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Fact #141070

When:

Short story:

Having just won four awards at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California, USA, Prince deliberately ignores an invitation to take part in the recording of the charity single We Are The World. Instead, he goes out on the town but when one of his bodyguards gets involved in a scuffle, the media has a field day comparing Prince's wild night out with the charitable activities of every other megastar in town, all of whom are taking part in the recording of We Are The World.

Full article:

Susan Rogers (sound engineer) : I was with Prince one day at his home studio, just the two of us, and he got a call from Quincy Jones asking him to come be part of ‘We Are the World.’ I only hear Prince’s side of the conversation - I was in the control room waiting - but he declined it. It was a long conversation, and Prince said, ‘Can I play guitar on it?’ And they said no, and he ultimately said, ‘Okay, well, can I send Sheila?’ And he sent Sheila. Then he said, ‘If there’s going to be an album, can I do a song for the album?’ And evidently they said yes.”

Bob Cavallo (manager, Prince) : At the American Music Awards, he keeps telling me the only thing he’ll do is play guitar. So I call Quincy, and he says, ‘I don’t need him to fucking play guitar!’ and he got angry. I said, ‘All right, I don’t know, he’s not feeling well’ - I start this whole campaign that he’s getting the flu. I say to Prince backstage, ‘I’m gonna say you’re sick - if you go out tonight and you’re seen, I can see the headlines: ‘Prince Parties While Rock Royalty Saves Millions’ or whatever the fuck they want to write. They suspect you anyway. You’ve got to stay home, ride it out, and be sick.’ ‘Okay,’ he says.

Alan Leeds (tour manager) : We implore him, no matter what happens at the awards, we cannot go out in the streets and celebrate if you’re not going to go to A+M and show up for this. Fargnoli and I were like, ‘Dude, the eyes are on you, okay? You just cleaned up. The two biggest things on the planet tonight are this recording session and you, and everybody is going to want to know why that’s not one thing. So take your awards and keep your ass in the hotel. You cannot run the clubs the way you usually do, with two bodyguards, chasing girls. Not tonight, not while this is going on.’

So that was good until about two in the morning. I think Bobby and his wife, Vicki, and me and Gwen were the last ones to leave his room. We stayed with him on purpose - but it was a big night, and he was on cloud nine. We left him around two, two-thirty in the morning.

Wendy Melvin (guitarist) : It was horrible. He had us go to Carlos and Charlie’s and have a fucking party. I remember it perfectly, thinking, ‘This is so wrong. This is so wrong.’ We were embarrassed. Everybody in the band was horrified. And that’s where it felt like, there’s something shifting here, where he’s getting nasty. The entitlement - it was almost like a kid with too much candy.

Bob Cavallo (manager, Prince) : On their way out, his bodyguard - idiot guy - smacks somebody, the press picks it up, and that was it.

Alan Leeds (tour manager) : At maybe four o’clock, four-thirty, the phone rings and it’s Chick (bodyguard). ‘Hey, buddy, better get back up!’ ‘What?’ ‘Well, we were at Carlos and Charlie’s, and Big Larry, the (other) bodyguard, he’s in jail, the sheriff’s got him.’ I’ve had scandals on tour where musicians got busted and shit happens, but I’ve never read anything that was on page A1. It was just plain weird.

Wendy Melvoin (guitarist) : I was doing all these interviews at that time, and everybody wanted to know why he wasn’t there. I wasn’t allowed to say the real reason - which he would’ve gotten his fucking ass kicked hard for… I had to say, ‘We were in a mobile truck somewhere, he couldn’t make it, duh-de-duh.’ I knew there’s no way I can say, ‘Because he thinks he’s a badass and he wanted to look cool, and he felt like the song for “We Are the World” was horrible and he didn’t want to be around ‘all those muthafuckas.’ ”
(Source : https://medium.com/cuepoint/when-purple-rain-came-falling-down-2f0babc363b9#.r82butgu4)

Bob Cavallo (manager) : I believe that moment is what made people ambivalent about his greatness. When you get negative press going, you need twenty years for people to stop reflecting on it. And if guys like Springsteen or whoever are talking about how great he is, like they used to, it would add to the legend. But instead, everybody kind of backed off, like, ‘What the fuck kind of idiot is he that he would go to some dance club instead of just going there and singing two lines in the song?’

Prince : We had talked to the people that were doing USA for Africa, and they said it was cool that I gave them a song for the album. It was the best thing for both of us, I think. I’m strongest in a situation where I’m surrounded by people I know. So it’s better that I did the music with my friends than going down and participating there. I probably would have just clammed up with so many great people in a room. I’m an admirer of all of the people who participated in that particular outing, and I don’t want there to be any hard feelings…
(Source , MTV interview, 1985)