alone. We gotta just let it be what it is, you know?

So, yeah, I was gonna say, say one of the, one of the rarest, highest things I've paid for. I didn't realize that you guys were actually intending to release this. So, you know, I'd, one of the, up there, there's, there's, like a mastered, her, her powers master 12 inch of chlorine that was supposed to see the light a day. And I guess at the last minute was Xnade or maybe just had one printed up, one of one or whatever. But is that how all the songs were created? So like when you're doing like wild and loose, you know, when you're drumming, are you drumming to something totally different and then it eventually morphs into wild and loose? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It started out as a, you know,

prints on the bass, which, you know, probably one of the funkies bass players. I mean, you know, to 7-7-9-3-11. Nobody can play that song. Nobody can play that song the way. he did. So a lot of the songs, we just, we started like that, him on bass, me on drums, and then we would find a pocket or if he had an idea of pocket, he'd tell me to go there, I'd hold the pocket, and, you know, we would just kind of go from there. But most of all, most all of our songs that I played on were, you know, they start out as jam sessions. So jam sessions and totally different keys and totally other things. And then you go home and you come back for the next day and then that drum performance you gave turns into something else.

Yeah, possibly that or possibly the actual session itself, you know. And he was master at cutting two-inch tape because you know how it was back in the day. So, you know, he would cut out the sections that we didn't need and splice them together and then start overdubbing from that point, you know. So he could razor splice his own tapes? Oh, yeah. Were you guys working on, was it a 16 track or a 24? Like what board, do you know like the?

Yeah. We started out on 16. And that's what we get it up and all, Cool Girl, all those songs, that first album were cut on 16 track. Right. And then after that, graduated to 24 track. And then after that, graduated to 224 tracks where we had 48 tracks, you know. Oh, okay.

I see. Okay. So let me ask about the twin of, skin, which is tricky. One, two, three, why you big, tossed out in hair, do having, long, tall, snaggly, gold, two. Funk in habit form leather wearing, beam pole looking black. Was tricky initially intended as one of these sessions that should turn to another song,

and then again, you guys were just clowning around and decided, okay, let's just leave this as it is. Well, tricky happened when we heard that I believe it was, was it Bootsie? But anyway, it was either Bootsie or

George, George Clinton. Right. When I had a song that said, Meow, Meow, Morris, a copycat. After we heard that, we went into the studio. And that was our rebuttal. That was the death. And it's like, why you be Wait, you

So tossed solid hair do having, that was Bootsie Michelin man The Michelin man That was George Clinton So we went in and, you know, had a field day You know, as a rebuttal To them talking shit about us

Dude This, okay This is like you Yo, dude Heads are exploded Dude, you literally I didn't expect this because in our mythical made-up land, we had decided that that was directed after the

James Brown incident, you know, the James Brown Michael Jackson, because we thought like, okay, well, he has to be talking about somebody. At first, I just thought that you two were just ranking on each other because, you know, I didn't realize, again, like Prince never made his voice known to us during that period in real time. So I had no idea. that like the waiter on the skits and the Italian guy on the walk, I didn't realize that was Prince. Right, right. Right. I'm just thinking that's you and some of the guys. And so once I became aware of that, then I was like, well, wait a minute. If that's Prince and Morris, like, who are they talking about? So in my mind, I was like, okay, 1983. I know the James

Brown incident happened and he was real embarrassed. And oh, maybe that's who he's talked. That is crazy. So did you ever get actual verification that was actually about you or, you know, were they like, no, we were talking about the actual Morris the cat from the Friske's commercial. Yeah, no, we knew exactly, you know, and I'm not sure, you know, maybe they thought, maybe they thought Get It Up was, you know, sort of a parliament funkadelic group. And I can see that, you know, and, you know, I can see the influence of that, but I by no means feel like we, were biting their sound at all. But, you know, I mean, they were no strangers to bucking shots, you know, because, like,

let's take it to the stage. They playfully call out, you know, Earth, When and Fire and Rufus and Sly. Right. Even, you know, the people that they're down with, but still, like, playfully doing, wow, man, I had no clue whatsoever. So was he actually eating chicken while he did that? No. No.

Oh, okay. No, you know what? Maybe. I think we might have bought a bucket of chicken. Yeah, I was like, I think he was chewing chicken. I think we might add a bucket of chicken on hand, now that you mentioned it. So that's, okay, I want to know what was the awareness of your contemporaries? At least, again, the myth of my head was that you guys were too cool for school.

You didn't listen to nobody else, like nobody, like zap, fuck them and whatever, whatever. But now that I'm older, I'm like, it's almost impossible for you guys to not know about the Daz band or Zapp or even like these new groups coming up like Z look and real to real and clique and, you know, all these all these groups post-82 that were trying to fit into that mood that you guys were. So, I mean, how aware were you guys of other groups and their music? Like, did you ever come in and say like, yo, man, this group called The System from New York, listen to this shit. Yeah. Like, you know what? You're absolutely right.

We were on, we were on that page. But on a larger scale for us, we were listening to new wave groups like the cure. And, you know, we were listening to a lot of the cross over or pop groups and trying to, because we'd already, you know, we had the funk thing. So what we were trying to do, and if you think about it, you listen to ice cream castles and, you know, listen to the verses on that and the whole vibe of that song, we were trying to get that, that, the cure, you know, we were trying to get that slightly new waves down integrated into funk. And, and, and that's, that's really where we were thinking. We were, we were already past the funk thing because we had that. Wow. Wow. I never thought of that. So you guys were aware of.

Okay. I see. I see. So humor. Humor is also another important weapon in the arsenal of the time, which, you know, humanized you guys. And that was sort of the difference between, you know, your presentation and Prince's presentation. Because your humor, even though it was inside baseball jokes, it still made us want to be down with you. and it endeared us to you more because it showed a side of you. Like Prince didn't show a sense of humor until way later in his career. So like, but what I want to know is the fact that you guys would actually stage these kind of vignettes.

And, you know, it's really the precursor to skits that de la Sol and NWA and them started doing, except they would actually make skits where you guys. would just do the skits on the record. So, like, when you're doing songs like The Walk, or even Wild and Loose, Wild and Loose is probably a better example because, you know, I'm assuming that's Lisa,

is that Lisa and Jill Jones talking to each other, them talking to each other on Wild and Loose when you guys are there? I actually think it's just some random girls that, oh, my fault. Had come in, you know, however on the walk that was that was vanity that was vanity i know that but the reason why i'm asking about wild and loose is because you know my mind over analyzing the song i'm like okay there's a 32 bar break and in that 32 bar break on the left side the two girls have to set up the narrative perfectly

where they're explaining how they got your phone number when they talk to you and da da da da da but then on the right hand, you hear, you know, you, Jesse, or whoever, talking shit about the same thing that they're talking about. And it's coordinated perfectly. And it doesn't sound casual. Like, it doesn't sound like it was just a happy accident. Like, yes, we're just going to take this 32 bar break and talk shit. Like, there's an actual narrative that goes on. And like, so when it comes two those moments in the time songs when it's time to talk shit or

do humor. I'm talking about the kick can make you come or even chili sauce or those songs. Like how important is that or was it just Prince like okay I don't have another I don't have a third verse so let's just do a skit real quick. Like how is that organized?

Well you know I think it was I think it was more once we got the body of the song you know versus hooks And, you know, then, you know, it was always Prince's plan to make these, to bring our personality to these songs. And, you know, to make them, you know, accessible, you know, and not, I mean, we have the great musicianship. And then on the other hand, you know, make it accessible through, you know, like these vignettes and a little comedy in there and just have fun with it to, you know, just kind of, you know, help people enjoy. And I don't think that that was the plan outright at that moment.

but, you know, that's what it ended up being. He just wanted to bring personality to the records. And, you know, we always laughed and talk shit. We would go to the club. We would have a good time, then straight to the studio. And, you know, we listened to what was on and get that fresh in our brains and then straight to the studio and start cutting, you know, with what was hot in mind and, you know, doing our own thing with it.

Okay, I knew you guys had to present to us that you were above, funk and above you know like what you what you mortals do like we're above that um however

can you just name one or two songs or groups that like all right I respect that like I know you guys toured with Zap like yeah to them were they like eh they are right or was it like whoo okay I fucks with this like yeah yeah no Zapp was a hell of a fan

I mean, more bounce to the ounce. Who can deny that, man? That's, you know, that's one of the funkiest songs, you know. And, you know, that's the way Roger always presented. And he would make his band like, stay in that pocket. You know, how, you know, sometimes you get excited and we do that. And our temples are- Yeah.

And they're higher than the record is. And, you know, that was okay because, you know, we're in concert, you know, the energy and the excitement is there. there, but Roger always had his band, you know, it was almost like he would click it out and say, you know, keep it right there. And it was always just slow and funky. And they, they always, you know, had a great show. So, you know, I mean, you know, there's thousands of funk songs that that I love and could get down with, you know, but, you know, we just, we just wanted to present ourselves a little differently, you know. Okay. I see. What's, what's the reasoning,

behind, you didn't find it a little unusual that like all of your records were just six songs? You know, it's, you know, it's just like, would you like a bucket of 24 pieces of fried chicken that just tastes all right? Or would you like a six piece that's real good? Quality, not quantity? I'm like, no. As a person who's made a multi-track album in retrospect, is that kind of, genius than a way to go since you only get paid for a girl. It is way harder to make a classic with less songs.

Like, to me, it's just competent then, right? Because all the records that we look at that are classic are really under 45 minutes. Intervisions, off the wall, dirty mind, what time is it? Like, shorter, you know, but it's also the thing, the risk of six songs is like, when you shoot your shot, you better hit that shit. Better hit it. Right.

right on target. That's what I said. It got to be confidence. So, I meant, were you at all, like, worried, like, okay, well, after you heard cool and these songs done, did you know instantly, like, oh, man, we're going to blow up so big. Like, did you feel that at all? Oh, yeah. It was crazy like that.

I felt, you know, that we were really onto something. And, you know, when we finished 7779-311, I'm like, thinking, hell, but they ain't heard nothing like this. You know, so it's like, you know, we just, you know, we always just felt like we were on point with it, you know, we were in the moment, and we knew we were doing something innovative, and it just felt like we had something different, you know.

So, you know, I felt real good about, you know, each song on those six song albums. what was your life like two months after the the the first time album at least in Minnesota like was like when did your life transform to whoa well you know now now I'm this level well you know Reggie Hammond and in 48 hours like I went to the bar buying it out I'm sure you know brother but um you know I went from you know trying to stretch my little five to do the cover charge to get a drink to hold on to until the ice cubes melt, you know, by the end of the night, you know, to, you know, to getting offered, you know,

bottles of champagne, get in for free, you know, it's like when brothers need something for free, you can't get it. When you don't need it for free, when I'm actually taking a little money, then they're throwing everything at me for free, you know, so change like that, you know. Yeah, can I ask what? I just want to know, I want to circle back to this bandleader thing now because now you are the band leader. And I'm curious about your evolution as a band leader. And if you thought, okay, this is in the beginning, this is who I'm going to be.

But then everything kind of changed for you because it's a lot of responsibility. You know, I've never, you know, been like, you know, like Prince was a, he was a band leader. You know what I'm saying? You don't play one note. You don't wear one sock that he doesn't approve of, you know, and, you know, everything is controlled and he's in control. You know, I've never been like that. You know, I've always given my guys, you know, a little room to express themselves.

Just never been a hands-on, like, dictator type of guy. So, you know, I, you know, I always took a light-handed approach, and I always found that, you know, kind of like when you let people express themselves a little more, you get a little more out of them. And I think that's kind of what happened with the time. The only time that it really, we really got clamped down on is with, when Prince showed up to rehearsal. I was gonna ask what he thinking he was a punk,

like, come on, man, get them together. Yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't like that because he felt like it was all his shit anyway, because we were signed to his production company. Right. So, you know, when he comes in, then the hammer comes down. But, you know, I think some of our greatest moments when we came up with the dance moves, the bird,

and a lot of the grooves we came up with were when he wasn't there. But then he would show up. And, you know, a lot of times he liked what we came up with. But, you know, if he didn't, He would say he was quick to say he didn't. And sometimes he'd say, I don't like that shit. And they turn around and come back and he wrote a song with the same groove that he heard. So he was just one of them kind of people, you know?

You was good cop. Okay. So with his, with his attention to detail, you know, how hard was it in trying to bring 7779-9-3-11 alive? and Jelly Bean not really nailing the snare part. Yeah. Well, yeah, and you're right. You know, I'm trying to be diplomatic as hell. You know, he was never really able to grasp that drumbeat,

but he found a version of it, I guess, that. No, it works for him. Yeah. Straight on the snare. Yeah. But, okay, how come you guys in opt to do the drum machine thing that the revolution was doing? Because, you know, we always prided ourselves on being the live band, no samples, no click tracks, you know, none of that.

So, you know, we always opted to, you know, whatever it is, you know, keep it real. You know, I'm not the greatest thing on the planet. You hear a bad note. Guess what? You're going to hear a few bad notes if you come to my concert. But guess what? You're going to know that it's me singing. You know, it's not a perfect track that I put together that we hit and play just to get by, you know,

It's me doing what I do. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clivert 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 IHeard 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. 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. They 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 podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Woodham. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell.

Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of,

you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Speaking of 77793.11. Yeah, when we, when a lot of us, Jesse was all too gleeful to let us know that, you know, Dave Garibaldi's beat number 14 on the Lind drum was actually that, like, that program. Like in our minds, we're thinking like, yo, this is the most genius drum programming

of all time. And Jesse's just all too happy like, all the thing was press. Right. Right. So at the time, did you know that Garibaldi had pre-programmed the Linn drum machine? Yeah, I absolutely knew that. Oh.

Yeah, that's why I was cool with us using that, you know, because I was like, hey, this is one of my drum heroes beats, you know. Right. So, you know, yeah, so I was good with that. Was he ever made aware that, oh, you guys used beats? number 14 from what I programmed. I told him that. You know, I told him when I finally met him.

You know, I met Dave some years later, man. I, when I was living in Vegas, you know, they were doing a show at one of those small showrooms. And, you know, I had a hot second to go back there and rap with him and other guys. And I definitely told him. Was he familiar with the song? Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure he knew, you know, probably when he heard the song, he's probably, you know,

that's my beat. Okay. I see. You know, at that point, it's public domain. Once you put it on the drum, you can't come out for somebody and say,

hey, that's my beat, you know, because at that point, he's already been paid for it. Yeah, yeah, no,

no, I didn't even mean for litigious reasons. I just meant. But somebody's thinking that, though. I was curious to myself. That's just me at my little two cents. Oh,

no, no, all good. All good, education is good. So the thing is with, you know, we're rehearsals as super rigorous as the Prince rehearsals because again you guys only have like I can see you know

Brown Mark's point of like oh man we're playing the same group for four hours but you know Brown Mark is also dealing with the artist that not only has four five albums under his belt at that time but you know other music pouring out of him but you guys are basically like in those first two years when you're only dealing with the six songs yeah it's like how many ways did you guys have to perfect something that I'm certain that you had down packed by

a week? No, well, you know, we, the rehearsals were super rigorous. That's like, that's almost brother, that's almost like saying how many ways can you cook eggs? Because, you know, we went in there and we rehearsed the song a certain way and then

we would flip the arrangements and he would be there and I mean, he taught us a work ethic, you know, that was unbelievable. We would rehearse every day, day and day out, then go in. Then when the next single come out, then we would flip the arrangement of the songs, change the arrangements of the song, of all the songs. And then it was just always, we rehearsed all the time. When we weren't on the road, we were rehearsing. I know rehearsing makes a better band, but part of me also felt like maybe just had you there just to keep you from,

off the streets or just, you know, where my eye was on you. Possibly. But we rehearsed to the point. And, you know, I mean, because if you, and you may have, Brother Quest, but if you look at, you know, our shows and all of the things that we did, you know, with those six songs and once it turned into 12 songs and from there on, we had, you know, a lot of choreography, a lot of arrangements, different arrangements from the record.

And it was second nature. We rehearsed so much that, you know, it was second nature. And at one point, you know, I look at the shows, and we were so tight, you know, that it was, you know, it was amazing to watch. You know, I'm not, I don't even feel like I can put myself in that mindset to be as tight as we were. The moves me and Jerome did together and the band did together.

in the arrangements, they were super tight. And that's, like I said, we had gotten to the point where, you know, people walk away from the show when we did shows of Prince, man, time kicked that ass tonight, you know, so. Right. It was intense and you might be right about what his motives were. I'm not sure, but I just felt like he just wanted us

to be as tight as we possibly could. And, you know, that we definitely achieved. Okay. So, all right. Now I'm a vicariously become a member of the time for a second. So, okay, jelly beans no longer your drummer. I'm your drummer. Okay. Well, this is fine. And it's 1982. How much money am I making a week when, if I'm in the time, by the time that what time is it comes out?

You make it about $150, $200 a week. Plus for D. Was that quasi normal? Was, well, I got my inflation calculator. You got an inflation calculator? Yes, I do, because I always, I'm so derivative of the past. I even want to know what prices were back in the day. Yeah, so if, all right, so 100 and all right, let's be nice to say that.

I'm a good drummer that you guys gave me $200. What is that formula? Yeah, I'm so curious. Well, you got to get, there's literally, there's an app called inflation calculator. Well, there you go. So I thought you were doing math. I thought he had a device that they just thought. I'm quasi smart.

So $200 in 1982. When you get to 1981, it is, hang on, hang on. Yes, I'm actually solving a math problem on. You just got everybody to download this damn calculated. Okay. So that would be $640 today. That's something I kind of paid. so I want to carry my records.

Okay. I guess I get it. But you get your own room, right? Yeah, but you know, back then, you know, none of us were really used to a steady paycheck. You know what I mean? Right. Plus a per diem, you know, the per diem, I don't know,

was another $10, $15 a day. So, you know, it was okay. You know, I might have got it up to $800 today by today's standards. All right. But I'm only, well, I'm trying to figure out the thing is, is that in our situation, we were definitely not making money. So our whole thing was, we're going to stay on the road forever. Because once we come home, that's when we become broke. But at least on the road forever, there's, okay, so I ask you, in 82, is there such thing as a writer?

Like, in my day, I knew early, okay, I want Golden Grams and Captain Crunch on every show. We want, no. I mean, but that's how we realized that, okay, we get a rider. So we'll make the promoter go to supermarket and stock up on. So y'all have stuff but later. Yeah. And now it's like wheatgrass. Brilliant.

And like beats. Right. So at the end of the tour, I'd mail home, you know, 50 boxes of cereal. Now, of course, unfortunately, I became morbidly obese. I've lost the weight. I mean, stop playing. Okay. Yes.

That was good times. But I'm saying there's a downside to that too. But, you know, like, are you able to take care of home? I don't know what home is. Like, get your own apartment, that sort of thing. Or is it just like hand to mouth, hand to mouth, hand to mouth. I got a VCR. Now I'm going back to my aunt's couch.

Yeah, no, I was making more money as the band leader. I think I had gotten up to be honest. I think I'd gotten up to maybe, you know, when we were out there with Prince and touring regularly, I'd gotten up to maybe five grand a week. Nice. That's awesome. That's a lot. Okay.

But I was asking if I was the German of the time. Right. Well, you can still get in $500. Okay. I get it. I get it. But the writer was cold cut sandwiches. That was our rider.

Okay. You wish I'd have to forward to it. I just want to make sure y'all at home. Now, traveling wise, like, Is it 15 passenger van? Is it station wagon? Who's driving? Well, you know, we started out in station wagons.

And by the time, you know, we graduated to doing the tours that we were on the 1999 tour or whatever tours were on, we had our own tour bus. Okay. I see. All right. Now, the dumbest question I'm going to ask. And I've never asked since to anyone from Purple. I don't know. I'm not a got-you journalism person, so I'd never like gossipy questions or whatever, like technical questions, but I just got to know.

Okay. So you guys are also in the midst of some of the finest women on earth. At least that's how they were presented to us. Oh, yeah. Again, I, you know. Vanity and Apollone and you guys seen Susan and all them like in the morning. So I understand that there's the magic of the makeup artist and the hair and all. No, no, no, I'm just saying that

I don't expect them to wake up in camisalls and shit, but I'm just saying You don't? Nah. But my point is... You know, Avalonian vanity was hot in the morning. I don't care what you say. They woke up like that. All the time.

My whole point is that in, you know, I know, or at least my perception of how you guys were, were there unspoken ground rules on the cock blockage tip.

Wait a minute. The combination of those words. I know, I've never heard those words put together like that. I can't believe I said those words. I'm very proud of you. I've been in situations where, you know,

motherfucking drum text trying to holler at my join or whatever. And like, yo, B. That's all fired. Well, you know, I'm not that petty because then I went to the beginning. Oh, man, he fired me because I was trying to talk to his lady and whatever. Oh, but the,

The unspoken rule was they all belong to Prince. So leftovers are good? If that's what you was down for, but the unspoken rule was, hey, you know, print they are mine. So. Oh. Some nerd.

You can't handle all of them. That's rather amazing. And I don't mean that in the sort of the pimpish. Wow, I wouldn't be that when I grew up. But I can't even imagine. I feel like Jesse would have rebelled. No, I just can't, I can't even, I can't even juggle the Tonight Show, a Roots album, a movie, and a book. And my girlfriend.

Like, imagine three of them. Isn't that what you're doing? Maybe I'm asking for tips. How did he do it? Dude, multiple women is the whole thing. I can't. That's like, I can't. Yeah.

So, I mean, in, in being. being around in that atmosphere where they actually I know that the power of beautiful women around actually they make the best wingmen you know they make the best wingmen almost so in terms of that like what was it like just in general oh wait a minute I'm sorry I got to stop this question no you got to stop this question no I got some more important to ask something that just hit me right now Jimmy Jam just recently revealed bill to me that quote, ah, kha, and the kid can't make you come.

Yeah. Was your version of Vanity's ad lib and nasty girl? Yeah, yeah. I know you got, look, I know I'm talking inside baseball right now. I will explain to you guys way later. Okay, I'm hosting a podcast, so I got to explain. Ladies and gentlemen, listen, okay, so at the, at the End of Nasty Girl, when Vanity has to add lip somewhat before the breakdown of the song,

she reaches for a few notes, which one of them is a high note, whatever. So I'm assuming that she tried to reach this high note in concert, and I'm imagining that there was some mocking going on of her maybe not hitting the notes or whatever. Whatever the case was, there's a skit, and I was talking about these skits earlier, there's there's a skit where I'm assuming that that's Mars's orgasm voice and when he hits his orgasm on this song on the skit he does the I don't know it at the time but he's doing the vanity adlea whatever right and at first I just thought he was imitating a chicken and then Jimmy Jam reveals to me no that was

Tim, that used to be our inside joke. So can you, can you explain to me the genesis of how that, I don't even think you need to explain it to me, because I can almost imagine that. Yeah. There had to been some ribbing or teasing going on. Oh, man. Yeah, we used to do that a lot, you know, when we were on. Y'all couldn't hit on them.

So you had to treat them like second grade sandbox teasing. I get it. Little sisters. Yeah, well, you know, we, we could, you know, hit on them, take our best shot, see how I went. but you know it's no Tony M situation I just found out about

Tony M and car Metschre inside baseball that's not fair Amir you don't know about Tony M and Carmen Electra?

Oh yes oh Carmen Elektra yes yeah I just I never knew how Tony M okay I'm sorry I found out

that he allegedly got dismissed because he crossed that line anyway so finish what you were saying Mr. yeah well that was that was a line

that if you cross was a dismissible line. Wow. You know, anyway, no, we just used to kind of make fun of her, and she really would get pissed. You know, we walked by the dressing room, wah, ca, ca, ca. You know, she was just, yeah, that was our version of her ad lib on nasty girls.

Oh, man. Since you asking dumb questions, can I ask her dumb questions? Yes, please ask dumb questions. But Maris, I really, I really appreciate you. I know you're doing this just to be polite. Like, I thank you for letting us nerd out on you. I just have to say that, but go ahead. I do, I do too.

But just isn't that my question just for everybody else who may have still thought this? So just officially, Morris Day and Prince, not related, right? Wrong. They are your cousins. Your cousins. That's the story, but we just, we're just brothers in the, uh, brother from another mother since, you know, but not, not blood related at all.

And one more because I know you talk about this in the book, but I just need to know now. Bringing Jerome in, at what point did, was it thought that he needed to be there? I know Jimmy told his version of the story and the evolution of y'all relationship. Can you just talk about that a little bit? Well, you know, Jerome, he's just one of those guys, you know, to this day, you know, you, you know, you know, you know, he's a love. lovable guy, you know? And, you know, he was just there. At first, he was a real valet where, and he would collect our luggage. You know, we're out on the tour bus, you know, 12 o'clock, they say having your luggage outside the door. Jerome's getting the luggage. He's putting it on

the tour bus. He's getting us pizzas and whatever we want and doing all that. And so we go back into rehearsal after the first tour and we're rehearsing cool because that's going to be our second single. And so, you know, we rehearsing, we get to the part where I say, somebody bring me a mirror. And, you know, Jerome takes off,

grabs a mirror off the wall, runs back up, shows up in front of me, holding up a mirror, and everybody just kind of stop playing. We all looking at each other, But like, that's going to be in the show. So that was it, you know, from that moment on, Jerome was part of the band and it just evolved from there. And fans of minds, we just figured y'all was just so close at this point.

I don't know. It just, it always felt like that. No, you know, it got to be that way. Speaking of Jerome and his duties. Okay. I've asked this question a lot practically to every artist that has an on-stage reputation. and the answer never satisfies me. Now, you're in a very specific situation

because in your initial five-year iteration, at least of the first draft of your period with the time, you guys have basically worn these same outfit every time I've seen you. And the thing that is baffling to me, and I've seen these concerts, and you guys are dancing, moving, sweating, and whatnot. When the show is over, are you getting into street clothes?

And how is your Presley jacket and your outfits, how is it clean and ready for the next night show? Wow. Especially when you have to do six hours on the tour bus to the next city and da-da-da-da-da-da. Like, I just never understood how one outfit, could sustain, like, that's your everyday outfit. Well, yeah, that, that, that Presley, as I called it, it kind of, it was, you know, it was like a, is it minus,

you know, the security blanket, man, you know, I don't even know of the dry cleaner back then because show to show. And then my Stacey's, my black and white Stacey's, when I say about to walk a hole in my Stacey Adams, I looked up and, you know, Stacy Adams have some thick soles on them. Right. I had actually walked a hole. There was a hole in one of them.

And so, you know, that's just, that's just what it was, man. And the Presley, I wore a thing until it fell, it basically fell off of me. And after it did, you know, we looked up and I said, okay, we're doing well now. So then we, I started getting custom clothes made from that point on. But, you know, that got me through my first, at least. tour and maybe first two tours. And you're right. I was scared to dry clean it because it would have fell apart a lot sooner.

Where is that original Presley jacket now? I don't know. It's in it's in stage clothes heaven right now. You're serious? Yeah, and I have no idea. It literally fell apart. I looked up one day after I came off stage and it was hanging off of me. And that was a sad day for me.

Oh, Morris. Yeah. You got to find that jacket, man. Yeah, that should be, listen, I'm literally in Nashville at the Black Music Museum. That should be in there. Right? Yeah.

Jesus. Oh, that's right. That is opening to one, right? Yeah. Damn. I'm sorry. I can't make it. Wow.

That's crazy. He was invited. He's always invited. So, no, the movie premieres. So, okay, at what point are you taking Prince seriously when he's saying, all right, we're going to do a movie. And before I even answer that question, do you have any information whatsoever about the, quote, unquote,

the second coming movie, or at least, you know, some clips have finally wound up online of, you know, whatever idea he was flirting with doing before that morphed into Purple Rain. Like, were you guys going to be a part of that presentation as well, or was that just him at the time? Yeah, it must have been just him because, you know, all I know is, you know, he came to me, you know, one day, it's like, you know, Morris, we're going to do a movie. I was like, okay, you know, whatever.

And then, you know, next thing, I know we're doing dance classes, we're doing acting classes and all of this going on. And I'm still not really taking it serious because I've never been involved in anything like that. Right. I'm taking it all with a grain of salt. But the next thing I know that these directors and cinematographers, and producers are starting to come to town. I was like, okay, we're serious now.

And next thing I know, we're in production. So I think at that point, I started to take it serious. Okay, so then by that point, it's like, okay, we're really doing this. Yeah, it's real now, yeah. Okay, so I had, okay, I just got to ask. At what point, I assume that you always knew that Jimmy and Terry got snowed in Atlanta, correct? Absolutely. Okay.

At this point, it's Jamie Shoup that's sort of you guys is tour manager or your Wrangler, if you will. Pretty much. Okay. So at the point where they're like, we can't get a flight out, what's happening on your side of the fence? It's just the four of you, no bass, no keyboard player. So at what point do you realize that you're about to do a timeless show? like, are you guys trying to keep this from Prince's camp until the very last minute?

Like, at what point do you have to break down to him to say they aren't going to make the show? I think that Prince was, he was in on it. You know, he knew more details than I did about it. Because, like I said, you know, we were on tour, you know, and he was there with us, and he knew that they weren't going to make the show and he was pissed about it because he didn't want any of us producing or writing for any of us.

anybody else or doing anything that wasn't related to the time. He suspected that they were producing. He knew that for a fact, or did he just think like, oh, y'all fucking around with girls or something? No, he just knew that they were snowed in in Atlanta. Right. And so guess what? He ended up with, off to the side of stage playing bass with the keyboard in front of him. So he actually played those instruments that night.

And we put Jerome over where Terry would have. been. So we had three people in front, Jesse, me and Jerome, and we just did the show like that with Prince playing bass off to the side of the show. And you put a hat on Jerome and the audience was any of the wiser? No, we didn't put a hat on him. We just let him be Jerome, you know, standing in that spot. But, you know, they heard the base going just like normal. So it was all good. Now, you know, these stadiums aren't totally 100% like, you know, I'm assuming that. that somebody from some angle had to see Prince on the side playing. Like, is he hiding behind a curtain or?

Yeah. How's he seeing the cues or like, where is he standing as this is happening? He didn't need to see the cues. He knew the show 100%. He knew the show better than we did. Did it feel just a little bit better when he was playing bass? Oh, yeah. Well, it felt good.

You know, we didn't miss the feet, man. It was awesome. Who played keyboards? He did. Tandem at the same time? We had bass and keyboard. So, you know, when the bass was more necessary, he played that. And when the keyboard was necessary, he played that.

Oh, wow. Okay. I see. So when the axe is supposed to come down, are you two talking first? Or is he just going into executive order action without even consulting with his Senate and his house first? Exactly. What should we do? executive order.

Brother, we're in the studio. I want to say Sunset Sound, you know, and he had them come in. And I didn't know. We were in there cutting. We had cut ice cream castles that day. You know, I did my vocals, and we were just putting some finishing touches on. And, you know, Terry and Jimmy come in. And I didn't know.

I was glad to see him, you know. And right at that moment, he told me. told him, he said, you know, you guys are fired from the band. You know, you went to Atlanta, you missed the show, and, you know, you're fired. And that, you know, that hit me like a ton of bricks because my band was my band. You know, we were all brothers, you know, we had love for each other. And I was always one, you know, I was always one of those kind of guys that, you know, if Dave Garibaldi left Tower Power or, you know, whoever, you know, if they lost an original

member, then the band didn't feel the same to me. Right. Absolutely. And I never wanted to be one of those bands. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks that all of a sudden we're one of those bands, you know, where what was his name? He used to sing lead and Sammy Hager came into it. Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Van Heelan. Van Halen, you know, you can't change members. Like, it's just not the same. So, you know, that just hit me like a ton of bricks, man. and just, no, you were, you just had to roll with it. Yeah, and I had to roll with it. And all of a sudden, here comes these new members. And I'm looking back.

And that's the moment where it really hit me where it's, you know, it's really time for me to start to think about going and do my own thing. So was he, it's so weird because I would imagine that, I don't know, I never pegged him as being super confrontational. Because he's so, his image-wise, it was so elusive or mysterious that I can't, you know, I have, I've probably had to fire, you know, maybe five people in my entire career. And, man, I'd be losing sleep over that shit at night, call my therapist, like, man, how I do. Right. Letting people slide.

All right, right, man. Just don't let it happen again, please. Right. But, like, he was confrontational like that, like, just. Yeah, yeah. cut just point blank just said whatever's on his mind just and and a lot of times not really much emotion behind it just how you would think of him to talk you know you're fine you know you guys missed the show it's not your priority you know and that and that's it you know I wouldn't say

necessarily he wasn't afraid of of confrontational act you know because again it's like I want to make sure I'm covering my ass because like I mean not for none but you also dealing with brothers and shit right you know So it could have went another way like, motherfucker you had someone in the, fuck you. And then. Yeah. Well,

you know, he always kept, you know, a big 300 pound, you know. Oh, I forgot about a shake. Enforcer off to the side,

you know, he got to the point where he just kept security with him. So, you know. Well, are you loud, are you loud to answer back? Are you loud to say,

that song was whack? Or, you know, like, are you allowed to make fun of him? I always spoke my mind, you know. with him you know and that was that was both good and bad for us but you know i always told him if

he played something for me that i liked you know i would say it but i wouldn't lie to him you know just like when he played uh and this is in the book you know right up when he played when dubs cry for me you know i'm listening to the song and you know we're we're three three quarters of the way through the song and i ain't heard a bass yet you know right i'm like i'm like um i said there ain't no bass in the song, man. And it's like, yeah, that's what I would do. I said, man, I got out the car. I said, man, next time you play something for me,

make sure it's funky and make sure it has some bass in it. I kind of slammed the door. What? Yeah. And that one kind of came back to bite me on the ass because it ended up being a number one smash for him. Right. But when I first heard it, I wasn't feeling it.

And I expressed that to it. Yeah, I was going to say, it's so weird because all of you guys are characters. And the thing is, is that, you know, there's a side of himself that he expresses, especially with sexuality, that, yes, it works spot on and it's bull's eye. But it's also like, you know, is he going to you guys to, like, look, I created a new song called Do Me Baby. It's eight minutes long and it's going to be a little awkward but listen to it. Like, is it weird

where he's playing you guys like some of his weirder shit where it's sort of like okay, where are you going with this Prince? Or does he just like only give you the funk shit? Like, okay, this is called 1999 or this is

you know, like I'm, did he ever get, was it ever an awkward thing when he's showcasing a song that kind of crosses the lines or boundaries. Like today, there's no line that can't be crossed. Like, you know, make the stallion can release some shit and it'd be like, okay, yeah, she's talking about her wet-ass pussy. But, you know, back in the day, like, someone says, I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth.

Like, yeah. That's like, you never heard that shit before unless it's a blowfly record. So, like, is it awkward in front of you guys where, like, you're hearing your boss. have your five-foot-three boss have like orgasms on records and shit. Yeah. Talking, talking in an English accent. Yeah, right, right, right. No, you know, he used to, especially me, you know, he would corner me with a lot of stuff, you know,

because that's just how we were back in the day. We hung out, you know, we cut, you know, all the time. Like I said, I played a lot on a lot of his songs. And, you know, obviously he played on just about every time song until maybe after. after Ice Cream Castles, when we did pandemonium, then he started to kind of slack off. But he would always play me stuff because I would always be there in the studio.

So he's always put, and you know, I understood his avant-garde-ness, his weirdness, and he just wanted to be different. And, you know, that was his thing. And that's really what got him, you know, in trouble at the Rolling Stones concert because he wanted to switch from, I want to be your lover.

you know, and all of a sudden he's running around half-necked, you know, playing new wave songs and, you know, he could have, I think, you know, he could have rose a lot quicker and he took a dive, you know, in his popularity

and sales for that dirty mind record, but it took him in a direction that, you know, actually led to where he ended up being. So he was definitely a risk taker and he played me a lot of stuff. And I just kind of understood, you know, his thought process, you know, and some of the stuff I liked, some of it I

didn't. Is there a song of his that you wish you guys have for yourselves? Well, okay, I'd know that international lover was supposed to be for you. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. At any point, did you actually cut your own version of it? Yeah, I did. Oh. Where can we? You can't. Unless you can get in the fault, you know, you can. But I, I, I sing that song. I sang, I sing, I sing it first. Okay. And then, um, I just think he's decided that he liked it, you know, more than he thought.

And, and then, you know, next thing I know, he came back to me. He's like, I don't like, I don't like your vocal. I don't like what you did. He said, you know, I said, okay. So then the next thing, you know, he's like, well, I did it for myself, you know, so I listened to it and I was like, well, that's great. You know, you wrote it. So, but he did the same.

same thing with 7-7-9-3-11. You know, I'm up. You know, he said, you know, I got some stuff to do. I'll leave. You sing the song. I'll come back. I did the vocals. He came back from wherever he was, and he's like, I don't like it.

You know, you know, he said, I hate how you sound on it, blah, blah, blah. I said, okay, cool. So I go back to the hotel about 9, 10 o'clock the next morning. He's calling me, you know, meet me downstairs in the car. We get in a limo. He's like, I love this. man, I love to where your voice sounds.

So he wasn't cutting your vocals half the time? No, I, you know, I got into the point where I would do, you know, I cut the vocals myself. Was it, yeah, I was going to say, is it, cutting vocals is such an intimate experience.

Yeah. Like, were you, like, were you uncomfortable if he's sitting there like micromanaging your vocals or it's just like, all right, I'll leave and come back No, I was very comfortable with him because, you know, he's such, you know, such a great producer, you know, and he knew how to get the best out of me. And that's how he taught me. And so, you know, then he just got to the point where he's like, I'm leaving.

You handle it. And so, you know, like I said, he comes back some hours later. I'm done. I'm chilling. You know, he's like, you know, tells the energy, let me hear it, you know, and he's like, I don't like it. Oh, God. I'm like, okay. whatever, man.

I'm like, okay, I'm done, man. You know, I got to go to the hotel and, you know, get some rest. And like I said, the next day he comes back, he loves me. He keeps playing it. He's telling you. I love how your voice sounds here and all that. I was like, okay, dude, whatever, man. Can I just ask, what was your approach on international love?

What was the big difference to you in the way y'all approached it? It was just, you know, if you listen, you know, his voice is different. You know, he's a lot better singer than I am as far as that goes, you know. So, you know, he just, I kind of did it in more of a raw fashion, you know. If you can imagine the way I do stuff. And then he came back and he put all of the print screens and all that stuff on it. Yeah, I was going to say, like, is your version of international lover with a monologue at the end that's a little different than. No, no, I didn't.

I hadn't gotten to the monologue part, but I just did the vocal part. But mine was a lot cooler. I'll say that. Is it harder for you to do baller? than the fast stuff? Because like a song like, old baby where you really got a, you know,

you have to put in work to, to nail the atlips and to really give off a performance. Like, are ballots more challenging for you than the faster songs? Yeah, well, you know, it was, you know, it was somewhat challenging, but, you know, it,

you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

Prince was, uh, at the board guide me through the vocals, he was very, very difficult because, you know, he wanted the attitude to be at a certain level and the timber, you know, so he's really what, you know, he's the one who really helped me make Jungle Love sound the way it sounded, you know, and all those songs, you know,

he helped me get that attitude on the vocals the way it needed to be there. And that, you know, that took some work, you know, getting it right, you know. Why was the original version of the bird, the studio version? Why was that scrapped? Well, I mean, of course, yeah, I heard my, I heard my question as I asked it, and I was like, duh, the live album was better. But the studio version kind of kicks ass, too. I'm not going to lie to you. I love the studio version.

As a matter of fact, I was kind of pissed, you know, when he said, we're going to do it live, you know, and I grew to love the live. version, but there was just something about that studio version that was really funky, man. You know, and it was more, it was a funnier version, but the live version was just a more upbeat, fun version. Right. I see. So speaking of the live version, so I actually have the video of your, quote, last performance with the time at First Avenue. When you're cutting, Jungle Love and the Bird and, you know, I guess before the movie gets shot.

And there's that whole monologue bit with the passing of the hat. Your Morrison Preacher Mode. I forgot. I'm talking inside baseball, purple speak. And as far as you're concerned, you're like,

I did this 40 years ago. I don't remember what you're talking about. But the whole like, you know, Prince Charged in 25 bucks you took, did you give? that whole thing. Do you remember this night at all? Yeah. And was that part of the act then?

Or like, actually, you sounded damn serious. Like, we had kind of put that together, you know, just for that night. It wasn't a regular part of what we did. And to be honest, that segment where we did, Jungle Love and the Bird was actually we were finishing we were pretty much done with filming in Minneapolis

Okay We actually resumed in California so we did pick up shots in L.A. But we were done and because the story goes that I went off stage from doing those songs and

nobody saw me again in Minneapolis you know I moved to Cali from there and never went back Oh See, the thing I was confused about was because I thought that show Was the show that was recorded so that you can Do those songs in Purple Rain the movie It was

Right, so eventually you had to shoot the movie That we were done shooting the movie Oh, okay, I get it now I get it I see Yeah, but yeah that was What was his response to that? And in your mind like

that that was I don't feel like that was comedy I feel like you were actually saying that it was it was definitely I mean we were making it sound serious but it was definitely comedy and he definitely

had a lot to do with that segment of what we did that night you know at that point he was still hands on with everything that the time did a win a win a win I don't care where I'm 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. 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 here. 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 podcasts. Everyone, I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from stepbrothers anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.

I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks dad on the IHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I can't

just gloss over Purple Rain. One thing I always wanted to know was, how many takes did it take you to do the, what's the password scene? Because that was damn near impressive. As someone that had to study who's on first, you guys executed that

awesomely. And that was one of the, you know, your acting in Purple Rain is, you know, was a highlight. That definitely aided in the film. Yeah, I appreciate that. I actually think we, me and Jerome nailed that in like two takes. I think we nailed it on the first take, which was pretty crazy.

And then we did a second one just for, you know, for, they call it posterity or whatever. But yeah, we nailed it, you know. Wow. Okay. I would, mm, okay. That's impressive. That's damn near impressive. Having recently just seen the first draft of Purple Rain when it was called Dreams,

way darker and way, you know, at the time when you received dreams, did you guys receive dreams before it was redone into Purple Rain? When I, when I saw Purple Rain, it was Purple Rain. I never saw Dreams. Oh, so Amir, you got to tell us. What was it different?

Well, I mean, just Dreams was purple, like it was just darker. I mean, Purple Rain was definitely the better script, but in dreams, you know, it ends at the father's suicide. I think Prince commits suicide. The one scene that was really disturbing, the one really disturbing scene.

Morris. Everybody died in dreams. Right, exactly. But like one of the most disturbing scenes in dreams was, so the scene where, you know, Prince and Apollonia are finally about to have their night together, getting it on. There was a comedy component

to it where Morrison Jerome followed Apollonia to Prince's house and like are spying on her. Like through the window. Like it's it's yeah it's crazy shit.

A lot more happened with the trash can scene and like it was definitely more that film would have been like the straight out of Compton of movies you know. Damn. I never even thought of that script. I ain't a lie. Oh, boy. Yeah, it was a doozy. It was a doozy. How hard was it for you really to walk away from that moment right when it was on the crest of what I assume that you were working for up to that point where you become just as equally on an A-star level as Prince?

well it was it was just the more successful you know prince became the more difficult it became to be around him and um you know i saw that when he fired jimmy and terry i saw that you know he wasn't loosening his grip when i i'd say time and time again you know i'm i'm an artist i write i write every day that's how the whole deal came about in the first place and then he wouldn't take my song serious I told him I told Caballo Ruffalo Faragnoli that I needed to do a solo album I said I'm good with being in the camp

but I need to do a solo album and he just wouldn't let any of that happen so I just kind of said you know I'm just you know, I'm going to have to walk. If I'm going to do anything other than what Prince wants me to do in my life, whether, you know, whether it's great or whether it's not so great, I'm going to have to walk because it's not going to happen here. You know, I told them straight out, I need to do my own album that I write and produce.

And then they came back to me and said, yeah, Prince said you could do that as long as he's the executive producer. Well, you all do what that meant. So at that point, I just made the decision that I'm going to do my own thing. So at that point, did you already have, you know, the character or don't wait for me or love sign or the oak tree, like the songs that wound up on color of success? Yeah. Did you already have those in pocket? Like, when did you start writing those songs?

Yeah, I had a lot of songs at that point. So at that point, it was just me picking the ones. that I was going to use, you know, because like I said, I've been writing all along and, you know, just wasn't able to use any of my songs. So, you know, I was busting at the seams with songs. So, you know, it was just a matter of me. And I wrote, you know, one or two after the fact, but I had a lot of them already just done, you know. I see. How weird was it on day one where you are now in control of your own starship where you now have to answer to yourself, you now have to sign the checks, you now have to hire the band, the two ladies that are singing side by side with you,

like now that you're really calling the shots, like how odd was that that now you had to be in that position? Well, you know, it was odd, but then, you know, with the same token, it was almost like I had been in training for that the whole time that I've been with the time because, you know, I learned how to put a show together. You know, I learned all the ins and outs and the production and, you know, like I said, you know, by by by the end of, you know, the whole run with Prince, you know, I was doing my own own vocals in the studio. And so, you know, I kind of, you know, I kind of just, I think I had, you know, some, some, some high class training, you know, So, you know, I kind of knew what to do at that point.

Okay. On the other hand, with your acting career, because I know that, you know, there was high expectations for you to become like this next big comedy star. And, of course, a lot of the early reviews of Purple Rain actually had you pegged, and I felt it too, that, you know, you could have actually fulfilled the cinematic promise that Richard Pryor should have feel. but didn't, wasn't able to. Wow. So what was it like acting with him and moving? Yeah, it was, it was, you know, it was a, it was a double-edged situation, you know, because even though I did well acting, I didn't feel like I was an actor and I didn't like,

you know, I kind of hate to say this, but I didn't like acting so much. That's okay. Okay, so by this point in 85, 86, now that you're at the height of dayness, like, how exhausting is it? Now, now you have to wear suits. Now you have to, your hair has to be primped and prepped and da-da-da-da-da. And I'm sure everybody, whatever your version of, I'm Rick James bitches, like, is everyone running up to you saying yes and all these things? Yeah, you know, that part, you know, there was a point where, you know, you couldn't turn on the radio. pop or urban or whatever without hearing jungle over the bird.

And, you know, people just, you know, they had their expectations, you know, because I tend to get into my laid backness, you know, and everybody expects, you know, more to walk in the room doing the bird, you know, sliding in and, you know, I mean, you know, it's all good, you know, because that's what I signed up for. But that's definitely the expectation that people had and still have, 10 to have. But wait, let me ask you, though,

because I just, I had to remember this, I had to look this up. Did you feel like that before after you did new attitude? Well, you know, New Aditude with Jackie, right? With Shirley Rout, right?

Wasn't Jackie A man as well? No, she, she, it was the hair thing, right? The beauty shop. Yeah. Yeah, I've remembered in Jeff Magazine. Okay, I remember that. Yeah.

I was still in, I was kind of still in, mode of acting, you know, at that point. Okay. But then, you know, you know, it just, it kind of got to be where with my music, you know, I kind of call the shots, you know what I mean? Right. And I'm not a workaholic by anybody's standards, but, you know, I just kind of like to be

able to go when I want to and to be the boss. And, you know, acting, somebody else is telling you, be here this time, be dressed, hurry up and wait and how long you have to stay at work and when you could go home. It's like prints all over again. Yeah, right, right, right. Right. You know, I mean, I would probably still do it again, but I don't know that I could just be a full-time actor. That's all.

Okay. I'm afraid of this answer because if you don't know where your Presley jacket is, then I definitely know you don't know about this. Do you have a copy of the pilot that you and Jerome shot for ABC? back in was it 86 87 i believe yeah i think it was i heard a rumor that you guys did a like a detective yeah kind of thing yeah i think it was fox it was called hotel dix wait what hotel what now hotel dicks okay y'all was detectives yes we were detectives okay and you worked at what was the what was the uh the

what was the what was the plot what was the the the the the plot of the series. The premise pretty much was, you know, we were like the over, overzealous like Barney Rubble, you know, detectives, you know, spying on people, you know, sending like little remote control cars with cameras through the air conditioning events to spy on rooms and, you know, kind of make sure everything was good in the hotel, but doing a, you know, way over the top job of it.

So you guys were like head of a security force inside of a hotel and yeah. It's kind of smart. I haven't seen that show yet. Hotel dicks. Okay. Do you have a copy of this pilot? I might have it because, you know, I have a boxes full of VCR tapes, you know, that, or VHS tapes. Right.

I have no idea what's on, you know, then they probably dried out and, riddle and don't work anymore, but I have boxes of them. Before I leave this earth, I'm watching that. Before I leave this earth, I'm watching it. In making your follow-up album, Daydreaming, getting back with it Jimmy and Terry, you know, a lot of your fans were trying to will this time reunion way before 1990. at what point was it sort of like, okay, let's test the waters and see if we could do this again? Well, we're always just a phone call away from that kind of thing.

You know, Jimmy and Terry, we keep up with each other. And, you know, Jimmy's always, you know, like, hey, you know, he's his affiliation with Nairus, you know, which puts on the Grammys, you know, he's always. you know, using our name or putting our name out there and a lot of times they bite. So, you know, when he calls and says, hey, let's do this, you know, I'm always down to do something with the original members. It's always a treat. Okay. I see. This, I was specifically talking about the fishnet period, even before y'all. Oh, that. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yes. That too, you know, you know, it's because Jimmy and Terry, you know, produced Fishnet for me. And, you know, so, you know, we just thought it would be a great idea to do the video together. First of all, did you expect them to be as red hot as they became? I wasn't surprised because, you know, if you recall earlier when I said, I had heard, you know, when, you know, prior to them being in, to me bringing in them into the time, you know, I'd heard some songs that they produced on Cynthia Johnson, you know, who ended up saying Funky Town, which was a world, big world hit.

But I'd heard their work, and I told Prince, I said, these guys are talented, man. I heard their production work, and I said, you know, they really got something special going. And so then once they got in the band, we would always get together, man. We had these little cassio. I don't know if you remember these cassio pianos,

and they came in these little plastic cases. I know. And you'd open them up. Then we would get together and fire up the four tracks. on the road and put together some real fire tracks. So, you know, I knew that they had it in them. I can't say that I knew that they were going to blow up the way they did. But I definitely knew that they had something special as writers and producers.

Was there ever consideration to even let them do an entire album on you? Or was it more like, okay, well, I just fought to get out of the swamp. Like, why would I take a step back and take direction from someone else? I mean, I would have considered that in a heartbeat, but, you know, I had already done most of the daydreaming daydreaming album, you know, when, you know, the idea came up that maybe they should do a couple of tracks. You know, I was pretty much, you know, knee deep into the project at that point. But, you know, if it had presented itself earlier, I would have done more songs with them for sure. Okay.

I don't know the exact, I don't know the reason why, okay, I understand that graffiti bridge was a flop. So that said, however, the reception and the reviews of pandemonium was definitely one of the bright spots of 1990. How come you guys didn't do a full-scale tour? Was it at that point you guys were an all-star team and it was just like nobody could take the time off to? Yeah, at that point, you know, definitely Terry and Jimmy's schedule was, you know, was through the roof. They were they were producing a little bit of everybody. And, you know, so, and we all had, you know, our thing that we were doing.

So it was just too difficult at that point. And it probably would have been way too expensive, especially for Terry and Jimmy to take that kind of time to go out and tour. I see. So, and we're going to wrap this up soon because I'll be here twice. of hours asking you about like. Did you know about the Jimmy interview, Morris? Have you heard?

It's all in the book. I know it's in the book. No, I know Jimmy Jam's a talker, though. His episode was six hours and 40 minutes. That was like the longest day of my life. Like that was the greatest day of my life. Awesome. It was awesome.

It was just like the longest day. Somebody more nerdier than me answering questions. Awesome. About himself. Yeah. Oh, no. Jimmy's damn good at this thing, man. So, you know.

So are you. We're not trying to reproduce a Jimmy Jammin. Oh, man. We older now. That was a couple years ago. Yeah, we're going to let you go. Yeah, I'm 50 now. I can't handle it.

Oh. But, you know, I think a couple years ago, I saw a clip of your son singing. I didn't know that your son was even a singer or whatever. And that's so amazing. Like, how is that to see your kids? like sort of follow want to follow in that path

and you know as a parent do you feel like the need to to have cautionary like is there kind of concern or fear of like making sure that he doesn't fall down the same path that I fell down or whatever like what advice do you give your kids when they want to pursue singing?

Well you know it's always been a requirement in my household you know that that they pick up an instrument Oh, you are Joe Jackson. I get it. Okay.

But I'll say this. You know, a few of them have stuck with it. Like my son Darren that you're talking about who was an incredible singer. And I don't know how many kids. I don't know the eyes, ladies. Just Google it. Oh, yeah, right, right. Yeah, he's a chip off the old block.

I mean, yes, yes, yes. I actually don't know how many kids you have, Morris. So how many? Oh, wow. Okay, word. Okay. My boys, one girl. And they're all musically inclined?

No. I have three that actually care about music still, and they're really good. Right. And but, you know, my older kids that, you know, when they got 12, 14 years old, they say, hey, dad, I don't want to, I don't want to play the piano anymore. I don't want to do it. I was like, hey, that's fine. You know.

You know, yeah. You know, and I'm good with that. But, you know, I just wanted to give them, you know, that opportunity to, you know, that opportunity to, you know, to, and then they say that it helps stimulate the brain, you know, for math and stuff like that. So I just want to keep them engaged. It does. It's not, you know, when they are old enough to make that decision, then by all means that they made that decision, I know. And they could never say you didn't try. Unlike my daddy, who's a drummer who never taught me how to play the drums, by I digress. There you go.

Well, it helps with creativity, though. Yeah. Yeah. It helps with creativity. Yeah. And it gives something else to do besides getting Trump. That part. Right. So, Morris, speaking of your book, I really have to commend you on the creative way that you structured it where, you know, the voice of what's in your head as Prince's voice and how it never leaves you is in the book. I sort of the same structure with Mo Meta, where Richard is talking to me before you died. It's sort of structured the same way, where Prince kind of has his version of the story, and Morris sort of has a conversation.

So that's sort of like each chapter is peppered with sort of conversations between them. Yeah, I got to say, how hard was it? Or just how therapeutic was it for you to, finally get your story out? It was it was both of those. It was hard to do and it was therapeutic at the end of the day because to actually sit, you know, with David Ritz and...

The great David Ritz. Yes, the great David Ritz. Got to get him on the show, wouldn't they? Yeah, he would love it. But, you know, and to go back down some of those dark corridors was very difficult, you know, And it kind of resurfaced a lot of feelings that I had buried, you know.

And so, you know, it brought a lot to the surface. And at the end of the day, you know, it was like a breath of fresh air once we got through it. And saw how it translated onto the pages. And, you know, it just ended up being a good thing. You know, that was the ultimate therapy session. I can tell. Is there a soundscape with this audio book? Now I want to go back and listen to the audio book.

I'm like, is it, is it you on the audio? No, I should have done it. I was going to say, man. What happened? I still need you. No, with David Rich Productions, things can be done over again. Look at the Rick James book.

Look at, I would appreciate it if you actually redid the audio to it. Soundscape, all soundscape. I feel like you. I mean, your guy did it good, you know, and it helped because, you know, whatever, when I take my morning walk or whatever, usually I listen to audiobooks or dry places. It was cool, but yeah, I feel like it needs your voice. I agree. I agree with that.

Hell yeah. It needs your voice. I know that at least for the era of the 80s, that mystery was a key component. Like, you shouldn't know too much to keep them engaged. but, you know, to see what was under the hood, man. And it's like, you've been through the fire, man. And I got to say that, that, you know, I really enjoyed you sharing your truth like that, you know, in the story. Appreciate it.

Yes. Okay. I am going to wrap up, but I wanted to save one last frothy story for the end. This is the encore. Okay. And you guys can be very happy that this is the last time I'm going to ask this question. This is the most besides the Latin quarter. Latin quarter.

No, it's not the Latin quarter story. No. No. Besides the Latin quarter, this is the most asked question on Questleaf Supreme to anyone that's ever been in the Purple Army. Okay. I don't know what this is. Morris, can you please give me your account of the Cincinnati fall down?

Food Fight Show. Oh, yeah. Just ask everybody. So here's the deal. Speaking of the Huntsbury family, do crazy negotiations. I was able to secure and get that performance on tape. So, of course, I don't know what's happening backstage.

Right. But I at least see the point where Chick grabs Jesse. Yeah. And I guess you guys. went guitar list for a second, whatever. Can you please explain in fireside chat way, whatever, of the food fight in Cincinnati? Yeah, of course I can.

You know, it's in the book, though. The book on time of Princely laughing funk. Yes, we will rigorously promote this book. You know, I got to do it. You know, I got to do it. But anyway, so we're in Cincinnati. We're on stage. and you know this

the prints that everybody thinks they know they're serious-minded you know straight talk you know stoic yeah he decides he's going to fuck with our show and him and his band are going to start throwing eggs at us

while we're you know performing yeah that's real fucked up especially with your hairstyle let me ask you though is so there was never a playful high school

kind of nature between the two bands or you know, playing the dozens and then... Not like that, you know, you know, because his crew were kind of straight lace, you know, just

kind of boring people, you know, with my crew, you know, we were, you know, we was all cool, you know, had a little, you know, pimp vibe to us and, you know, for instance, any time the time had a party, everybody would be there. We would always be at the little cheap hotel. And if we were at the same hotel as him, we had the little low cheap on the low cheap floor. He'd be upstairs in the suites and all

of that. But everybody would be at our party. So, you know, that's just the vibe that we had. So it wasn't that kind of party with us. We didn't interact with this band like that. You know, you're talking Matt Fink and Bobby Z and all that. I mean, Des Dickerson. These are all like, You know, I don't even know, but they weren't, they just weren't cool like us. Okay. Okay. I got to briefly interrupt. So since you, since you kind of open the door, I got to ask, and I never ask this is a

bar or whatever, because it's their personal thing. But just in that environment, was it everything we ever thought it was in terms of whatever hedonistic party atmosphere that we imagined that. any figure from the 80s was living at that point? It was pretty crazy. You know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't give it the hedonistic stamp, but, you know, it was, you know, we, we partied hard. You know, I mean, you come in, you know,

you couldn't tell where the bed was, where the floor was, folks would be danced on the bed, the floor, people have the lampshades on their head, the music going. You know, it was just kind of that kind of vibe, you know. Free social media, the good life. Yeah, right. pre-social media. Well, I mean, like, coming to America was like, white, bros?

Like, yeah. And the other things that go along with that. Anyway, so go ahead. Clean, it's clean. You know, you know, you know, you know, I get it. The sun always goes down, you know. But the lights went low, but just while the party was going, you know, it was, you know, we just have some good, clean fun, party and having a great time.

And it was so, it was to the point where Prince would start coming down. down with chick, you know, or whoever his bodyguard was, have him bring him, because he's like, what's going on down there? You know, he wanted to know. Was it like that coming to ruin the party, or is it like he's cool? Hey, no, nobody skipped the beach. You know, they, they see him show up and, you know, people were so happy to be at our parties that, you know, they wouldn't acknowledge him as much as you thought they would because everybody would just be having a great time, you know, and you kind of show up with a bodyguard. It was kind of a buzzkill to begin with, you know, But, you know, so that was the deal with that.

But, you know, so we didn't interact with his band. So it wasn't that kind of fun environment between the two bands where it was a laugh when they started throwing eggs at us on stage. You know, I'm like, you know, what's happening here? I'm seeing eggs flying and hitting some of my band members and splatting on the stage and on their speakers and stuff. And I was like, you know, and then so I happened to look up. I'm trying to concentrate on doing. you know, my show. And I see, you know, Prince and his crew laughing down there, you know,

and running and off to the side and throwing eggs at us. And I was like, what is this, you know? And so he's not worried about, like, being seen by the audience or none of these things? Yeah, I don't know what got into him that night. I'm going to tell you, that was a difference. It was also the last night of the tour. So I'm certain that whatever resentment and whatever, you know, any of those things that happening. Yeah, it's like we're going to throw water balloons at the bus, you know, on the last day,

you know, when the kids are leaving or something. Right. Right. And eggs, you know, and so then we come off stage and, you know, he's really laughing about the shit, you know, but in the same breath, he's saying, you guys better not bother me while I'm on stage. What? Oh, so he's basically asking you to bother him on stage. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we sent our guy, you know, and we told him to get us a box of glad bags, the green ones, the big trash bags, and some, and some, a few dozen eggs. So we geared up, you know, just in case it's some retaliation. And when he went on, sure enough, we was firing up the stage with eggs.

He gets pissed. He has chick, like you said, chick grabbed Jesse, took him into the dressing room and handcuffed him to a clothes rack, those kind of clothes rack. that they screw into the wall with the towel on the mouth, handcuffed him to that, and Jesse's going crazy. You know, he eventually ripped the rack off the wall and came out swinging at people with it. And it just went, it just went totally bizarre.

Prince was pissed. His band was mad. They was acting like they wanted to fight. And so I ended up in a back room with Chick and Prince, Prince is yelling at me all night and I'm like, you started this shit. I said, you started throwing eggs at me and he's threatening to fire me

from the production company. I'll never be on tour again. And blah, blah, it was just went, it was a crazy night. That's all. He had been in no fight. That's what I could tell. Yeah, it was crazy.

It got real deep. It went way beyond, and then I ended up paying 5Gs. He made me pay for the cleanup at the, you yeah 5,000 bucks yeah I'm bringing up the calculator right now so inflation that's like I'm going I'm going 22 grand the inflation calculator for uh this fight what 1983 so let's see 5,000 bucks 20 grand oh Jesus Christ man that was 13,23 $7.55

today. Damn. Just did a lot of money. No, that's a lot of money. You know what I mean? Records I can buy with that shit. Yeah. Three.

So do you feel as though even though, you know, the food fight supposed to be an endearing thing amongst friends? But do you feel the underlying thing was maybe sort of resentment that you guys were getting better reviews or like your only revenge was to kick his ass on stage? Yeah, I think it was part of that. And I think, you know,

in his own way, you know, like you said, that being the last night of that particular tour, you know, I think he was thinking he could kind of sabotage it. So we definitely wouldn't get better reviews last night, you know. Hey, brother Prince, forgive me now. You know, I'm, you know, I feel you. You know, but, you know, but, you know, it was all, you know, just as part, like I said, when I, when I would run into him as much animosity as I could, muster up for some of the shit that we went through together that that wasn't so cool.

I was always happy to see him, you know. I was always happy to see him. Well, thank you for sharing your story with us for the day. Wait a minute, Morris. Uh-oh, you knew it couldn't. Wait, no, no, no. It ain't over. Have you ever revealed what the E means in your name?

Well, like I always say, the E is, it's in the book. The E is sometimes. for Morris every day. You know, the e-changes. It just depends on the mood and the moment, you know. Okay. I feel like that's the first personal. I feel like that's the first personal question I asked you,

like your political affiliation. And what does the E stand for? More entertaining day. I see. Wait a minute, Morris. I can't. No, well, it would be disrespectful. Dude, you're working, you're working on, you got new material out now with Snoop.

Yeah. Oh. Yeah. I'm so busy trying to get out of the clock so he doesn't hang up on us. Can you talk about working now that you, now that you're in Snoop's camp, what, what it's been like? It's been real cool. You know, Snoop's a real gracious guy. You know, he invited me to come down to the, I went down really, because.

because I wanted him to get on a song that I had. And then he just said, hey, I want to do a bunch of stuff with you. So we started cutting down there. So we ended up, we have a lot of great stuff. A lot of stuff I cut with Snoop. We got Snoop on our new project. We got Flo Riter on the new project. We got Trinidad James.

And the list keeps growing. So we're just, we're having fun with some of the more seasoned members of the musical community these days and making some good music, brother. We got to get together on one too. Yes. Actually, we can close on a really glorious note. Oh, wait, before you close, there's a reissue too, right?

Yes, the reissues of the time record and what time is it? And ice cream castles as well, just the first two records. I think it's the first two. Okay. We just have to mention it because that's the reason he is here today. All right, good stuff. Oh, is it? Yeah.

One of the many. One of the, it's a reason that we got you today. You've done too much. Morris, we've been trying to get you for the last few years. So,

but this is how we finally, you know. I'm actually pleased, I'm very happy to say that technically the roots and the time have a song together

on the new Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis album. Oh. Yes. I don't think you knew that the musical backdrop you were singing to was a root song.

That's how, That's how much work I'm doing nowadays. I totally forgot that we have a song together on the name of it. Yeah. The Morris can go back and. Yes. No, it's by the time this airs, it, it'll be done. And I think I just let a serious cat out the bag, but I'm not certain.

We'll just find out later. Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim won't punish me for a reveal in this. He'll never win a Grammy again. Yeah, I was going to say that Jam actually just, yeah, he told me like day before yesterday. So. Exclusive, exclusive. That, yeah, exclusive. That, yeah, both the roots and the time made the final cut of.

Well, Morris was talking about together at the same time when he did. Yes, of course. Now that, now that the pandemic's over. Yeah. Allegedly. Allegedly. Now we can, now we can be creative. Yes, I would love to do that.

Yes. You're, as I said, man, you're one of my true heroes, not just like a guy down with that other guy, but like, you know, you're kind of our, you're our North Star. No, seriously, like a lot of black people got pulled into this fear via you guys first and then catching up later. Yes, yes. Y'all was the black. Y'all was the blackness that lured us in. Exactly. I want to thank you for doing this. I've been, you know, I'd still deny that we've been on for five years. years, but yeah, this is definitely one of the dream interviews. Yo, can I just mention, by the way, people don't know this at home, but this is the first time we've ever done a Quest Love Supreme where we didn't see our guest.

Mariah tried to do this, and we was like, no, sis, we got to see you. Morris Day, shit. This is how much we loved you that we actually did it blind. Oh, yeah, I appreciate that. You know, my, I didn't get my hair did today. My lady, my hair lady, wasn't, what in the face. So you know. All good.

Brother, as long as you tell the story that I'm fine with that. And you fine regardless, Morris. Don't nothing change. I appreciate it. All right. Well, on behalf of Bill Sherman, Sugar, Steve, I know I hugged all the questions. See, yeah, that's why I apologize at the beginning. You did a good job?

Sugar, Steve, do you have any last words? No, I love you, Morris. Thank you. Well, it's great. All right. On behalf of the crew, Fantigolo, you were missed. I hope that was a great picnic. Laiia.

Bill. And Sugar Steve, the great Mars entertaining day. Entertaining. Every day. Electric. Every day. Yes. I like it.

The E is ever changing. Hey. Might be one of the E's and E's. Evermore. Thank you very much. And this is Questlove Supreme. We'll see you on the next square round, y'all. Thank you.

All right now. Hey, this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLS. And let us know what you think. Who should be next to sit down with us? Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. Much Love Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. For more podcasts from IHart Radio,

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