Publication: Forbes [US]
Date: September 14, 1995
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Title: "Princely Pauper"
Written By: R.L

Last year rock star Prince legally changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph and announced that no one was to call him Prince anymore. The change, he hoped, would break him free of any contracts he signed as his former self.

It was a move any sensible manager would have nixed. But Prince fired the last in a long line of handlers last year and has been managing his own career since then. Making a mess of it, too.

Ten years ago Prince surrounded himself with some of the sharpest minds in show business. Together they sold over 15 million copies of the soundtrack for "Purple Rain", a movie he starred in.

A string of other hits led to his signing a six-album deal with Warner Bros Records three years ago worth potentially $100 million and loaded with perks: advances of $10 million per record, $20 million additional funding for Paisley Park (a recording complex he had built in Minneapolis), a Los Angeles office and his own record label.

But Prince was soon quarreling with Time Warner, accusing its executives of "enslaving" his music when they wanted to stick to the terms of the contract. Warner shuttered his office and stopped putting money into his record label.

Prince has since retreated to Paisley Park, where he has nearly ruined himself with self-indulgent spending, including $6 million a year to keep the studio running.

Last year the flamboyant star spent about $4 million to rehearse his band and build stages for a conert tour he never made and lavished $2 million on nine versions of the single "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World", which he released independently. It sold only about 700,000 copies.

He makes up to 30 videos a year, at a cost of up to $500,000 apeice, and never releases them. His last two albums, released last year, have sold about 500,000 copies combined in the U.S., according to SoundScan.

Warner recently helped keep Prince out of bankruptcy by lending him $10 million, and advance against royalties from his upcoming album, "The Gold Experience". Add this to the bill: The label is still waiting to recoup the millions it advanced the star for his previous records.