Prince by Ronin Ro

Author:Ronin Ro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

22

I AIN’T GOT NO MONEY

“EARLY ’EIGHTY-EIGHT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE FELT FINANCIAL pressure,” said Alan Leeds. But in Europe, Lovesexy sold 1.9 million copies, topped album charts in many countries, and emerged in many nations as his biggest-selling hit since Purple Rain.

Prince kept planning a show that brought fans a god-fearing message and newsworthy spectacle: handing designers sketches for bright stage costumes with lots of polka dots, sending contracts to specialist dry-cleaning stores in various cities, hiring an entourage member to hand-wash clothing in case something went wrong with the specialist dry cleaners, having four wardrobe assistants under the stage to ensure band members changed costumes within seconds, and using the tour program to explain his shelving of The Black Album (the name most had now taken to calling The Funk Bible). He also spun a fairy tale fable in the program about his Graffiti Bridge character Camille giving in to his hateful, competitive dark side and about wasting time and energy creating “something evil,” to silence critics and express “hate 4 the ones who ever doubted his game.” He tacked on an upbeat moral. If readers killed their own “spooky electric” sides, they would experience “lovesexy,” a fancy term for a joyful loving relationship “with the heavens above.” Considering the path he took to arrive at this album, the fable seems surprisingly apt.

After six months, he was still staging rehearsals and unveiling a costly new idea each day. “He wanted water fountains and a moat around the stage,” Leeds recalled. Longtime set and lighting designer Roy Bennett, co-manager Fargnoli, and John McGraw pitched ideas. Then Bennett helped create his most ambitious and spectacular stage set ever. It cost about $2 million, and included a multilevel circular stage, see-through curtains, and a hydraulic brass bed. But the process dragged on. “Prince kept adding things and saying, ‘Can I have this?’” Bennett recalled. Bennett added a swing set, a small basketball court, and his car, which alone cost $250,000, Bennett recalled, “as much as the entire Sign O’ the Times show! But Prince wanted to have this car.”

Prince worked around the clock: videotaping morning rehearsals, working in the studio until four or five in the morning, and watching the rehearsal videos when he got home before dawn. Then he dressed for another rehearsal.

He and his band practiced for months. But they spent only three weeks on full production rehearsals. Trying to determine what caused lighting problems consumed two more weeks.

He was handling another problem, too. Somewhere along the line, relations with New York’s Howard Bloom Organization, the publicity team Prince had signed on to help expand his audience, had soured. Bloom kept trying to promote Prince, though he had given only one in-depth interview in six years. Prince sat in on meetings, but Bloom hadn’t seen him in two years, since the campaign for Under the Cherry Moon. Now, employee Robyn Riggs was handling Prince’s publicity but hadn’t seen him since mid-May.

Recently, they tried and failed to get Prince the cover of Rolling Stone.

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