Publication: Nando News [US]
Date: November 14, 1996
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Title: "Prince Meets The Press"
Written By: Gil Kaufman

MINNEAPOLIS -- Meet the new Prince: open, charming, seemingly normal and courting the media in a big way.

The reclusive Minneapolis superstar -- who has avoided interviews since his career began in 1978 -- has fed a flurry of media attention over the past several days that peaked Tuesday with a late-night TV performance and may hit a new pinnacle next Thursday when he appears on Oprah Winfrey's show.

Why the media blitz? "I've got a record to sell," Prince said at an impromptu midnight news conference Tuesday, seven days before the release of his new three-disc "Emancipation."

After declining sales of his records over the past five years, the more important question may be: Is the world ready for a Prince comeback?

"I think it's about time," said Boyz II Men singer Nathan Morris, who attended Prince's show at his Paisley Park Studios.

"It's the buzz of the industry right now," KDWB program director Dan Kieley said Wednesday. "Some of the things I heard are possible No. 1 records for Top 40 radio."

The first sign Tuesday of the new Prince was that the clotheshorse wore the same outfit almost the entire night.

The second sign was that he played a startlingly short second set -- a mere 35 minutes, compared with his typical late-night marathons -- before excusing himself from the crowd of 200 journalists and several hundred music-biz insiders because, he said, it was his wife's birthday.

Actually, Prince had to do more interviews.

For the fallen superstar, meeting the media is a sign of harder times. He spent two days in Japan doing interviews; he hosted radio programmers from around the country for a question-and-answer session and concert at Paisley Park; he's given interviews to Rolling Stone, Time, USA Today and The New York Times.

Until Tuesday night, Prince had never held a formal news conference. He wasn't very formal. He gave direct, thoughtful and often humorous answers, handling himself with the aplomb of a forthcoming but circumspect politician.

A foreign journalist asked him why he still lives in the Twin Cities. Prince responded by saying when he flies over "the green and the lakes" on his way home, "I'm at peace before I land. God put me here. I'll stay the rest of my life."

He called music "my best friend and my worst friend," saying that sometimes he can't turn it off. He said Mayte, the dancer whom he married Feb. 14, has "completed my soul."

What does Mayte call him? He was stumped for a second. "Lots of things," he said with an impish smile.

What's his name? "My name is this," he said holding up a necklace with his glyph.

New York free-lance critic Amy Linden, an avowed fan who was covering the "Emancipation Concert" for People magazine, couldn't help being cynical about Prince's charming performance.

"You wonder, what's the catch?" Linden said. "Prince was a cult artist who blew up with 'Purple Rain.' He's not mass-market; he's weird and edgy."

A few years ago, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn would have stayed up all night to see a Prince concert. Tuesday, he went to bed without even turning on the 40-minute televised performance, and he didn't think it important enough to spend the money to send a staff writer.

Even though in 1992 he signed what was touted as the biggest record contract in the business, Prince spent much of the 1990s openly feuding with his label, Warner Bros., for which he has sold more than 100 million recordings since 1978.

The essence of the feud was that Prince is too prolific. He wanted to release recordings faster than Warners could market them. He began penciling the word "Slave" on his cheek. Finally, this year Warners ended its contract with Prince.

"The Artist," as he's called by those who work with him, has recorded "Emancipation" on his own NPG Records and cut a deal with EMI to manufacture, distribute and market it.