Publication: The Tennessean [US]
Date: August 22, 1997
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Title: "The Artist Couldn't Wait 'Til 1999
Interviewed By: Rick de Yampert

On one past tour, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince was strutting on stage in butt cheek-exposing pants. On another tour, he was singing about doves crying while a veil drooped from a hat and covered his face.

These days, The Artist (as he's calling himself now) has been in cover-up rather than exposure mode. Though last year His Purpleness released a new album, Emancipation, he's remained awfully shy no media blitz, few press interviews, few TV appearances, few live shows. Hmmmm, maybe he should call himself The Enigma Formerly Known as Prince.

In any event, The Artist's concert tonight at the Nashville Arena isn't a total enigma, despite his shyness. Here's a guide to things Princely past, present and future, including what fans can expect to see and hear in Music City tonight.

So, what will tonight's concert be like?

"The set is virtually nothing, just gear," The Artist said during a rare press conference last month. "It's a jam session with real musicians for now!"

That's confirmed by Nashville Prince fanatic Ryan Fitzpatrick, who saw The Artist perform two weeks ago in Oklahoma City.

"It's not a huge production," Fitzpatrick says. "There are no fancy backdrops or stage. It's just him and five musicians. That surprised me. He just comes on and sings and plays."

What songs is he performing?

A press release from Paisley Park way coyly says: "One would not be wrong to expect kisses, doves crying, cream, and maybe even a bit of getting off. Rather than playing songs that were a part of his personal agenda, The Artist created his playlist by considering the requests of 'friends' via the Internet." (The Artist is a "great fan of America On Line," the press release says.)

Fitzpatrick says the Oklahoma City concert opened with Jam of the Year (off the Emancipation album), then segued into Purple Rain. "He did all of the hits and above," Fitzpatrick says. "This show is really a tour for the fans."

Fun Ex-Prince Fact No. 1.

Tipper Gore said the Prince song Darling Nikki, released on the 1984 album Purple Rain, spurred her to form the Parents Music Resource Center. That's the group, remember, which badgered the record industry into placing warning stickers on albums with (perceived) extreme lyrics.

The naughty lines in Darling Nikki? Well, er ... it is a bit naughty, OK?

The Artist announced his Nashville date, then he's here less than two weeks later. What gives with this guerrilla, hit-and-run style of tour?

It's a way to foil scalpers, supposedly giving them less time to pounce into action. Virtually The Artist's entire current tour, dubbed the Jam of the Year World Tour, will be conducted in such a quick-strike mode.

The Name Game, or, what do we call this guy?He was born Prince Rogers Nelson. Some years back, he supposedly changed his true name to that funky-chic (and unpronounceable) glyph you know, the one that's a combination of the signs for male and female. Befuddled journalists, not having that glyph on our computer keyboards, compromised with His Purpleness, and the name became The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

"Black people still call me Prince," The Artist told Spike Lee during an interview in Interview magazine last spring. "Sometimes I ask them, 'Why do you call me Prince?' And people say, 'Because you are a prince to us.' Usually when they say that, my heart goes out and I have to say, 'I don't mind you calling me that.' "

Fun Ex-Prince Fact No. 2.

Legend says The Artist wrote Cream after staring at himself in a mirror. Key lyric: "You're filthy cute and baby you know it."

The Artist's No. 1 Nashville Fan.

It's not an official contest, but Ryan Fitzpatrick is definitely in the running. Yep, that tattoo on his left shoulder is that darn glyph. Rather, it's an earlier version of it, but Fitzpatrick also plans to get a tattoo of the new, improved Artist symbol the one with the "paisley mark" bisecting it.

"My first identification with him was back in the early '80s," says the 28-year-old Fitzpatrick, who works in Vanderbilt University's health services division. "As a teen-ager growing up, parents don't understand you, nobody understands you. But here was this freak wearing all this weird stuff who could relate. I loved the single back in '79, I Wanna be Your Lover.

"His music has changed as he's grown. He's cycled through that raw sexual stuff that was very disturbing and pushed boundaries. Of course, I was right along that with him." These days, Fizpatrick's fandom "has a lot to do just strictly with the music. It's changed. It's more progressive."

Seems Prince disturbed more than just young Fitzpatrick's mind: "When I was 15 years old, my mom came in and threw away all his stuff. She sat down and listened to 1999 after she heard me singing it. (The song contains some risque lyrics).

"So she went in and threw all my albums and tapes out when I was gone. So I went in and got a bunch of her stuff and threw it out. I said, 'If you can do it to me, I can do it to you.' It was a battle for our family. It's kind of funny she went with me to the Oklahoma City concert. She was really impressed."

Fun Ex-Prince Fact No. 3.

In their book Rock's Hidden Persuaders: The Truth About Backmasking, Dan and Steve Peters go Tipper Gore one better by claiming Darling Nikki has a backward bit praising Satan.

New albums!The Artist has two new albums, but don't look for them in record stores. Both will be available by calling 1-800-NEW-FUNK. The Truth is an acoustic album, "just me and a guitar in a room," he told Spike Lee. The other album, Crystal Ball, is a three-CD collection of "bootleg" and "underground" stuff, including such titles as 18 and Over, Hide the Bone, Sexual Suicide and Crucial.

Web site sighted!Here's The Artist's Web site address: http://love4oneanother.com

GETTING THERE

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince will be in concert at 8 p.m. Friday at the Nashville Arena. Tickets are $ 66 for Purple Circle seats, and $ 51 and $ 36 for other seats, plus service charges. Tickets are available at the arena box office, Ticketmaster outlets and through Ticketmaster's charge-by-phone line at 255-9600. However, Purple Circle seats are available only through the Ticketmaster charge-by-phone number. For more information, call the arena at 770-2040.

WORDS FROM A FORMER PRINCE

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince may be media shy, but evidently he's not Internet shy. The latest press release from The Artist's camp says he loves America On Line and all things Internet.

So, when The Artist's press liaison said to fax His Purpleness some questions and The Artist would respond via e-mail, we at The Tennessean said sure.

Here are the questions we submitted, and the answers we received.

Have marriage and family made you rethink, or refute, such songs as Darling Nikki, Sexy M.F. and Irresistible Bitch?

The Artist: Not at all. I was 24 at this time. Had I not visited that place in my psyche I would not have written Emancipation.

Given the mixture of spirituality and eroticism in your music, have you had any interesting feedback from Christian ministers on songs such as 7 or God?

The Artist: No, the holy people I know believe in a much broader spirituality. There are no enemies.

What's the one song that you've released that you are least proud of, and why?

The Artist: I love every song that I've written. They are like my children. They are all integral parts of my journey.

What song that you are performing on your current tour has given you the greatest buzz, and why?

The Artist: One of Us and Face Down playing either one furthers my enlightenment. (Note: One of Us is the Joan Osborne song with the refrain "What if God was one of us?" Prince's version appears on his Emancipation album.)

What will you be doing on Dec. 31, 1999?

The Artist: I will be at a party and you are invited.