One of the world’s raunchiest rock stars, Prince is in his stacked heels
and flamboyant suit strutting from house to house around an ordinary
suburban estate.
ne of the world’s raunchiest rock stars, Prince is in his stacked
heels and flamboyant suit strutting from house to house around an
ordinary suburban estate.
Flanked by minders, he goes up a
garden path, knocks on a door and politely asks the householder: “Would
you like to talk about God?”
It’s an extraordinary image.
You can only imagine the shock of a homeowner finding the superstar on
their doorstep clutching a bible and delivering a message about the
divine.
Can this really be the same man who shot to fame with outrageously explicit songs such as Sexy MF?
Prince
admits his door-to-door missions as a Jehovah’s Witness raises
eyebrows. “Sometimes people act surprised but mostly they’re really cool
about it.
Sometimes he tries to escape his fame by going
in disguise. He says: “My hair is capable of doing a lot of different
things. I don’t always look like this.”
You only have to
meet Prince for a few minutes to realise the extent to which God –
rather than the colour purple – now influences how he lives.
Much
of what he says, as well as his songwriting, revolves around his
beliefs these days. Even the mysterious numbers he slots into his
material are thought to be coded biblical references.
I join Prince at his Paisley Park base near his home city of Minneapolis in the US Midwest.
It
is days before his eagerly anticipated new album 20TEN is released free
inside this Saturday’s Daily Mirror in the biggest music giveaway of
the year.
In my view it’s his best record since his
brilliant Sign o’ the Times and, with references from “fat bankers” to
melting ice caps, it’s his most socially aware.
The songs – and even his decision to give them away free to Mirror readers – have been
influenced by his faith.
He
says: “It’s great to give away my music through your newspaper. God is
a generous and loving being. It is written that we should act like God.
There are enough opportunities.”
On my guided tour of
Paisley Park it’s clear that for Prince the most important part of the
70,000 sq ft complex isn’t the recording studio where he’s created hit
after worldwide hit but a peaceful sanctuary on the first floor which
he calls The Knowledge Room.
Lined with shelves of
religious literature, it’s where he contemplates the meaning of life,
prays and studies the Bible for up to six hours a day, sometimes long
into the night.
The teetotal vegan, a youthful-looking 52, is certain his faith has changed his life.
He says: “There’s an incredible peace in my life now and I’m trying to share it with people.”
He
talks with a real missionary zeal though some of his comments are
puzzling. At one point he says: “You know there are bad angels as well
as good angels.”
It reminded me that he once revealed he
had epileptic seizures when he was young – until “my mother told me one
day I had said to her, ‘Mom I’m not going to be sick any more because an
angel told me so.’”
I ask him about the story. He thinks for a moment and then says: “I never talk about the past.”
Subject closed.
He
avoids performing his most X-rated sexual material from the 80s and
early 90s – those massive selling songs such as Gett Off – and cautions
against swearing because “you call up all the anger”.
He is also known to donate huge chunks of his £100million fortune to good causes around the
world.
And, perhaps most surprising of all, the man who was romantically
linked to beauties including Sheena Easton, Kim Basinger and Carmen
Electra – and sang about “23 positions in a one night stand” – is a fan
of monogamy.
He’s been dating stunning singer Bria Valente, who is almost half his age, for at least three years.
For Prince that’s no small feat!
It
is believed that, like his second wife Manuela Testolini, who he
divorced in 2006, Bria has become a Jehovah’s Witness, has been baptised
in a pool and attends regular Bible studies at their local Kingdom Hall
meeting place.
The background to why he abandoned a world of hedonistic excess can be traced to a series of tragedies in the mid to late 90s.
It was a time when his glittering career seemed to be faltering and contractual frustrations with
his then record company Warners were boiling over.
He replaced his name with an unpronounceable symbol, became the Artist Formerly Known As Prince and scrawled SLAVE on his cheek.
But all that paled beside the anguish of the death of his baby son Gregory in 1996.
Prince had set his heart on starting a family with his first wife, dancer Mayte Garcia.
Seven days after their child was born the child died from a genetic disorder of the skull called
Pfieffer syndrome.
More heartbreak and soul-searching followed with the death of both the star’s parents.
Dad John L Nelson was a pianist and bandleader.
Prince’s
mother, the jazz singer Mattie Shaw, died six months later. Her final
wish was said to be that her son should become a Jehovah’s Witness as
she had been for most of her life. Prince grappled with depression and
something approaching a midlife crisis.
To the outside world he was a gleaming example of the American Dream.
Prince
Rogers Nelson, an African-American boy from a broken home on the wrong
side of the tracks who had faced down the bullies at school and every
other obstacle to conquer the world with truly innovative music.
A
rock legend who had amassed a fortune from global tours and sales of
more than 100 million albums, including classics such as Purple Rain,
1999 and Diamonds and Pearls.
And when he wasn’t making music, he was picking up beautiful women or awards including Grammys and even an Oscar.
But
for Prince all the dizzying success meant little. As he searched for
purpose to his life he became friends with one of his heroes – former
Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, now 63.
The
soul veteran made a huge impression on Prince, telling him how he had
recovered from a life of drugs and violence by being born again as a
Jehovah’s Witness. Larry convinced him to convert.
Prince
says: “Larry goes door to door to tell people the truth about God.
“That’s why I told myself I need to know a man like him. He’s a friend
who calls me his baby brother.”
Larry says: “Prince is a
spiritual man. Sometimes we study for hours – six, seven, eight hours a
day. We sit down and get into the scriptures.”
Prince’s place of worship is the Chanhassen Congregation, a few miles from Paisley Park.
One
of the elders there says: “We have watched Prince since he started
studying the Bible and noticed a dramatic change. We go on Bible studies
together and work in field service, the door-to-door ministry that
Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for.
“When people being
called on get past the initial shock of actually meeting Prince, he is
very persuasive. He uses the scriptures very well.”
Critics claim it has led to him adopting surprisingly hardline conservative views on issues such as gay marriage and abortion.
In
one interview two years ago, he was quoted as saying: “God came to
earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever,
and he just cleared it all out.
“He was like, ‘Enough.’”
Prince denied taking such a stance and is now careful not be drawn on his beliefs.
“I can give you books to read and you would understand,” he says, “But I ain’t going into details with you.”
I
ask does he regret the wild image which helped catapult him to fame all
those years ago? The dirty lyrics, endorsements of casual sex, the
nude figure on the cover of Lovesexy?
He thinks, smiles and in typically Prince style says: “I live in the here and now. You should try it too.”
others:
credits: Famous Adherents
-
Evelyn Mandela - first wife of South African president Nelson Mandela (convert to JWs)
-
Lieby Piliso - Nelson Mandela's younger sister
-
Lou Whitaker - professional baseball player (Detroit Tigers)
- Chet Lemon - professional baseball player (Detroit Tigers)
-
Shont'e Peoples - professional football player (Saskatchewan Roughriders); convert to JWs
- Kid Gavilan - welterweight champion boxer; elected to boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 (convert to JWs)
- Dave Pear - NFL professional football player for Colts, Buccaneers, and Raiders (convert)
-
Mark McCumber - professional golfer
-
Dave Meyers - professional basketball player (Los Angeles Lakers in 1970s)
-
Danny Granger - professional basketball player (Indiana Pacers)
- Travis Scott - NFL football player for Rams (raised JW)
- Willie Wise - NBA professional basketball player for Seattle Super Sonics and Denver Nuggets
David Thomas - songwriter/vocalist for Pere Ubu (convert to JWs)
- Herman Pizzanelli - leading Uruguayan concert guitarist in the 1960s (convert to JWs)
- Dave Hill - musician, Lead Guitarist and back vocals for Slade (convert)
- Patti Smith - punk rock star
- Geri Halliwell - singer (Spice Girls)
-
Jill Scott - R&B/neo-soul singer-poet
-
Roy Harper - songwriter, musician (raised)
- La Lupe - Cuban salsa singer (convert)
-
Terrence Howard - actor; Ray, Hustle & Flow, etc.
-
Teresa Graves - actress, star of TV movie and TV series "Get Christie Love!" (convert to JWs)
- Lark Voorhies - TV/movie actress
-
Mickey Spillane - best-selling crime novelist (convert to JWs)
- Gloria Naylor - novelist, author of The Women of Brewster Place (1982, American Book Award)
- Margaret Keane - artist famous for her "Big Eye" paintings (convert)
-
Carol M. Swain - political scientist; professor at Vanderbilt University; author of Black Faces, Black Interests and The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration; left the Witnesses at the age of 20, in 1975
-
Viv Nicholson - famous London lottery winner in 1961. She then became a devout JW. The musical Spend, Spend, Spend was based on her story.
-
Hayden Covington - leading attorney for the
Jehovah's Witnesses, Watchtower Society; won multiple U.S. Supreme Court
cases; represented Muhammad Ali in court
- Firpo Carr - historian, author of Germany's Black Holocaust: 1890-1945; Wicked Words: Poisoned Minds - Racism in the Dictionary; founder: Scholar Technological Institute of Research, Inc. (STIR)
- Angelo Palego - leader of team searching for Noah's Ark
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