Why Are Prince Stories So Funny
Dave Chappelle dressed up as Prince in a 'Chapelle's Show' sketch. Credit: comedy central
Prince is gone, but the epic stories about his life will live on.
Over the years, numerous celebrities have shared their own stories of meeting the Purple One -- and each retelling is better than the next.
Here are some of the best stories, including the time Prince beat Charlie Murphy in a game of pickup basketball.
Questlove
Questlove attends food For Thought At Chicago Ideas 2016 at Venue SIX10 on April 20 in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: (Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images
Perhaps one of the biggest celebrity fans of Prince is Questlove. The Roots drummer and author has been a longtime fan of the superstar singer, sharing numerous anecdotes about his run-ins with Prince over the years.
But Questlove's best story comes from his memoir, Mo' Meta Blues. It involves going roller-skating in the wee hours of the morning with the singer on Valentine's Day a few years ago.
Prince's assistant texted Quest with the invitation, so the drummer showed up at site at 1 in the morning with his girlfriend. He also invited along Eddie Murphy (because such is Quest's life). They skated for a while at a nearly empty rink -- but Prince still hadn't arrived after an hour or so.
Eventually, Prince showed up, briefcase in hand. He made Quest put his phone away in coat check, and then the fun began. Here's an excerpt:
When I got back, Prince had the briefcase out on the floor. He clicked the lock and opened it, and took out the strangest, most singular pair of roller skates I had ever seen. They were clear skates that lit up, and the wheels sent a multicolored spark trail into your path.
He took them out and did a big lap around the rink. Man. He could skate like he could sing. I watched him go, so transfixed that I didn't even notice Eddie Murphy appearing at my arm. "I'm going to go get your phone for you," he said.
He also shared last year that Prince once fired him from a DJ gig and chose to replace the music with something else entirely -- a Finding Nemo documentary.
Charlie Murphy
One ofChappelle's Show's best segments was an entry in comedian and star Charlie Murphy's regular "True Hollywood Stories" series. It was about playing basketball with Prince in 1985.
Murphy was at a club with his brother, Eddie Murphy, and friends, when suddenly Prince rolled in with a crew of friends, dressed in a "Zorro-type outfit ... it looked like something that a figure skater would wear." Prince invited them back to his place and asked them to play some basketball -- then proceeded to completely school them.
The sketch also had some of the show's most memorable lines, like "You know where you got that shirt from, and it damn sure wasn't the men's department."
The story was dramatized on the show, with Chappelle playing Prince. Watch below and enjoy.
Years and years later, Prince got the last laugh -- again -- by using a photo of Chappelle dressed as him as the cover art to single "Breakfast Can Wait."
"That's a Prince judo move right there ... that's check mate right there," Chappelle joked in an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2014. Watch him talk about it around the 3:20 mark.
Prince and Michael Jackson
The icons were often painted as rivals. In reality, they were friendly with each another. One of the best stories about the two meeting came from Prince's drummer, Bobby Z. Here's how it went down, according to the Star Tribune in 2009.
Jackson showed up backstage at a couple Prince shows in 1984. The two icons, whose "Thriller" and "Purple Rain" defined the 1980s, never did work together. Later that decade, when both were recording at the same Los Angeles studio, Prince invited Jackson to play ping-pong.
Michael, a star since age 8 who had lived a sheltered life, didn't know how.
"You want me to slam it?" Prince asked, according to engineer David Z, who was there. "Michael drops his paddle and holds his hands up in front of his face so the ball won't hit him. Michael walks out with his bodyguard, and Prince starts strutting around like a rooster. 'Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller.'"
Music executive Alan Leeds previously told Vibe a story about Jackson and Prince meeting at a lunch organized by Quincy Jones. Jackson and Jones wanted Prince to be part of "We Are the World," but Prince respectfully declined -- then made jokes about it later.
"All I remember Prince talking about afterwards is that he thought Michael was a little bit weird," Leeds recalls. "And this is coming from a guy who wore high heels and pajamas to nightclubs."
Kevin Smith
The director once told a lengthy story about the time he spent with Prince, shooting documentary footage for a film that never came to fruition. Smith had initially reached out to the singer to ask permission to use a song for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Prince said no, but called Smith up anyway to offer him the doc opportunity, as well as talk about Dogma, religion and curse words (he doesn't like 'em), among other things.
Smith tells the story in extreme detail in this video below, retelling the call, his time spent at Paisley Park and just generally what it's like hanging with music royalty. He also got insight into what it's like working for Prince, sharing this example from one of the singer's employees, who lets
"Let me explain something to you about Prince," Kevin recalls her saying. "Prince doesn't comprehend things the way you and I do ... Prince has been living in Prince world for quite some time now."
"Prince will come to us periodically and say things like, 'it's 3 in the morning in Minnesota -- I really need a camel. Go get it,'" she continues. "And then we try to explain to Prince ... that is not physically or psychologically possible."
"He's not malicious when he does it," she adds. "He just doesn't understand why he can't get exactly what he wants."
Oprah
In a 1996 interview with the talk show legend, Prince gave a wonderful, simple explanation for why he'll always live in Minneapolis.
"It's so cold it keeps the bad people out," he said.
He also shares what happened the last time he went to the mall.
Weird Al
Weird Al is famous for parodies, but one artist he could never manage to cover was Prince. His Purpleness simply was not a fan and refused to give Al permission to parody his work. The pair never "officially" met, Al told Wired, but they did have a hilariously bizarre situation at the American Music Awards. It involves telegrams. Here's how Al tells it.
"But one of the oddest things to ever happen between me and Prince was the year that he and I were at the American Music Awards at the same time. Apparently I was going to be sitting in the same row as Prince that year and I got a telegram — and I wasn't the only one — from Prince's management company saying that I was not to establish eye contact with him during the show. I just couldn't even believe it.
So immediately I sent back a telegram saying that he shouldn't be establishing eye contact with me either."
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Source: https://mashable.com/article/prince-stories
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