Publication: Stern [Ger]
Date: December 1996
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Title: "Genius With Belief In Ghosts"
Interviewed By: Schaefer

[Note: Translated from German by Whistle (Tom Kafkan)] The Prince of Pop invites to "Paisley Park" his fairy-tale castle. The interior of his recording studio sparkles in gold and sweets-colors, star-symbols on the carpet and on the ceiling clouds are floating. 200 journalists are invited and as his royal highness hovers into the room, the crowd starts to murmur. Shy the prince looks around with his dark eyes, his eyelashes moving coquettish and the dinky body floats through the room. [...]He seems precious as if one has to wrap him into velvet paper over night.

Almost unbelievable that this creature can be so naughty on stage with a microphone in his hands. In fact so naughty that Tipper Gore, wife of the US Vice-president founded an initiative for parents against pop music that spoils youngsters. But Prince Rogers Nelson, 38, is a man with multiple identities; musician at first, besides that fairy-tale-prince, love machine, symbol of secrets, glamour-slave and now rockguerillero. At the 19th of November he called out "Emancipation day" in his hometown Minneapolis, "the day at which musicians can finally own their music".

Three years "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" fought in vein for this freedom with his former record-label Warner Bros. Records. The quarrel started when the studio (sic) could not cope with the output of the workaholic. The artist collected miles of master tapes in his archives and a heap of frustration in his soul. Because Warner did not let him out of his contract (rumors say worth $100 million) he was lately only seen with the word "Slave" on his cheek and he changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol .

"Caos and Disorder", Prince's last record for Warner was musically uninspired and dropped out of the US charts after 5 weeks. It apparently only sold 100,000 copies - meager for a mega-star who sold more than 100 million albums in the 18 years of his career ( 15 million alone of the '84 album "Purple Rain").

Now Prince is his own boss. His records will be published by his own label "NPG Records" in future, the new partner EMI is only allowed to manufacture and sell the albums. The first child of this marriage is a triplet: the 3-CD set "Emancipation" for which the artist created "Three hours of love, sex and liberty" in form of music. For "Emancipation" he "shot the barrel empty" Prince says relieved. Compared with it's predecessors the album is on the lighter side - still just great ! In three hours he shows all of his genius, spherical instrumentals next to epic ballads, grooving funk, next to dance floor and swing. Potential hits like "Betcha By Golly, Wow", "Get Yo Groove On" and "Somebody's Somebody". The most powerful song "Let's have a baby" arranged for "Voice, Piano, Bass and silence" even gets hard-core singles to dream from changing diapers.

A reason for the fact that parts of the album sound like "Kuschelrock" [German series with rock and pop ballads ideal for cuddling with your partner] may be the Artist's recently married wife, princess Mayte, 22. The wedding has made him become "clearer, happier, more concentrated" : "The really important things in life are love, my wife, children. And somewhere the music". He doesn't talk about his just born child, of which rumors say it was disabled.

Mayte's influence on the Artist is so strong that she could help him to get over his fear of the public. All of a sudden is Prince, who was hiding all those years behind security-meatballs, accessible and journalists from all over the world float into the "Paisley Park", to discover the man behind the mask. Why did he never give interviews? Does he have unstraight teeth? Or a strange personality?

Well, neither one nor the other. When sitting across from him he is just a nice guy. And only slightly confused for one sits day in day out in his sound absorbing rooms and pushes weird symphonies out of his brilliant brain. And so one journalist after the other comes out of the interview--room, saying that guy way rreeeeeeally nice. What means something like: He is in fact like me, somehow!

Well, yes, but do we want to know this? Now Mr. Nelson will bury Prince once and for all, and the myth and the whole thing. A shame, really, but the 90's are earnest times.

STERN: Three exactly 60 minutes long disks - what was the idea of this ?

: I was inspired by the pyramids and their connection to the astronomy. The Egyptians put them in an order so that you can tell their age by looking at the stars. What fascinated me was that there was something like a blueprint from God. My album's concept is a bit like that, first there was the structure, then the music. A lot of songs are very personal, like "Holy River" for example, therefore the music works as a time-mark, at least for me.

STERN: Hmmm...and from a musical point of view?

: There is no musical concept as such. The songs are very different and do not necessarily fit together. But they all come from happy time for my. The album makes the listener happy and breathes the spirit of freedom.

STERN: How does this spirit sound?

: For "Bed I Scream" I only had the drums one tape, the I threw the guitar on the floor and recorded the reverb. That was quite cool and around that sound I played the other instruments. The sound has an own spirit, a life of it's own that I wanted to discover.

STERN: Have you played all instruments yourself, again?

: More or less, yes, apart from some of the horn arrangements.

STERN: A tricky project for three hours of music...

: ...well, that's my job. Like others that get up in the morning to go to the office, I go into the studio and create songs. The good part was that nobody told me what to do this time. I just followed the music, the music was the boss.

STERN: How is that going to work live?

: My band, the New Power Generation, like to experiment. I digitized my voice for the keyboard, so that I can sing live to my own voice in the background; hey, man that is really fascinating.

STERN: Therefore it sounds on stage like in the studio - what is the band allowed to add to that ?

: They have the freedom to improvise with me. I could as well have a tape playing and just move the lips like others do. But hey, if you do that you are nothing but a video, play, rewind and everybody is frustrated. If you got a groove, you have to get it out!

STERN: It must get out - is that your relationship to music ?

: Music is a curse and a blessing for me. O.K. more a blessing. I hear it every time, everywhere. I think the need to share something beautiful, something moving, that is real love, the essence of love. Oh, man, that is what God wants us to sing about.

STERN: Therefore "Emancipation" is a kind of gospel-album ?

: You could say it like that, yes. EMI tries to place me into Christian radio stations with songs like "Holy River". I mean, think about "Prince" in a Christian radio station - "Prince" after all that time stood only for the label sex.

STERN: Does that mean you gave in to American prudishness ?

: No, that doesn't influence me. To record songs is a therapeutical process for me. Before I enter the studio, I got to l get rid of all I have to do, what I am expected to do. Music is the only thing that matters. I let myself being guided.

STERN: From what ?

: From my higher self. It's all about signs in life, the small little ironies - I always hope the tapes break when I do something wrong, or something like that. If I write something and the tip of my pencil breaks I always think about what I just wrote. I do not believe in coincidences, everything is connected.

STERN: That's called superstition...

: Those who do not believe in those small signs often believes in nothing. I am astonished how many journalists do not believe in god.

STERN: You leave the stage at concerts with the words "Welcome to the dawn". What does that mean ?

: It means that we are on the edge to a higher consciousness. I feel it coming, I feel that I am in the middle of it. The phone rings and I know who it is before I pick up the receiver; all those things happen. We are on the edge to new fascinating Age.

STERN: Errrrr.......that sounds a bit strange. Is it possible that you changed since you wrote "Sexy Motherfucker", or did I misunderstand all that?

: Well, you always needed rumors. I was here in the studio writing music and all the image turned round and round outside. Do you know what " Sexy Motherfucker" is all about? It is about monogamy! That's what it is about!

STERN: I see.

: Words lie, that's the problem. Words turn everything around but they change nothing. If you do not like my record you can criticize it, but that doesn't change the existence of the record. That's why you are not allowed to record this interview. What I say is true and not true if cut out and looked at for itself. Words lie.

STERN: Is that why you changed your name ?

: No, I did that because my spirit demanded it from me.

STERN: How does that work ? In the morning under the shower you found - hey, I am somebody else ?

: No, I was guided by my higher self, by an inner vision, my voice. Everybody has this, only whether we listen to it is a different question. This voice said to me: I have to change, I have to go new ways. So I am here with this name (plays with his necklace with the symbol) and now I am curious how this movie ends. There is a reason for everything, believe me.

STERN: In "One of us" you sing: "If you could ask god just one question, what would it be?" So?

: Can I have three extra questions, please?

STERN: That’s cheating - honestly!

: Naaahh, really. Oh man, I have so many questions three would not be sufficient.