The massive performance that Prince initially turned down: “That’s incredible and unbelievable”
Anyone who ever had the opportunity to see Prince perform knew they would get something special. Outside of his magnetic stage presence, ‘The Purple One’ put tremendous attention to detail into everything he made, whether creating spellbinding records or turning a guitar solo into an emotional exorcism whenever he got on a platform. Although Prince kept playing until he died in 2016, there was one show that he had initially turned down.
Prince was always particular about how he wanted his career to go. Throughout his time working in the Minneapolis club scene, he had usually conducted every part of his business independently, even lending his talents to a handful of his proteges like Moris Day and the Time and Shiela E.
When it came time for him to record what he anticipated to be a triple album, though, his record label baulked at the idea, leading to a massive lawsuit with Warner Bros that included him attending events with the word ‘SLAVE’ written across his cheek. Although Prince was free from his usual contracts after changing his name to ‘The Love Symbol’, he would always be slightly standoffish with his work on any new music.
Unlike the traditional way of releasing records, much of Prince’s material in the 1990s and 2000s was about how he felt then, including the massive slog of B-sides that were worked on to create albums like Crystal Ball. While nothing may have equalled the success of Purple Rain or Around the World in a Day, things began to shift for Prince when working on records like Musicology.
Getting back in touch with what made his work so enduring to fans, Prince experienced a late-career renaissance, being seen as one of the elder statesmen of rock history. Outside of his now-iconic performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, performing a solo on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, Prince would also feature on songs by pop staples live, performing ‘Baby I’m a Star’ alongside Beyonce.
As the 2010s began, though, there was an opportunity for Prince to take his schtick to The White House, only for him to baulk at the idea a few days after being offered. While artists like Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney had been to grace the presidential residence, President Barack Obama said that Prince was one of the first people he could recall who said no before coming around to the idea.
While the president eventually got the music legend to come around, he would also go on to say that it was one of the most spellbinding performances that Washington DC had ever seen, saying, “He did technically turn us down the first time, and that was Prince. It was actually probably two months before he passed. So it was one of his last performances. That’s incredible and unbelievable. He actually performed on the keyboards with Stevie Wonder did some stuff. He couldn’t have been better”.
Even though Prince may not have wanted to get involved in politics at the time, his music was enough to bring people together regardless of their personal beliefs. Given that he was taken from us only months after his performance, it’s clear that Prince intended to keep making music until he physically couldn’t do it anymore.
