Prince Talks to PBS' Tavis Smiley Re: Life, Music, & Growing Up. Video Interview.

Rock musician and icon, PRINCE will make a rare, exclusive two-part interview with PBS’ “Tavis Smiley” Monday and Tuesday, April 27-28.
This is Prince’s first interview about his latest album, “LotusFlow3r.”

During the highly personal and intimate interview with Smiley, Prince divulges new personal information that he has never publicly shared.
Check your local listings for air times: www.pbs.org/tavis.

Prince discusses the struggles of his youth:
his strained relationship with his father;
his frustrating relationship with the music industry
and the decision not to vote.
He speaks frankly about current music industry issues: insisting on an artist’s right to own their own music and about labels ripping him off on the internet. He talks about guitar playing as challenging and frustrating (oddly amazing for such great guitar work) and about how he met his protégée and collaborator, Bria Valente.

“The first thing I did is,” Prince says on being teased as a child, “I went into [my]self and I taught myself music. My father left his piano at the house when he left and I wasn’t allowed to play it when he was there because I wasn’t as good as him so when he left I was determined to get as good as him. I taught myself how to play music and I just stuck with it and I did it all the time and sooner or later people in the neighborhood heard about me and they started to talk about me and it wasn’t in the teasing fashion, it was more like ‘wow look what he can do’….once I got that support from people that I believed I could do anything.”

On the state of the music industry, Prince does not mince words:
“You can put out a record and [Nielsen] SoundScan refuses to count as many as they actually sell but you get paid on what SoundScan says that you sold. So if it’s a low number you only get paid on that number.
Meanwhile when you go overseas, you check some of the barcodes and titles over there, they have already ripped you off several different times and several different ways. With the influx of the internet and those sales, then you have really gotten your bank account emptied out. So we never really knew what Purple Rain sold. I don’t know to this day. I only know what they tell me. We are conducting an audit but you know, who knows?”

Here’s a segment of video that was not available until right now! This is about his epilepsy.
Prince is one of music’s most popular and prolific acts with a career spanning more than three decades. His latest album, “LotusFlow3r,” a three-disc set, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and is available only online and at a single retailer. “LotusFlow3r” features a trio of distinct albums: “LotusFlow3r” itself (a guitar showcase), “MPLSound” (a throwback to his ’80s funk output), and “Elixer” (a smooth contemporary R&B album featuring the breathy vocals of Bria Valente).
Few artists have created a body of work as deep and varied as Prince. In the 1980s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. He released a series of groundbreaking albums plus he toured frequently and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. Prince has produced albums and written songs for many other artists. With each album he has released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres.
For the release of his Lotusflow3r, he’s circumvented the major label system. Afficianados will have to get the music directly from his new website www.lotusflow3r.com starting March 24, or make a trip to Target or Target.com for a physical copy of the set which is composed of 3 disks for only $11.98! Thirty years in the business and he knows how to get round the system and still garner enough attention that would fuel a couple nuclear reactors.
You should see this interview over the 2 nights. Don’t miss it: DVR/Tivo it!!
Also check out the Lotusflow3r 3 disc set and buy it!!
Stevie Wilson