Celebrating Prince's 60th Birthday With 60 Prince Facts

Celebrating Prince's 60th Birthday With 60 Prince Facts

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Photo: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images.

Today would have been Prince's 60th birthday. Still devastated by the news of his passing just two years ago, we take every opportunity to revel in the music he gifted to us.

Listen to our 'I Like: Prince' playlist while you read through these 60 Prince Facts to celebrate the life of an icon on a day we hope he's throwing a big purple party in the sky.

1)      Prince dressed as a bumbling old man with a flat cap, overcoat and beard to present Chris Rock with his GQ Comedy Man Of The Year award in 1998.

2)      Prince wrote his first song aged seven. It was called “Funk Machine”.

3)      A sealed original copy of 1987’s The Black Album was sold at auction earlier this year for US$42,298. Only eight copies are known to exist in this format. 

4)      Funk rival Rick James once referred to Prince as a “little science fiction freak”.

5)      A planned fifth season episode of The Simpsons featuring Prince was scrapped, apparently since he “didn’t want to play second fiddle” to Michael Jackson, who had already appeared in the show.

6)      Alongside Sting, Michael Jackson and Ted Nugent, Prince was on the shortlist for playing Jareth The Goblin King in Jim Henson’s 1986 film Labyrinth. The infamous role went to David Bowie.

7)      One of Prince’s prized possessions was a Schimmel Pegasus grand piano, made of one continuous piece of fiberglass. Only two Pegasus grand pianos are made each year, with a starting price of US$300,000.

8)      Prince’s final CD purchases at his favourite Minneapolis store Electric Fetus were Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book, Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, Santana’s Santana IV, Missing Persons’ The Best Of Missing Persons, Chamber Brothers’ The Time Has Come and Swan Silvertones’ Inspirational Gospel Classics.

9)      Prince made his British debut in June 1981 at the Lyceum Ballroom. The attendance was so poor all additional scheduled UK dates were cancelled.

10)  During his Purple Rain tour, Prince would play unpublicised free concerts for disabled children.

11)  In December 1993 Prince placed an ad in Entertainment Weekly stating “Eligible bachelor seeks the most beautiful girl in the world to spend holidays with”. Some of the respondents featured in his The Most Beautiful Girl In The World music clip.

12)  Purple Rain sold 1.3 million albums on its first day of release.

13)  The heartbeat of Prince’s unborn son Amiir Nelson was included on the Emancipation track Sex In The Summer. The infant died from Pfeiffer’s Syndrome just days after Prince’s wife Mayte gave birth in 1996.

14)  With its references to masturbation, the lyrics to Purple Rain’s Darling Nikki indirectly led to the introduction of parental advisory warning stickers in the United States.

15)  Upon appointing protégé Denise Matthews as the frontwoman for his Vanity 6 side-project, Prince suggested she change her name to Vagina. She refused, instead becoming Vanity.

16)  Prince’s 1989 Batman soundtrack is among the vinyl records thrown at an approaching zombie in the Simon Pegg film Shaun Of The Dead.

17)  In 1986, Quincy Jones rang Prince and requested he duet with Michael Jackson on the track Bad. Prince declined.

18)  After Batman director Tim Burton showed Prince an early cut of the film featuring songs such as 1999, Prince instead recorded him a whole new album soundtrack.

19)  Prince kept a swear jar at his Paisley Park home in Minneapolis.

20)  Bob Marley refused to collaborate with Prince since he thought him to be a “batty boy”.

21)  Prior to recording it himself, Prince offered a 10-minute instrumental version of the song Purple Rain to Stevie Nicks. She turned it down because “it was so overwhelming”.

22)  Prince asked Taxi Driver and Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese to helm his 1986 film Under The Cherry Moon. Prince ended up directing it himself.

23)  In a rave review of 1980’s Dirty Mind album, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau opined “Mick Jagger should fold up his penis and go home”.

24)  Prince’s dad John L Nelson, who was credited as a songwriter on Prince albums including Around The World In A Day, Parade and Purple Rain, released a solo album called Father’s Song in 1994.

25)  In 1993, Prince oversaw his girlfriend Carmen Electra’s move into the music business with a self-titled debut album. Promotional copies were sent to strip clubs around the US, but it sank without a trace.

26)  Prince’s backstage requests for his 2004 tour included Yogi Cocoa Spice Tea, Pepsi and jasmine candles.

27)  Condoms branded ‘Purple Raincoats’ were sold at Prince & The New Power Generation gigs in 1995.

28)  On his wife Mayte’s 1995 album Child Of The Sun, Prince included samples from Back To The Future on a cover version of The Commodores’ Brick House.

29)  During some of his tours, Prince’s preferred transport to the stage was a black equipment box.

30)  It is alleged Martika, whose Martika’s Kitchen album was co-produced by Prince, lost her virginity to her collaborator while both were high on acid.

31)  Andy Warhol called Prince’s 1981 show at Madison Square Garden “the greatest concert I ever saw there”, although he “wasn’t even a good dancer”.

32)  In 2001, Clerks and Dogma film director Kevin Smith was employed by Prince to direct a documentary for him. The footage remains largely unreleased.

33)  Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia’s autobiography My Life With Prince reveals her former husband was a fan of ugg boots.

34)  Pulled from its December 1987 release at the last minute, The Black Album became one of the most bootlegged albums of all time. It is believed to have sold in excess of 200,000 unauthorised copies on vinyl and CD before being officially released in 1994.

35)  Prince played guitar, keyboard and bass guitar on Kate Bush’s 1993 song Why Should I Love You. Kate Bush returned the favour by making a rare appearance on Prince’s 1996 song My Computer.

36)  In 2011, Prince revealed to the Heavy Table online food magazine his fridge contained yak milk, 18 varieties of mustard, smoked pork liver sausage and a gallon of maple syrup.

37)  Bob Dylan attended Prince’s Minneapolis gig on March 9, 1981.

38)  Following Prince’s star turn as a conflicted superhero in his Batdance music video, DC Comics gave the Purple One his own comic in 1991. Naturally, Prince solved Minneapolis gang violence and saved everyone with his awesome tunes.

39)  In 2008 Prince told The New Yorker his 2001 conversion to the Jehovah’s Witness faith was “like Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix”.

40)  The Black Album was formerly known as The Funk Bible. The album’s track “Dead On It” slams hip hop stars as “talking silly shit” and calling them “tone deaf”

41)  Prince would sometimes borrow his then-wife Mayte’s Mac cosmetics and Dior mascara.

42)  On April 27 1993, Prince released a statement announcing his retirement from recording music. He ended up releasing more than 20 studio albums after making this claim.

43)  Prince was a massive fan of folk singer Joni Mitchell. He included a copy of her Hejira album in the background of a scene in his Under The Cherry Moon film.

44)  Madonna, Prince, Kate Bush and Michael Jackson were all born within three months of each other in 1958.

45)  In her book My Life With Prince, ex-wife Mayte Garcia reveals that although Prince wasn’t much of a drinker, the musician loved port.

46)  A pair of Prince’s ‘Diamonds And Pearls’ cufflinks sold at auction in early 2018 for US$7840.

47)  Prince’s pseudonyms included Alexander Nevermind, Christopher Tracy, Jamie Starr, Spooky Electric and Joey Coco.

48)  On his 1980-81 Dirty Mind tour, Prince would perform in a raincoat, high heeled boots and female underwear.

49)  In the secret 20Ten song Laydown, Prince refers to himself as the “Purple Yoda”.

50)  In 1999 Prince held a garage sale at his Paisley Park home, selling keyboards, Prince perfume and neon signs from the Sign ‘O’ The Times tour.

51)  Prince told his future wife Mayte Garcia she should change her name to Arabia, but she refused in fear of what her mother might say.

52)  Prince would routinely paint Paisley Park a different colour, customising one of his vehicles to match the complex’s new hue.

53)  In 1988 Paisley Park had 10 staff employed full time to work on Prince’s wardrobe requirements. There was also a hair salon in the complex.

54)  Supporting The Rolling Stones alongside The J Geils Band and George Thorogood at the LA Coliseum in October 1982, Prince was booed off after two songs.

55)  Prince’s record label Warner suggested Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire produce Prince’s debut album For You, but he decided to do it himself.

56)  Duff McKagan once described 1999 as “the greatest album of the ‘80s”

57)  Blur and Gorillaz songwriter Damon Album once turned down an invitation to record with Prince at his Paisley Park Studio because he’d been told he wouldn’t be allowed to smoke in the studio.

58)  On Prince’s The Black Album the final track “Rockhard In A Funky Place” features the line “I just hate to see an erection go to waste”. In a 1996 NME interview with Sylvia Patterson at Paisley Park, Prince smiled broadly when reminded of the lyric. 

59)  The final Revolution show took place in September 1986 at Yokohama Stadium in Japan. It is alleged Prince smashed his guitar at the end of the performance.

60)  Ahead of his 1995 wedding to Mayte Garcia, Prince held a casting call for flower girls. Around half a million dollars was spent on decking out Paisley Park with flowers on the big day.

  

 - Scott McLennan

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