Jamie Foxx’s awkward encounter with Prince: “I didn’t know what to say”
Legendary rock star Prince always had an ethereal, otherworldly quality that seemed to bring even the coolest people to their knees. The combination of his striking androgynous looks, innovative and genre-blending musicianship and magnetic sexual energy completely captivated a whole generation—and subsequent ones too. So, there are stories of many awkward first encounters between famous fans and ‘His Royal Badness’.
Even the super cool and acclaimed actor, musician, comedian and producer Jamie Foxx managed to lose his cool when confronted with Prince. “I met him in the most uncomfortable way,” he told Front Row Features, “I met Prince December 31st, 1998. It’s about to be 1999.” Given Prince’s album 1999 was the one that shot him to international fame, it must have felt especially symbolic for a super-fan like Foxx to meet him right before the countdown.
And Foxx was a super fan. He’d been listening to Prince since the start and cites him as a major influence on his own music. So, understandably, he acted as most fans would. “I met Prince in Las Vegas. The Time was doing a show at Studio 54. I look up and see Prince, and I start crying. I said something stupid, like, you know how fans say, ‘Man, you know who you are?’ ‘Yeah, I know who you are, dog.’ And I’m marching.” While it’s hard to believe an entertainer as suave and funny as Foxx could be rattled by another star, it’s always understandable when it comes to ‘The Artist’.
But while the above could be waved off as a little cringe but understandable, given the circumstances, Foxx didn’t stop there. “I just went nuts, and I didn’t know what to say, and I started singing his songs. I said, ‘I know the B sides.’ So I started singing the B-sides of his songs to him.” While it’s an incredible show of true fandom, it’s probably safe to say that by this point, Prince was, in fact, familiar with his own songs. But, at least Foxx is a good singer, and Prince was a gracious host, “He said, ‘You know what? Thank you.’”
The real faux pas came afterwards when Foxx did what haunts most people who have met their biggest idols—he asked for a photograph. “And then I begged for a picture, and this was (pre-camera phone), where you had to manually advance the film. This was my moment, right?” Sadly for Foxx, it was, in fact, not his moment. Of course, Prince had transcended such things by this point and politely turned his iconic fan down.
The saying is “never meet your idols” after all. But despite the awkwardness of the first encounter between the two stars, Foxx still got to experience what many can only dream of. Plus, things only seemed to get better for the actor when The Time brought Prince up on stage for a solo.
He continues: “Morris Day says, ‘All right, break it down a little bit. Now I’m about to bring somebody out here. Don’t you all act a fool when he all comes out here, and I’m not going to let him sing. I’m just going to let him play’…he did a guitar solo. I done forgot what this interview was about.” Clearly, once you’ve met ‘The High Priest of Pop’ nothing else really matters.
