Some trivia:
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THE ELECTRIFYING MOJO (1985)
On the eve of his birthday in 1985, Prince gave a surprise interview to
legendary Detroit disc jockey the Electrifying Mojo. He had never
offered a live radio interview before. Of the experience, Mojo later
said:
I had no idea he was going to call. I had no list of questions or
anything like that. First I talked to Billy Sparks and he said, 'Hey
Mojo! Prince wants to talk to you. You got a minute?' I said, 'Do I have
a minute? Give me a minute to make sure we have a tape on,' and Prince
says, 'Hey Mojo! What's happening? This is Prince.' If I hadn't heard
Billy Sparks' voice prior to that, I may have said, 'Yeah, right.'
The following is the text of the spoken interview, as transcribed by
Rose Gardner on the Emancipation mailing list.
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MOJO: This is the one-man hit machine from Minnesota. Ladies and
Gentlemen...Prince.
PRINCE: Hello, Detroit.
MOJO: How are you?
PRINCE: Alright, how are you?
MOJO: Well, Prince... I heard nothing but magic flowin' down from the
concert. How was it?
PRINCE: Mmm, a lot of fun. You should've been there.
MOJO: I was there in spirit. I wanted to be here for one reason...I
wanted to be here, so that the moment that the concert was over...I
wanted to flood the airwaves with Prince.
PRINCE: Well, you know what? I was driving from the gig, wiping the
sweat off my brow, and I heard Automatic. And we just got through
playin' it...we don't normally play that one. It went over pretty good,
and I think it's 'cuz of you, and what you've done for us and...my
thang. It's a good feeling. I just wanna tell all my little motor babies
that I'm just happy to be here...and it's a fun way to spend my
birthday, for sure.
MOJO: Happy Birthday to you.
PRINCE: Thank you.
MOJO: Prince, you've been the entertainer that has insisted on doing
things one way...your way.
PRINCE: Well, you know, it's like...I worked a long time under a lot of
different people, and most of the time I was doing it their way. I mean,
that was cool, but ya know, I figured if I worked hard enough and kept
my head straight, one day I'd get to do this on my own...and that's what
happened. So I feel like...if I don't try to hurt nobody...and like I
say...keep my head on straight...my way usually is the best way.
MOJO: Growin' up in Minne-wood, as it's been now called, simply because
that is the hot point on this planet right now.
PRINCE: Well, it's been called a lot of things, but it's always Uptown
to me.
MOJO: Uptown?
PRINCE: Yes.
MOJO: What was it like growin' up Uptown?
PRINCE: Pretty different. Uh, kinda sad, to be exact. (laughs) I mean,
the radio was dead, the discos was dead, ladies was kinda dead, so I
felt like, if we wanted to make some noise, and I wanted to turn
anything outI was gonna have to get somethin' together. Which is
what we did. We put together a few bands and turned it into Uptown. That
consisted of a lot of bike riding nude, but ya know...it worked. We had
fun. That's why I wanted to come here on my birthday...'cuz I wanted to
give them a little taste of where we live and get a little taste of
where you all live. To me, this is like my second home. If I could spend
the night at somebody's crib, I would...'cuz this hotel They're real
nice to us, but, this bed is hard!
MOJO: You've made fantastic albums, and you've made fantastic movies,
and you're making another movie right now.
PRINCE: Yeah.
MOJO: What's the difference between making a hot movie and making a hot
album?
PRINCE: There is no difference. There have been people who have tried to
tell me contrary to that, but like you said before and like I said
before, I strive for perfection, and sometimes I'm a little bull-headed
in my ways. Hopefully, people understand that there's just a lot on my
mind and I try to stay focused on one particular thing. And I try not to
hurt nobody in the process. A movie is a little bit more complex, but to
me it's just a larger version of an album. There are scenes and there
are songs, and they all go together to make this painting, and...I'm the
painter. Y'all is the paintees. (Mojo laughs.) Hopefully it's something
that you can get into. Jerome Benton stars in this new film with me and
he's on his way to becoming very, very big. I'm real proud of him. He
takes direction well and he gives direction well and I expect a lot of
big things from him.
MOJO: Speaking of Jerome Benton, and other people who've flown under the
wings of Prince, and also speaking of Detroit's own Billy Sparks, a
person that you took from Detroit, put him in your first movie...
PRINCE: Yes.
MOJO: You've always maintained contact with people that you've always
been in contact with.
PRINCE: Oh yeah. Without a doubt, there's people who have flown the
coop, so to speak, and gone off to do their own thing, which is great
and I stand behind them and support them, whatever they
