"The artist." - the Artist Formerly Known as Prince - Interview

Interview, May, 1997 by Spike Lee

Spike Lee speaks with that true artist and musician, and gets an interview that no one else could have gotten

Though the buzzing of the talk around him threatened to drown out the music that made him a cultural landmark, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince is again writing and performing his trademark sexually potent pop. His newest album, Emancipation (NPG Records), marks an important turning point in a career peppered with (as he once sang) controversy. Most recently, his struggle to break free of his former record label, Warner Bros., led to speculation that he was withholding Grade A material until he had a more satisfactory deal elsewhere. Whether or not this was the case, the double-platinum-and-counting Emancipation is a three-disc dish of classic funk, pearly ballads, pastel-hued jams, and even a creamy cover of the Joan Osborne hit, "One of Us." It is a romantic, emotional record, and one that is also powered by the Artist's (as he is now called) faith in God and love for his wife, Mayte Garcia. Here he sits down in New York with writer and director Spike Lee, whose 1996 film Girl 6 featured on its soundtrack songs by the man record sellers now "file under Prince."

SPIKE LEE: It is February 7, in the year of our Lord 1997, St. Moritz Hotel, New York, and I am here with the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. To start, there's something that we need to get out of the way. I really feel awkward asking you this, but I just have to. Will you say anything about your child [who, it has been widely reported, died shortly after his birth last fall]?

THE ARTIST: I have written a song that says: If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words, "They're gone." and they'll come back.

SL: That will be a highly anticipated song. Before we drove down to The Chris Rock Show, where you were taping a segment, I asked you about the title of your multi-platinum new album Emancipation. I said, "Do you feel free?" and you gave a great response.

TA: There is something that happens when you get emancipated. You approach life differently. You eat differently. You respect yourself more. You respect the gift you have been given. Everything has changed for me since I've changed my name. It's one thing to be called Prince but it's better to actually be one. I have such a reverence for life now. And I have stopped eating all animal products.

SL: So, when you look back, do you see periods in your life when you did not like your Prince persona?

TA: Towards the end I was a little ashamed of what Prince had become. I really felt like a product, and then I started turning in work that reflected that. I had no problem with people saying I was repeating myself. I knew where I was headed and just needed direction. Once I got direction, I looked up and L. Londell McMillan was there.

SL: You mean your new lawyer?

TA: Yes. He also has a reverence for life. He seems to be a righteous soul and is focused as to what he is on earth for. Those are some of the things we talked about - what we as black people are supposed to represent during this time period.

SL: Six or seven years ago I had the audacity to write you a letter about your choice of women used in music and music videos. Do you remember that?

TA: Yes.

SL: Let's talk about it. I think it was very rude on my part. I'll be forty on March 20th and in a lot of ways back then I was too righteous about that type of stuff. Tell the audience what was in that letter I wrote you.

TA: I don't remember exactly. It's really vague to me.

SL: I wrote, Are there going to be any women of dark complexion in your music videos and your films? You had only white women in your stuff. Do you recall what you wrote back to me? You set me straight there!

TA: I probably said, One had to look at ever? thing I have done, not just the most successful pieces. But I have to be honest, I know you as a different person now, too. We met under different circumstances back then, and I have grown and so have you.

SL: Do you remember the first time we met?

TA: Graffiti Bridge [the Artist's 1990 dramatic film]?

SL: Yes, you invited me and my producer Monty Ross up to the shoot. Now I'd like to ask you, how has marriage changed you?

TA: It is ever-evolving every day. It is not a subject I like discussing, but my wife's pregnancy made me an adult four times over. Kids will do that. Just dealing with every circumstance is an emotional roller coaster, but nevertheless I have grown so much as a soul. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel a lot better now.

SL: Let's talk about your last couple of years at [your former label] Warner Bros. records. Would it be safe to say that the music you were putting out was just fulfilling a contract, or were you giving the best you had to offer at that time?

TA: I was doing my best to fulfill my contract. You can now hear that my soul has been in love with [my wife] Mayte for thousands of years. I believe that I was just trying to express it in a simple record. I wanted to say friend, lover, sister, mother, wife back then, but it wasn't the time. If you check the video for the song "Seven," you will see Mayte and I walking through the doors hand-in-hand and the dove exploding. That was when I spiritually checked out of the whole situation; but I did what I had to do.