The unlikely Prince song he described as his favourite: “I usually answer it by saying the next one”
Prince was a walking, talking enigma. He kept his cards close to his chest and wrapped himself up in a mysterious persona that made him an enthralling character that was impossible to predict. From the outside looking in, it was difficult to comprehend where Prince Rogers Nelson, the person, began and where ‘The Purple One’, his stage persona, ended, providing him with a special appeal.
Mystery is becoming a lost art in the music business, with artists having to follow TikTok trends to flog their latest releases or risk losing their record deals. However, Prince preferred to let his music do the talking on his behalf and infrequently gave a glimpse behind the curtain into his work. Rather than looking back, Prince spent his time glancing into the future and rarely reflected upon his enchanting career.
Occasionally, he did let people get a sneak glimpse into the real Prince Rogers Nelson. In 2014, the legendary musician was a guest on the newly revamped The Arsenio Hall Show, which was a rare novelty. The two were close friends, hence why Prince agreed to appear on the programme despite rarely giving interviews at this stage of his career. Although it was out of Prince’s character to join a chat show, he agreed to make an exception for Arsenio.
Prince seemed thoroughly relaxed during the segment and gave enlightening answers to Hall’s questions. In 1994, he appeared on the same programme and famously set an album review on fire and an electrifying rendition of ‘Purple Rain‘. When he returned to the scene of the crime two decades later, Prince kicked off the show with a rendition of ‘Funk N Roll’ alongside 3rd Eye Girl. Later in the programme, he made his way to the couch and even named his favourite Prince song.
They discussed an array of interesting topics throughout the illuminating chat, including Prince explaining the moment he knew that he had to give everything to follow his dream. He recalled: “When I was 16, I was completely broke and needed to get a job. So, I got the Yellow Pages out, and I couldn’t find one thing I wanted to do so I decided to push as hard as I could to be a musician, and went at it, y’know.”
Musicians are asked about their favourite songs in their own back catalogues on an almost daily basis. For most, the answer is easy to predict, yet Prince was unpredictable. Rather than say ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Kiss’, or ‘When Doves Cry‘, he chose a yet-to-be-released track by 3rd Eye Girl, which appeared on his next album. “I usually answer it by saying the next one, but there is a song which we’ve just written called ‘Breakdown’,” he told Hall.
Prince then gave an insight into his album-making process and how he likes to build it around a couple of favourites that set the tone, sharing, “One of the things that we try to do, though, is wait until we have other songs that go together with our favourites which is why it takes such a long time to come up with albums these days. You know, not being under contract, there’s no rush to do anything.”
‘Breakdown’ isn’t likely to feature on any of the posthumous greatest hits compilations released by his estate, but the passion that Prince had for the track was infectious. At this stage of his career, he’d been in the music business for several decades and witnessed the dirty side of the industry first-hand, yet it didn’t impact his love for creating art. Right until the end, Prince remained committed to his pursuit of uncovering the perfect song and believed his best work was ahead of him.
