Love4oneanother episode 6

How are you? No, really are you ok? A book reading chapter 3&4, MD.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome back, y'all. This is Jeff Luna and the Love
for one Another and Podcast. I want to welcome you
back to this wonderful journey through music life and how
we navigate through it altogether. No, we do not talk
about hate here, but we do not act like we
are blind to those amongst us filled with hate.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So strap yourself in as we take this musical journey
and learn to have love for one another.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Hey, this is Jeff would Love for one Another podcast
and show, and I am glad that you are here
once again. Welcome back. We did a double show. I
did a sections four episodes four and five, and I
did it because I.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Did the reading of the book.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think we're going to read again tonight. I want
to get through this book. A couple of chapters here,
a couple chapters there. But first let's talk about how
you're doing. How are you feeling, how are you getting by?
And with our daily struggles and our daily lives, just wondering. Hey,

(01:49):
you know, sometimes we're doing pretty good. Sometimes we're doing
pretty bad. Sometimes we're trying to just figure things out,
and we don't really want to let people know, because
the more you let people know everybody's got suggestions and
sometimes we don't want to hear them, and sometimes we're
still trying to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
You know, there's a lot of things going on in
the world, so we are navigating, call ourselves navigators and
trying to figure it out. So anyway, just want to
see how the little check in, see how everybody's doing.
You are more than welcome to comment. You can go
to the Love for one Another Facebook page, you can

(02:30):
go to Real Music Radio Facebook page, you can go
to the Instagram. There's plenty of places to go. There's
also a real Music Radio website you can check out.
I think it was down for a couple of days.
It should be back up. There's also radio stations and
you can comment wherever. And I think you can comment

(02:51):
on here too on the podcast page and let us
know how you're doing, how you liking the show, if
you have any suggestions, if you have anything that you'd
like to talk about, I am more than willing to
listen and and provide provide some some subjects. You know,
we can definitely talk about things you know, and and

(03:13):
that's why I ask how you're doing, because today, you know,
so I've definitely seen a little change and how people
are reacting to things going on in the world today.
And there's a lot between politics and between just trying
to get by with the financially. Uh, there's a lot

(03:35):
of prices are still going up. They haven't come down
like promised gasesn't is a little bit lower, but everything
else is still a mess, and it's a little tough.
You know, things get tough, and and then when when
people want to act like it's not, it makes it
even harder because we try and figure out how we're

(03:57):
going to get through it and how we're going to
make our way uh through the times that are tough
right now. So anyway, so how are you let me
know I talk about it. I love to read your comments.
And when I did the live shows, it was better
because people came and commented a lot. But I like
this formatt better because I can edit, you know, instead

(04:22):
of just live. Is always fun. I like doing live,
but this is a little bit more better because I
could keep myself in a certain timeframe and see what
you know, talk about things. So we're going to get
into the book reading and I knew that there was
something else that I was going to talk about today,

(04:43):
but if I remember, I'll do it at the end
of the show. So let's take a break and we'll
come back with our continuation of the reading of Morrisday's
book On Time at Princely Life in Funk More's Day
with David Ritz and I'm still trying to figure out
who he is. I should have researched it, and I
did it, but that's okay. So we're going to go
ahead and continue this after this be right back. This

(05:06):
is Jeff with Love for one Another podcast.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
And welcome back.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
This is Jeff with Love for one Another podcast, and
we are going to do a couple of chapters here
of Morris Day's book with this book called On Time
Princely Life in Funk with Moore's Day. Now, I had
done the first two chapters and and so I'm not
the greatest book reader.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
What can I say?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
You know, hey, I think I do fairly well. But
you know, what I'm used to doing is reading to
myself when I read contracts and stuff like that, and
I got a certain way of reading, and I think
now that I'm reading like out to the public, it's
not going to be the same. So it's you know,

(05:54):
I'm going to do my best I can and hopefully
you can follow along. Like I said, if you can't,
you know what you could do was go get the book.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
It's always good.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
I'm always going to promote to go buy people's merchandise,
whether it be music a book, Always go buy support.
You've got to support the artists out there. I do
have radio stations and podcasts and we do play certain
things here and there. But it's all for you to
go buy. Listen a little bit. If you like what

(06:25):
you're hearing, go buy the person's material. Everybody, you know,
we all do stuff in this world, whether it be
a job or whatever. But the main thing is that,
especially when it comes to artists, is that when they
do produce things, or make things or create and they
want to share it with the world, it's not just

(06:48):
like you know, everybody's different, but more than likely if
they put it for sales because they need to make
some money from it, they're trying to sell it to
the world and do them a favor and make that
purchase because that's the way that they operate and survive,
and everybody needs to make a living. So it's always

(07:08):
makes an artist feel good when you support them. If
you can't buy it, share it. If you can't share it,
talk about it. You know, just support man, It really helps.
So that's my promoting man, go buy the book. So
we are on chapter three, This called The lunch Room.
This is Morris Day's book talking about his life with

(07:29):
Prince and his life too. So if you didn't catch
it in the first time, he kind of talks like
he's talking with Prince listening, and Prince will chime in
from time to time. So my whole thing about reading
this book was that when I listened to the online
version of where they read it, they I didn't care

(07:49):
for the way the guy read it. Now, I might
not be doing much of a better job, but I
was hoping that Morris would read it because I think
that'd be even better. So anyway, this is my version
of it. I hope you like it. And this chapter three,
the Lunchroom. All right, So it begins when I was
coming up, Minneapolis was not Atlanta or la By that,

(08:12):
I mean, it's black population was tiny. There was no
chocolate city within the big city, or or if there was,
it was very thin slice of chocolate. Not sure if
even two percent of Minneapolis. Saint Paul was African American.
The effect, I believe was the creation of solidarity. There

(08:32):
weren't many of us, so we knew to stick together.
I personally didn't experience blaytant racism. My brother Jesse was
called names, and I can recall a few episodes, but
by and large, we lived our lives in a pretty
cool space. On KQRS, the popular radio station, you might

(08:53):
hear three Dog Night, followed by Bill Withers, followed by
the Rolling Stones. Herbie Hancock's Headhunter were in the air.
So were the Doobie Brothers and Elton John. Folks in
the Hood were hooked on Al Green and Teddy Pendergrass,
but generally no one drew sticks strict lines between genres.

(09:14):
White and black blended together. Compared say, to Chicago or
New York. The Twin cities were chilled. I'm not saying
there was a deep down racial tension, and I'm not
saying that certain white folks didn't express attitudes and superiority.
America's America. When jazz pianists Earl Errol Gardner asked Lewis Armstrong,

(09:38):
what's up, pops, Armstrong answered, white folks are still ahead
spoke for all of us. Exposure to a wide variety
of music and a wide variety of genres informed my
future at an early age. You might as well be
talking about me, says Prince. I am, but in this story,

(09:59):
I I still haven't met you. You heard us in
the lunch room. You called this, you called this chapter
of the lunch room. We'll take us inside the lunch room.
I'm feeling like you want to produce this book. All
I'm saying is if you want to hit book, then
hit it. Get to it. I'll get to it when

(10:20):
I'm ready to get to it. You don't even know
how I wound up in the lunch room. Doesn't matter
to you. It don't to me. It does. See, I
didn't get there because of you. I got there because
of a check. She was fine and I was trying
to get next to her. She said something about a
band she wanted to hear. She mentioned her Friday night

(10:42):
show up at Central High, your school at the time
I was at North High. The girl didn't mention you,
She didn't even mention the name of your band. She
just said there was this, there was music. But you
heard of me, right. That's another myth you made up
in your mind. I hadn't heard shit about you at

(11:02):
the time. You were living with your mom and a
house down the street from us. Nice house too, a
lot nicer than ours. But you being in the crib
was something I learned later when I walked in the lunchroom.
I walked in cold, didn't have a clue and how
do you react? First? First, my visual impression of you

(11:26):
was this huge afro, brown blown out to the max
black turtleneck sweater, a pair of wacky bow bottoms, and
a pink woolen girl's gloves with the fingers cut out
so you could string your guitar. That was my first
glimpse of what I call your metrosexual vibe, meaning what

(11:47):
meaning most cats like straight up leather gloves, but you
liked Lady Minton's with and didn't care what anyone thought
about it. You liked the flare of certain accessories, even
if the flair was feminine, So you were worried about
my sexuality, not worried, and couldn't have cared less. I'd

(12:08):
soon see you were straight as gait, and even if
you swung the other way, it wouldn't have mattered all
I'm saying is that there was a gender bender side
to you that came out early. You knew how to
exploit it. Exploit sounds like a bad thing. Maybe it
exploits the wrong word. Maybe it was just you being you?

(12:29):
And who was that? A badass musician looking to make
waves and grab attention, A guitarist who at fifteen had
absorbed all of Eric Clapton and thrown in Jeff Beck
for good measure. Later I learned you'd even study the Cats,
as that influenced Jimmy Hendrix, Johnny Guitar Watson and Buddy Guy.

(12:51):
Got the idea, You've been drinking in this music like
babies drink mama's milk. You'd been drinking some of that
milk yourself, not like you. I was a serious drummer.
My chops were sharp, but I recognized you had a
different breed of cat entirely. You didn't just play the
fucking music, You were the fucking music. It consumed you,

(13:15):
just like it consumed everyone who heard it. Never had
seen anything like that before. That's why I wanted in.
I wanted in your band, Grand Central, but I wasn't
in the in crowd. I was standing outside watching you
soaring on guitar, Terry Jackson on timbales, William Doherty on

(13:36):
dody on congas. Andre Anderson later in charge to change
his name to Andre Simone on bass, Andre's sister Linda
on keys, and and drummer Charles Chas Smith. Chaz had
spent had the spot I wanted, but I had been
told Chas was your cousin. Didn't matter that I could

(13:57):
outplay him, I couldn't now maneuver him. The repertoire was
heavy funk, lots of slide in the family stone and rufus,
with everyone taking turns on vocals. You sang with the
chak Khan like fire. Your falsetto felt as strong as
Curtis Mayfield's. The whole band rocked. You were clearly the star,

(14:18):
playing on the plateau, high above everyone else. You were
also distant, not the kind of cat even in high school,
who could slide up to me and say, Hi, hey man,
what's up. Let's hang. On the other hand, Andre was
the kind of cat. On the other hand, Andre was
that kind of cat. He had an easy going personality.

(14:41):
He was all heard and super approachable, like me. He
liked weed and listening to advanced music. He played me
weather Report I'd played him, returned to Forever. We were
deep in fusion, Deep into fusion. He studied bassist Jocko Pastrolias.

(15:01):
I studied drummer Billy Kobom, John McLoughlin and the man
avast Who Orchestra.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Man.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
I'm getting challenged with by Morris Moores challenging me on
this to Tony Williams Lifetime. We liked the fire Outcats.
Andre and I tightened up and spent lots of time together.
I still never mentioned how much I wanted to join
Grand Central. Figured it was better to lay back and
the cut then came back. Then came the day Andre

(15:35):
came over to my house. He noticed I had to
set up drum.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Kit for all.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
For all our talk about music, I hadn't pushed my
own agenda. You got the drum set up like you're serious,
he said. I am play something. I was ready. I
threw a couple of power patterns in the box with
his hip and sol vaccination. I played David Garbodi's part

(16:00):
to where he has no daylight between me and David Brother,
I had his part down. Why didn't you tell me?
Asked Andre tell you what that you played your ass off.
I just smiled. You should come by the band rehearsal
before y'all got Chaz. We're having problems with Chazz. Come

(16:23):
by an audition music to my ears. A week later,
I was over at Terry Jackson's house rehearsal. Rehearsal was
in the basement, Chazz's drums were set up, but I
arrived with my own kit. Part of me was nervous,
part of me excited. I had butterflies, but also confidence.
I'd spent thousands of hours home alone banging on some

(16:44):
of those most complex drum, complex drum patterns.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
And modern music.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
I had this. I knew I did. Everyone was friendly
except Prince. Prince was cool, standoffish. I didn't know. I
didn't know what to expect, didn't really know who you were.
That was Prince talking, and you weren't about to make
me feel comfortable. That wasn't your style. Your style was
to challenge my chops. On the other hand, Andrea was

(17:11):
super supportive. His sister Linda gave out good vibes. The
other cats were all smiles, but you weren't smiling. I'm
not saying you were scrolling but I could feel your skepticism.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You were looking down.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
After I got through setting up, I signaled that I
was ready to go. You called slides dance to the
music and counted it off. No problem.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
I was there.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
I could pick up the pocket of that song blindfolded,
and I did. Felt great. Linda, Andrea and the boys
gave me looks of approval. Nothing from you. You were
playing and singing. You were deep in the groove. I
was grinding after it was over, though you didn't say
a word. You called another tune evil ways that I

(17:59):
knew from the car, though Santana Buddy Miles live record,
Live Record, Buddy was another monster drummer I'd been studying,
so the groove wasn't new.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
I wrote it.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Right, smooth sailing all the way. Everyone happy. Got to
presume you were happy because you were calling off more tunes.
I was there for every one of them. Funkadelics for
your mind and your ass will follow JB's get on
the good foot. I was on it, on it for
a couple of hours, felt natural as breathing. When you

(18:33):
finally called the night, I got a couple of slaps
on the back from the other band, from the others,
but my man will still standoffish. You didn't even tell
me goodbye. What does that mean, i asked Andre the
next day. Means you got the gig, Otherwise you would
hear he wasn't happy. That's funny. I was happy, not
only because I was in the band I'd been dying

(18:55):
to join, but because I knew in order to hang
with these cats, I'd have to be I'd have to
hone my chops. I was up for it. I had
a vocal support on my bandmates, except Prince, who stayed silent.
That was his way. Aloofness was how he stood apart.
He led aloofy but intensely. I never have before or

(19:20):
since seeing anyone work with music with his kind of focus.
I could be on the clock for hours at a time.
I thought I was devoted. But Prince Man, that motherfucker,
he was never off the clock. He slept eight, drank,
and devoured music. Couldn't stop writing it, rehearsing it, performing it.

(19:41):
He was possessed and remained that way every day, every
waking day. So you're gonna admit I gave you that
work ethic you got, you got you through. Let me
say that again, because I've messed that up, so you're
gonna admit it. I gave you that word, that work
ethic that got you you through admitted, gladly, admitted, openly

(20:04):
shot it from the mountain top. Thank you, brother for
schooling me on on what it means to do it
tight and write. I know you had your own teacher's
JB bootsy sly, but you took it further. You tightened
it until it couldn't tighten anymore. And in the meantime
we had fun and created the sound. Says Prince, you
better break down the birth of the sound, the birth

(20:26):
of Minneapolis funk. You could probably explain it better than me.
It's your book, wise ass. You get to the explaining.
I had start out by saying that necessity was the
mother of invention. We didn't have horns, couldn't afford them,
so the keyboard was doing some of the lead lines.

(20:47):
Linda was playing a uh Varfesa far Fisa electric organ. Oh,
I should know that that, along with your guitar on
Andrew's bass, gave Grand Central a full on unk effect
different from other bands. You hadn't talked about our competitors.
You saw them as competitors the rest of us saw

(21:10):
him as brothers.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Jimmy Jam and.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Terry Lewis had his band called flight Time, and Yes
they could fly. They got the name from Donald Beard
Funk Jazz Jam flight Time and their sound from the
Three Police horn section. Jimmy and Monty and Bad White
Boy who sang soul were great keyboard players. Terry is
superb bassist, jelly Bean Johnson kill killer drummer, and the

(21:34):
first vocalist Cynthia Johnson, a sister who could shout, who
could shout. Jellybean, by the way, was like me left handed.
I always thought that made both our styles a little distinctive.
Greatest flight Time was Prince was pushing us to be greater.

(21:55):
Prince was pushing us to the edge, over the edge,
gig after gig after gig, played high school dances, VFW Hall's,
the local clubs.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Like the Riverview and the.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Nosiriam No soriamrima that's American spelled backwards boh. Sometimes there'd
be battles of the bands of the flight Time. Both
bands were banging a supersonic Prince guitar solo would win
over the crowd, but by then Jimmy Jam Fireworks displayed

(22:25):
on keys were making them just as crazy. Everyone was singing.
William Dodi had a William Orange style brick house voice
when we converted Commodore's tunes. When we covered Commodore Commodore's tunes,
I sang Billy Preston's will I Get Around in Circles

(22:47):
and deep blues ballad by Major Harris Love Won't Let
Me Wait. I was feeling pretty good about my voice
until flight Time hired Alexander O'Neil, who hands down was
the heavyweight champ Minneapolis's own Wilson Pickett. Talent was everywhere
interesting that the first interesting that the first adult to

(23:12):
see this talent and act upon it was my beloved mother.
Remember Mom was a practical woman. She was not easy
taken or impressed, not easily taken or impressed. She looked
at life realistically. When I started playing drums, she saw
it as a lark, just a little kid hobby. When
I got better, she still wasn't ready to say I

(23:34):
had a future in music. But when she heard Grand Central,
her whole attitude changed. She went to one show, and
just to be sure she wasn't fooling herself, she went
to another and then another after three or four Grand
Central shows. She said, she said it straight up, y'all
aren't just good, you're fantastic. You deserve a deal, and

(23:57):
I'm going to get you one. Which was then, which
was when things got crazy. That's the end of chapter three,
and I fought my way through it. I think I did. Man,
I tell you, this is great. I'm loving this book.
I'm loving this book, Morris. It's a damn good book.

(24:18):
But like I said, I tried to listen to it
and I couldn't do it with that other guy reading it. Sorry,
you know, props to him.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
I just don't know who.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is anyway, this is Morris's book reading. We did one
chapter and take another break and we'll come back and
do a chapter four called good Times. This is Jeff
with Love for One Another Podcast. We'll be right back,
and we are back. This is Jeff with Love for

(24:47):
one Another podcast. This is our sixth, sixth show. As
you can tell, it's not only with reading the book
that I messed up my words. It's just with talking,
which is funny because here I'm doing a podcast.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
U Right.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Sometimes I just get my you know, get a little
sloppy with talking. But that's all right. Anybody judging, anybody grading.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Me, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
But we are here on our sixth show doing our
second reading of Morris Date's book. It's called On Time
at Princely Life in Funk. We're going to do two
chapters every time because I don't want to just dedicate
the show to reading a book. I'd like to get
some more stuff and get some more talking. Talk about life, man,

(25:33):
talk about changes, you know. So we'll get to all that.
But we're going to do another chapter, which is a
chapter four called good Times, and we'll get that going
right now. For the two years I played with Grand Central,
it was a beautiful station situation. Glad to hear you
say that, Bro, wouldn't want no one to bad mouth

(25:55):
the band. That's Prince talking right there and Genesis in
the background adding a little.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Bit of her ad libs.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Let's see what the hell's going on? More says, wouldn't
dream of it. We were learning as we were gigging,
growing as we were wood shedding, moving from wet behind
the ears kids to young pros who knew what it looked,
what it took to a goose the crowd until no
one sat for our sets no matter how long we played.

(26:25):
The typical Grand Central set was off the hook mouth open,
Earth Wind and Fires Shining Star. Oh, we might open
with Earth Winding Fires Shining Star. Then Prince would sing
a couple of rufous songs. He loved Shaka Khan and
sang Shaka's leads with as much passion as Shaka herself.

(26:46):
He tear it up, tell me something good and sweet thing,
The Isisley Brothers, Fight the Power, Bootsi's Rubber Band, Bootsi's
Rubber Bands, Psychotic Bump, School funk Adelics, Get Off Your Ass,
and Jam Ltd's Love Ballad. We were all fans of
Jeffrey Osborne Ltd's lead singer, Slides, dance to the music,

(27:10):
and for sure for for fun, remember by confunction fun fun.
In short, we were deep in fierce funk. You make
it sound like we were a cover band, just saying
that the backbone of everything was funk, and funk wasn't
anything we invented. The great great inventors from Chuck Berry

(27:32):
through Bo Diddley and James Brown, especially JB where our
teachers and are gurus. We loved them.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
We found their funk.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
So beautiful and irresistible, so much funking, so much fucking fun,
that we naturally copied the cats and came out came
after Chuck and Bow and James. I'm talking about Slye
Isley's Clinton Bootsy Cameo, Lakeside Graham, Central State Ohio Players,
and all the others. So, yes, we're a cover band.

(28:05):
Like most bands, we started off covering stuff, and yes
we did it to pay our respects to the elders,
but also there's also another reason we did it to survive,
surviving in those clubs men getting the party people up
and dancing, and you could only do that with playing
the hits they.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Already knew from the radio.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
All true, But also true is that I always had originals.
You did, but we had to sneak in those originals
in between the radio hits. That's what most bands do anyway,
isn't it. It's me talking now. You always want to
play originals, but you got to play the hits, and
you know, it becomes a struggle to be between. Sometimes

(28:51):
it gets annoying that you got to always play the hits.
But if people don't dance, then they won't hire you.
That's the truth. My originals were just as good as
anything on the radio. That's what Prince is talking about,
and you know it was right anyway. Okay, let me
just stop and re establish a fact that can't be
re established enough. Everyone reading this must believe me when

(29:14):
I say Prince possessed genius, unpresented genius. Think back to
Elvis the Cats, some folks say.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
Invented rock and roll.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Elvis was cool, Elvis had a look, he sang, worked
the Pelvis drove the girls crazy. When never diss Elvis
for borrowing from black music, because he publicly acknowledged his masters.
He loved him some BB king, he respected Ray Charles,
he covered raised songs. But if they call Elvis the king,

(29:44):
you're gonna have to call Prince the world Emperor. I
say that because unlike Prince, Elvis did not write. Elvis
did not arrange. Alvis did not play killer guitar. And
when I say that Prince wrote and ranged, I mean
he wrote and arranged literally thousands of songs under so
many different names that he forgot half of them. And

(30:06):
when I say the Prince played guitar, I mean he
blended styles of all the guitar gurus and then added
a fantastic flare of his own.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
He did more than a range.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
He created a sound that, nearly a half century later,
sounds as fresh as it did when Ground Central was
tearing the roofs off every school auditorium in twin Cities.
So I praised my brother with that reservation, and will
never and will continue to praise him with the last
breath of my body. However, uh oh, I don't like

(30:38):
the sound of that. However, here comes the bad part,
as Prince, No bad parts, just facts that you cloaked
yourself in. And mystery. Mystery was your protection. Mystery was
your way of clutching control with even a tighter fist.
Mystery was to you the way prayers are the priests.

(30:59):
You couldn't live with the mystery, couldn't operate without it.
You had your own clock, your own timetable and agenda,
and no one but you was allowed.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
To see it.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Prince was serious, but Prince was also funny. The way
I finally broke through was heavy armor with his humor.
His heavy armor was with humor. He liked to laugh,
and in that way wasn't all that different from the
Minneapolis Brothers, who loved pulling pranks. And cracking jokes, Prince talk,
street talk. He chopped it up with us as much

(31:33):
as with as much salt and swag as anyone. His
light hearted vibe was great, but it came with limits.
Prince could shut it down in a hot second, and
when he did, when the joke, when joking ended ended,
Brother would slip back into his mystery man pose. That
pose was his fall back. What it said was, you

(31:56):
don't really know me, No one does, and no one
knows what I'm going to do next. There you go,
trying to understand what you can't understand. I understand more
than you want me to understand. I understand that you
used mystery, but I want to say that I respect
the mystery. It worked, helped make you motherfucker superstar all

(32:17):
hell mystery Man. When Prince and I first started hanging,
he was living with his mother, Maddie and sister Tika,
down the street from us. Maddie had divorced Prince's dad,
John Lewis Nelson, who is a musician also called himself Prince,
and married Heyward Baker. Maddie and Hayward had a son, Omar.

(32:41):
There was a piano in the basement where Prince started experimenting.
Prince and a stepdad had their problems, big time tension.
Maddie was a pretty lady who didn't say much. She'd
been a jazz singer and gigged with Prince's dad John.
Because Prince and Hayward wasn't cool, Prince bus to move,
leaving Maddie's crip for John's way across Olson Highway. Like father,

(33:07):
like son. John was also a very loaf cat. You
never knew what he was thinking. Reminded me of Victor
of Vincent Price. John was also a serious musician. Prince
was proud of his dad, who constructed far out stuff
vanguard spacey jazz. But if you listen closely, you'd catch

(33:28):
a melody line, you'd catch a groove. John was deep
in his music. When Prince moved out of his mom's place,
he figured he'd be easier to deal with his real
dad than a stepfather or a stepdad. From what I saw, though,
that wasn't the case. John called Prince Skipper pronounced skipper.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
John was strict.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Skippery said this is my house and you best live
up by my rules. Skippery warned if you ain't home
by eleven, don't bother come home, skipper.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
You gave notice.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
If I catch you.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
With one of your little girlfriends up in.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Here, I'll put your ass out, which brings up another subject.
Girls don't say more than you really know, said the Prince.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I know what I know.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
I know that you love playing sports, but man, you
also love the ladies. Music first, music always first, but
then fair sex sex sex second, but the fair sex second.
Say that ten times girls buzzed around the pint size
like like bees round honey. Of course it helped. It

(34:40):
helped all of us that we were musicians playing sexy music.
Helped that you was always fresh and clean. You know
how to dress a small army of chicks. You saw
you as a drop dead handsome your mistress, you're mysterious
or had a powerful sensu aside. He was a player

(35:02):
who played by keeping the card cards close to your chest.
That applied to everything in your life. No one was
gonna check you, not even your dad. Funny part was,
if I had to say whose personality Prince most resembled,
I'd say his father too hard headed cats bound of

(35:23):
bump heads. Don't think Prince was living at John's for
more than six months when John made good on his threat.
He kicked the Sun out for bringing girls over his crib.
That's when Prince moved under his basement. The band liked
the move because it gave us more time to jam.
For most folks, getting kicked out of the crib by

(35:44):
daddy is a trump traumatic thing. Maybe it was for Prince.
Maybe he was anger, maybe he was angry and furious.
But I never heard him say a word except let's
rehearse an extra two hours. Tonight, Mom had bought me
a little four track, and Prince would used to lay
would used to lay down his ideas. That was fine

(36:05):
with us. What Prince what wasn't fine was when he'd
show up at all hours banging on the door, saying
he had to get in to record a song that
had just flown into his head. Sometimes we let him in,
and sometimes, like the night he wanted to barge in
at three am, we'd try to ignore him, but damn

(36:25):
if he wouldn't stop banging. Rather than let him bust
down the door, I'd get out, got out of bed,
let the brother in and help him lay.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Down the track.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
And another nights we'd just turn off the lights and
let him bang it was just too damn tire. I
was just too damn tired to make music or stone
Oh shit, oh hell yes, which brings up another point.
Prince didn't do drugs. I wasn't a heavy drug user
in high school. I just like we we provided a
filter that melowed me out for intensifying the music. While

(36:59):
intensifying the music, and of course Weeda's potent aphrodisiac if
he had, if he had to choose between making love
high or sober high winds every time, to Prince's credit,
he bucked the culture. He stayed clean, He stayed cleaned,
and stayed in shape. He loved playing sports, especially hoops.

(37:23):
He didn't need the extra creative boosts that marijuana provided.
He didn't need that elevation. He could get to the
higher plateau without stimulants. He was that good. I also
think Prince feared drugs, and with good reason, because drugs
undercut control. Prince needed control at all times. He didn't

(37:47):
want his vision clouded and his mind altered. His hyperoctive
mind didn't require any further hype. He knew where he
wanted to go and how to get there. That put
him at odds with my mother, Mam was thorough and deliberate.
Prince was impetuous and impatient for a while, though he

(38:08):
accepted her as our manager. That's because no one but
Mom funded us to go into the studio and do
cut demos. No one but Mama spent her own bread
to flys to New York to meet up with record
execs to try and seal the deal. No one but
Mom made sure that we had rehearsal space. Mom was
also always upbeat and encouraging, assuring us that it was

(38:31):
only a matter of time before we get our big break.
Your mama never did what she said she'd do. Last
thing you want to do is be talking about my mom.
Mama was gutsy, she was fearless. She wrangled her way
to the meetings with high powered recordmen she called CEOs

(38:52):
and chairman's of the board. She forced her way in
the offices of A and R at Cats. She had
one on one with Isaac Haye, who dug into who
dug our demo tape and promise he hook us up.
But all this took time. You were impatient, so on
the side of starting deal, dealing with the dude named

(39:13):
Owen Hunsley, who owned a local ad agency Hunsey even
got you to do the jingle for a ladies clothing
shop called Gig's. I wonder if that we'd have to
hear that, see see what that sounds like. What we
didn't know was that Hunseley had been shopping a record
deal for you in Los Angeles, and we heard he

(39:34):
got Warner Brothers interested based on the tape you gave him.
And that tape was made by us Grand Central, but
the label thought it was you playing all the instruments.
I could have if I wanted to. That ain't the point.
Sure you could have, but you didn't. You got a
solo deal grant with Grand Central's demos. You've given up

(39:58):
on trying to get a bounce the bound sign. He
lost patience with Mom. She was still out there looking
to score Grand Central when we found out that you
had already scored without us in the grand scheme of things.
This was a brilliant move. Most of your moves were brilliant.
You saw Solo Princes a better vehicle than Grand Central.

(40:19):
You wanted a new kind of sound. You wanted to
give your funk a new wave edge and a new
wave look. It was post punk time. The police the cars,
the Cure Boy, George and Bowie. You had a worldwide
vision that didn't include Grand Central. I only wish you
had Cludsinity vision. Instead, you said nothing just disappeared, leaving

(40:42):
us to scramble. Grand Central without Prince was like Daisy
without Lucy. So time, so time for a princeless chapter.
This chapter turned out rough. I think that's the end
of a Yeah, that was the end of chapter four.

(41:02):
And that's my two chapter segment for the night. This
is left for one another and we just read two
chapters from on Time, A Princely Life in Funk by
Moore's Day. It's an interesting book. I'll tell you something.
I talk a lot. I talk a lot with Jellybean,
and and you know, I know certain stories. He tells

(41:25):
me a lot.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
And there's a lot of things he tells me that.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
He shares with the world, and then there's things that
that's just between me and him. And the one thing
that's that's true is that everybody's human. Everybody is a person.
That whether it be Prince and his genius Morris and

(41:49):
the way that he had came up and the way
the band came up and tarrying Jim and all them.
Everybody's human, and I think everybody has things that they've
done in the past to get by, and it was
always rough. I mean every you know, musicians alone have
a tough time, tough time getting deals, tough time getting

(42:13):
their music out, tough time trying to find their way
in this world of music. And it doesn't change. It's
you know, that's just a reoccurring story, and.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
It makes it.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
It makes it so you understand that the struggles you're
going through as musicians, the struggles you're going through as
an artist, it's not just you. People have been going
through these struggles for a long time. Some people are
just they're just born with it. Man like Prince even more.
You know these guys, and they put prints on this pedestal,
but they were all world class musicians, is Jellybeans said,

(42:49):
world class musicians. They all had possessed something and something
spectacular that with prints or without prints, they were going
to be somebody. But I think Prince kind of took
it to another level, which got everybody else noticed. Because
I'll tell you, if you were to remember growing up
in the day, and especially when Prince music was coming out,

(43:11):
it made you look for the other players, right, unless
you knew them from that area of that time. If
you didn't like me, I was in California, I would
have never known. But I knew Prince music, which led
me into Andre Simone's music, which led me to Morris's music,
which led me to Jesse Johnson, to Shelleye to all

(43:33):
these different people you go down the list. And that
was besides listening to Tower of Power and a War
and everybody else, Antana and all these great musicians and
great earth Wind and Fire, and I used to listen
to Stevie Wonder and James Brown Jays.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
I mean, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
And this was at a time when I was also
really heavily introduced into to classic rock, and I was
listening to Journey and you know, AC DC and what
we call classic now, you know, But back then Elton
john and and a lot of great bands from that time,

(44:17):
which then led into the big hair bands and stuff
and glad music and stuff. But still Prince was solid.
So it continued, you listening to the other groups and
the other great bands that were coming up around him,
And then you had Jesse broke off on his own,
and Jimmy and Terry went did their thing and right,

(44:39):
and yeah, the SOS band, all that stuff going on,
and the family music and then you know, didn't know
that that was still prints and all these wonderful things
were happening, and then you got a hold of Minneapolis genius,
and you just go down the list of how many
different things happened because of the way it happened, you know.
So not to take away from anybody, because they are

(45:00):
all great musicians, and Alexander O'Neil and all them, but
by Prince breaking off the way he did, by the
way things happened, it just emphasized and it brought to
light all these great musicians. So I've never really heard
anybody say I don't like the way it happened. I've
never really heard that or anybody say, you know, it

(45:22):
should have been done differently. I think everybody's appreciative of
the way it happened, even if they did if it
wasn't the nicest way or it wasn't the best route
at the time. But I think in the long run,
you can't deny that the genius of Prince's music and
what he did and what he was doing at the

(45:43):
time did bring about and it brought all those great
artists that would have been great anyway, but it brought
him out to the forefront faster than what it might
have been the other way around, and it probably it
created a whole world of music. And that's you know
something about out the way that Prince's world of music

(46:06):
it was its own world. It was its own.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
You have like a lot of different music that was
around at the time, and they were just great dance
songs and funk and this and that. But Prince had
a world of his own, you know, Joe Jones and
Vanny all that, and it was just it was like
a world like I always pictured it like kind of

(46:30):
like this is gonna sound funny, but I was a kid.
I always pictured it like a Disneyland. It was within
its walls and it was all this great stuff just
packed in one area. And it was like you could
go this way and you're gonna go to fantasy Land.
You go this way, you go to adventure whatever, you know,
And that's what Prince's music was doing. It. It was

(46:51):
all these worlds of music. You can go down this
road and you can go listen to some great funky
stuff with a female singers. You can go this way
and go into some male stuff. You go this way,
and you had people breaking off doing their own thing
that were great. You had Jesse coming out with his
great album. Man, what you know what we're going to
get into eventually, we're going to get into Jesse Johnson's

(47:12):
music and what he did. Good Lord, I gotta tell you. You know,
Prince always amazed me with his style of music and
how funky it was. But when Jesse came out with
Jesse Johnson's Review and that style of funk, oh my god,
you know, it really challenged me as how big of

(47:36):
a Prince family am I I'm listening to Jesse Johnson going,
my god, I'm you know. I grew up in a
Zusa and then moved over to Laverne and it was
prominently white. But I don't know where or why I
was so driven to funk music and R and B
and blues and while still listening to all that the

(48:01):
other music, you know, but Jesse, Jesse's music hit me
in a certain way that I was just like all
those hits, those horns and all that stuff, and the
basslines and the drums especially, you know it, it was

(48:22):
just a whole other level. So we'll be going down
that road soon and talking about Jesse's music and what
it did and and what that led to. So tonight,
I'm really excited about tonight's show because usually, you know,
if you do any type of talking or shows or
stuff and you're like, what we're gonna talk about, Nick
and trying to figure that out, it makes it difficult

(48:46):
because you're like, man, how am I going to keep
on talking about different things? But there's so much to
talk about besides how you're doing. Like I said, I'm
really interested to know that your life's okay. Like you know,
everybody's life is difficult, But are you okay? And sometimes

(49:06):
we don't ask ourselves that. Have you ever stopped to
ask yourself? How am I doing? Am I okay? Anybody
ask you? Sometimes we're worried about other people and we
forget to ask ourselves.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Are we okay?

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Let's take a quick break, we'll come right back. This
is Jeff with Love for one Another? All right, and
we are back. This is Jeff with Love for one Another.
We've had a great show tonight. We're talking about different things.
Of course, as usual, one of our topics has been

(49:42):
how are you are?

Speaker 2 (49:44):
You okay.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
We got to take the time sometimes to think of ourselves,
to make ourselves okay. What makes you happy? Sometimes it's
not the big things, right. We can do with just
the little things to make us happy. It doesn't have
to be the big things that take a lot of
money or take extravagant trips or possessions of something. What

(50:10):
truly makes you happy sometimes is just having that time
to yourself. Some people take a bath, some people take
a walk. Some people have their maybe their animal or
dog or cat that brings them happiness into their life.
Some people have their kids, maybe a child or a

(50:31):
significant other. Maybe it doesn't It doesn't have to always
involve something else. What do you do to make yourself happy?
Do you sit sometimes and just think and think about
look at your life and as difficult as it is,
your existence means a lot. Your time here. You are here,

(50:53):
you are present, you are alive, you're breathing, you are functioning.
Sometimes we don't forget not everybody has that luxury. Some
people are held up in hospitals, some people are having
procedures done. Some people have had trauma into their life,
but they're still here. That doesn't mean that their life

(51:17):
is terrible. It just means that they're having a moment,
a moment in their life right now that's just not
as positive as it's been in the past. But the
future's coming and whatever they're going through right now is
going to pass, and they're going to move on to
a happier life or better times, we'll say, because you know,
sometimes we think we're quick to assume that just because

(51:39):
somebody is going through a difficult time or something that's
hard right now, that their life is bad, like that
they're miserable or that they're not happy, you know, And
I think that's where we miss the point of what
makes people happy, and we see too much of what's
on social media, which I'm going to be jumping over

(52:01):
to my other show in a minute to talk about
stuff like that. As bad as it may seem, in
as much as it may seem that we're driven by
the negative remarks and the negativity of the world around
of what seems to be happening, we forget that sometimes
people just you know, they're just happy to be here.

(52:22):
They're just happy. And if you can pull some of
that and maybe get to know somebody, if you talk
to somebody that you really wouldn't have talked to before.
And you find out that their happiness is your happiness.
And what I mean by that is things that make
them happy, just the simple things are the very similar
things to what makes you happy. And really there's just

(52:45):
a lot of positive vibes that are clumped into one
that we just miss. We miss it because we're too
driven by the obvious things. The things that are more
you know, Oh, you don't like being blue, or you
don't like this person's blue, want them to be read,
and so that takes away from the good feelings that

(53:05):
you're missing on the things that were Wow, I didn't
realize that you like to walk in the sand and
like to fill the sand between your toes. Damn, I
really like that too. Is that what makes you like
But I thought maybe having a fancy car. No, the

(53:27):
fancy car comes and goes. But the feeling of having
the sand between your toes and listening to the ocean
waters coming in and just taking in the sounds of
the ocean and the smell of the sea. There's something
that got me when I had one of my major
surgeries that I've had and things weren't looking good, and

(53:51):
thank God for the medical team that got me through it.
And when I was able to get out again and
actually drive off on my own, first place I went
to was the beach. I didn't think that that would
be the place I wanted to go, but I had
this fear of not hearing the beach, the sound of

(54:13):
the waves. It was like I felt I would miss that.
Don't know why. That was the one thing. It was
a particular thing. And I like the beach. Don't get
me wrong, I will go to the beach. I enjoy it.
But I've never thought of the beach as like the place,
like that's the place that I need to be and

(54:36):
that's the one thing. Oh my god, if I can't
go to the beach, I'm just gonna miss lie. But
after this life changing event that I had and had
to get found myself confined to a hospital, I couldn't
wait to go and just park. I went all by myself.
At the time, I had my old Forerunner, I had

(54:59):
the sides up the way those down, the sunroof open,
and I parked. I just went to the nearest beach.
I don't forget which beach I went to. It had
to be Newport because's where I always go. But for
some reason, I feel like it was a Huntington or
something because it was in a different area and I went, Oh, no,
I think it was long Beach. I went, and I

(55:20):
just parked on the side and turned off my truck,
turned off the music, which is rare. I usually have
music on all the time, and I just listened. I
just listened to the waves crashing, smelled the ocean, heard
the seagulls, people walking by, not that many people at

(55:44):
the time, but all I can I'll never forget the
sound of the ocean soothed my soul. It made me
feel better. It just made it something so simple. I
didn't care about what car I was in, what I
looked like, what I was wearing, oh who I was with,
or anything. All I wanted to do was just hear
that simple sound, and it made me feel better about everything.

(56:07):
My life was good after such trauma. I was so
appreciative of everything that I had in that one moment,
In that one moment, I'll never forget it. I'm talking
about it now and I rarely talk about it, but
here I am sharing it with you. So my point is,
are you good? What makes you happy? Can you find

(56:30):
that place. Can you, just for a moment time, make
yourself happy. It's okay. Your happiness will go a long way.
Your happiness will show and it'll shine upon somebody else
and make them want to be happy. Your happiness will
the vibe. People will feel it around you, and it'll

(56:52):
make them happy. And even if it's just for a
moment's time, that moment's time can add up and it
can save somebody. It can make somebody better, It can
make somebody want better, it can make somebody feel better.
It can do so many things that otherwise sometimes gets
missed because we put ourselves in this world that I

(57:14):
don't think we were supposed to be in. I think
we were here for better things. I think we're here
to love each other, to be there for each other,
to help each other, to reach out. Remember in that
dark room and grab that person that's sitting in the
dark and say, let me help you. I will guide

(57:36):
you out. Let's work together. Let's be together and work
this together out and we can both enjoy life. And
we can go and help two other people. And those
now we're helping four people, ten people, and it just
goes on and on and on and become a better person,
a better society, a better way of life instead of

(57:57):
always being against each other. We can do this, I
know we can. All you got to do is want it.
And if you want it, then it'll come and change
will come and you'll feel better and it'll just be amazing,
you'll see. So we are here and I hope you
feel better. Like I said, reading the chapters is all fun,
but what's even better is talking about how we feel
better about each other and about ourselves. And this is

(58:21):
Jeff with Love for one Another. This is our sixth show.
It is growing, and we will keep on doing these
things because we can. And hey, you're welcome to join
any time you want.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Let me know.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Reach out Jay Luna Eclips spelled with a Y at
yahoo dot com. You can find me on any social media.
You can find me everywhere Real Music Radio, Minneapolis Sound Radio,
or like I said, just send me an email and
we will bring up some topics together. Until then, you guys,

(58:55):
take care and have yourselves a good life. This is
Jeff with Love for one Another podcast and this is
show number six weeks.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
The next show till then.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Take care, always show love for one another.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
And next time