04/21/2016 04:48 pm ET
“Time is a mind construct. It’s not real.” — Prince in 2011, when asked by The Guardian why he doesn’t appear to age.
Prince was literally born “Prince,” as his parents named him after his father’s stage name, Prince Rogers. His father once said, “I named my son ‘Prince’ because I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do.”
The musician essentially became one of pop culture’s greatest legends. Listen to enough celebrity interviews and just about everyone seems to have an extremely memorable experience with the late musician. Questlove recently shared a story about the time when Prince sped around on a golf cart, invited him to hang out onstage during a show and then ordered the drummer to throw him a party. Kesha once broke into Prince’s home to give him her demo CD.
You may know the standards of Prince’s legend. He was once so poor he stood outside McDonald’s just to smell the food he apparently couldn’t afford. He would occasionally knock on doors representing Jehovah’s Witness. If you watched “Chappelle’s Show,” you certainly know about the time he beat Charlie Murphy in a game of basketball.
But below are a few of the deep-cut, borderline unbelievable stories about the legend that ended today. Make sure to pass them on.
1. Prince was a master in acts of dominance.
When he changed his name to the symbol, it forced his label into the ridiculous task of mailing floppy disks with a custom font to publications. Prince changed his name to what would later be called “The Love Symbol” in 1993. At the time, Warner Bros. and his personal label, Paisley Park, had to send bright yellow floppy disks to reporters so writers could insert the new symbol into stories. A Warner Bros. VP, Marylou Badeaux, said, “Everyone was baffled and upset.”
Vanity Fair interviewed Prince at the time and asked if his friends at his studio would refer to him as the symbol. Prince responded, speaking about the symbol-persona in third person, “We don’t necessarily worry about what we call him, because when he calls us we know his voice. We know who we’re talking to.”
2. He had similar moves for other celebrities.
After Dave Chappelle parodied him, Prince put the comedian’s likeness on his single art without asking permission.
When “Weird Al” Yankovic asked to parody Prince’s music, the singer didn’t just say no. He had a lawyer telegram “Al” with an interesting request. In 2013, Prince released the single “Breakfast Can Wait,” with Dave Chappelle dressed as Prince on the cover. The Chappelle picture was from a sketch the comedian had done on “Chappelle’s Show” in 2004, almost a decade prior.
The next year, in 2014, Chappelle told Jimmy Fallon during an episode of the “The Tonight Show” that the album art was “a Prince judo move,” further explaining, “You make fun of Prince in a sketch and he’ll just use you in his album cover.” Chappelle made it seem as if he hadn’t given Prince permission, but he still wasn’t going to sue him. Because it’s Prince. more
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