Publication: Minneapolis Star Tribune [US]
Date: March 1, 1998
Section: News; C.J.
Page Number(s): 5b
Length: 921 Words
Title: "Publisher Hush On New Prince Book; Plus: More Musings About Our Elusive Rocker In The Works?"
Written By: Cheryl Johnson

The New York publisher behind an upcoming book on Prince is behaving as mysteriously as our rock star. Prior to the April publication date, Carol Publishing Group is willing to confirm only two things: The title is "Purple Reign," and the author writes under a name - Liz Jones - not a symbol. Jones, who writes for the London Sunday Times, couldn't explain Carol Pubs' counter-PR strategy. Calling from London, Liz told me there was no problem such as, say, Prince trying to block release of her book. (Prince took Arlene and Erlene Mojica to court last year when it looked as though these personal assistants to his wife, Mayte, were attempting to tell all they knew about the death of Prince and Mayte's baby, perhaps in book form.) "It's not a muckraking thing. I sent it to Prince," Jones said. "It's based on my interview with him about a year ago. The most recent stuff, which you probably know, is the 'Crystal Ball' album." The album is due out today. No word from Prince to Liz about what he thought of the book: "You know what Prince is like. He's not going to reply to anything, is he really?" Jones said the book does include some passages about the 7-day-old baby boy Mayte and Prince lost to a skull deformity known as Pfeiffer syndrome type 2. "I spoke with him about the baby, childhood and to other band members - Rosie Gaines, Alan Leeds, Levi Seacer Jr., Wendy and Lisa, Jimmy Jam. I spoke to Sharon, his half-sister in New York, a very strange woman."

A neverending story?

. . . Liz Jones had no luck reaching Prince's full sibling, Tyka Nelson. "I faxed her, and she didn't ever reply," she said. Jones had not heard the gossip that I heard - and discounted: that Tyka wants to write a book. Buzz was that Tyka wanted her book to focus on her more than Prince - a perspective I can't believe any relative of the Symbolina would pitch or any publisher would be interested in buying. "I tell you who else I spoke to - Vanity, who is now Denise Matthews," Jones said. "Told me SHE was writing her own book about Prince. She actually has quite a big agent. She spoke to me about how she met Prince, how she went out with Prince, how she was taking drugs the whole time she was with Prince. How she went on a downward spiral and found religion, what have you." The market for Prince books is clearly about to be tested. . . . Half-sister Lorna Nelson and Duane Nelson, the bodyguard that Prince used to claim as his brother, are not apparently going to try their hand - although both have told me they'd like to write books about Prince.