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Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis. The stories about

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Speaker 1: Prince are insane. Those who knew him intimately claimed that

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Speaker 1: he never slept, he never ate, He never had sex. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Prince that Prince never had sex, at least not in

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Speaker 1: his later years. He swore it off like eating. He

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Speaker 1: claimed sex slowed him down, and the image of Prince

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Speaker 1: as a sex charged, funked out and info maniac was

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Speaker 1: just that, an image one crafted as a vessel for

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Speaker 1: his pop star ascent and dominance. But Prince was not

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Speaker 1: just another pop star. Prince was a virtuoso. Calling him

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Speaker 1: the greatest musician of all time remarkably sounds like an understatement,

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Speaker 1: for Prince was much more. He was an excessively talented musician, yes,

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Speaker 1: a great songwriter, performer, producer, but above all, an artist

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Speaker 1: in the truest sense of the word. He lived it.

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Speaker 1: He controlled it through a small squad of alter egos,

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Speaker 1: multiple personalities, who he would utilize to bring his art

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Speaker 1: to life and to consult with creatively, to deploy to

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Speaker 1: help control what a time seemed uncontrollable. His mammoth sprawling talent.

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Speaker 1: Prince worked hard. He never stopped, and that work took

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Speaker 1: its toll on the slightly built but larger than life

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Speaker 1: artist and the result, ironically would be a complete and

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Speaker 1: fatal lack of control. But not before building a vast

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Speaker 1: amount of great music, unlike that music I played for

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Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.

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Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my melotron called Colombo's

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Speaker 1: Good I MK one. I played you that loop because

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Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to the reflex by Duran

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Speaker 1: Duran And why would I play you that specific slice

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Speaker 1: of Ragged Tiger Cheese? Could I have afford it? Because

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Speaker 1: that was the number one one song in America on

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Speaker 1: June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four, And that was the

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Speaker 1: day that Prince Rogers Nelson would release Purple Rain, his

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Speaker 1: landmark artistic statement, and demonstrate his complete control of pop

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Speaker 1: culture with the soon to be number one album, single

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Speaker 1: and movie of the same name. On this episode, a

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Speaker 1: virtuoso talent Ragged Tiger Cheese, complete control in the lack

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Speaker 1: bear of and the almighty Purple One himself. Prince, I'm

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Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this his disgrace. Land Marris Day walked

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Speaker 1: swiftly past the line of shivering clubgoers. Using his cane

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Speaker 1: for a he palmed the doorman a twenty and quickly

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Speaker 1: escaped the cold Minneapolis nighttime air. He ascended the stairs

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Speaker 1: to the dark was compelled by the smell of dank

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Speaker 1: weed and the sound of heavy funk pounding out of

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Speaker 1: the club. His heart rate kicked up a notch as

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Speaker 1: he made his way closer to the end of the

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Speaker 1: entryway and toward the Greater dance hall. That anticipation, the unknown,

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Speaker 1: the moment just before you've arrived. What might the knight

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Speaker 1: have in store for you? Even though you're a seasoned professional,

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Speaker 1: The unknown possibilities are still exciting. Sex drugs, of course,

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Speaker 1: career opportunities all possible, especially for a fly motherfucker like

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Speaker 1: Mars Day and most definitely when the man came around

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Speaker 1: and word was tonight that his Majesty was going to

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Speaker 1: make the scene, Mars tipped his fedora to the beefy

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Speaker 1: bouncer at the end of the hall, and the no

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Speaker 1: neck acknowledged him with a knowing nod and a sly wink.

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Speaker 1: As he leaned into the door with one sculpted arm

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Speaker 1: and the weight of his very large body, open it

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Speaker 1: for what he could only have judged as the slickest

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Speaker 1: of VIPs. As soon as Mars entered the club, the

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Speaker 1: music shifted, as if his entry had been soundtracked by

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Speaker 1: some unknown force. As he moved, he was greeted with

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Speaker 1: low fives, pats on the back, fist bumps, more knowing nods,

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Speaker 1: and more sly winks from the men, flirting back to

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Speaker 1: the eye, and long head to toe glances from the women.

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Speaker 1: A small crowd filled in behind him as he made

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Speaker 1: his way through the clubs outer circle, passed one of

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Speaker 1: its bars, and toward the dance floor. Marris walked in

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Speaker 1: his own Marris Day kind of way, his head up,

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Speaker 1: chin extended out slightly ahead of the rest of him,

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Speaker 1: his mouth pinched, his shoulders back, one arm working with

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Speaker 1: cane and one arm trailing behind the rest of them,

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Speaker 1: as if in an effort to pick up whatever it

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Speaker 1: was he might be missing out on this dancing for everybody,

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Speaker 1: just the sexy people. It was a determined strut, a

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Speaker 1: strut that suggested that the world didn't understand how valuable

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Speaker 1: his time was. He was going places, and if his

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Speaker 1: gait didn't make it clear that his clothes most certainly did.

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Speaker 1: Cab Callawei Fedora bespoke blazer with tiger print lapels, skinny tie,

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Speaker 1: hard pressed slacks, and polished wingtips that you would swear

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Speaker 1: left behind a trail of neon with every step. His

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Speaker 1: man Jerome quickly found his way to his side. He

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Speaker 1: kept striding updated Mars on the goings on, Who was who,

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Speaker 1: who was where, which one was getting with which one,

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Speaker 1: who had the good stuff, who was holding out, when

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Speaker 1: their table would be ready, and most important, whether or

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Speaker 1: not he had actually shown up. Quickly, another one of

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Speaker 1: Mars's meetings slipped a drink into his hand, Boka water Rocks,

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Speaker 1: the Bobby Womack. Marris was now on the pack dance floor,

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Speaker 1: and he sipped his drink, stood still, looked around him.

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Speaker 1: The strobing lights, the pounding base, the packed house seemed

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Speaker 1: to circle around him as if he were the center

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Speaker 1: of the universe. But Mars, as good as it all

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Speaker 1: felt in the moment, knew that that wasn't true. This

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Speaker 1: was Minneapolis. There was only one center of the universe,

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Speaker 1: and that was wherever he decided to be. Mars, from

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Speaker 1: the middle of the dance floor, looked up to the

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Speaker 1: club's second floor balcony, and there aside the DJ booth,

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Speaker 1: he stood stone still, arms crossed, big black wraparound sunglasses

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Speaker 1: on no expression, shocking white trench coat, six inch collar

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Speaker 1: open at the neck, skin tight half shirt, in that

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Speaker 1: perfect pencil thin mustache that, among the many other things

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Speaker 1: he possessed, made Mars Day excessively jealous. There he was

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Speaker 1: high above everyone else, surveying the entire scene, taking it

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Speaker 1: all in off on his own trip, at least one,

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Speaker 1: possibly ten steps ahead of everyone else, per usual, and

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Speaker 1: somehow doing justice to every one of his nicknames at

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Speaker 1: the same time, his Royal Badness, the High Priest, the

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Speaker 1: pop the Purple One, the future artist formerly known as Prince.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty seven Rupert's Nightclub, Golden Valley, Minnesota, a touch

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Speaker 1: west of Minneapolis. What lay before Prince was what Prince

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Speaker 1: had sown from wayback. Prince was now one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest entertainers in the world. He put the scene on

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Speaker 1: the map, and tonight he was looking for something in return, validation.

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Speaker 1: Prince saw Mars down below on the dance floor looking

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Speaker 1: up at him, looking for his own validation, and Prince

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Speaker 1: ignored him. It was time. The song was about to

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Speaker 1: come to an end. Prince pulled an advance copy of

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Speaker 1: a soon to be released tenth album, The Black Album,

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Speaker 1: out from under his arm and handed it to the

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Speaker 1: DJ at the same time, delivering a deeply serious look

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Speaker 1: and curt instruction spin it. The DJ did as he

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Speaker 1: was told. The vinyls spun the needle drop. The speakers

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Speaker 1: swelled with a swooping synth, and they quickly gave way

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Speaker 1: to the fattest funk. The dance floor was immediately filled

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Speaker 1: beyond capacity. The horns then kicked in. The low synth wormed,

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Speaker 1: burrowed deep into the backbones of all in the tendons,

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Speaker 1: and the bass slapped. Prince's vocal commanded them all to

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Speaker 1: do La grind, and so his Royal Court obliged, grinding

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Speaker 1: on the dance floor, bodies bumping, writhing, sweating. Seven heavenly

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Speaker 1: minutes later, the track came to an end and was

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Speaker 1: quickly succeeded by a more upbeat dance track with Princess

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Speaker 1: Falsetto soaring over the slinky now Roger's influenced rhythm. Prince

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Speaker 1: proclaimed that the song was about quote a high class

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Speaker 1: model over in Paris, France. The crowd felt it immediately

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Speaker 1: Prince stuck his groove deep in the paint a hard

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Speaker 1: come on, and the crowd loved it. Eyes locked, bodies

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Speaker 1: rocked tighter as the record continued to crush from Cindy

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Speaker 1: c All the way to the filthy rock hard in

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Speaker 1: a funky Place. Prince's voice pitched up to no doubt

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Speaker 1: hide behind one of his many creative alter egos, but

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Speaker 1: there was no way to hide from what he was

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Speaker 1: seeing take shape in front of him, no way to

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Speaker 1: hide from what his music had inspired, pure deprevity, newly

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Speaker 1: formed dance floor couples making out, bumping and grinding out

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Speaker 1: in the open under strobes and sneaking off into dark corners,

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Speaker 1: the neon signage on the brick club walls revealing their

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Speaker 1: passionate plays and short intermittent flashes. Prince saw them all,

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Speaker 1: as well as those not coupled up, packing themselves closer

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Speaker 1: together at the bar, three to one, women and men

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Speaker 1: four deep off the stick, bartenders and vests and bow ties,

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Speaker 1: hustling vodka sodas for the norms, Bobby Womax for those

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Speaker 1: who knew better, and knowing themselves that they were missing

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Speaker 1: out on one hell of a party, but happy to

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Speaker 1: be in the room. Nonetheless, Prince could smell the skunk.

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Speaker 1: The smoke blatted up the sides of the walls from

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Speaker 1: the hidden nooks where one could steal away for a

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Speaker 1: quick hitoff of a bat and be gone before security

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Speaker 1: could read out the culprit. Prince could see the pin

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Speaker 1: prick eyes of the speed freaks out on the floor

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Speaker 1: a step ahead of the beat, hair drenched their collars,

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Speaker 1: once popped, now flopped along with the rest of their clothes,

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Speaker 1: seeming to slide off their backs with their sweat. Prince

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Speaker 1: caught the shifting jaws on the coke fiends and their

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Speaker 1: darting eyes, observant of the incredible party unfolding around them,

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Speaker 1: but far from the moment, intent on finding their way

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Speaker 1: to the next available bathroom, stalled a key their burning

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Speaker 1: bindles and blast off into the never ending noon, and

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Speaker 1: Prince envied the perma smiles on the faces of the

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Speaker 1: ecstasy heads tripping over their cuban heels for his latest

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Speaker 1: masterpiece blasting from the speakers. He heard about the drugs

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Speaker 1: euphoric effects and wanted in on that action, especially in

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Speaker 1: this moment, right now, when his new music had set

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Speaker 1: off a low key sex drenched Gomorrah in his backyard.

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Speaker 1: The Spirit Child slipped Prince the ecstasy earlier in the night.

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Speaker 1: She'd smuggled it all the way back from La supposedly

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Speaker 1: scoring it from a hyperactive, bare chested punk rocker specifically

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Speaker 1: for Prince waiting for her back in Minneapolis, and now

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Speaker 1: the drug was kicking in. Suddenly it all made no sense.

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Speaker 1: This Gomorrah, this dance club depravity, the sex, the drugs,

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Speaker 1: the bleakness, the blackness brought on by his new unreleased

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Speaker 1: black album. It was so cynical and it was all

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Speaker 1: his fault. Prince knew it. The music was too dark,

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Speaker 1: too craven, too cynical. Who was he anyway, Prince or

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Speaker 1: Rudy ray Moore? And there was, of course no easy answer,

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Speaker 1: because Prince was many people that night. Soon after the

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Speaker 1: ecstasy turned the mood for Prince at Rupert's, Prince bailed,

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Speaker 1: napping the slab of vinyl off of the turntable, ignoring

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Speaker 1: the DJ's compliments, ignoring Wild Child, and most certainly Ignoredduring

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Speaker 1: Morris Day, head down be lined to the exit the

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Speaker 1: sidewalk the back of his waiting limo, security in tow

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Speaker 1: more security, leading the way, a sound seventy mile per

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Speaker 1: hour street escort straight back to his Paisley Park compound,

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Speaker 1: where he moved quickly to the comfort of his studio lounge.

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Speaker 1: The heavy doors swung open, and as usual, there was

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Speaker 1: a little party going on in between late night sessions,

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Speaker 1: and they were all there in his studio waiting, ready

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Speaker 1: to greet him. Prince's alter egos. There was Alexander Nevermind, Hey,

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Speaker 1: how you doing, Joey Koco, Hey you Way and Como,

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Speaker 1: and then there was Jerome's brother Jamie Starr, How you doing?

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Speaker 1: Buddy and his crew, the symbol known as stand Out

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Speaker 1: of Trouble, Camille, Hey Baby, how you doing? And then

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Speaker 1: there was Christa Killer who was Jesse Times brother, Hey

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Speaker 1: to care that thing for you? And you had Gemini

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Speaker 1: sub Prince and Alexander Nevermind I tracked that ding and

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Speaker 1: laid it down fat and Toro Toro who got that

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Speaker 1: nickname because he said everything twice like I'm gonna go

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Speaker 1: track the vocal track the vocal Together they made Prince's

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Speaker 1: greatest hits. Camille rocked the vox on you get the look?

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Speaker 1: And if I was your girlfriend, Jamie Starr shredded Prince's

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Speaker 1: iconic guitar solos Alexander Nevermind oozed frontman confidence. He also

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Speaker 1: wrote the steamy Sugar Walls single for Shina Easton, which

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Speaker 1: made it all the way to number nine. Chris the

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Speaker 1: Killer aka Christopher Tracy brought the hooks. He wrote Manic

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Speaker 1: Monday for the Bengals, which clocked in at number two.

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Speaker 1: Smash Gemini so versatile. She could get the crowd going

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Speaker 1: by singing the dirty melody to Irresistible Bitch in one moment,

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Speaker 1: and would then bring the crowd to its knees with

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Speaker 1: the ballad God and the next. Joey Koco penned Monster Singles,

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Speaker 1: a country single even You're My Love for Kenny Rogers

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Speaker 1: and Toro Tora laid in the cut engineering Prince's nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty I would put waiting patiently, but one day step

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Speaker 1: out and lead the new power generation. And they were

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Speaker 1: there for him on that night in his studio like

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Speaker 1: they always were, lending an ear supportive. Prince broke it

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Speaker 1: down real quick. The album was a bust. It was

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Speaker 1: too bleak, what were they thinking? Answering critics he was

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Speaker 1: too pop and answering his audience he wasn't black enough.

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Speaker 1: He was Prince, He answered to no one. This album,

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Speaker 1: the Black Album, had disaster written all over it. What

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Speaker 1: if the party really was over? What if they were

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Speaker 1: indeed at a time we could all die any day?

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Speaker 1: Went the thinking. And if so, what if this album

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Speaker 1: was the last thing anyone ever heard of? Prince? The

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Speaker 1: Black Album was funky, sure, a new kind of funk,

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Speaker 1: even a darker funk, blacker than anything on the charts,

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Speaker 1: perhaps even too much funk for the charts. That scared

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Speaker 1: Prince more than anything the slip. He picked up the

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Speaker 1: phone and dialed his man at Warner Brothers Records, his

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Speaker 1: record label. Shelve it. What the album? The album's shifted,

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Speaker 1: It's on trucks setting the record stores right now as

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Speaker 1: we speak, turned the trucks around DJ's are already spinning

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Speaker 1: advanced copies. I don't care, shelve it, destroy it. I

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Speaker 1: don't want the album coming out. I don't want the

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Speaker 1: world hearing this. It's wrong. And then Prince hung up,

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Speaker 1: and the label had no choice. Prince, despite whatever his

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Speaker 1: contract did or didn't say, was too valuable a commodity

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Speaker 1: to not keep happy if he didn't want this record

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Speaker 1: to come out, no matter the hassle, no matter the

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Speaker 1: financial loss upsetting him, alienating him as big of a

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Speaker 1: star as he was, as big of a cash cow

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Speaker 1: as he was. For warners, it wasn't worth it to

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Speaker 1: the record label best to keep Prince happy. His creative

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Speaker 1: output was legend Besides, he had no doubt another record

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Speaker 1: recorded and ready to ship, regardless the benefits of having

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Speaker 1: an imaginary team of creative alter egos waiting on your

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Speaker 1: every whim to swoop into action. Prince, despite the ecstasy

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Speaker 1: he was on a big no no. On Prince's world,

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Speaker 1: the use of drugs was firmly in control. Control of

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Speaker 1: his music, control of his image, control even of his

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Speaker 1: record label bosses, and it had been that way since

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Speaker 1: the beginning, since the first record contract he signed back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven. The contract was legendary because of

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Speaker 1: the creative control it gave Prince, who at the time

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Speaker 1: was a young, largely unknown commodity eighteen years old in fact,

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Speaker 1: and with complete creative control, an unbelievable concession from the label.

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Speaker 1: Prince would not only be their star recording artist, he'd

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Speaker 1: write his own hits, he'd play all the instruments, he'd

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Speaker 1: produce himself, total control until now, until the drug caused

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Speaker 1: him to second guess himself. But prior to the hasty

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Speaker 1: shelving of the Black Album, the results had been undeniable.

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Speaker 1: His first demo had sparked a bidding war among major labels,

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Speaker 1: and by the time he was twenty two, he had

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Speaker 1: opened for Rick James and the Rolling Stones, appeared on

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Speaker 1: American Bandstand in Saturday Night Live. It released five full

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Speaker 1: length albums on which he played all the instruments, albums

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Speaker 1: full of singles that burned up the Billboard charts in

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Speaker 1: a wide variety of genres define easy categorization, soul, funk, dance,

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Speaker 1: the Hot, one hundred. Everything he touched turned to gold

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Speaker 1: or more often platinum. This is no unofficial schooling in

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Speaker 1: rockstardom for Prince. Prince schooled his audiences night after night

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Speaker 1: on what it meant to be a star. He'd work

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Speaker 1: from dusk to dawn, and then rehearsal was always at

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Speaker 1: ten am, and he was never late for rehearsal. The

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Speaker 1: physical demand of it all was astounding. His next act,

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Speaker 1: Hammered The Point Home Purple Rain. The album and the

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Speaker 1: film rocketed Prince to an even broader level of mainstream fame.

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Speaker 1: The album netted three Grammy Awards and the film won

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Speaker 1: Prince in Oscar for Best Original Score. Prior to big

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Speaker 1: screen success, Prince cockered the small screen with his video

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Speaker 1: for Little Red Corvette wrote the color Barrier MTV along

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Speaker 1: with Michael Jackson's Billy Jean. Prince called his backing band

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Speaker 1: The Revolution for obvious reasons. He had risen to the

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Speaker 1: highest heights on sheer creative talent, a prolific multi instrumental

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Speaker 1: monster who could devour every musical influence that came his

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Speaker 1: way and digest it all to produce something totally seductive,

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Speaker 1: impossible not to dance to. And brand fucking knew after

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Speaker 1: all this success, all the creative control handed to him,

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Speaker 1: because his brilliance was just that undeniable. It was no

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Speaker 1: wonder he trusted his instincts about the Black Album. Prince

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Speaker 1: knew he made the right decision, and they all agreed

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Speaker 1: with him. Camiono, Alexander Nevermind, Joey Koko, the artist formerly

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Speaker 1: known as Gemini, Christopher Jamie Starr, even though sometimes obstinate,

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00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:49,800
Speaker 1: Toro tore the bleakness of the Black Album the deprevity

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Speaker 1: at Rock back at Rupert's would not sink Prince, It

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Speaker 1: would not tumble him from his firm standing atop the charts,

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Speaker 1: and would not cause him to lose control. Nothing would

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Speaker 1: no one, would not even the King of Pop. We'll

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Speaker 1: be right back after this word word word. The score

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Speaker 1: was so big that any common thief wouldn't have been

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Speaker 1: able to pull it off. The heist required resources. The

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Speaker 1: King had those resources, and his cunning was unmatched. The

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Speaker 1: theft was brazen, out in the open, pulled off right

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Speaker 1: out from under their owner's nose, A near fifty million

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Speaker 1: dollar heist. Not in jewels, not in cash, but in melodies, riffs, harmonies, emotions, nostalgias,

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Speaker 1: psychedelic inspiration, pure pop, power, pop revolution, yellow submarines, strawberry fields,

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Speaker 1: Norwegian would and any and all perceive Megavalue from the

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Speaker 1: greatest music catalog of all time, The Beatles Publishing Michael Jackson,

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00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:00,879
Speaker 1: the King of Pop, had befriended the Beatles Paul McCartney

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Speaker 1: back in the late seventies, collaborated with him on numerous songs,

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Speaker 1: and by the time Michael's groundbreaking album Thriller was released

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, the pair a due edit on

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Speaker 1: the album single The Girl Is Mine. It hit number

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Speaker 1: two on the Billboard chart number one on the R

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Speaker 1: and B chart. Critics savaged it. In nineteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: Paul McCartney released an earlier recorded collaboration between he and

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Speaker 1: Michael Say Say Say, taking full advantage of the new

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Speaker 1: music video medium beginning to dominate the record buying public's imagination.

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Speaker 1: The video, featuring the two multi generational pop stars mugging

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Speaker 1: it up in a way that the world hadn't seen

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Speaker 1: McCartney do since his early sixties days with John Lennon,

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Speaker 1: pushed the song to number one. It was clear McCartney

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Speaker 1: and Michael had all kinds of chemistry, and it appeared

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Speaker 1: that a true friendship had been established. As close friends

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Speaker 1: do one confided in the other. McCartney griped to Michael

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Speaker 1: that he had lost control of the Beatles' music publishing,

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Speaker 1: being the vast majority the massive sums of money Beatles

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Speaker 1: music generated was not going into his pockets or the

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Speaker 1: pockets of John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono's. It was going

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Speaker 1: into the pocket of an Australian billionaire who had purchased

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Speaker 1: the majority stake in the Beatles catalog of music Back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, McCartney explained to Michael that the

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Speaker 1: Beatles Publishing was going back up for sale and that

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Speaker 1: he was trying to put the money together to purchase

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Speaker 1: it back for himself. The going price would be at

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00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 1: least thirty five million dollars, likely more. McCartney had swallowed

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Speaker 1: his pride and went to Yoko Ono to see if

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Speaker 1: she'd be interested in going in on the deal with him,

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Speaker 1: putting up the capitol with him to get the deal done.

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Speaker 1: Because McCartney was short, Yoko told him to go pound sand.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly she wasn't interested in money. So Paul McCartney sat

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Speaker 1: on his couch with Michael Jackson watching cartoons and explained

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Speaker 1: to him how songwriting publishing worked, how great of an

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Speaker 1: investment it was, how every time the material was exploited,

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Speaker 1: played on the radio, in a film, commercial, stadium, etc.

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Speaker 1: The songs generated money. He explained how he himself had

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Speaker 1: recently purchased the rights to Buddy Holly's music publishing as

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00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,679
Speaker 1: an investment to help dull the sting of not owning

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Speaker 1: his own music. Michael listened like a thief. McCartney went

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00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,880
Speaker 1: in for the clothes he asked Michael if he himself

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Speaker 1: would like to own part of the Beatles catalog, the

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Speaker 1: two would go in on it together, put the scratch

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Speaker 1: together to buy the music back from the AUSSI billionaire

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00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 1: and cash in forever. Michael giggled, what did he know

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Speaker 1: about any of it? Anyway? Paul went back to his cartoons.

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Speaker 1: When Michael left Paul's place, he called his lawyer and

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Speaker 1: told him to get into it without Paul. Michael Jackson

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Speaker 1: was the king. He had more money than the Beadle. Hell,

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Speaker 1: he had more money than all the Beatles and Yokohono,

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Speaker 1: and so he didn't need Paul McCartney or his silly

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Speaker 1: love songs or his friendship. He went straight for the

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Speaker 1: booty himself. He outbid McCartney and Richard Branson and some

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Speaker 1: others as well, and stole Paul McCartney's songs and his

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Speaker 1: legacy right out from under his nose for a whopping

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Speaker 1: forty seven point five million dollars. Say say, say what

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Speaker 1: an asshole. But Michael Jackson had what he wanted control,

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Speaker 1: and in nineteen eighty five, when he executed this great theft,

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00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: Michael needed it the control. Despite being the king, he

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Speaker 1: felt himself slipping from his throne. Prince knew this, and

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Speaker 1: of course he knew all about the number Michael pulled

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Speaker 1: on McCartney. Prince knew Michael was slippery as fuck, not

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Speaker 1: to be trusted and vulnerable. In nineteen eighty two, Michael

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Speaker 1: Jackson released Thriller. The album went to number one, had

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Speaker 1: seven top ten singles, and catapulted Michael Jackson to becoming

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Speaker 1: the biggest star on the planet. In nineteen eighty two,

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Speaker 1: Prince released nineteen ninety Nine. The album went to number nine,

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Speaker 1: had three top twenty singles, and made Prince a household name,

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00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 1: but Michael was clearly on top. However, between the releases

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Speaker 1: of Thriller nineteen ninety nine, Prince had released the groundbreaking

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Speaker 1: Purple Rain album single in movie all of the same name,

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Speaker 1: and with that three headed release Monster, Prince had the

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Speaker 1: number one album single in movie in the US all

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Speaker 1: at the same time, a feat that no artist had

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Speaker 1: pulled off since the Beatles did it back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four with the release of A Hard Day's Night.

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Speaker 1: You can buy the rights, MJ, but you can't buy

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Speaker 1: a three Headed Monster. Prince wasted no time and released

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Speaker 1: his follow up album Around the World in a Day,

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00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,960
Speaker 1: mere days after the Purple Rain World tore wrapped with

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Speaker 1: no advanced promotion and no advanced single, The album still

400
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 1: went to number one on the back of the infectious

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Speaker 1: Raspberry Beret track. It was clear that Around the World

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00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 1: in a Day wasn't trying to pick up or Purple

403
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: Rain left off creatively. It was something totally different, psychedelic

404
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: but still somehow more pop. Prince was pushing himself in

405
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: pop music in general as a genre forward. He was

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Speaker 1: in control, whereas my Michael Jackson, aside from bamboozling Paul McCartney,

407
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,239
Speaker 1: was in a way reeling terrified into creative stillness by

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Speaker 1: the success of Thriller. Michael feared the failure of a

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00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: follow up. He was too scared to write to record.

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Speaker 1: He heard the rumors that he didn't have it anymore,

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00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 1: that he lost it, that he wasn't in control. So

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00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 1: he got an idea. Prince sat across from Michael Jackson

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Speaker 1: and heard him out. You see, man, you're bad and

414
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: I'm bad, So just listen, man, we should do it,

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00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: you and me. Michael then popped the duet he was

416
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,160
Speaker 1: proposing its cassette demo into the boombox and pressed play.

417
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 1: Prince leaned back completely nonplussed. The horns kicked off the track,

418
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: the tiki talk beat kicked in. Prince nodded along. Michael's

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00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: voice filled up the speakers with the opening verse line,

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00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 1: and Prince stood up immediately slammed down the stop button

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Speaker 1: on the boombox. He'd heard enough. He looked at Michael,

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00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: Hold up, who's going to sing that line? That first line?

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Speaker 1: Your butt is mine? I ain't going to sing that

424
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: line to you, and you sure is how I'm going

425
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 1: to sing that line to me. Michael felt the quick

426
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 1: sting of rejection, and there would be no Prince collaboration

427
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: for Michael Jackson post Thriller. Things would never be the same.

428
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 1: Perhaps he knew it then, this was the beginning of

429
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:30,080
Speaker 1: the end. Michael was sunk, Prince was out. He was

430
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: no fool. He was in control for the time being, anyway.

431
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: Prince closed out the eighties with another multi media smash hit,

432
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: the Batman Soundtrack, and he kept up his pace of

433
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:02,439
Speaker 1: a new album nearly every year. Art just pour it

434
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: out of the artist. But this created growing tension with

435
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 1: his label, Warner Brothers, who disagreed about which song should

436
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 1: be singles, wanted a package his back catalog at the

437
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,120
Speaker 1: greatest hits and B sides albums, and actually asked their

438
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: star artist to slow down his output, partly out of

439
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,679
Speaker 1: fear of flooding the market, but more to the point,

440
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: so Prince wouldn't tear through his contractual obligations so fast.

441
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: Prince was in a battle for control, the kind of

442
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: battle he always won. In order to work around Warner

443
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: Brothers restrictions, he changed his name to a symbol known

444
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: to fans as the Love Symbol and tore through record

445
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 1: after record until he would be out from under Warner's demands.

446
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: And the effort took up most of the nineties, but

447
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 1: it worked. Finally, free of the label, the name of

448
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: Prince's comeback album was Emancipation. The world's greatest entertainer was

449
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,880
Speaker 1: his own man again. The success, the envy of his peers,

450
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: the accolades, hell, the fun of life, the thrill, and

451
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: the high of creativity. For Prince, the pop life was

452
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: all anyone could ask for. But he had been experiencing

453
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: pain due to the NonStop physicality of his regiment. But

454
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: Prince would work through the pain for his next performance.

455
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,159
Speaker 1: Two thousand and four New York, New York Rock and

456
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Prince was being inducted,

457
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 1: but first there was the matter of another beatle to

458
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,200
Speaker 1: take care of George Harrison. He was being inducted posthumously,

459
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: and his friends Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, and Steve Winwood

460
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: were planning a send off from the stage, a rendition

461
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: of George's while my Guitar gently weeps the deep cut

462
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: from the White Album with the blistering and heavily emotional

463
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: guitar solo by Eric Clapton. Steve Faron, Tom Petty's drummer,

464
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: sat behind his kit before their performance, talking with Steve Winwood,

465
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: seated at his B three organ. Holy shit, that's Prince.

466
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:57,440
Speaker 1: Prince was plugging in his guitar on stage. Aron got

467
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: up to introduce himself. All Prince said was yeah, man,

468
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: I know who you are. Farwon went back to his kid.

469
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: What's he like? Winwood wanted to know. I don't know,

470
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 1: Faron replied. Cool. Prince then started making noise with his

471
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: telecaster and noodled out the meters via Junior Wells riff

472
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: to average white band schoolboy Crush, a song for arn

473
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: Co wrote while then staring straight at Faron across the

474
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: stage with that rise smile shit, Faron thought, he does

475
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 1: know who I am. When the band finally gets down

476
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: to business and kicks into George Harrison's most famous song

477
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: with his son Danny Harrison on stage aside Petty on

478
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 1: acoustic Prince is nearly completely off the stage. In fact,

479
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 1: he's in the shadows. It's as if he's embarrassed, too

480
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: cool to be on the same stage with this most

481
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: classic of classic rock lineups. The song has performed magnificently.

482
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: Petty and Jeff Flynn nail the vocal. Winwood's organ gives

483
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: the song lyft and far own as usual, is beastly

484
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: behind the kit a machine. Lynn's guitar player Mark Man

485
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 1: nails Eric Clapton's solo. It's note for note perfect, as

486
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: good as any hand paided fine art replica, and Prince

487
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,560
Speaker 1: princes in the shadows of the stage off to the side,

488
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 1: with Tora Tora lying in the cut, strumming along to

489
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: the chord progression nothing special waiting. Petty propels the band

490
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: forward forever the band leader. He's wearing purple, perhaps an

491
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: affectionate nod to the Purple One that he's sharing the

492
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: stage with the artist he's sparred with creatively in his mind,

493
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: at least throughout the eighties, an artist he has nothing

494
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: but affection for and clad in red. Ever, the heartbreaker himself,

495
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: that artist. Prince emerges from the shadows during the song's outro,

496
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: nabbing the guitar solo from Lyn's Man, stealing it back

497
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: and taking it to an entirely new level. Prince is

498
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: now in control, no longer in the cut. It's his

499
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 1: song now. His playing is infectious, petty, as cool as ice.

500
00:30:57,600 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 1: But you can see his enthusiasms slip out of the

501
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: corner and there's a slight smile forming on his face.

502
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: Danny Harrison can barely contain himself. The crowd loses their mind,

503
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: and Prince gives them a Hall of Fame performance for

504
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: the ages going above and beyond George Harrison, above and

505
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 1: beyond Eric Clapton, clutching the Devil's Sparks straight from Jimmy

506
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: Hendrix's left hand and lighting up the strings of his

507
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: telly with it. He smiles, he snarls, he shreds, He

508
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: turns his back to the audience. At the lip of

509
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: the stage and falls backward towards certain disaster. He's caught

510
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: mid air by a security guard and pushed back onto

511
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: the stage. His playing never stops. He's possessed. The band

512
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: is wrapped. Prince continues the solo, bringing the song home.

513
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: He's in complete and total control for Rowan leans into

514
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 1: the crescendo. Prince sustains a final note and lifts his

515
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 1: guitar over his head, off of his shoulders, throws it

516
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: straight into the air, and struts off stage before the

517
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: rest of the band even finishes the song. To this day,

518
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: Steve Faron swears the guitar and never came back down.

519
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: Prince kept walking throughout the odds. His legend grew, but

520
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: so too did something else, his pain. Chronic pain in

521
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: his hips, his hands, his back from decades of demanding

522
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: physical stage performances, on stage acrobatics, Somersault's high jumps, splits,

523
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: and by the time twenty sixteen rolled around a demanding

524
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: solo piano tour led to crushing pain in his hands.

525
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: It made it near impossible for him to recover from

526
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:35,600
Speaker 1: his performances without the use of painkillers. Performing creating part

527
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: of Prince's life's blood. It's what kept him going, what

528
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: propelled him forward, his performances, his recordings. For an artist,

529
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: they are defining, for better or worse than artist's entire

530
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: identity is tied to what they do and what they make.

531
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 1: And no artists controlled the whole of their output and

532
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 1: their identity more effectively than Prince. Paul McCartney lost control

533
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: of his music, Michael Jackson lost control of his life,

534
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 1: while Prince maintained until the pain became too much, the

535
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: irony that the performances led to the pain, which led

536
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: to the painkillers, which ultimately led to Prince losing control

537
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: of not just his art, of his life. April fifteenth,

538
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, Atlanta, Prince was on stage at the Piano alone,

539
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:26,240
Speaker 1: and that's what this tour was all about. Just a

540
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: piano and a microphone and Prince. No one else, no band,

541
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 1: no alter Egos, no Torah Tora, no Gemini or Alexander,

542
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: nevermind Christopher or Camille, no Jamie Starr, and no Joey Koko. Collectively.

543
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:43,440
Speaker 1: They were too much to wrangle, not with the pain

544
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 1: impossible for Prince to control all of it. Managing the

545
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 1: pain was hard enough that night, especially on the plane

546
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,800
Speaker 1: ride home. On his private jet back to Minneapolis, Prince

547
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: had already lost track of how many painkillers he'd taken.

548
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: He passed out in the middle of his meal, and

549
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: the pilot had to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois.

550
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 1: Prince could have shot a narcan on the tarmac and

551
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: was revived. His life was saved. He and his entourage

552
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 1: made it home, but the pain wouldn't quit. It took over,

553
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 1: wrapping itself around him like a snake, constricting his every move.

554
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,280
Speaker 1: He could feel it all over and his hips, his back,

555
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: his fingers, hands, neck, his legs, and there was no

556
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,240
Speaker 1: moving without pain. He pulled more painkillers from the bottle,

557
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: prescription pills, vicotin supposedly, but in the bottle a random

558
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: pill laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fifty times more

559
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: powerful than heroin. It went to work quickly. The drug

560
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,920
Speaker 1: took control. The drug killed the pain, and ultimately the

561
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:55,360
Speaker 1: drug killed Prince. Throughout his career, Prince was notoriously anti drug. Sure,

562
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 1: he would experiment from time to time, but when he

563
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: turned to prescription drugs, it was because there were no

564
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 1: other options for the pain. To this day, the authorities

565
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,279
Speaker 1: and those close to Prince firmly believe that Prince had

566
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:12,760
Speaker 1: no idea he was taking bentanl. He had just unbelievably

567
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 1: lost control and that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan

568
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly

569
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for

570
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page

571
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland

572
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,839
Speaker 1: All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We

573
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a

574
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 1: member right now by going to disgrace lampod dot com.

575
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: Slash Membership.

576
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:04,240
Speaker 2: Members can listen to every episode of disgracelam ad free,

577
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 2: plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month,

578
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Speaker 2: weekly unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections, and early access

579
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 2: to merchandise and events. Visit disgraylampod dot com slash membership

580
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 2: for details, rate and review the show, and follow us

581
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 2: on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod and on

582
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 2: YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod rock a roller.

583
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 1: He then man