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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
All Right, y'all, this is gonna be a long one.
You ready, And I'm talking about the introduction. All right,
here we go. All right, let's see how good I
am at winging this? Are we go? Alright? So, uh,

(00:23):
ladies and gentlemen, this is a Quest Love Supreme and
we're with Sugar Steve Layah and unpaid Bill Fontacolo. I
gotta pour out some wheat grass for for the brothers
who ain't here at the picnic. Yeah. So I just
want to tell you guys alone, you know, my my
distinguished QLs co stars, that I'm offering an advance, a

(00:46):
full apology because you know we already we already know
that I'm I'm cuckoo for anything uh purple related. But
unlike our distinguished guest today, I'm throwing all of my
cool out the window. All my professionalism and whatever so
called journalistic integrity I had is gone. I'm going fool.

(01:07):
Chris Farley, Paul McCartney, SNL interview mode. Right now, you
guys aren't encouraged, You're encouraging trust. This is gonna be bad, um,
and I'm look. Let me also preface by asking my
guest to forgive me for all my levels of nerd
um for this particular episode. Our guest today is probably
the last plank of the original uh Purple squad or army,

(01:33):
to whom I have not revealed my true geekdam. I've
exhausted my I've exhausted my batteries on name, I'm Jimmy, Sheila,
Apple's Jill, Mark, Wendy, Lisa, Susannah, Alan, James, Shoot, Bobby, Jesse, Terry,
even Brenda's Susan, and I like St. Paul. I've exhausted
my batteries asking dumb ask questions to every member of

(01:54):
that squad except for our guest today. And that's on purpose.
It's on purpose because I knew there was gonna be
a day in which we would get him as a
guest on our esteemed webby winning podcast. Let's listen, alright, um,
And so okay, that was the That was the preface.
So here's the actual introductions. Yo, man, you only get

(02:19):
this one moment once, all right, So, ladies and gentlemen,
as I was as I was prepping notes earlier, the notes,
it's like a small post it um as prepping notes,
I realized that, um, almost in every case of history,
like once you reached that twenty year mark, revisionists license
sort of kicks in. So that said, I'll say it

(02:40):
right here that our guest, it's probably my gateway drug
to the Purple Kingdom. And I'm just saying that because
I remember when Prince's debut uh was on the radio
back in when Soft and White debuted on the radio.
It was only because I remembered it because it was
literally two minutes after my dad had to break the

(03:03):
news to my mother that my grandfather just died. So
for the longest, my Prince association was that song I
was listening to while my mom was sobbing on the
kitchen floor, you know, crying to death. And so for
the next four to five years, Prince was more of
a fixture on like my sister's girlfriend's bad bedroom walls

(03:24):
and all that high school right on magazine stuff. And
don't get me wrong, I mean I duck some joints
as a kid, but you know, I was kind of
team Jackson. And then shout out to my friend in
sixth grade, Reginald Chiefs, who told me that his older
brother told him that our guest today and Prince were
down with each other, and then he pulls out a radio,

(03:46):
one of those realistic radio shack cheap things, and he
transforms my life. I played me the entire ten minute
version of Cool and instantly, as as a sixth grader,
I was tessed. I mean, records were five ninety nine
back then, so I mean I broke the piggy bank
purchased the album, and you know, I turned the album

(04:09):
down on the bad parts whatever. My parents are like
super Christian. But the next thing I knew, me and
my entire sixth grade squad, for the first time in
our lives, had brand new heroes to look up to
who were not born in Gary, Indiana. So that entire summer,
like all of our Jordan's Sergio Valente begging, all that
went out the window. And thanks to my science teacher

(04:31):
who thought that the Time guys look like the second
coming of like Louis Jordan and Timpani five. He told us, well,
if you guys want to dress like those guys, you
gotta go to the five and Time. So you know,
I've been avoiding going to the good Will all of
my life. No one wants to go to the good
Will Salvation Army. But now me and my whole crew
are privy to a secret the world doesn't know about,

(04:53):
which is basically, you can copy pair of baggies for
five bucks, look sharp as hell, pull all the joints
in sixth grade. Shout out to Minacha Jordan's looks just
as just as awesome now as fifty as she did
when she was ten. But basically our parents are late
because now we're buying all these cheap suits looking good
and they don't have to spend the money. So yes,

(05:14):
only because of our guests. Our guests gave Prince the
green light, not the opposite in my world that I
gave Prince the green light and eighty two and then
caught up afterwards, so you know, because Prince Vans want
to swear that they were all down since the beginning.
And no, make no mistake. If it wasn't for Mars
e Day, my entire music direction probably would have went

(05:36):
to either who I don't know, Luther Man Joe's or
Leelo Thomas. I don't know. God is here with us,
ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Mars e Day.
This is probably the longest introduction I've ever done was over.
Now gotta do the disclaimer. This is the first right now. Okay, yeah,

(05:56):
you know, I mean, when I really love a guest,
I'll geek out. So uh, thank you. I can't even
think you're enough. I have a gazillient questions. Actually, I
want to jump ahead to a question I've been dying, dying,
dying to know. So every interview that I've heard you
recall your story. Of course, you get to the part

(06:18):
where you realize that Prince it's about to choose Bobby
Z as a drummer and not you, clearly the more
skilled drummer. And you know, most Prince fans and most
Quels listeners know kind of know what time it is whatever,
So we kind of dig the reason why Prince did
the the band outfit the way he did, sort of
after sliding the family stone. But what I want to

(06:40):
know is, in light of everything that's happened for you,
if you were able to have a time machine and
this is not even a you know, to bring Prince
back alive thing, but if you were able to get
back in the time machine and go back to and
you knew there was a chance for you to get
in the revolution as a drummer instead of the path

(07:02):
you're on right now? What what what? What path are
you choosing? Are you choosing to still be a drummer
or your career? Well, first of all, brother quest, I
want to thank you for that that that grand intro,
My brother, thank you. Man. You know, I almost forgot

(07:23):
that I was a guest. I was just like I
was the host how many pages, you know. But but
that's an interesting question. I like that question because in
the moment back then, I definitely would have chose to
be the drummer because I was all about drumming and

(07:46):
that was my life, you know, my security blanket, and
that's what I did every day. That's what I skipped
school to do. That's what I aspired to do. But um,
looking back now, you know, hindsight, Um, you know, I'm
glad that I was kind of pushed, if you will,
into the position that I'm in because you know, I

(08:07):
found another aspect of my abilities that that I didn't
really know about. M m okay, because I still feel like,
and I try to think of the logical, I'm like,
wait a minute, you were given you were even given
a choice to be like from my my my personal position,
like my dad want to be opposite for me, my

(08:28):
dad wanted me to be assessing drummer because you know,
in my mind, I'm like, no, I want a career
like I don't. I don't want to drump for Anita Baker,
like I want to be the guy that owns the
stadium that she plays it. Like I always thought that,
So for me, I would I would just read when
you would say, like a man, he incused me as

(08:49):
his drummer, and I'm like, yeah, but you got something better.
But then I thought about it, Maybe playing with Prince
as a musician is fun, and perhaps in him you
found someone that's like a level of musicianship that you respected.
And you know, it wasn't about being lucrative or or

(09:09):
having more money or whatever. It was about like, oh, this,
this is where my joy really is. And so I
always wondered that, Well, the thing is, it wasn't a
choice like that. And I never thought that drumming for
Prince would be fun because he was probably one of
the worst of Yeah, if you will, you know that

(09:30):
that you could work under. So it wasn't about that.
But at that point I never really considered being a
lead singer. I was a drummer and so that's all
I knew, and I wanted to play drums. And I'm thinking,
you know, my man's got this deal. Man, he's like
Warner Brothers. He's about to hit the big stage. I
want to be a part of that. And that was,

(09:50):
you know, all that I was thinking about at that moment. Okay, okay,
I see it. So you didn't think, like, oh, this
guy's gonna be so prolific that he's going to need
other outlet and channels to express himself and so I
could be that outlet or something. Yeah, the time didn't
exist in that moment, so I get you know that came.
That came about later, and you know, like I said,

(10:12):
I'm very glad that it did because you know, I
found something that I can do even better than drummings.
So you know, it all worked out. We asked when
and where did he hear your voice to think that
you needed to make another decision. You know, we were
in Ah. I was in Princess Group Grand Central back
in the day when we were like teenagers, and you know,

(10:32):
I would sing a couple of songs from the drums
and even I would even come out in front and
our percussionists at the time would would go back play drums.
I'd come out and sing. So he knew that I
could sing, but he didn't know about the front man,
you know, but he did. He's the one responsible. You know.
We tried when we were putting the time together. We

(10:53):
tried Alexander O'Neill. We tried a handful of other singers,
and it just didn't work out. And so, you know,
Prince was like, well, why don't you do it? And
you know, I had to like stop and think about that.
I was like, because I'm going to be the drummer
in the band. He said, no, you need to be
the singer. I said, I don't know how to lead
a band. He said, put your hand in your pocket

(11:15):
and be cool, and I said, I can do that.
Good advice, all right. So it's it's funny to say that,
because um, I'm I'm actually working on I'm working on
a book right now. There's a part, there's a chapter
where I actually kind of explore the idea of what

(11:35):
black cool is. Alice Walker's daughter, Rebecca Walker, she does this, uh,
she does this essay about a woman on the New
York subway and this black woman gets on, She's like gorgeous.
She sits down, and Alice Walker immediately knew that her
number one weapon was the way that she ignored people.

(11:57):
So like this drop dead gorge just walks on the
te rain. She sits and immediately Alice Walker notices like
five guys like kind of googling her. But the more
that she ignores them, the more that they want her.
And it's almost like she said that that's the story
of black cool, where you know, normally we're taught to
to to please and play kate. You know. Motown's thing

(12:20):
was like, you know, go to charm school. You know,
we're the right thing that Dada da da or you
know minstrel see era entertainment where you gotta sort of
shuck and jive your way into people's hearts and disarmed them.
Whereas cool is where you're holding everything back, which leaves
a mystery and it makes people want to know you more.

(12:40):
Like that sort of thing. It's it's so weird now
seeing her her breakdown of what cool means and now
kind of revisiting what the time represented, because you know,
I guess for people that weren't around at that period
like you you guys, to me, we're kind of what
n w A I thought they were, and I don't

(13:03):
mean and just in terms of you know, n w
A arrived like the most dangerous group of all. But
the thing is is that they overdid it so it
became cartoony and then entertainment, whereas the time was like
dead pan serious like de Niro, like you don't know
they're serious or not. You know, it's like hyd your

(13:24):
daughters like that sort of thing. So, I mean, there
was I've never seen a black group not so eager
to please or sort of like unbothered, like you know,
we could take her to leave you Like That's how
it looked to me when I was seeing you guys
when as a kid, like, oh, these guys don't care
like which you've just never seen that before in the
black group, because most black groups like we're you know,

(13:46):
happy to do. That was that the plan more is like,
was that the plan You already knew what your cool
was gonna be, and it was no going back and
forth as to what we're doing and what we're gonna
look like and how we're gonna wrap well, you know,
there was an evolution of cool and quite like Quest
was saying, and in the very beginning, it was a
very laid back cool where people had to invite themselves

(14:07):
into the room with us. But you know, I think
you know, as it evolved, you know it it became
more of an extrovert type of cool, and you know
it was it was just, um, it was an evolution.
But yeah, we definitely, you know, back in the early
days had that mystique. It's like, you know when we

(14:27):
did when I did do my laugh or whatever, you know,
it's like is he laughing? What? What? What? You know,
what's he laughing about? You know what does what? Time?
Is it mean? You know? What is all this about?
So you know, we kind of had people guessing, you know,
want wanting to be in on the joke. Yeah, made
you want to be down with him that way. Uh, Mars,

(14:47):
what was your what was your first musical memory? Um?
It went way back, you know, um, because I kind
of just came into the world with the notion that, um,
I was going to be involved with music. Um. You know,
born in fifties six, you know, and I can remember

(15:08):
listening to the Beatles on our little AM radio that
we had, and um, you know, then later remember doing
you know, the James Brown running around my you know,
the house, in the projects and through to the looms
on doing the splits, trying to do James Brown and
all that, and then sixty four comes around. We were
one of the first you know, let you know how

(15:30):
what priorities were back then, but we had one of
the first color TVs and the projects, so all of that.
Back then, I was watching Bandstand and and I'm watching
the Supremes of four Tops, you know, all these motown
acts on on Bandstand, and I was like, that's what
I want to do, you know. So those were my

(15:51):
early memories, you know, of music. But I just it
was just in my blood. Okay. And what was it
about the drums that how did you come to be
a drummer? And were there any other instruments that you played? Yeah?
I went through them all, you know, I went through Uh.
I wanted to play drums first and foremost. But um,

(16:12):
you know, you probably know in school, everybody takes drums first.
So the drums were never available, you know, and I
was always late to to register for what I wanted
to play, so um, you know, I played the saxophone.
I got pretty good at that um. That was the
first time I got invited to be in a band,

(16:33):
but I didn't want to play saxophone in the band,
so I passed on that UM. Then I went to
the base. The only basically had was the upright basse,
and I said, well, I'm not lugging this home practice.
So you know, I played a few different instruments, but
the drums just stood out, you know, And so I
beat on my mom's couch and pots and pans until

(16:55):
she finally caved in and bought me my first drum set.
And you know it was that was just really love
at first site or whatever you want to call it,
but that was it for me. So I know that
you're a left handed drummer along with jelly Bean is
also a left handed drummer, or at least am I

(17:16):
assuming that you're also left handed? I am, Okay, that's weird.
I'm left handed too, but still I play. I play
drums a traditional way, so or yeah, backhanded. The thing
is is that you know, I first saw my first
backhanded drummer like in the late seventies. So like when

(17:38):
you're setting up the drums, and you decide that this
is the way I want to face and this is
my my my positioning, Like no one tried to correct
you and say, well you should be ambidexterous or drum
on both sides, or like how did you wind up
drumming what we would call and reverse the brother you?
You're asking me questions and making me question myself right now.

(18:03):
Welcome to quest love, Supree, Man, this ain't gonna be
the So tell us about my uncle love, Like already
told you. You've heard that question. I already told you, man,
I'm a nerd out. No, for real, I appreciate that.
I don't know. I just think when I got my
first drum set, you know, I'm down in the basement,
you know, uh, pulling out the box and setting it up,

(18:24):
and I just gravitated toward having my snare, you know,
um on on on my right side, and you know,
I just that's just how I set them up, and
I just continue to play that way. Okay, So doesn't
that make it hard to quote casually sitting like do
you have the ability to actually play the opposite way? No? No,

(18:47):
I was you know, I can't switch the whole set around.
But I can at least stare in the high hat man.
It makes it makes the feel sound interesting when you're
going back quiser round. Okay, Okay, I see that. I
don't I know that uh Garibaldi is his holds dear

(19:09):
to your heart. But like was he was he your
who's your first drumming hero? Oh my, my drumming heroes
were definitely all the James Brown drummers, you know, and
and and and and listening you know, back to can't
stand it and and I got the feeling and stuff.
I mean to me, the pockets and the meters brothers

(19:32):
came up with was nothing short of incredible. And I
definitely see where Garibaldi got his chops from listening to them.
And but I just there was a technical way that
he put it together that I that I just thought
was very clever. But definitely all the j B s
drummers in the early days and still to this day

(19:53):
from me. Okay, well, I know that at some point
you guys were all under the same management. Have you
ever out into talk or get cool with Dave Garibaldi
at all? Or we've talked a couple of times, you know,
I go, you know to a show when I whenever
I can catch him when I know he's drumming, and
you know he knows, you know that that I did

(20:15):
um his style. But you know that's about the extent
of it. Okay, So just like nice pleasant trees, but
never like yeah, yeah, that's it. You guys call you yo, man,
check this thing out. Okay. So you know, we asked,
We asked Jimmy jim his version of this. Can you
break down your version of growing up in Minneapolis as

(20:41):
far as you know, the side of town you grew
up on, where the cool side of town was, where
the side of town you don't go to radio socially, like,
could you just give us a kind of run of
what your your preteen life was in Minnesota. My preteen lie,
you know in Minnesota was I pretty much lived in

(21:03):
the don't go to areas. Oh you live on the
quote the other side of the tracks. You know, both
sides south side and north side were the areas that
if somebody said, hey, where should I not go in Minneapolis,
they would have said both of both sides of the
town that I lived on. But what my experience and

(21:24):
my takeaway from Minneapolis is I I can't hate on
it because that's obviously where I really found myself and
musically and and and in a great circle of musicians.
But at the end of the day, my experience in Minneapolis,
I'm not surprised with the whole George Floyd situation because

(21:45):
I saw Minneapolis as being a racist town, um, and
it just doesn't It didn't surprise me. First avenue which
Prince chose to glorify didn't really even um cater to
to blacks at all. You know, it was all about

(22:06):
rock bands, and yeah, we didn't hang out there at
all and never really felt welcome there, So you know,
that was just um, you know, it was interesting that
he chose that and it worked out, but that's not
the you know, the Purple Rain Minneapolis is not the
Minneapolis that I grew up in. So you guys had

(22:26):
to build that utopian because like, okay, yeah, I was
one of those people that like, you know that the
modern era then the modern narra scene where you know,
you and Apples are sitting in the audience with your
champagne and all these black and white and mixed race
people are just dancing. Like in my mind, I thought like, oh,

(22:47):
Minnesota's this utopian sort of you know, this mythical utopian
place that we need to go to. But that was
basically up something that you guys had to build. Hey,
you know what, you know, I just there's good and
bad people, you know. But you know, Minneapolis grew to
be that because so many people saw Purple Rain. And

(23:10):
I think Prince did a great job of making Minneapolis
really look like this music mecca and this melting pot
and um, you know it, I don't know, you know,
but it it wasn't like that, you know, And I
think he helped he helped the city a lot by
choosing to use First Avenue and glorify it like that. Um,

(23:35):
you know, I'm not trying to, you know, sound lean
in one direction the other. Had a lot of good
white friends and all of that. But I was, you know,
um stopped by the cops a lot, you know, throwing
on the hood in my car in front of my
five year old daughter at the time over really trivial stuff.
So when you were were it was on the weight,

(23:56):
it was on the way, you know. But but still,
you know, I had one of the first uh uh,
you know, I was one of the first brothers. You know,
I bought a porch back in nineteen eighty, you know too,
and I stopped for you know, just having a high
end car. So you know, it was just it was
it was crazy stuff, you know. So wait, can I

(24:18):
ask what that being said? Now? I want to know
about your people then, because like where were your parents
from and what was their background? I know you said
you grew up in the projects, but who were your
who were your parents? Well, my parents were all out
of Illinois, so um. I was born in Springfield, Illinois,
and you know, all my folks were like Springfield, Decatur, Ellinois, Chicago,

(24:38):
that circle down there. And you know, a couple of
my relatives moved up to Minneapolis, and the story goes,
and like I always like to say, it's in the book,
you know, but you know, my mom took us up
to Minneapolis. We're supposed to be going to Cali, and

(24:59):
I was sold going forward to that, and we stopped
in Minneapolis to visit my sick aunt, so my mom said,
And we ended up there for the next twenty years.
And I was a little bitter about that, I understand,
but it got good, you know, I got really good,
you know, I met some really good people. I met
Prince and Mett, Andre Salmone and and all my guys.

(25:20):
You know, because I I couldn't find myself. I wasn't
an athlete, and I wasn't popular in school for for
no particular reason. So once I got in the band,
and once I found myself with the music, then all
of a sudden, you know what I mean, life change
for me. So Minneapolis were for me was the place
to be, okay, and the idea of well, first of all, um,

(25:45):
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact
that and I'm going on Jimmy Jam's account about how
how radio was at the time. How are you guys
getting culture like it's it's it's it's it's baffling to
me that for a group of people, and meaning that
all of you in Minnesota who basically dictated what black

(26:10):
culture would be um and entertainment from the eighties on,
and that's you know, music, attitude, style, all those things
for you guys that not even have that foundation to
even know to build upon it. Like, how are you
learning about whatever was hipp and black in the day
if it's not in Minnesota? Like, how are you getting

(26:32):
what's your Internet? How do you know about the meters?
How do you know about a group called heat Wave?
Like how are you getting hip to this? Okay? So
you know, first of all, you got diverse um parents
from different parts of the country moving from Chicago to Minneapolis,

(26:53):
moving from uh California to Minneapolis, and and they're bringing
their record elections. And then also we had back in
the day it was called k XL AM radio station
that played all the soul music and it broadcasted from
maybe eight in the morning until the sundown and had

(27:15):
like a five block radius. But you listen to you know,
you could get you know, all of the new music there.
And then so then we would hear the new Parliament
funka Delic, We would hear the new the new Commodore's
or or whatever. And then we would go to the
mom and pop and we say, hey, when we when
are you getting when this record? When is this record
coming in? And they would tell us we'd be waiting

(27:37):
on this record. And then on the other hand, you know,
we could listen to the groups like the Commodore's and
Um Diana Ross and Lou Lou Rawls and that had
surface to pop radio. And we hear their music, and
then we would hear the pop music. And then so
this is in our brains when we sit down to
say we're gonna write a song, and then we're thinking

(27:57):
Parliament FUNKA delic would think of James Brown. But then
we're hearing, you know, all of the pop bands in
our brains, and so you know, these melodies, you know,
kind of mailed together, and and I think that's how
we really came up with what we ended up with.
Oh okay, I see, I see, I'm I'm familiar with

(28:18):
the kind of mixture of Enterprise slash Grand Central slash
Flight Time amalgamation. But were there any other bands in
the area that you were frightened of or just like, yo,
they're going to make it, or or even other people

(28:38):
who were from the area, like uh the d Train guys,
or or even the what's his name rock Rocky Robbins
like We're or the Lips Incorporated people like None Purple associated,
uh Minneapolis musicians like how fierce was the competition or
was it just like the four main groups that eventually

(29:01):
wound up working all together. The competition was amazing. It
felt like there was a band on every block. But
for some reason, I always felt like, you know, in
flight time. You know, it was amazing. You know, there
was a group called the Family that Sonny Thompson. I
think Sonny plays in one of the spinoff Prince bands

(29:23):
right now. And he's the guy that came by and
he plays everything like Prince did. I think he taught
Prince some things. And he's the guy that really came
by and and taught me my first real drumbeat and
how to really start mashing on the drums. And he
was that kind of guy. But you know, there was
the competition was fierce. But the reason why I got

(29:44):
in Grand Central was because I went to a high
school dance. I thought I was going there to see
a girl, to meet up with a girl. I saw
them playing, and I forgot all about the girl that
you were on the day. I stood there right at
in front of the band, and I was a mesmerized.
You know, you got Prince thirteen years old on the guitar,

(30:08):
Andre simonem his Princess cousin, Charles Smith, they call him Chaz.
These guys are playing Santana Hendrix. They're playing everything like
they're twenty one years old. Prince is doing the amazing
guitar solos at that age, and and I just said, man,
you know, and I've been wood sharing on the drums

(30:29):
for years at that point, and I said, I gotta
be a part of this. And you know, my whole
point is I got to know Andre uh Simone. He
came by my house one day. It's in the book Quest,
you know, uh, you know, and we're just skipping in
school and he heard me play drums, man, and you know,
I played some Garibaldi soul vaccination what is hip? You know,

(30:52):
And I'm firing up all my grooves and I stopped
playing and he's looking at me like eyes all stretch.
I was like, man, He's like, I didn't know you
could play like that. And he said, you know, we're
having trouble, you know, with a little you know, our
drummers chasing women. He's not showing up a rehearsal and everything.
We're looking, you know, to replace him. We're looking for

(31:13):
somebody serious. You should come by bringing drums, you know,
let Prince hear you. So I take my drums over there,
I set them up. I started firing up the groups.
We do some of the songs I'm I'm, you know,
doing my thing, and you know, so we stopped. Prince.
You know it was a man of very few words
even back then, he looking at me very mysteriously, you know,

(31:34):
never really said ship to me. But then Andre came
to me and he's like, man, you know, Prince loved it.
You're in. So my point is that I felt like
I was getting into a superior situation from the time
that I got into Grand Central, so I already felt
like I was in a band that was even as

(31:55):
fierce as the competition was. I felt like I was
in the best band in Minneapolis at that point in time. Wow, Okay,
often this name comes up anytimes we do these types
of episodes, and I never asked, and I gotta ask you.

(32:16):
The common denominator between everyone associated with Minneapolis that the
name holds holy is the name of Sonny Thompson. But
is there a reason why he was never in the
first draft of any of these projects coming up? Like
was he did you guys ever figure like, oh, how

(32:37):
can we get Sunny down with us? Or was he
just so advanced that you know, you guys never even
considered that he'd be down with y'all or because everyone
speaks of Sunny Thompson with this like religious like the
best thing I've ever seen. But he's an amazing musician
and way ahead of his time, and his name I
do believe came up to be in the time. But

(33:00):
I had a different idea myself of what the band
should be. And I already had my eyes focused on
Jimmy and jam and Terry Lewis because I had heard
him play. I knew Flight Time was an amazing band,
and I heard they had done some songs, produced some
songs on Cynthia Johnson, who was the one that ended
up saying funky town and yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and

(33:24):
um so I already had that in mind, and you know,
he didn't argue with me on that, but I believe
he wanted Sonny in the band, and you know, he
had this idea what the time should be, and I
had mine. Unfortunately, you know he would he went with
my version of the time. Okay, cool, So how do
you wrestle, Like, what is the story of how you

(33:46):
got kind of your own all star draft if you will,
um grabbing these people from various groups and making your
your your own band. Oh you know, um it was
pretty easy actually, because you know, everybody knew that. You know,
Prince had done his thing. He had this big deal
with Warner Brothers. He showed up, he wouldn't got the deal.

(34:09):
And you know, he always used his pick for his afro,
you know, cake cutter. I don't know if you remember
the cake cutters. You know what I'm saying, that pick
with the handle on it. Yeah, yeah, with that cake cutter. Yes,
I'm very familiar with that. Yeah, he always had his
cake cutters. So he wouldn't got his deal with Warner Brothers.

(34:30):
They cut him a check for eight d g s.
We had never seen nothing like that. They had his
name on it, and just just to you know, seal
the deal, he said his cake cutter right next to
the check, you know, so we got that it was
his for real. But anyway, um, you know, I I
just wanted flight time, you know, Jimmy, Terry and Monty

(34:55):
and um, I really wanted jelly Bean to be the drummer.
But I was a drummer. So at that point we're
looking at different singers. And that's when Prince said, hey,
why don't you sing? And you know, at first, I
wasn't fond of that idea. But then when I thought
about it, I said, hey, that means Jelly Being could
be in the band, and so everybody's in. And meanwhile,

(35:17):
you know, when I was playing in Enterprise Band of Pleasure,
you know, I had heard about this guitar player down
in Rock Island, Illinois who was doing twenty minute solos
where his band would leave the stage and he'd just
stand up there and sold over twenty minutes. And I said,
this has got to be our guy. And so, you know,
I I told um Maridi Holmes, who told me about Jesse,

(35:40):
I said, can you have him come up? Had him
come up? He started, Uh, he stayed in my house
and my little town house and in my living room
on my couch, and you know, he started playing with Enterprise.
Amazing guitar player. You know, I played Prince a tape
of him playing, and Prince said, oh, yeah, that's our
guitar player. So I mean, you know, the history, that's

(36:00):
pretty much how it came together. Was anybody hard to
get with the Was it a struggle with anybody took events? No,
because we were all struggling already. So just to be
you know, in a group that you know, under Princess
Production Company with with some promise to do something big.
You know, everybody was in you know. Okay, So when
you guys are in this period of your lives, am

(36:25):
I assuming that you guys had like day jobs to
go to as well, and how do you balance like
rehearsal versus pocket change? Yeah? Well, I pretty much failed
at everyday job I attempted, you know, I think the
longest I last was maybe six months. And you know,
pretty much every job I ever had, the manager would

(36:48):
end up. You know, I'm that guy singled out that
he'd be looking at, you know, to two hours into
every shift, He's like called me to his office. She's like,
you don't want to be here to do you? Like,
I don't know how to answer that question. So anyway,
by the time we got to put in a band together,
I was pretty much um living with a girlfriend of mine.

(37:08):
She was working and paying the big bills, and I
was doing the musician thing, you know, and making fifty
dollars a show or whatever, thirty five dollars a show
or whatever I made, And that was pretty much what
I did. It was just all about music at that
point in time in my life. Okay, I see, I
do want to know, is at any point was was

(37:32):
Alexander O'Neill at all like at any of these rehearsals.
I mean, before you know, the the eventual fallout or
his exit or whatever. But is there any point in
which it was the seven of you or Aunt if
jelly Bean was there? Like? No, at that point it
was it was pretty much songs that that that either

(37:54):
Prince had cut or Prince and I had cut. Uh,
And we were just trying singers out in the studio,
never as a band. But you know, Alexander was was
was the lead singer of Flight Time, so they were
actively working together at that time. Okay, I see, I
know that you also, like I assumed, traveled with Prince

(38:21):
when he was touring. Well, I assume that the first
major TORI did was Rick James, so I guess you
were on that tour with him. Am I correct? Were
you at all like president during the Rick James Prince shows?
I think that was over. I caught the next round
when I came to town he was doing the Dirty Mind.

(38:43):
I think that's what I went out with. Okay. Were
you eyewitness to the Rolling Stones incident? Yes, I was
the book. Uh, okay, so I've heard that you you know, well,
first of all, I know that you were like recording

(39:04):
these shows and being a collector of these shows. I'm
assuming that maybe one of these shows that I have
is your camera work. Um. First of all, yeah, it's
it's who who even has the the vision to know
to record themselves every night? To judge, I mean, that's

(39:24):
that's an amazing technology to have, because okay, well, I
believe that the legend is that you know, Mars would
set up the tripod camera and record print shows on
VHS or Beta Max whatever, um, so that Prince could
watch himself and of course, like suckers like me who

(39:49):
indulge a lot in the bootleg market in the last
twenty five years whatever, like all these types of surface
and whatnot. And I'm not saying them maybe or maybe not.
I paid how many mid five figure for stuff? I
don't know you got do history history, but I'm playing anyway. Um,
But my my question is, yeah, like, who's for me

(40:12):
in eight eight one, who's thinking of like purchasing a
video camera recorder and and recording these shows night after night?
Like because it's a rare technology that wasn't a household
name yet until least so absolutely, and it wasn't It

(40:32):
wasn't compact technology either. We're talking big VCR and some
pretty nice size cameras, um that. How do you get
the tapes tonight after night like like the big ones
like this? Right? Yeah, you know tripod and I had
I had my own road case case that I was

(40:53):
so you know, anyway, that was me after Prince said, hey,
Bobby's he's my drama and he's that, but I offer
you a gig to take the shows. So you know,
you know, I pay you a hundred fifty dollars a
week that I'm like, I can travel and you know,
go to shows and at least, you know, somehow be
a part of this for you know, I said, I'll

(41:15):
take it. And so you know, I was a video
on the shows. And and that's something that stuck with
Prince throughout his career. And I don't care, you know,
even when we did the Musicology tour with him, or
the dates that we did do, he would make everybody
his band and everybody had to go to whatever club

(41:36):
he rented out afterwards, and he would have that show
on the projection, right and everybody had to watch it.
Everybody had to watch it. He could yeah, like a coach,
like getting on the musicians. Hey, you were behind on

(41:59):
that song, the whole thing, the whole show, every show.
He didn't in the nightclub though, in the nightclub, but
damn you know that. Yeah, okay, so I feel like
you should start some ship with the roots. You don't
playing back. But here's the thing though, here's the thing though.
Now now I don't feel so bad because you know,

(42:23):
there's my nightclub story is the fact that he took
me off turntables and wanted to watch Finding Nemo in
the nightclub. You were there, like you yeah, I know,
I said, I remember, Dad, Yeah, And it's such like
you don't know then, embarrassment. You don't know what the
embarrassment it is being a world class DJO. What's the story?
So the story is basically, uh, Princess in Philly for

(42:47):
the Musicology tour and I get ten tickets and in
true a mere fashion, I forgot to count myself as
part of the tens. So I got ten friends and
so we're walking in one and I realized ship, I'm eleven.

(43:07):
It was well, it was like more than sold out,
and it just so happens that Ruth and him happened
to be in a golf cart whizzing by, and I
was just like, man, shoot your shot. And I said, look,
I know I got ten tickets from you guys, but
I forgot to include myself in the ten. He thought
it was silly. He thought it was funny. He laughed
and was like that moment, that was the girl that

(43:29):
was with you, Just so you know, well there was
ten of you. Go ahead. Oh, anyway, My point was
that I sat under the stage and watched the show.
But then towards the end of the show, Ruth rushes
to me and says, Prince Princess this thing with me,

(43:49):
like my relationship with him is like I Prince has
this thing where he tells you to do something and
automatically you're like, oh, I work for you, yes, sir.
So I'll go to club. Hey, run the sound board.
And I'm like at the sound board, like I don't
know what I'm doing, But Prince told me runs the
sound play bass, right, So Prince would had me just

(44:12):
do ship. I never did a month like I've going
to supermarket to get milk. I've played bass I'm like, wait,
I don't play bass. So this one night he this
one night he asked me, well he he, They command
me to find him a nightclub to have uh an

(44:33):
acter party, and so then of course I hit up
our good friend Stacy Wilson from Philly find me a nightclub.
She finds me a nightclub, but it's a five story
walk up. And then at the last minute, Prince is like,
and I want to play pool and so now they
got an hour to find a pool table and and
dismantle it and lug it up five stories to the

(44:55):
to the rooftop of this nightclub. Uh, and I want
you to DJ. So now I got this were Seratos,
And now I gotta run to my dungeon grab all
these records so you know I I do it, and
three records in. Prince obviously didn't take a liking to
to fail. I was playing afrobeat and they're like, put

(45:16):
this on instead, and I'm looking as a DVD and
it's finding Nemo and I'm like, uh wait, what am I?
What am I supposed to do with this? So so
can Florence? Can you translate that? What was he trying
to say to a mirror in that moment. I still
don't understand. Really, you don't understand where he was telling
you he's getting fired right now. Well, I was hoping
that wasn't it. Maybe it was something else. Well, he

(45:38):
just I've just never seen someone put a videotape on
in a nightclub like we're in. And the thing is,
it's like it's two thousand and four, so our version
of the nightclub is more like Diddy era, where it's
sexy and you know, smokey and lasers and stuff. And
then all of a sudden, like you here, Ellen de
Generous and and you know, Albert what's his name and

(46:01):
finding Nemo, we're watching a Pixar film in the club
like it was normal. And now that I know that
Marns has told us that, okay, that he just puts
tapes on anything but music on the club just seems
weird to me. So yeah, well I'm surprised he don't
have't making everybody watch the show, because that that's usually

(46:23):
what he did. It was a man, It's like he
had to see himself. Wow. Love that he was a coach.
I think that's dope. That means he's an athlete, but
he's a real athlete When it comes to this this, I
get it down. That is the approach. So I gotta ask,
so can you give us your version of the Rolling
Stone Show? Oh? Man? Um, that was traumatic because you know,

(46:48):
you know, I I know I knew this brother, you know,
to his level of professionalism and his need to um
be accepted as an artist. And um, so I think
he's going up there thinking, you know, he's um straight
up in Billy idol Molde, you know, half moment, yeah,

(47:09):
you know, half naked. You know, I'm gonna show him
how I can rock and roll, you know, with the
bikinis and the leg warmers and all that on. And
you know, you're straight up in front of a hardcore
rock and roll crowd. A lot of these guys were bikers,
and you know, and and and and they just wasn't
hearing it. Man. So you know, he comes out and

(47:31):
he's doing this thing and uptown and all that, and
all of a sudden, you know, you start hearing the
booze and the beer bottles start flying up on stage.
And I knew, you know, right at that moment that
it was time to start making my way with my
you know, little cameras camera equipment backstage because it wasn't
gonna be nice. So that shows on tape. I never

(47:55):
saw it on tape, but I taped it, you know,
happened to it somewhere in this earth. Is that show
somewhere on this planet? That show is on DVR vhs.
It's labeled. It's labeled. That's right. Oh my god. Wow. Okay,

(48:20):
and Moors, how long did you keep this job, this camcording,
this gig? We'll see, that's the whole thing. You know.
I was just staying close, you know, because when I
moved away, you know, when he got his record deal,
I was living down in Gaithersburg, Maryland side of d C.
You know, and so you know, things didn't work out
well for me. So I moved back to Many and

(48:43):
once he found out that I got back, he was
real happy that I was there. So I started hanging out,
going to rehearsals, and that's when I kind of said,
you know, hey, man, I really like to be the drummer.
And he's like, now I have a drummer. And that's
when I got offered the job to video shows. And
so you know, he told me, you know, he said,
you know, um, you can use the studio anytime you want.

(49:04):
And of course I took advantage of that. And so
one of the first songs I cut was this slow
funk track and um, you know, I put the drums down,
then I put the base down and it was the
party up baseline. But I played it way funk here.
You know. I was in a funk mode with it.
And he's like, you know, and so I go home

(49:26):
when I come back the next day to cut some
more stuff, and he's like, you know, I like that
track that you cut. He's like, if you give me
that track, he said, I'll give you. I don't know,
tim k, I don't I forget what he said. He said.
Or I'll help you put a band together. You pick it,
I said, And he said, I get your record deal.
I said, of course, I'll take the band and the

(49:46):
record deal. Yes. So that was pretty much the end
of my video career. Videoographer a career, and um, you know,
from that point on, it really really happened fast. You know,
we he sent U. He had me sing a couple
of songs, he said to the Warner brothers. They signed

(50:06):
the band and the concept of the time side unseen
and so then we had like two weeks to complete
the record, and it was just a whirlwind from there. Okay,
so it's ten thousand. In my mind, I thought it
was substantial, like and I was doing the math and
I was like, wait a minute, well twenty back that

(50:28):
was like seventy dollars today, Like I don't know, It's like,
of course, yes, you made the right choice by choosing
the band situation, but I'm also thinking, you know, you
could have had your cake and eat it too, because
I don't know if he's is he even expressing again
the need to have other outlets to express Like are

(50:51):
you seeing this this o c d Obsessiveness to channel
more music through other acts? Yet, because in my mind,
I'm like, wait, why couldn't you get both? Yeah, well
you're right, but you know that was probably his inside
his brain, right, my brain is you know I can
you know, I know that we can put something nice together.

(51:14):
And he had already played me as he had played me,
get it up Um, which he had cut believe it
or not, for the group Brick and why absolutely, And
he had cut it for Brick Brick. He sent the
song to them. They didn't want it, Oh God, they
didn't want it, and I was like, man, I will

(51:36):
take it, so m yeah, yeah, So I didn't get them. Yeah,
it's crazy, I know, because they were hot at the time,
you know, and he was just thinking, you know, he
had cut a song that they might like. But that's real.
That's that's a true story, though a lot of people
don't know that. I don't even know if that's in
the book though it's definitely not in the book. By

(51:58):
the way. Um uh yeah, Brick Brick's um you guys,
that's Sleepy Brown's uh okay, yes, yeah, Sleepy Brown's father.
Um okay. So this is what I want to know
the hearing you speak right now, and I'm assuming that

(52:19):
this is your natural speaking voice when you're in the
character of Mars Day or when Princess in the character
of Jamie Starr. Who who is the figurehead that you
guys are. Who's the figurehead to whom you guys are
mocking or or imitating or like where did this this character?

(52:44):
You know, the that that pre Cat. Yes, I've talked
to Cat Williams himself and he even said that, yes,
you guys were kind of his impetus for that voice,
so bad, Like me exactly who is who is that
voice to what you guys took and perfected? Is that

(53:07):
how brothers talked to Minnesota? Now, you know what you know,
it's it's really everything that you hear from from my
laugh too. When I get into that zone. You know,
there's a way that you talk, you know, when you're
just in chill more regular mode. And there's a way
that you talk when you have hyped up talking to
your partners, talking ship, you know what I mean. So

(53:30):
it's just it's just a it's just an elevated level
if you will, of you know, of of of my
normal self. You know. So when I go into that mode,
that's pretty much how we were when we were just
talking shipped to each other, you know, laughing, and you know,
and and and you know when I when I got
in that mode that I would laugh loud like I laughed,

(53:52):
and principles like man, we gotta put that on the record,
you know. So it was just you know, it was
it was kind of our inner circle, the way we
talked to one another. You know. Okay, right, this this
this is my favorite part of the interview. Okay, So
now I finally get to figure or ask you grill
you on the work mode operation of the t view.

(54:13):
So are you the are you the complete drummer on
most of the Times albums? Um? I played drums on
most of the early out albums, and I played drums
on a few of Princess songs as well, you know.
So that's what I wanted to know. What what Prince

(54:34):
songs or other non Time records have you drummed on
that I might not know about. I did Partner Let's Work.
I played all Let's Work in Prince. You know, he
kind of he played on it as well, so he
kind of took parts of his his track and mind. Yeah.
I played drums on Controversy New Power Generation, Yo. Yeah, man,

(55:02):
I played on a lot of this stuff, but I never,
you know, got credit, just like he didn't necessarily in
those days take credit for playing on the Time stuff.
But I played on a lot of Prince's songs as well. Okay,
So I'm trying. I've been trying to explain to people
what what the process is because we all, you know,
most most purple heads or whatever, they're very familiar with

(55:27):
chlorine bacon skin, which was initially I guess the impetus
of it was was supposed to be a workout that
would eventually morph into an actual song. But then I
guess it was so good you'll just let the workout
be the song. So if you guys aren't familiar with
chlorine bacon skin, thank you don't symbol, you just get

(56:00):
so Steven. Steve is my engineer. So Steve, you know,
like when you set up a click track for me,
So basically Prince would play that the role the click track,
So Mars would this drummer beat, and to keep Mars
sort of you know, in the zone or whatever, Prince
would set up his base, set up a microphone the

(56:21):
way that I talked to the guys on the show whatever,
Talk Ship, whatever, and then you record the drum thing,
and then of course that morphs into something else. And
this one particular case, Klarene Biggenskin actually wanted up being
so good it stayed on its own. Yeah, it's just
it's just a fifteen minute song where Prince is just

(56:42):
talking ship and it's mad hilarious, but it's also mad funky.
So for that song alone, I know that it was
intended to be a work song that turns into something else.
But when it was over. Why didn't you guys turn
that song into something else? Um, because I think we
were both you know, um, you know, just kind of

(57:05):
really cool with the way it turned out. You know,
he was talking ship you know. Uh, you know at
the beginning of the song. We started the song and
he's talking and you know, he's getting on me. He's
like the headphones and then my headphones were on the floor,
so I'm laughing and I put my headphones on here.
At the end of the song, we got done, and

(57:27):
you know, it's like it was just so hilarious. We said,
we gotta leave this alone. We gotta just let it
be what it is, you know. So yeah, I was
gonna say, one of the one of the rarest highest
things I've paid for. I didn't realize that you guys
were actually intending to release this, So, you know, I
one of the up there there. There's there's like I've

(57:51):
mastered her her Powers, mastered twelve inch of klarine that
was supposed to see the light of day, and I
guess at the last a minute was sixth Night, or
maybe just had one printed up at one of one
or whatever. But is that how all the songs were created?
So like when you're doing like wild and Loose, you know,
when you're drumming, are you drumming to something totally different?

(58:14):
And then it eventually morphs into wild and loose? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
It started out as a you know, prints on the bass,
which you know, probably one of the funks bass players.
I mean, you know in two seven seven uh seven
three eleven. Nobody can play that song. Nobody can play
that song the way he did, so exactly. You know,
a lot of the songs we just um, we started

(58:37):
like that, him on base neon drums, and then we
would find a pocket or if he had an idea
of pocket, he telling me to go there, I'd hold
the pocket and you know we would just um kind
of go from there. But most of all, most all
of our songs that I played on were you know,
they start out as jam sessions. So jam sessions and

(58:58):
totally different keys and totally other things. And then you
go home and then you come back the next day
and then that drum performs you gave turns into something else. Yeah,
possibly that or possibly the actual session itself, you know,
and he was master at um cutting two inch take
because you know how it was packing the day, so

(59:19):
you know, he would cut out the sections that we
didn't need and uh spice them together and then start
overdubbling overdubbing from that point, you know, so he could
raise or splice his own tapes. Were you guys working on?
Was it a sixteen track or twenty four? Like? What board?
Do you know? Like? The Yeah, the boards that we

(59:40):
started on sixteen um, and that's what we uh that
get It Up and all Cool Girl, all those songs
that first album were cut on sixteen track and then
after that graduated to track and then after that graduated
to twenty four tracks, where we had forty eight tracks.
You know. Oh, okay, I see, okay, So let me

(01:00:01):
ask about the twin of bacon skin, which is tricky.
Why did you big toss sided here, don't toss snagly,
don't funk inhabit form, leatherwear being pulled black? Oh, it

(01:00:34):
was tricky. Initially intended as one of these sessions that
should turn into another song, and then again, you guys
were just clowning around and decided, okay, let's just leave
this as as it is. Tricky happened when um um
we heard that? I believe it was was it Boots

(01:00:56):
But anyway, it was either it was either Bootsy or
George George Clinton when I've had a song that said
Mia Mia Morrison copycat. Immediately after we heard that, we

(01:01:23):
went into the studio and that was our rebuttal. That was,
it's like why you be wait? You so toss solid hair?
Do have? And that was Boots Man the Michelin Man.
That was George Clinton. So we went in and you know,

(01:01:44):
had a field day, you know, as a rebuttal to
them talking shit about us. Dude, this okay, this is huge.
Heads are dude, you literally I didn't expect this because
in our mythical made up land, we had decided that

(01:02:06):
that was directed after the James Brown incident, you know,
the James Brown Michael Jackson, and because we thought like, okay,
well he has to be talking about somebody. At first,
I just thought that YouTube, we're just ranking on each other,
because you know, I didn't realize again, like Prince never
made his voice known to us during that period in

(01:02:27):
real time, so I had no idea that like the
waiter on the skits and the Italian guy on the Walk,
I didn't realize that was Prince, right, I'm just thinking
that's you and some of the guys. And so once
I became aware of that, then I was like, well,
wait a minute, that's Prince and Mars, Like who are
they talking about? So in my mind I was like, Okay,

(01:02:49):
I know that James Brown incident happened and he was
really embarrassed, and oh maybe that's who he's talked. That
is crazy. So did you ever get actual verification that
was actually out you or you know, were they like, no,
we're talking about the actual marks the cat from the
Frisky's commercial and we knew exactly, you know, and I'm
not sure, you know, maybe they thought maybe they thought

(01:03:11):
Get it Up was you know, sort of a parliament
funkadelic group. And I could see that, you know, and
you know, I could see the influence of that, but
I by no means I feel like we were biting
their sound at all. But now, I mean, there were
no strangers to bucking shots, you know, because like, let's

(01:03:32):
take it to the stage. They playfully call out you know,
earthwhen and fire and rufus and slide and even you know,
the people that they're down with, but still like playfully
doing Wow, man, I had no what so was he
actually eating chicken while he did that? No? No, okay, no,

(01:03:53):
you know what, maybe I acknowledge you mention that I
think we might have bought a buck in a change. Yeah,
I was like, I think he was just chewing chicken.
I think chicken on it. And now did you mention it?
So that's okay. I want to know what was the
awareness of your contemporaries at least? Again, the myth of

(01:04:15):
my head was that you guys were too cool for school.
You didn't listen to nobody else, like nobody like Zap
them and Da Da Dad or whatever. But now that
I'm older, I'm like, it's almost impossible for you guys
to not know about the Dazz Band or Zap or
even like these new groups groups coming up like z
Look and Real to Real and Click and you know,

(01:04:37):
all these all these groups post at two that were
trying to fit into that mood that you guys were. So,
I mean, how aware were you guys of other groups
and their music? Like did you ever come in and say, like, yo, man,
this group called the System from New York, listen to

(01:04:58):
this ship like you you're You're absolutely right. We were
on We were on that page, Um, but on a
larger scale for us, we were listening to new wave
groups like The Cure, and you know, we were listening
to a lot of the cross over pop groups and

(01:05:18):
trying to because we'd already you know, we we had
the funk thing down. So what we were trying to do,
and if you think about it, you listen to um
ice Cream Castles and you know, listen to the verses
on that in the whole vibe of that song. We
were trying to get that that the Cure, you know,
we were trying to get that slightly new waves sound

(01:05:41):
integrated and and and and that's that's really where we
were thinking. We were we were already passed the funk
thing because we had that. Wow, I never thought of that,
So you guys were aware of Okay, I see, I
see it. So humor. Humor is also another important weapon

(01:06:04):
in in the arsenal of the time, which you know,
humanize you guys. And that was sort of the difference
between you know, your presentation and Prince's presentation because your humor,
even though it's inside baseball jokes, it still made us
want to be down with you, and it endeared us
to you more because it showed a side of you,

(01:06:24):
Like Prince didn't show a sense of humor until way
later in his career. So like, but what I want
to know is the fact that you guys would actually
stage visa kind of vignettes, and you know, it's it's
it's really the precursor to skits that de Las Soul

(01:06:46):
and n w A and them started doing, except they
would actually make skits where you guys would just do
the skits on the record, So like when you're doing
songs like the Walk, uh or even Wild and Loose.
Wild and Loose is probably a better example because you know,
I'm assuming that's that's Lisa. Is that Lisa and Jill

(01:07:07):
Jones talking to each other, them talking to each other
on Wild and Loose when you guys are there, I
actually think it's just some some random girls that come in,
you know. H But however, on the wall that was
that was vanity. That was vanity. I know that. But
the reason why I'm asking about Wild and Loose is because,

(01:07:29):
you know, in my mind, over analyzing this song, I'm like, Okay,
there's a thirty two bar break, and then that thirty
two bar break on the left side, the two girls
have to set up the narrative perfectly where they're explaining
how they got your phone number when they talk to you,
and god da da da. But then on the right hand,

(01:07:50):
you hear you know, you Jesse or whoever talking shit
about the same thing that they're talking about, and and
and it's it's coordinated perfectly, and it doesn't sound casual,
like it doesn't sound like it was just a happy accident,
like yes, we're just gonna take this thirty two bar
break and talk shit, like there's an actual narrative that

(01:08:11):
goes on. And like, so when it comes to those
those those moments in the time songs when it's time
to talk ship or do humor and I'm talking about
the kid Came, Ike you Come, or even Chili Sauce
or those songs, Like how important is that or was
it just prince? Like, Okay, don't I don't have another
I don't have a third verse, so let's just do

(01:08:32):
a skit real quick, Like how is that organized? Well,
you know I think it was. I think it was
more once we got the body of the song, you know,
versus hooks, and you know, then you know it was
always Prince's planned to to to make these to bring
our personality to these songs, and you know, to make
them you know, you know accessible, you know, and and

(01:08:55):
not I mean, we have the great musicianship. And then
on the other hand, you know, make it accessible through
you know, like these vignettes and a little comedy in there,
and just have fun with it, you know, just kind
of you know, help people enjoy. And I don't think
that that was the plan outright at that moment, but
you know, that's what it ended up being. He just
wanted to bring personality to the records. And you know,

(01:09:18):
we always laughed and talk ship. We would go to
the club, we would have a good time, then straight
to the studio and you know, listen to what was
on and get that fresh in our brains, and then
straight to the studio and start cutting, you know, with
with what was hot in mind and and you know,
doing our own thing with it. Okay, I knew you

(01:09:38):
guys had to present to us that you were above
funk and above you know, like what what you what
you mortals do? Like we're above that? Um, However, can
you just name one or two songs or groups that like,
all right, I respect that. Like, I know, you guys

(01:10:00):
toured with Zapp, Like to them, were they like they
all right or was it like okay this like yeah, yeah,
I know Zapp was a hell of a band. I
mean more bounced to the ounce. Who couldn't deny that? Man,
that's you know, that's that's one of the funkiest songs.
You know, and and and you know that's the way
Roger always presented it. He would make his band like

(01:10:23):
stay in that pocket, you know how. You know, sometimes
you get excited and we we do that and and
our our temples, yes, and they're higher than the record is.
And you know that was okay because you know you
were in concert, you know, the energy and and and
then the excitement is there. But Roger always had his band,

(01:10:44):
you know. It's almost like he would click it out
and say, you know, keep it right there. And it
was always just slow and funky and know and they
they always you know, had a great show. So you know,
I mean, you know, uh, there's a thousands of funk
songs that that I love and could get down with,
you know, but you know, we just we just wanted

(01:11:05):
to present ourselves a little differently, you know, Okay, I see,
what's what's the reasoning behind you didn't find it a
little unusual that, like all of your records were just
six songs. You know, it's it's you know, it's just
like would you like a bucket of twenty four pieces

(01:11:26):
of fried chicken? Taste? All right? Like six pieces? It's
real good quality, not quantity. I'm like, but as the
person who has made a multi track album in retrospect,
is that kind of genius? Gonna wait those as you
all get paid? Is way harder to make a classic
with less songs, like to me because all all the

(01:11:52):
records that we look at that our classic are really
under forty five minutes, intervisions off the wall, dirt mind
what time is it? Like short of you know. But
it's also the thing the risk of six songs is
like when you shoot your shot, you better hit that ship,
hit right right on target. Got to be confidence. So

(01:12:14):
I mean were you were you at all like uh worried?
Like okay, well, after you heard cool and these songs done,
did you know instantly like oh man, we're gonna blow
up so big? Like did you feel that at all? Oh? Yeah,
it was. It was crazy like that I felt, you know,
that we were really onto something. Um, you know, when

(01:12:37):
when we finished seven seven, seven, nine, three eleven, I'm
like thinking, but they ain't hurt, nothing like this, you know.
So it's like, you know, we just you know, we
always just felt like we were on point with it.
You know, we were in the moment and we knew
we were doing something innovative, and um, you just felt
like we had something different, you know. So you know

(01:12:59):
I felt real good about you know, uh, each each
song on those six song albums. What was your life
like two months after the first time album at least
in Minnesota, Like was like when did your life transform
to whoa you know? Now now on this level well,

(01:13:22):
you know Reggie Hammond and in forty eight hours like
buy it out. I'm sure you know, brother, but you know,
if I went from you know, trying to stretch my
little five dollars to do the cover charge, to get
a drink, to hold onto to the ice cubes milk,
you know, by the end of the night, you know,

(01:13:43):
to you know, to to get an offered you know,
bottles of champagne, getting for free. You know, it's like
when brothers need something for free, you can't get it
when you don't need it for free, when I'm asking
everything at me for you know, change like that. You
know what I just want to know. I want to

(01:14:04):
circle back to this band leader thing now because now
you are the band leader, and I'm curious about your
evolution as a band leader. And if you thought, Okay,
this is in the beginning, this is who I'm gonna be,
but then everything kind of changed for you because it's
a lot of responsibility. You know. I've never you know,
been like uh, you know, like Prince was a he

(01:14:25):
was a band leader. You know what I'm saying that
you don't play one note, you don't wear one sock
that he doesn't approve of, you know, and you know
everything is controlled and he's in control. You know. I've
never been like that. You know. I've always given my guys,
you know, a little room to express themselves. Just never
been a hands on, like dictator type of guys. So

(01:14:48):
you know, I I you know, I always took a
light handed approach and I always found that, you know,
kind of like when you let people express themselves a
little more, you get a little more out of him.
And I think that's kind of what happened with the time.
The only time that it really we really got clamped
down on is when when Prince showed up to rehearsal.
I was gonna ask, what's he thinking? He was a punk, like,
come on, man, you get them together. Yeah. No, it

(01:15:10):
wasn't like that because he felt like it was all
his ship anyway, because we were signed to his production company.
So you know, when he comes in, then the hammer
comes down. But you know, I think some of our
greatest moments when we came up with the dance moves,
the bird and a lot of the grooves we came
up with were when he wasn't there, but they show up,
and you know a lot of times he liked what

(01:15:31):
we came up with, but you know, if he didn't,
he would say. He was quick to say he didn't.
And sometimes he say, I don't like that ship. And
then he turned around and come back and he wrote
a song with the same groove that he heard. So
he was just one of them kind of people. You know.
He was good cop so with with his with his

(01:15:51):
with his attention to detail. You know, how hard was
it and trying to bring seven seven, seven eleven alive
and Jelly being not really nailing the snare apart. Yeah,
well yeah, you're you're right, um, you know being I'm

(01:16:13):
sorry to be diplomatic, you know, never really able to
grasp that drumbeat. But he found a version of it.
I guess that it works for him. Yeah, that's straight
on the snare. Yeah, but okay, how come you guys
in opt to do the drum machine thing that the
Revolution was doing, because you know, we always prided ourselves

(01:16:36):
on being the live band. No samples, no click tracks,
you know, none of that. So you know we always
opted to you know, whatever it is. You know, keep
it real. You know, I'm not the greatest thing on
the planet. You here bad, No, guess what you're gonna
hear a few bad notes if you come to my consort.
But guess what you're gonna know that it's me singing.

(01:16:56):
You know. It's not a perfect track that I put
together that we hit and play just to get by.
You know, it's me doing what I do, speaking of
seven seven. Um, yeah, when we when we when a
lot of us, Jesse was all too gleeful to let

(01:17:19):
us know that. You know, Dave Garibaldi's beat number fourteen
on the Lyne drum was actually that like that program
like in our minds were thinking, like, yo, it's the
most genius drum programming of all time, and Jesse's just

(01:17:40):
all too happy like that was press right. So at
the time, did you know that Garibaldi had pre programmed
the Lynn drum machine. Yeah, I absolutely knew that. Oh yeah,
that's why I was cool with it. You know, it's
using that, you know, because I was like, hey, this
is one of my my drum rolls beats, you know,

(01:18:01):
so right, so yeah, yeah, you know, so I was
good with that. Was he ever made aware that, oh,
you guys used beat number four teen from what I programmed.
I told him that, you know, I told him when
when when I finally met him. You know, I met
David some years later, man, I when I was living
in Vegas. You know, they were doing a show at
one of those small show rooms, and you know, I

(01:18:24):
had a hot second to go back there and wrap
with him and other guys. And I definitely told him.
Was he familiar with the song, Like, oh, I'm sure,
I'm sure he knew. You know, probably when he heard
the song, he's probably that's my beat. Okay, I see
you know at that point it's public domain once you
put it on the drums, come after somebody and say, hey,

(01:18:46):
that's my beat, you know, because at that point he's
already been paid for it. Yeah, yeah, no, No, I
didn't even mean for lititious reasons. Somebody's thinking that though.
I was just me at my little too sense at case.
So the thing is with you know, we're we're rehearsals

(01:19:06):
as super rigorous as the Prince rehearsals, because again, you
guys only have like I can see you know Brown
Mark's point of like, man, we're playing the same group
for four hours, but you know, Brown Mark is also
dealing with the artist that not only has four five
albums under his belt at that time, but you know,
other music pouring out of him. But you guys are

(01:19:28):
basically like in those first two years, when you're only
dealing with the six songs, it's like, how many ways
did you guys have to perfect something that I'm certain
that you had downpacked by a week? You know, well,
you know, we the rehearsals were super rigorous. That's like

(01:19:50):
that's almost brother, that's almost like saying how many ways
can you cook eggs? Because you know, we we went
in there and we we rehearsed the song a certain way,
and then we would flip the arrangements and he would
be there, and I mean, he taught us a work ethic,
you know, that was unbelievable. We would rehearse every day,

(01:20:11):
day and day out, then go in. Then when the
next single come out, then we would we would flip
the arrangement of the songs, change the arrangements of the
song and of all the songs. And then it was
just always we rehearsed all the time. When we weren't
on the road, we were rehearsing. I know, rehearse it
makes a better band. But part of me also felt

(01:20:33):
like maybe just had you there just to keep you
from off the streets or just you know where my
eye was on you. But possibly, but we rehearsed to
the point. And you know, I mean because if you
uh and and you you may have the quest, but
if you look at you know, our shows and all

(01:20:56):
of the things that we did, uh, you know, with
those six songs and once it turned into twelve songs,
and and from there on we had you know, a
lot of choreography, a lot of of of of arrangements,
different arrangements from the record, and it was second nature.
We rehearsed so much that you know, it was second nature.

(01:21:19):
And at one point, you know, I look at the
shows and we were so tight, you know that it
was you know, it was amazing to watch. You know,
I'm not I don't even feel like I can put
myself in that mindset to be as tight as we were.
The moves me and Jerome did together, and the band
did together, and the arrangements, um, they were super tight.

(01:21:39):
And that's like I said, we had gotten to the
point where, you know, people were walking away from the
show when we did shows of principal man, Time kicked
that ass tonight, you know. So it was it was intense,
and you know, you might be right about what his
motives were. I weren't. I'm not sure, but I just
felt like he just wanted us to be um as

(01:22:02):
tight as we possibly could, and you know that we
definitely achieved. Okay, So all right now I'm vicariously become
a member of the Time for a seconds. Okay, jelly
Bean is no longer your drummer. I'm your drummer, And
it's how much money am I making? A week when

(01:22:26):
if I'm in the time by the time that what
time as it comes out, you make it about hundred
fifty two hundred a week plus perd M. Was that
quasi normal? Was like my inflation calculator calculator? Yes, I do,
because I always I'm so derivative of the past. I

(01:22:48):
even want to know what prices were back in the day. Yeah.
So if alright, so a hundred and all right, let's
be nice to say that I'm a good drummer that
you guys gave me two hundred dollars um? What does
that formula? Yeah, I'm so good. Curious, Well, you gotta
get there's literally there's there's an app called inflation calculator.
There you go. So I thought you were doing math.

(01:23:13):
I'm quasi smart. So two hundred dollars uh in two
uh when you get to it is hang on, Yes,
I'm actually solving a math problem. Every calculated. Okay, so
that would be sixty today. That's something kind of paid.

(01:23:37):
I want to carry my records. Okay, yeah, I guess
I get it. Um, but you get your own room, right. Yeah.
But you know, back then, you know, none of us
were really used to a steady paycheck, you know what
I mean, And you know, plus a per diem. You
know the per diem. I don't know. It's another ten

(01:23:58):
fifteen dollars a day. So you know it was okay.
You know, I might have got it up to eight
hundred dollars today by today's standards. All right, But I'm
only well, I'm trying to figure out the thing is
is that in our situation, we were definitely not making money.
So our whole thing was, we're going to stay on
the road forever because once we come home, that's when

(01:24:20):
we become broke. At least on the road forever. There's okay,
So I ask you in two is there such thing
as a writer like in my day? I knew early okay,
I want Golden Graham's and Captain Crunch on every show.
We want, no, I mean, but that's how we realized that, Okay,
we get a writer, so we'll make the promoter go

(01:24:43):
to supermarket and stock up one. Yeah, brilliant. So at
the end of the tour, I'd mailed home, you know,
fifty boxes of cereal. Now, of course, unfortunately I became
morbid Leo beasts, I've lost the weight, stop playing. But

(01:25:08):
I'm saying there's a downside to that too. But you know, like,
are you able to take care of home? I don't
know what home is, like, get your own apartment, that
sort of thing. Or is it just like hand to mouth,
hand to mouth, hand to mouth? I got a VCR.
Now I'm going back to my aunt's couch. Yeah. No,

(01:25:29):
I I was making more money as as you know,
the band leader. I think I be honest, I think
I gotten up to maybe you know, when we were
out there with Prince and tour regularly. I gotten up
to maybe five grand a week. Nice, that's awesome, that's all, okay.
But I was asking if I was the dum at
the time you were still getting to Okay, I get it. So,

(01:25:55):
but the writer was was cold cut Sandwiches. That was
our writer. Okay. Now, traveling wise, like is it fifteen
passenger van? Is it station wagon? Who's driving? Well, you know,
we started out in station wagons and by the time,

(01:26:17):
you know, we graduated to doing the tours that we
were on, the tour or whatever tours were on. Um,
we had our own tour of us. Okay, I see
all right, Now the dumbest question I'm gonna ask, and
I've never asked to anyone from Purple. I don't know.
I don't I'm not I'm not a got you journalism person,

(01:26:37):
so I'd never like, like gossipy questions or whatever, like
technical questions. But i just gotta know. Okay, So you
guys are also in the midst of some of the
finest women on earth, at least that's how they were
presented to us. Again, you guys seen Susan bringing all

(01:26:59):
them like in morning, So I understand that there's the
magic of the makeup artist in the hair and all
that stuff. No, no, no, I'm just saying that I
don't expect them to wake up and camasaws and ship
But I'm just saying you don't. But my Malone and
Vanity was hot in the morning. I don't care what
you say. They woke up like that all the time.

(01:27:20):
My whole, my whole point is that in you know,
I know, or at least my perception of how you
guys were, were there unspoken ground rules on the cock
blockage tip. The combination of those words. You know, I've

(01:27:42):
never heard those words put together, Like, I can't believe
I said those words. I'm very proud of you. Yo.
I've been in situations where, you know, motherfucking drum text
trying to holl at my join or whatever, and like
that's called fired. Well, you know, I'm not that petty,
because then I want to begin. Oh man, he fired
me because I was trying to talk through his leaning whatever.

(01:28:03):
But the unspoken rule was they all belong to Prince,
so leftovers are good and if that's if that's what
you was down for me, the unspoken rule was, hey,
you know printing all mine, So I'm nerve can't handle

(01:28:24):
all of them. That's that's rather amazing. And I don't
mean that in the sort of the pimpish Wow. I
want to be that when I grow up, But I
can't even. I feel like Jesse would have rebelled. I
don't know, I just can't. I can't even. I can't
even juggle the Tonight Show, a roots album, a movie
and a book and man, my girlfriend, like, imagine that

(01:28:47):
three of them. Isn't that what you're doing? Maybe I'm
asking for tips. How did he do it? Dude? Multiple
women is the whole thing. I can't that, Like, I
can't yeah, yeah, So I mean in in being around
in that atmosphere where they actually, I know that the

(01:29:09):
power of beautiful women around Actually they make the best wingmen.
You know, they make the best wingmen almost so in
terms of that, like, what was it like just in general?
Oh wait a minute, I'm sorry, I gotta stop this question.
Stop this question. No, I got some more important asks.

(01:29:30):
Something that just hit me right now, Jimmy, jim just
recently revealed to me that quote, uh, co co co
co and the kid can't make You come is Baby?

(01:29:57):
Was your version Vanity's at lib and Nasty Girl. Yeah, yeah,

(01:30:17):
I know you got Look, I know I'm talking inside
baseball right now. I will explain to you guys way later. Okay,
I'm hosting a podcast, so I gotta explain, ladies and gentlemen. Listen. Okay, So,
at the end of Nasty Girl, when Vanity has to
add lips somewhat before the breakdown the song, she reaches
war a few notes, which one of them is a

(01:30:39):
high note whatever. So I'm assuming that she tried to
reach this high note in concert, and I'm imagining, uh,
that there was some mocking going on of her be

(01:31:00):
not hitting the notes or whatever whatever the case was.
There's a skit, and I was talking about these skits earlier.
There's a there's a skin. There's a skit where I'm
assuming that that's Mark Mars's orgasm voice. And when he
hits his orgasm on this song on the skit, he

(01:31:20):
does the I don't know it at the time, but
he's doing the vanity at lisb whatever. And at first
I just thought he was imitating a chicken, and then
Jimmy jam reveals to me, No, that was him. That
used to be our inside jokes. So can you can
you explain to me the genesis of how that. I

(01:31:42):
don't even think you need to explain it to me
because I can almost imagine that there had been some
ribbing or teasing going on. Man, Yeah, we used to
do that a lot, you know, when we were putn't
hit on him, so you have to treat him like
second grade sandbox teasing. You know, we we we could,
you know, hit on, don't take our best shot, see

(01:32:02):
high went. But you know, no Tony M situation I
just found out about to M carmon. You don't know
about Tony M and Karmen elector oh yes, elect yes, yeah,
I just I never knew how Tony Um, Okay, I'm sorry.
I found out that he allegedly got dismissed because he

(01:32:25):
crossed that line. Anyway, so finish what you were saying
that was that was a line that if you cross
was a dismissible lines. But you know anyway, no, we uh,
we just used to kind of make fun of her
and she really would get piste. You know, we walked
by the dressing room, you know, it was just yeah,

(01:32:51):
that was our version ad nasty girl. Since you're asking
dumb questions, gonna ask a dumb questions, yes, please ask
dumb questions. But Mars, I really I really appreciate you.
I know you're doing this just to be polite, Like
I thank you for letting us ner it out on you.

(01:33:13):
I just had to say that, but go ahead, do
I do too. But just this is not my question,
just for everybody else who may have still thought this.
So just officially, More's Day and Prince not related, right,
they are your cousins, That's that's the story. But we
were just we're just brothers in the brother from another

(01:33:33):
mother sense, you know, but not not blood related at all.
And one more, because I know you talked about this
in the book, But I just need to know now, um,
bringing Jerome in at what point did you was was
it thought that he needed to be there? I know
Jimmy told his version of the story and the evolution
of your relationship. Can you just talk about that a

(01:33:54):
little bit. You know, he's just one of those guys
you know to this day, you know you you you
know Jerome. You know, he's a lovable guy, you know,
and uh, you know, he was just there at first.
He was a real valet where and and he would
collect our luggage. You know, we're out on the tour bus,

(01:34:15):
you know, twelve o'clock, they say, having your luggage outside
the door. Jerome's getting the luggage, He's putting it on
the tour bus. He's getting us pizzas and whatever we
want and doing all that. And so we go back
into rehearsal after the first tour and we're rehearsing Cool

(01:34:35):
because that's gonna be our our our second single, and
so you know, uh, we're rehearsing. We get to the
part where I say, somebody bring me a mirror, and
you know, Jerome takes off, grabs a mirror off the wall,
runs back up, shows up in front of me holding
up a mirror and everybody just kind of stopped playing.

(01:34:56):
We all looking at each other like that's gonna be
in the show. So that was it, you know, from
that moment on, Jerome was part of the band, and
it just evolved from there. In Pant's minds, we just
speaking of y'all are just so close at this point.
I don't know, I just that always felt like that. No,
you know, it got to be that way speak speaking
of Jerome and his duties. Okay, I've asked this question

(01:35:19):
a lot, practically to every artist that has uh An
on stage reputation, and the answer never satisfies me. Now
you're in a very specific situation because in your initial
five year iteration, at least of the of the first
draft of your your period with the time, you guys

(01:35:43):
have basically warned the same outfit every time I've seen you.
And the thing that that is that is baffling to me.
And I've seen your I've seen these concerts and you
guys are dancing, moving, sweating and whatnot. When the show
is over, are you getting into street clothes? And how

(01:36:04):
is your your your pressley jacket and your outfits? How
is it clean and ready for the next night show,
especially when you have to do six hours on the
tour of us to the next city, and da da
da da da da. Like I just never understood how
one outfit because the stain like that's your everyday outfit.

(01:36:28):
Well that yeah, that that that pressley uh as I
called it, uh it kind of it was, you know,
it was like a uh is a minus. You know
the security blanket. Man. You know, I don't even know
the dry clean it back then because show show and
then my Stacy's my black and white Stacy's when I
say about to walk ahole in my Stacy Adams, I

(01:36:49):
looked up, and you know, Stacy Adams have some thick
souls on them. I had actually walked a hole. There
was a whole at one of them. And so you know,
that's just that's just what it was, man, and and
and the and the pressley I wore I think until
it felt it basically fell off of me. And after

(01:37:11):
it did, you know, we looked up and I said, Okay,
we're doing well now. So then we I started I
started getting custom clothes made from that point on. But
you know, that got me through my first at least
tour and maybe first two tours. Um, and you're right
it probably. I was scared to dry clean it because
it would have fell apart a lot sooner. Where is

(01:37:34):
that original Pressley jacket? Now? I don't know it's in
It's it's in Uh, it's in stage closed heaven right now,
you know, Yeah, and I don't. I have no idea
if it literally fell apart. I looked up one day
after I came off stage and it was hanging off
of me, and that was a sad day for me. Yeah. Listen,

(01:37:58):
I'm literally in Nashville. The Black is a museum that
should be in there, right, that's right. Damn, I'm sorry
I can't make it. Um. Wow, that's that's crazy. So no,
the movie premieres. So okay, at what point are you

(01:38:20):
taking print? Seriously when he's saying, all right, we're gonna
do a movie, and before I even answer that question,
do you have any information whatsoever about the quote unquote
the second Coming movie or at least you know some
some clips have finally wound up online of you know,

(01:38:43):
whatever the idea he was flirting with with doing before
that morphed into Purple Rain, Like, were you guys going
to be a part of that presentation as well, or
was that just him at the time. It must have
been just him, because you know, all I know is uh,
you know, he came to me. You know, one day
it's like, you know, Mars, we're going to do the movie.
And I was like, okay, you know whatever, And then

(01:39:04):
you know, next thing, I know, we're doing dance classes,
we're doing acting classes, and all of this going on.
And I'm still not really taking it serious because I've
never been involved in anything like that. I'm taking it
all with a grain of salt. But the next thing
I know that these directors and cinematographers and producers are
starting to come to town. I was like, Okay, we're

(01:39:26):
serious now. And next time I know, we're in production.
So I think at that point I started to take
it serious. Okay. So then by that point it's like, Okay,
we're really doing this. Yeah, it's real now. Yeah, okay,
so I had Okay, I just got to ask, at
what point I assume that you always knew that that

(01:39:47):
Jimmy and Terry got snowed in Atlanta? Correct? Absolutely, Okay.
At this point, it's it's Jamie Shop that's sort of you, guys,
is tour manager or your wrangler if you will. Pretty much. Okay,
So at the point where they're like, we can't get
a flight out, what's what's happening on your side of

(01:40:08):
the the fence? It's just the four of you, no base,
no keyboard player. So at what point do you realize
that you're about to do a timeless show? Like, are
you guys trying to keep this from Prince's camp until
the very last minute? Like, at what point do you
have to break down to him to say, uh, they
aren't going to make the show? Um? I think that

(01:40:30):
Prince was. He was in on it. You know, he
knew more details than I did about it, because, like
I said, you know, we were on tour, you know,
and um, he was there with us, and he knew
that they weren't going to make the show, and he
was pissed about it because he didn't want any of
us producing or writing for anybody else or doing anything
that wasn't related to the time. He suspected that they

(01:40:53):
were producing. He knew that for a fact, or did
he just think like, oh, y'all sucking around with girls
or something? Now? He he just knew that they were
snowed in uh in Atlanta, and so guess what he
ended up with um off to the side of stage
playing bass with the keyboard in front of him. So
he actually played those instruments that night, and we put

(01:41:16):
Jerome over where Terry would have been. So we had
three people in front, Jesse, uh Me and Jerome and
we just did the show like that with Prince playing
bass off to the side of the show and you
put a hat on Jerome and the audience wasn't any
of the wiser. No, we didn't put a hat on
and we just left let him beat Jerome, you know,
standing in that spot. But you know they heard the

(01:41:38):
base going just like normal, so it was all good. Now,
you know, these stadiums aren't totally like you know, I'm
assuming that somebody from some angle had to see Prince
on the side playing, like is he hiding behind a
curtain or how's he seeing? Yeah, how's he seeing the cues?

(01:41:58):
Or like where is he standing as this is happening.
He didn't need to see the queues. He knew the
show one. He need a show that and we did.
Did it feel just a little bit better when he
was playing bass. Oh yeah, well it felt good. You know,
we didn't need to sleat man, it was you know,
it was it was awesome. Who played keyboards? He did

(01:42:19):
tandem at the same time. We had basse and keyboards,
so you know, when the basse was more necessary, he
played that, and when the keyboard was necessary he played that.
Oh wow. Okay, So when the ax is supposed to
come down, are you two talking first or is he

(01:42:40):
just going into executive order action without even consulting with
his senate in his house first? Like, what should we do?
Executive order? Brother, We're in the studio, I want to
say sunset sound, uh, you know, And he had them
come in and I didn't know we were in. They're cutting, Um,

(01:43:01):
we had cut ice cream castles that day. You know.
I did my vocals and we were just putting some
fishing touches on, and you know, Terry and Jimmy come
in and I didn't know. I was glad to see him,
you know, And right at that moment he told him,
he said, you know, you guys have fired from the band.

(01:43:21):
You know you you went to Atlanta, you missed the show,
and you know you're fired, and that you know that
hit me like a ton of bricks because my band
was my band. You know, we were all brothers, you know,
we had love for each other, and I was always
one of you know, I was always one of those
kind of guys that, you know, if Dave Garibaldi left

(01:43:43):
Power Power or you know whoever, you know, they lost
an original member, then the band didn't feel the same
to me. And I never wanted to be one of
those bands. And and it it just hit me like
a ton of bricks that all of a sudden, we're
one of those hands you know where where what was
his name? He used to saying, um lead and Sammy

(01:44:06):
Hagar came in. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Ben Healing. It's just
you can't change members, like it's just not the same.
So you know that that that just hit me like
a ton of bricks, man, And just no, you were
you just had to roll with it. And yeah, and
I had to roll with it. And all of a sudden,

(01:44:26):
here comes these new members and I'm looking back and
and that's the moment. Really we're really hit me where
it's you know, it's really time for me to start
to think about going and doing my own thing. So
was he it's so weird because I would imagine that
I don't know. I never pegged him as being super

(01:44:46):
confrontational because he's so his image wise was so elusive
or mysterious that I can't you know, I have I've
probably had to fire you know, maybe five people in
my entire career. And man, I'll be losing sleep over
that ship at night, therapist, Like, man, how I do
letting people slide? All right? All right, man, just don't

(01:45:08):
let it happen again, please, But like he was confrontational
like that, like just yeah, yeah, cuts, just point blank
just saying whatever's on his mind, just and and and
a lot of times, not not really much emotion behind it.
Just how you would think of him to talk, you know,
your fight. You know, you guys missed the show if

(01:45:29):
it's not your priority, you know, and that's and that's it.
You know. I wouldn't say necessarily he wasn't afraid of
of of confrontational act, you know, because again it's like
I want to make sure I'm covering my ass because
like I mean, not for nothing, but you also dealing
with brothers and ship, you know, so it could have
went another way, like motherfucker you have someone them and

(01:45:50):
then yeah, well you know he always kept you know,
you know, big three under pound, you know, tours her
off to the side, you know, gotten to the point
where you just kept security with him. So you know, well,
are you allowed, are you allowed to answer back? Are
you allowed to say that song was whack? Or you know,

(01:46:12):
like are you allowed to make fun of him? I
always spoke my mind, you know, with him, you know,
and and that was that was both good and bad
for us. But you know, I always told him if
he played something for me that I liked, you know,
you know, I would say it, but I wouldn't lie
to him, you know, just like when he played, uh
and this is in the book, you know, but when

(01:46:33):
he played when Doves Crying for Me. You know, I'm
listening to the song, and you know, we're three three
quarters of the way through the song and I ain't
heard a base yet. You know, I'm like, I'm like, uh,
I said, there ain't no base in the song, man,
And and uh it's like, yeah, that's what I said. Man.
I got out the card, said, man, next time you

(01:46:53):
play something for me, make sure it's funky, and make
sure you has some base in it, I kind of
slammed the door, you know what. And that one, that
one kind of came back to bite me on the
ass because it ended up being a number one smash
for me. But when I first heard it, I wasn't

(01:47:13):
feeling it, and I expressed that to him. Yeah, I
was gonna say, um, it's so weird because all of
you guys are our characters, and the thing is is
that you know, there's there's a side of himself that
he expresses, especially with sexuality that um, yes it it

(01:47:37):
works spot on and it's bull's eye. But it's also like,
you know, is he going to you guys to be like, look,
I created a new song called do Me Baby. It's
eight minutes long and it's gonna be a little awkward,
but listen to it, Like, is it weird where he's
playing you guys like some of his weirder ship where

(01:47:57):
it's sort of like, okay, where are you going with this?
Or does he just like only give you the function?
Like okay, this is this is you know, like, I'm
did he ever get was it ever an awkward thing?
When he's showcasing a song that uh kind of crosses

(01:48:21):
the lines or boundaries Like today, there's no line that
can't be crossed, like you know, make the stallion, can
release some ship and it's be like okay, yeah she's
talking about her web ass pussy. But you know, back
in the day, like someone says, I sincerely want to
fund the taste out of your mouth, Like yeah, that's
like you've never heard that ship before unless it's a
blowfly record. So like it said, awkward in front of

(01:48:43):
you guys, where like you're hearing your boss have your
five ft three boss have like orgasms on records and
ship talking talking in an English accent right right. He's
especially me. You know, he would corner me with a
lot of stuff, you know, because that's just how we
were back in the day. We hung out. Um, you know,

(01:49:05):
we cut you know all the time. Like I said,
I played a lot on a lot of these songs,
and you know, obviously he played on just about every
time song until um maybe after Ice Cream Castles when
we did Pannemonium. Then you know he started to kind
of slack off. But he would always play me stuff
because I would always be there in the studio. So

(01:49:25):
he's always and you know I understood his avant gardens,
his his weirdness and and and he just wanted to
be different, and you know that was his thing. And
that's that's really what got him, you know, in trouble
at the Rolling the Stones concert, because he wanted to
switch from I Want to be Your lover, you know,

(01:49:47):
and and all of a sudden he's you know, run
around half neck and you know, playing new wave songs.
And you know, he could have I think, you know,
he could have rose a lot quicker. And he took
a dive you know, um in his popularity and sales
for that Dirty Mind record. But it took him in
a direction that you know, actually led to where he

(01:50:10):
ended up being. So that's definitely a risk taker. And
he played me a lot of stuff and I just
kind of understood, you know, his thought process, you know,
and some of the stuff I liked, some of it
I didn't. Is there a song of his that you
wish you guys have for yourselves? Uh? Well, okay, I

(01:50:30):
know that International Lover was supposed to be for you.
Oh yeah, um yeah. At any point, did you actually
cut your own version of it? Oh? Where can we?
You can't unless you can get it into vault, you know,
you can. But I sang that song. I sang. I

(01:50:51):
sang it first okay, and then um, I just think
he decided that he liked it, you know, more than
he thought. And and then you know, next thing, I know, uh,
he came back to me. It's like, I don't like
I don't like your vocals. I don't like what you did,
he said. You know, I said, okay something. The next thing,
you know, he's like, well, I did it for myself,
you know. So I listened to it, and I was like, well,

(01:51:13):
that's great, you know, you wrote it. So but he
did the same thing with seven seven seven night through eleven.
You know, I'm up, you know, he said, you know,
I got some stuff to do. I leave you sing
the song. I'll come back. I did the vocals. He
came back from wherever he was, and he's like, I
don't like it. You know, you know, he said, I
hate how you sound on it. Blah blah blah. I said, uh, okay, cool.

(01:51:36):
So I go back to the hotel. About nine ten
o'clock the next morning, he's calling me, you know, lead
me downstairs in the car. We're getting a limo. He's like,
I love this man. I love the wear your voice.
So he wasn't he wasn't cutting your vocals half the time?
Oh no, I I you know, I gotten to the

(01:51:57):
point where I would do you know, I cut the
vocals myself? Was it? Yeah? I was gonna say, is
it cutting vocals is such an intimate experience? Uh? We're like,
were you like, were you uncomfortable if he's sitting there
like micromanaging your vocals or it's just like all right,
I'll leave and come back. And no, I was very
comfortable with him because you know, he's such, you know,

(01:52:22):
such a great producer, you know, and he knew how
to get the best out of me, and that's how
he taught me. And so, you know, and then he
just got to the point where he's like, I'm leaving
you handle it, and so, you know, like I said,
he he comes back some hours later. I'm done. I'm chilling.
You know. He's like, you know, tells the engine lem here,
you know, and he's like, I don't like it. Oh God,

(01:52:44):
I'm like okay, whatever. Man, I'm like, you know, I
gotta go to the hotel and you know, get some wrestling.
And like I said, the next day he comes back
he loves he keeps playing, I love how your voice
sounds here and all that. I was like, okay, dude, whatever, man,
can I just how was what was your what was
your approach on International Lover? What was the big difference
to you and the way y'all approached it? It was just,

(01:53:08):
you know, if you listen, you know, his voices different.
You know, he's a lot better singer than I am
as far as that goes, you know, so you know,
he just I kind of did it and more of
a raw fashion, you know, if you can imagine the
way I do stuff. And then he came back and
he put all of the the print screams and all this. Yeah,

(01:53:29):
I was gonna say, like, is your version of International
Lover with a monologue at the end that's a little
different than No, No, I didn't. I hadn't gotten to
the monologue part, but I just did the vocal part.
But mine was a lot cooler. I'll say that is
it harder for you to do ballots than the fast stuff,
because like a song like Old Baby, where you really
gotta you know you you you have to put in

(01:53:51):
work to to nail the ad libs and to really
give off a performance like our ballots more challenging for
you than the faster songs. Yeah, well, you know it was,
it was, you know, it was somewhat challenging. But you know, um,
you know the uptemple songs were were difficult too because

(01:54:12):
back then, you know, Prince was at the board guide
me through the vocals. He was very, very difficult because
you know, he wanted he wanted the attitude to be
at a certain level on the timber. You know. So
he's really what you know, Uh, he's the one that
really helped me make Jungle of sound the way it sounded,

(01:54:32):
you know, and all those songs. You know, he helped
me get that that attitude on the vocals the way
it needed to be there, and that you know that
that you know that took some work, you know, getting
it right. You know why was the original version of
the Bird the studio version? Why was that scrapped? Well?
Of course, yeah, I heard my I heard my question

(01:54:54):
as I asked it, and I was like, the live
album was better, but the studio version kind of kicks
ass too. I'm not I'm not gonna lie to you.
I love the studio version. As a matter of fact,
I was kind of pissed, you know when uh, he
said we're gonna do it live, you know. And I
grew to love the live version. But there was just
something about that studio version that was really funky, man,

(01:55:16):
you know, and and um it was more it was
a funkier version, but the student the live version was
just a more upbeat, fun version. Right. So speaking of
the live version, so I actually have the video um
of your quote last performance with the time at First Avenue, Uh,

(01:55:40):
when you're cutting Jungle loving the Bird and you know,
I guess before the movie gets shot, and there there's
that whole monologue bit with the passing of the hat,
your your Morrison preacher mode. Yeah, I forgot. I'm talking
in in inside baseball people speaking. As far as you're concerned,

(01:56:02):
You're like, I did this forty years ago. I don't
I don't remember what you're talking about. But the whole
like you know, Prince charging twenty five bucks you took?
Did you give that whole thing? Do you remember this
night at all? Yeah? And was was that part of
the act then or like it? Actually you sounded damned serious,

(01:56:25):
like we had kind of put that together, you know,
just for that night. It wasn't. It wasn't a regular
part of what we did. And to be honest, that
segment where we did Jungle Of and the Bird was
actually we were finishing. We were pretty much done with

(01:56:46):
UM filming in Minneapolis. Okay, we actually resumed in California,
so we did pick up shots in l A. But
we were done. And because the story goes that I
went off stay from doing those songs and saw me
again in Minneapolis. You know, I moved to Collie from

(01:57:07):
there and never went back. Oh see. The thing I
was confused about was because I thought that show was
the show that was recorded so that you can do
those songs in Purple ring the movie. It was right,
so eventually you had to shoot the movie that we
were done shooting the movie. Oh okay, I get it,

(01:57:30):
now get I see. Yeah. But yeah, that was what
was his response to that? And in your mind like
that that was I don't feel like that was comedy.
I feel like you were actually saying that it was.
It was definitely UM. I mean, we were making it

(01:57:52):
sound serious, but it was definitely comedy. And he definitely
had a lot to do with that segment of what
we did that night at that point he was still
hands on with everything that the time did. I can't
just gloss over Purple Rain. One thing I always wanted

(01:58:13):
to know was how many takes did it take you
to do the what's the passwords? Seam? Because that that
was damn near impressive as someone that had to study
who's on first, You guys executed that awesomely and that
was one of the you know, the you're acting in
Purple Rain is you know, was a highlight that definitely

(01:58:34):
add in the film. I appreciate that. I actually think
we me and Jerome nailed that in like two takes.
I think we nailed it on the first take, which
was pretty crazy, and then we did a second one
just for you know, for for they call it posterity
or whatever, but yeah, we nailed it. You know, Wow, Okay,
I would Okay, that's that's impressive. That's damn near impressive.

(01:58:58):
Having having recently just seen the first draft of Purple
Rain when it was called Dreams, way darker and way
you know at the time when you received dreams, did
you guys receive Dreams before it was redone into Purple Rain?
When I when I saw Purple Rain, it was purple Rain.

(01:59:19):
I never saw Dreams, so you gotta tell us what
was it different? I mean just Dreams was like it
was just darker. I mean, Purple Rain was definitely the
better script. But in Dreams, you know it ends at
the father's suicide. I think Prince commits suicide. Um, the
one scene that was really disturbing, the one really disturbs

(01:59:45):
every right exactly, But like one of the most disturbing
scenes in Dreams was so the scene where you know,
Prince and Napollonia are finally about to have their night
together getting on. There was a there was a comedy
component to it where Marrison Jerome followed Apollonia to princess

(02:00:08):
house and like are spying on her like through the window,
like it's it's yeah, it's it's it's crazy shit. You know.
A lot more happened with the trash can scene, and
like it was definitely more that film would have been
like the straight out of Compton of movies. You know,

(02:00:30):
I never I ain't gonna lie boy. Yeah, it was
a doozy. It was a doozy. How hard was it
for you really to walk away from that moment right
when it was on the crest of what what I
assumed that you were working for up to that point

(02:00:51):
where you become just as equally on on an a
star level as print. Well, it was. It was just
the more successful, you know, Prince became more difficult. It

(02:01:11):
became to be around him, and um, you know I
saw that when he fired Jimmy and Terry. I saw that,
you know, he wasn't loosening his grip when I I
said time and time again, you know, I'm an artist.
I write, I write every day. Um, that's how the

(02:01:31):
whole deal came about in the first place. And then
you know, he wouldn't take my song serious. I told him,
I told Covalo Ruffalo far Knowli that I needed to
do a solo album. I said, I'm good with being
you know, in the camp, but I need to do
a solo album. And he he just wouldn't let any

(02:01:53):
of that happen. So, you know, I just kind of said,
you know, I'm just you know, I'm gonna have to
walk if if I'm gonna do anything other than what
Prince wants me to do in my life, whether you know,
whether it's it's great or whether it's not so great,
I'm gonna have to walk because it's not gonna happen here.
You know, I told them straight out I need to

(02:02:16):
do my own album that I write and produced. And
then they came back to me and said, yeah, Prince
said you could do that as long as he's the
executive producer. Well, y'all do with that, man. So you know,
at that point, I just made the decision that I'm
gonna do my own thing. So at that point, did
you already have you know, the character or Don't Wait

(02:02:39):
for Me or or Love Sign or the Oak Tree,
like the songs that wound up on Color Success. Yeah,
I had a lot of you already have those in pockets?
Like when did you start writing those songs? Yeah? I
had a lot of songs at that point. So at
that point it was just me picking the ones that
I was going to use, you know, because like I said,

(02:03:00):
I've been writing all along and you know, just wasn't
able to use any of my songs. So you know,
I was busting at the scenes with songs. So you know,
it was just a matter of me and I wrote,
you know, one or two after the fact, but I
had a lot of them already just done. You know,
I see how weird was it on day one where

(02:03:24):
you are now in control of your own starship, where
you now have to answer to yourself. You now have
to sign the checks, You now have to hire the band,
the two ladies that are singing side by side with you,
Like now that you're really calling the shots. Like how
odd was that that now you had to be in

(02:03:47):
that position? Well, you know it was odd, But then
you know, the same token, it was almost like I
had been in training for that the whole time that
I've been with the time, because you know, I learned
how to put a show together. You know, I learned
all the ins and outs and the production and you know,

(02:04:10):
like I said, you know, by by by the end
of you know, the whole run with Prince, you know,
I was doing my own own vocals in the studio,
and so you know, I kind of, you know, I
kind of just I think I had you know, some
some some high class training, you know, so you know,
I kind of knew what to do at that point. Okay. Um.
On the other hand, with your acting career, because I

(02:04:32):
know that you know, there was there was high expectations
for you to become like this next big comedy star
and of course. Um, a lot of the early reviews
of Purple Rain actually had you pegged. And I felt
it too that you know, you could have actually fulfilled
the cinematic promise that Richard Pryor should have filled but didn't.

(02:04:56):
I wasn't able to. So what was it like acting
with him and moving? Yeah? It was, it was, you know,
it was. It was a double edged situation, you know,
because even though I did well acting, I didn't feel
like I was an actor and I didn't like you

(02:05:18):
know what. I kind of hate to say this, but
I didn't like acting so much. Okay, so by this
point in six, now that you're at the height of
of danus like, how exhausting is it now? Now you
have to wear suits, Now you have to your hair
has to be primped and prepped in dada da da da.
And I'm sure everybody, whatever your version of I'm Rick

(02:05:41):
James bitches like, like, is everyone running up to you
saying yes and all these things? Yeah? You know that
that part, Um, You know, there was there was a
point where you know, you couldn't turn on the radio,
uh pop or urban or whatever without hearing jumple over
the bird, and you know, people just you know, they
had their expectations, you know, because I tend to get

(02:06:02):
into my laid backness, you know, and uh and and
everybody expects, you know more. She walk in the room
doing the bird, you know, sliding in and you know
what I mean. You know, it's all good, you know,
because that's what I signed up for. But that's definitely
the expectation, uh that that that people had and still

(02:06:23):
have to. But wait, let me ask you though, because
I just had to remember this, had to look this up.
Did you feel like that before after you did a
new attitude, well, you know, a new attitude with Jack
hid right with No she was the hair thing right

(02:06:45):
the shop. Yeah, yeah, I remember in Jeff magazine. Okay,
I remember that. Yeah, I was still and I was
kind of still in the mode of acting, you know
at that point. But then, um, you know, you know,
you know, it just it kind of got to be.
We're with my music, you know, I kind of call

(02:07:05):
the shots, you know what I mean. And I'm not
a workaholic by anybody's stammards, but you know, I just
kind of like to be able to go when I
want to and to be the boss and you know,
acting somebody else is telling you be here this time,
be dressed, hurry up and wait and how long you
have to stay at work and when you could go home?

(02:07:26):
And it's like prints all over again. Yeah right right right?
You know, I mean I would probably still do it again,
but I don't know that I could just be a
full time actor, that's all. Okay. I'm afraid of this
answer because if you don't know who your Pressley jacket is,
then I definitely know you don't know about this. Do
you have a copy of the pilot that you and

(02:07:49):
Jeroom shot for ABC back in was it seven? I believe? Yeah.
I think I heard a rumor that you guys did
a like a detective yeah kind of thing. Yeah, I
think it was Fox. It was called Hotel Dicks. Wait
what Hotel Dicks? Yes, detectives okay, and you worked at

(02:08:18):
what was the what was the what was the plot?
What was the plot of the series. The premise pretty
much was, you know, we were like the over over zealous,
like Barney Rubble, you know, uh protective you know, uh
spying on people, you know, sending like little um remote

(02:08:39):
control cars with cameras through the air condition events to
spy on rooms and you know, kind of make sure
everything was good in the hotel, but but doing a
you know, way over the top job of it. So
you guys were like head of a security force inside
of a hotel. And yeah, I have seen a show yet,

(02:09:00):
Hotel Dicks, do you have a copy of this pilot?
I might have it because you know, I have h
boxes full of VCR taps. You know that VHS takes.
I have no idea what you know. Then they probably
dried out, brittle and don't work anymore, but I have

(02:09:22):
boxes of them. Before I leave this Earth, I'm watching
that before with this Earth, I'm watching it. Um. And
in making your follow up album, Daydreaming getting back with
the Jimmy and Terry, you know a lot of a

(02:09:44):
lot of your fans were trying to will this time
reunion way before. Um, at what point was this sort
of like, okay, let's let's test the waters and see
if we could do this again. Well, we're always just
a phone call away from from that kind of thing,
you know, Um, Jimmy and Terry and we we keep

(02:10:06):
up with each other, and um, you know, Jimmy's always
you know, like hey, you know, he's his affiliation with
Nerra's you know, which puts on the Grammys. You know,
he's always you know, using our name or putting our
name out there, and a lot of times they bite.
So you know, when when he calls and says, hey,

(02:10:27):
let's do this, you know, I'm always down to do
something with the original members. It's always a treat. Okay,
I see this. I was specifically talking about the fish
Net period even before y'all yes that too. You know. Um,
you know it's because Jimmy and Terry you know, produced

(02:10:48):
fish Net for me, and you know, so you know,
we just thought it would be a great idea to
do the video together. First of all, did you expect
them to be as red hot as they became? I
wasn't surprised because, um, you know, if you call earlier
when I said, um, I had heard you know when
you know, prior to them being in to me bringing

(02:11:10):
in them into the time, you know, I'd heard some
songs that they had produced on Cynthia Johnson you know,
ended up saying Funky Town, which was a world, big,
world hit. But I'd heard their work, and I told Prince,
I said, these guys are talented, man. I heard the
production work, and I said, and they really got something
special going. And so then once they got into band,

(02:11:32):
we would always get together. Man, we had these little,
uh cassio I don't know if you remember these cassio pianos,
and they came in these little plastic cases and both
they had opened them up, and we would get together
and fire up the four track on the road and
put together some real fire tracks. So, you know, I
knew that they had in them. I can't say that

(02:11:54):
I knew that they were going to blow up the
way they did, but I definitely knew that they had
something special as as rights and producers. Was there every
consideration to even let them do an entire album on you?
Or was it more like, okay, well I just fought
to get out the swamp, Like why would I take

(02:12:14):
a step back and take direction from someone else? No?
I mean I would have considered that in a heartbeat.
But you know, I had already done most of the
Daydreaming Daydreaming album, you know, when um, you know that
the idea came up that maybe they should do a
couple of tracks. You know, I was pretty much, you know,

(02:12:35):
knee deep into the project at that point. But you know,
if it presented itself earlier, I would have done more
songs of them, for sure. Okay, I don't know the
exact I don't know the reason why. Okay, I understand
that Graffiti Bridge was a flop. So that said, however,

(02:12:56):
the reception and the reviews of Pandemonium, it was definitely
one of the bright spots of how come you guys
didn't do a full scale tour or was it at
that point? You guys were an all star team and
it's just like nobody could take the time off to Yeah,
at that point, you know, Um, definitely, Terry and Jimmy's

(02:13:19):
schedule was was you know the roof they were they
were producing a little bit of everybody and um, you
know so and we all had, you know, our our
thing that we were doing. So it was just too
difficult at that point, and it probably would have been
way too expensive, especially for Terry and Jimmy to take
that kind of time to go out and tour. I see.

(02:13:40):
So then we're gonna wrap this up soon because I'll
be here twelve hours asking you about like, did you
know about the Jimmy interview? Morris? Have you heard in
the book? I know it's in the book. No, I know,
I know Jimmy jams a talker though. You know, his
episode was six hours and forty minutes. So I was

(02:14:02):
like the longest day of my life, like the greatest
day of my life. Aw it was awesome. It was
just like the longest day somebody more nerdier than me
answering questions about himself. Yeah, no, Jimmy damn good at
this thing, man, So you know we're not trying to
reproduce it. Jimmy, Jammy. That was a couple of years ago. Yeah,

(02:14:25):
I'm fifty now, I can't handle it. Um. But you know,
I think a couple of years ago I saw a
clip of your son singing. I didn't know that your
son was even a singer or whatever, and that's so amazing. Like,
how is that to see your kids like sort of

(02:14:45):
follow want to follow in that path, And you know,
as a parent, do you feel like they need to
have cautionary like is there kind of concern or fear
of like making sure that he doesn't fall down the
same path that I've held down or whatever? Like what
advice do you give your kids when they want to
pursue singing? Well, you know, it's always been a requirement

(02:15:09):
in my household. You know that that that they pick
up an instrument. Oh you are Joe Jackson. I get it. Okay,
I'll say this. You know a few of them got
stuck with it, like my son Darren that you're talking about,
who is the incredible singer and yeah, right right, yeah,

(02:15:32):
he's a chip off field. I actually don't know how
many kids do you have? Marks? So how many? Oh? Wow? Okay,
word okay. My boys one girl and they're all musically inclined. No, um,
I have three that actually care about music. Um still
and they're really good. Um. And but you know my

(02:15:57):
older kids that they do when they got fourteen years
old and they say, hey, Dad, I don't want to
I don't want to play the piano anymore. I don't
want to do I was like, hey, that's fine, you know,
you know, yeah, you know, and I'm good with that.
But you know, I just wanted to give them, you know,
that opportunity to you know too. And then they say
that it helps stimulate the brain, you know, for a

(02:16:18):
math and stuff like that. So I just want to
keep them engaged. It's not you know, when when they're
old enough to make that decision, and by all means
that they made that decision, you know, and they could
never say you didn't try, unlike my daddy who's a drummer,
who never taught me how to play the drums. Five digress.
It helps with creativity, though I did. Yeah, yeah, it

(02:16:39):
helps with creativity, and it gives something else to do
besides getting Trump that. So Mark's speaking speaking of your book, Um,
I really have to commend you um on the creative
way that you um structured it. Where you know, the

(02:17:01):
voice of what's in your head as Prince's voice and
how it never leaves you is in the book sort
of the same structure with Momenta, where Richard is talking
to me before you died, this sort of structure the
same way where Prince kind of has his version of

(02:17:21):
the story and and Mars sort of has a conversation.
So that's sort of like each chapter is peppered with
sort of conversations between them. Yeah. I gotta say, how
how hard was it or just how therapeutic was it
for you to finally get your story out? It was

(02:17:43):
It was both of those. It was hard to do
and it was therapeutic at the end. Of the day
because to actually sit you know, with with David Ritz
and the great David, Yes, the great, Yeah, he would
love it. But you know, and to go back down

(02:18:03):
some of those dark corridors, um was very difficult, you know. Um.
And it kind of resurfaced a lot of feelings that
I had buried, you know, um. And and so you know,
it brought a lot to the surface. And at the
end of the day, you know, it was like a
breath of fresh air once we got through it and

(02:18:25):
saw how it translated onto the pages. And uh, you know,
it just ended up being a good thing. You know,
that was the ultimate uh therapy session. Kind of is
there a sound scate with this audio book? Now? I
want to go back and listen to the audio book.
I'm like, is it Isn't you on the audio? No?
I shouldn't have done it, but I was gonna say, man,

(02:18:48):
what happened? I still need you know, with with David
Rich productions, things can be done over again. Look at
the Rich James book. Look at I. I would appreciate
it if you actually readid the audio to it because
I feel like you're you, I mean you your guy

(02:19:08):
did it good? You know, and it helped because you know, whatever,
when I take my morning walk or whatever, usually I
listen to audiobooks or dry places. It was cool, but yeah,
I feel like it needs your voice. And I agree
with that. Hell, it needs your voice. I know that
at least for the era of the eighties, that mystery

(02:19:29):
was a key component. Like you shouldn't do too much
to keep them engaged, but you know, to see what
was under the hood, man, And it's like you've been
through the fireman, And I gotta say that that, you know,
I really enjoyed the you're sharing your truth like that. Um,

(02:19:50):
you know in the story. Yes, okay, I'm I am
going to wrap up, but I wanted to save one asked,
frothy story for the end. This is the encore, and
you guys can be very happy that this is the
last time I'm gonna ask this question. This is the

(02:20:11):
most besides the Latin Quarter. No, No, besides the Latin Quarter.
This is the most asked question on quest Left Supreme
to anyone that's ever been in the Purple Army Mars,
can you please give me your account of the Cincinnati

(02:20:35):
Food Fight show. So here's here's the deal. Speaking of
the Huntsberry family, dude, crazy negotiations. I was able to
secure and get that performance or on tape. So of
course I don't I don't know what's happening backstage, but

(02:20:57):
I at least see the point where Chick grabs Jesse. Yeah,
and I guess you guys went guitar list for a second. Whatever,
can you please explain and fireside chat way whatever of
the food fight in Cincinnati? Yeah, of course I can.

(02:21:18):
You know it's in the book though, the book on
Time of Princely laughing fung. Yes we will. We will
rigorously promote this book. Yes, you no, I got to
do it, you know, I got to do it. But anyway,
so we're in Cincinnati, we're on stage and you know,
this the Prince that everybody thinks they know, they're serious minded,

(02:21:39):
you know, straight talk, you know, um st Yeah, he
decides he's gonna funk with our show and him and
his band are gonna start throwing eggs at us while
we're you know, port Yeah, that's real fun. Up. Let
me ask you. Let me ask you though? Is so

(02:22:02):
there was never a playful high school kind of nature
between the two bands or not like that, you know,
you know, because his his his crew were kind of
straight lace you know, um, you know, just kind of
boring people, you know. With with my crew, you know,

(02:22:24):
we were you know, we was all cool. You know,
had a little you know, pimp vibe to us. And
you know, you know, for instance, anytime the time had
a party, everybody would be there. We always be at
the little cheap hotel. And if we were at the
same hotel as him, we had a little low cheap
on the low cheap floor. He'd be upstairs and the
sweeps and all of that, but everybody would be at

(02:22:47):
our party. So you know, that's that's just the vibe
that we had. So it wasn't that kind of party
with us. We didn't interact with this band like that.
You know, you're talking Matt Fink and uh Bobby's Z
and all that. I mean, there's Dickerson. These are all
like you know, I don't even know, but they're they
weren't they just wasn't cool. Like okay, okay, I gotta

(02:23:09):
briefly interrupt. So since you since you kind of opened
the door, I gotta ask. And I never asked as
a artist or whatever because it's their personal thing, but
just in that environment was it everything we ever thought
it was in terms of whatever hedonistic party atmosphere that

(02:23:30):
we imagined that any figure from the eighties was living
at that point. It was pretty crazy. You know, I
wouldn't I wouldn't give it the hedonistic stamp, but you
know it was, you know, we we were parbatied hard,
you know what I mean. You come in, you know,
you couldn't tell where the bed was, where the floor was.

(02:23:52):
Folks to be danced on the bed floor. People have
the lampshades on their head, the musically going, and you know,
it was just kind of that kind of you know,
free social media, the good life, yeah, pre social media. Well,
I mean like coming to America was like white bros
like yeah, and other things that go along with that. Anyway,

(02:24:16):
you know, you know, I get the sun always goes down,
you know, but the lights went low, but just the
party was going, you know, it was you know, we
just have some good, clean, fun party and having a
great time. And it was so it was to the
point where Prince would start coming down. He'd come down
with Chip you know or whoever his bodyguard was having

(02:24:36):
breaking because he's like, what's going on down there? You know,
he wanted to know, like that coming to ruin the
party or is it like he's cool? He No, nobody
skipped the beach, you know, they see him show up,
and you know, people were so happy to be that
our parties that you know, they wouldn't acknowledge him as
much as you thought they would because everybody would just
be having a great time, you know, and you kind

(02:24:57):
of show up with a bodyguard. What's kind of a
buzz kill to begin with it, you know. But you know,
so that that that was the deal with that. But
you know, so we didn't interact with his band, so
it wasn't that kind of fun environment between the two
bands where it was a laugh. When they started throwing
eggs at us on stage, you know, I'm like, you know,

(02:25:18):
what's What's what's happening here? I'm seeing eggs flying and
hitting some of my band members and splatting on the
stage and on the speakers and stuff. And I was like,
you know, and then so I happened to look up.
I'm trying to concentrate on doing, you know, my show,
and I see you know, Prince and his crew laughing
down there, you know, and running and off to the

(02:25:39):
side and throwing eggs out of it at us, and
I was like, what is this, you know, and so
so he's he's not worried about like being seen by
the audience and none of these things. Yeah, I don't
know what got into him that night. I'm gonna tell
you that was That was also the last night of
the tours. So I'm certain that whatever resentment and whatever,

(02:26:00):
you know, any of those things that are happening. Yes,
it's like we're gonna throw water balloons at the bus,
you know, on the last day, you know, when the
kids are leaving or something, eggs, you know. And so
then we come off stage and you know, he's really
laughing about the ship, you know, but in the same
breath he's saying, you guys, better not bother me while

(02:26:21):
I'm on stage. What So he's basically asking you to
bother him on stage. Yeah, exactly exactly. So we sent
our guy, you know, and we told him to get
us a box of glad bags, the green ones, the
big the big trash bags and some and some a
few dozen eggs. So we geared up, you know, just

(02:26:43):
in cases some retaliation. And when he went on shure
enough we was firing up the stage with eggs. He
gets Piste, he has Chick, like you said, Chick grabbed Jesse,
took him into the dressing room and handcuffed him to
a cloth was racked those kind of clothes racks that
they screwed into the wall with the tow on the mill.

(02:27:05):
Handcuffs into that, and Jesse's going crazy, you know. He
eventually ripped the uh the rack off the wall, came
out swinging at people with and it just went, it
just went totally bizarre. Prince was pissed, his band was mad.
They was acting like they wanted to fight. And then

(02:27:26):
so I ended up in the back room with Chick
and Prince, and Prince is yelling at me all night
and I'm like, you started this ship, I said, you
started throwing eggs at me, and he's threatening to fire
me from the production coming that would be on tour again,
and blah blah. It was just when it was. It
was a crazy night, That's what I could tell. I

(02:27:49):
could hear. It was crazy. It got real deep. It
went way before, way beyond. And then I ended up
paying five g's. He made me pay for the clean
up at the venue, five thousand bucks. Yeah, bringing up
the calculator right now, so inflation, like I'm going, I'm

(02:28:09):
going two grand the inflation calculator for uh, this fight
happen with nineteen eighty three, so let's see five thousand bucks.
Oh Jesus christ Man, that was thirteen thousand, two d
seven dollars and fifty five cents today. That's a lot

(02:28:30):
of money, you know what I mean, records talk about
with that ship three. So do you feel as though,
even though you know the food fights supposed to be
an endearing thing amongst friends, but do you feel the
underlying thing was maybe sort of resentment that you guys
were getting better reviews or like your only revenge was

(02:28:50):
to kick his ass on stage. Yeah. I think it
was part of that. And I think, you know, in
his own way, you know, like you said that being
the last night that particular tour, you know, I think
he was thinking he could kind of sabotage it so
we definitely wouldn't get better reviews. Hey, brother, Prince, forgive

(02:29:14):
me now, you know what you know, but you know,
but but you know, it's it was all, you know,
just as part of like I said, when I when
I would run into him as much animosity as I
could muster up for some of the ship that we
went through together. That that wasn't so cool. I was
always happy to see him, you know, I was always
happy to see him. Well, thank you for sharing your

(02:29:38):
story with us, brother day. Wait a minute, Marris, you
knew it couldn't wait? Well, no, no, no. Have you
ever revealed what the E means in your name? Well,
like I always say, the E is, it's in the book,
the E is sometimes for Morris every day, you know,

(02:30:03):
the changes. It just depends on the mood and the moment,
you know. Okay, I felt like that. I feel like
that's the first personal I feel like that's the first
personal question I asked you, like, your your political affiliation
and what is the E stand for? More entertaining date?
I see? Wait a minute, Marris, I can't no, Well,

(02:30:26):
it would be disrespectful. Dude. You you're working, you're working
on you got new material out now with Snoop. Yeah,
I'm so busy trying to get off the clock so
he doesn't hang up on us. Cute. Can you talk
about working now that now that you're in Snoop's camp?
What what what it's been like it's been real cool.

(02:30:48):
You know. Snoop's a real gracious guy. Um. You know,
he invited me to come down to that. I went
down really because I wanted him to to get on
a song that I had, and then he just said, hey,
I want to do you know a bunch of stuff
with you. So you know, we started cutting down there.
So you know, we ended up. You know, we have
a lot of great stuff, a lot of stuff I

(02:31:08):
cut with Snoop. You know, we got Snoop on our
new project. We got flow right on the new project.
We got Trinidad James, you know, and this keeps growing.
So you know, we're just we're having fun, you know
with some of the more seasoned members of the musical
community these days, and uh making good music. But we

(02:31:31):
got to get together on one too. Yes, actually we
can close on a really glorious new Oh wait before
you close at the reissue too, right, Yes, the reissues
of the of the Time record and What Time Is It?
And ice Cream Castles as well, just the first two
records is the first to the reason he is here today. Alright,

(02:31:53):
good stuff forget one of the one of the many,
one of the reason that we got you the book.
We've been trying to get you for the last few years,
so but this is how we finally you know, I'm
actually pleased. I'm very happy to say that technically the
Roots and the Time have a song together on the

(02:32:14):
new Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis album. Yes, I don't.
I don't think you knew that the musical backdrop you
were singing to was a Root song. That's how That's
how much work I'm doing nowadays. I totally forgot that
we we have a song together on that. Yeah, and yes,

(02:32:35):
no it's by by the time this airs, it'll be done.
And I think I just let a serious cat off
the bag, but I'm not certain later Jim Jim, Jim
Jim won't punish me for revealing this again. Yeah, I

(02:32:55):
was gonna say that, uh, Jim actually just yeah, he
told me like day before yesterday, so that, yeah, exclusively that. Yeah,
both the routes of the Time made the final cut
of Well Morris, we're talking about together at the same
time when he did. Yes, of course now that now
that the pandemics over allegedly now now we can now

(02:33:20):
we can be creative. Yes, I would love to do
that Yes, you're you're you're. As I said, man, you're
you're one of my true heroes, not just like a
guy down with that other guy, but like, you know,
you're you're kind of our you're north Star and no, seriously,
like a lot of black people got pulled into this
fear via you guys first and then catching up later. Yes, yes, y'all,

(02:33:43):
but the blackness that lured is in exactly. I want
to thank you for doing this. I've been you know,
I still deny that we've been on for five years,
but yeah, this is this is definitely one of the
dream interviews. Yo. Can I just mentioned by the way,
people don't know this at home, but this is the
first time we've ever done a quest left Supreme where

(02:34:05):
we didn't see our guests. Mariah tried to do this
and we was like, nas, you got to see you,
Morris Day. This is how much we loved you that
we actually did it blind. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know,
my my my, I didn't get my hair did today.
My lady, my hair lady wasn't available, So you know,
all good brother, As long as as long as you

(02:34:26):
tell the story that I'm fine with that and you
find regardless Morrison, don't nothing change? All right? Well, I
wanna being Bill Sherman, Sugar Steve. I know I hugged
all the questions. Yeah, that's why I apologize at the beginning.
A great job, Sugar Steve, you have you have any
last words? I know? I love you, Marris, thank you? Yeah?
That great? All right? When be having the crew fantacolo,

(02:34:47):
you were missed. I hope that was a great picnic.
Bill and Sugar Steve. The great Mars entertaining day every day,
every day. Yes, I like it to is ever changing,
might be one of the ease and every more. So.
Thank you very much, and this is question Love Supreme.

(02:35:09):
We'll see on the next que round y'all. Thank you
right now. Hey, this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you
keep up with us on Instagram at q l S
and let us know what you think. Who should be
next to sit down with us? Don't forget to subscribe
to our podcast. What's Love Supreme is a production of

(02:35:37):
my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laiya St. Clair

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