Prince Is Kind of a Jackass, But I Would Still -censored-

Claire Hoffman of The New Yorker recently sat down with Prince, His Royal Purpleness, and they discussed him, his work, and his religious conversion over a bowl of carrot soup.

Prince became a Jehovah's Witness seven years ago and has renounced much of his former persona. He now believes that homosexuality or any of the less mainstream sexualities and behaviors are sins, which is pretty rich coming from a man who rose to fame and made millions strutting in high heels and just generally being open about his sexuality during the uptight Reagan era. Prince performs his duties and occasionally goes door to door to spread The Word, which must be done at 6 a.m. because after, say, 9 a.m. The Word loses its pizazz.

I think you guys know me well enough to know that this irks me. I'm generally not down with organized religion, and I'm especially not down with people condemning the lives and personal life choices of others, especially in the name of a deity. But I guess I let Prince slide a little. I know that, despite his enormous talent and invaluable contributions to music, he's had a rough life. He had a somewhat unhappy childhood and his only child died shortly after birth in the late 90s. I understand looking for answers.

Besides that, I can't deny that his music means the world to me and I still maintain that the best musical performance I've ever seen was his concert in Pittsburgh in 1997. I seriously didn't know it was possible to have fun like that.

And, he still is one sexy motherfucker.

The bizarreness of the New Yorker interview prompted Best Week Ever's Michelle Collins to wonder what it would be like to eat soup with Prince and I urge you to read her post about it. It's awesome.

I'm reminded of Charlie Murphy's reflections on Chappelle's Show about the evening he spent at Princes, during which he and his friends were decimated during a game of basketball, but Prince made up for it by making them pancakes.

New Yorker

Comments

[Liana]

Dude, I LOVE that clip from Chappelle's Show.
We were channel surfing one night and ended up watching that sketch. SO. AWESOME. :)

I also love SNL's "Prince Show" clips.

For some reason, Prince parodies really crack me up!

[JZMom]

He actually won't perform some of his more risque (risk-kay?) songs anymore. When I saw him in concert, I was really missing Erotic City.

[iambellaluna]

I love the pre-Jehovah's Witness Prince, when he was a flamboyant symbol. That was the good Prince.

[[mark]]

A post on Perez Hilton today is saying that the Prince camp is less than enthused by the interview. Apparently, they claim the interviewer didn't use a recording device.

Given Prince's history of love/hate relationships with the media in general, I find it hard to believe that it was the interviewer's CHOICE to not use a recorder.

[sweetney]

You just made my day all better.

[Monica]

I'm sorry, I just really, really, really don't get the whole Prince-being-sexy thing. At all. Not even a little. And I don't like any of his music.

I've never said that out loud! Errr...typed that out loud! Errr...whatever. I don't get it :/

[jamiegp]

upcoming Mamapop post: "what is the best chapelle skit ever"... cuz I went to write a post that said this Prince one was... and then I was like... but the Wayne Brady thing... but the blind black Klan guy... but Rick James... but but but...

I will say Charlie Murphy was probably the best thing about the show...