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It was one year ago today that legendary, genre-bending rocker Prince died at the age of 57. In addition to being a musical pioneer, the Minneapolis native dabbled in filmmaking, most successfully with 1984’s Purple Rain. While most people know about the singer’s infamous name change, here are 10 things you might not have known about the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
1. HIS REAL NAME WAS PRINCE.
Born to two musical parents on June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was named after his father’s jazz combo.
2. HE WAS A JEHOVAH’S WITNESS.
Baptized in 2001, Prince was a devout Jehovah’s Witness; he even went door-to-door. In October 2003, a woman in Eden Prairie, Minnesota opened her door to discover the famously shy artist and his bassist, former Sly and the Family Stone member Larry Graham, standing in front of her home. “My first thought is ‘Cool, cool, cool. He wants to use my house for a set. I’m glad! Demolish the whole thing! Start over!,'” the woman told The Star Tribune. “Then they start in on this Jehovah’s Witnesses stuff. I said, ‘You know what? You’ve walked into a Jewish household, and this is not something I’m interested in.’ He says, ‘Can I just finish?’ Then the other guy, Larry Graham, gets out his little Bible and starts reading scriptures about being Jewish and the land of Israel.”
3. HE WROTE A LOT OF SONGS FOR OTHER ARTISTS.
In addition to penning several hundred songs for himself, Prince also composed music for other artists, including “Manic Monday” for the Bangles, “I Feel For You” for Chaka Khan, and “Nothing Compares 2 U” for Sinéad O’Connor.
4. HIS SYMBOL ACTUALLY HAD A NAME.
Even though the whole world referred to him as either “The Artist” or “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince,” that weird symbol Prince used was actually known as “Love Symbol #2.” It was copyrighted in 1997, but when Prince’s contract with Warner Bros. expired at midnight on December 31, 1999, he announced that he was reclaiming his given name.
5. HIS SISTER SUED HIM.
In 1987, Prince’s half-sister, Lorna Nelson, sued him, claiming that she had written the lyrics to “U Got the Look,” a song from “Sign ‘☮‘ the Times” that features pop artist Sheena Easton. In 1989, the court sided with Prince.
6. HE TICKED OFF A VICE PRESIDENT’S WIFE.
In 1984, after purchasing the Purple Rain soundtrack for her then-11-year-old daughter, Tipper Gore—ex-wife of former vice president Al Gore—became enraged over the explicit lyrics of “Darling Nikki,” a song that references masturbation and other graphic sex acts. Gore felt that there should be some sort of warning on the label and in 1985 formed the Parents Music Resource Center, which pressured the recording industry to adopt a ratings system similar to the one employed in Hollywood. To Prince’s credit, he didn’t oppose the label system and became one of the first artists to release a “clean” version of explicit albums.
7. HE TOOK A PROMOTIONAL TIP FROM WILLY WONKA.
In 2006, Universal hid 14 purple tickets—seven in the U.S. and seven internationally—inside Prince’s latest album, 3121. Fans who found a purple ticket were invited to attend a private performance at Prince’s Los Angeles home.
8. HE SIMULTANEOUSLY HELD THE NUMBER ONE SPOTS FOR FILM, SINGLE, AND ALBUM.
During the week of July 27, 1984, Prince’s film Purple Rain hit number one at the box office. That same week, the film’s soundtrack was the best-selling album and “When Doves Cry” was holding the top spot for singles.
9. HE SCREWED UP ON SNL.
During Prince’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live, he performed the song “Partyup” and sang the lyric, “Fightin’ war is a such a f*ing bore.” It went unnoticed at the time, but in the closing segment, Charles Rocket clearly said, “I’d like to know who the f* did it.” This was the only episode of SNL where the f-bomb was dropped twice.
10. HE KILLED AN ALBUM RELEASE AFTER “A SPIRITUAL EPIPHANY.”
In 1987, Prince was due to release “The Black Album.” However, mere days before it was scheduled to drop, Prince scrapped the whole thing, calling it “dark and immortal.” The musician claimed to have reached this decision following “a spiritual epiphany.” Some reports say that it was actually an early experience with drug ecstasy, while others suggested The Artist just knew it would flop.
An earlier version of this story ran in 2008.
April 21, 2017 – 6:00am