Prince is an Academy Award and Grammy award-winning American pop musician. He uses the stage name Prince, but has also been known by various other names, among them an unpronounceable symbol and The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
His career has spanned several styles: from his early material, rooted in R&B, funk, and soul, he has consistently expanded his musical palette throughout his career, absorbing many other genres including New Wave, pop, rock, jazz, and hip hop. The distinctive characteristics of the early-to-mid 1980s work that brought him to super-stardom--including sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements, and the use of synthesizer riffs to serve the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music--was called the "Minneapolis sound" and has proved very influential.
Prince is a prolific artist, having released several hundred songs both under his own name and with other artists. Well known as a perfectionist, Prince is highly protective of his music. He produces, composes, arranges and performs nearly all of the songs on his albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Uptown: early years
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Mount Sinai Hospital on Saturday June 7, 1958, to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw.[1] John was a pianist and songwriter, and Mattie was a singer. He is named after the Prince Rogers Trio, his father's jazz band, and as a boy he was called Skipper.
There are a number of myths regarding Prince's ethnicity, some spread by Prince himself. In fact, both of Prince's parents are African-American. According to a 1985 Rolling Stone piece,[citation needed] Mattie Shaw, not unlike many African-Americans is an amalgam of different ethnicities. The article in question affirms Shaw as: "a singer sixteen years John's junior, Mattie bore traces of Billie Holiday in her pipes and more than a trace of Indian and Caucasian in her blood." After the birth of his sister Tyka, in 1960, Prince's parents gradually drifted apart. After they formally separated, he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather that resulted in his running away from home. Prince lived briefly with his father, who bought him his first guitar, and later he moved in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, befriending their son, Andre Anderson (later called André Cymone).
Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central that they formed in junior high school. His initial contributions were as an instrumentalist in what was a mainly instrumental band that played clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. As time went by and Prince's musical interests broadened, he found himself producing the arrangements for the band. Before long he became The band's front man. By the time Prince entered high school, Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music already drawing on a range of influences including Sly Stone, James Brown, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. At one point Prince was a student at the Minnesota Dance Theatre.[2]
In 1976, he started work on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. Prince also had the patronage of Owen Husney, to whom Moon introduced him, a connection that helped him produce a high-quality demo recording. Husney started contacting major labels and ran a campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, resulting in a bidding war eventually won by Warner Bros. Records. They offered him a contract and were the only label to give Prince creative control of his songs.
Pepe Willie, husband of Prince's cousin, Shantel, was an influential presence in Prince's early career. Willie acted as mentor and manager, along with Husney, for Prince in the Grand Central days, and he employed Prince in the studio for his own recordings. In 1977, Willie formed 94 East, a band with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry. 94 East comprised a group of singers and musicians that included Andre Cymone and Prince. Prince composed the music for Willie's lyrics and typically played guitar and keyboards in the studio. He wrote many songs for the group, including "Just Another Sucker." the band recorded an album, Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings. Although it was not a solo album, and was not commercially released until many years later, it is considered Prince's first professional album. For reasons that have never been disclosed by Prince, he refuses to acknowledge the existence of this album. In 1995, the original recordings with Prince and Cymone were released by Willie as 94 East featuring Prince, Symbolic Beginning.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists his first album as For You, which was released on April 7, 1978. For You was the first major-label album released by Prince, his first of many for Warner Bros. Tommy Vicari was the executive producer. This album, like most of his career, was not recorded with a band; Prince purportedly played all 27 instruments on the album. Critics detract from the impressiveness of this fact by qualifying them as "merely" different types of string, percussion, and keyboard instruments.
The majority of For You was written and performed by Prince, except for the song "Soft and Wet" (music by Prince, lyrics by Prince and C. Moon). This was the first of Prince's albums containing the now ubiquitous legend: "Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince." Prince spent twice his initial advance recording the album, which sold modestly and made the bottom reaches of the Billboard 200, while the single "Soft and Wet" performed well on the R&B charts. Prince used Prince's music Co. for publishing the songs from this album.
By 1979, Prince had recruited his first backing band featuring Andrew Cymone on bass, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z on drums, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Prince intentionally enlisted a multi-racial, mixed-gender group, much like the backing band of one of his greatest influences, Sly Stone.
In October 1979, Prince released his second and self-titled album, Prince, which reached #4 on the Billboard R&B charts, and contained two R&B hits: "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover." These two R&B hits were performed on January 26, 1980, on the TV show American Bandstand with this first backing band. Legend has it that Prince became annoyed when, during the interview segment, Dick Clark expressed surprise that Prince and his bandmates hailed from Minneapolis "of all places". At first Prince refused to speak, instead answering a question by gesturing with his hand. It was later admitted by Dez Dickerson that it was planned from the beginning as a way to throw Dick Clark off his game. Dickerson was quoted as saying, "Great. We're illiterate, but we play well." For his second album, Prince used Ecnirp music (Prince spelled backwards) [3] - BMI for publishing his songs, which he would also use for the album Dirty Mind.
Prince has been certified gold status; the single "I Wanna Be Your Lover" reached #1 on the R&B charts, also coming close to an appearance on the pop charts. This became known as one of his greatest hits.
During this period, Prince began to attract attention for the clothes he wore onstage. He wore high-heeled shoes and boots, and when questioned by the press, he remarked that he liked the way he looked in them.[citation needed] He tended to flaunt and express an intense sexuality onstage in addition to in his music, and as a result, people began questioning his sexual orientation. His stylistic choices brought him trouble as an opening act for The Rolling Stones' two Los Angeles Coliseum shows in 1981, where he was infamously pelted with garbage while wearing bikini briefs, leg warmers, high-heeled boots, and a trench coat, in addition to being booed off the stage for his wardrobe.
[edit] 1980–1984
In 1980, Prince released Dirty Mind, again entirely self-recorded and released using the demos of the songs. On tour, Lisa Coleman replaced Chapman in the band, who felt the sexually explicit lyrics and stage antics of Prince's concerts conflicted with her religious beliefs. Dirty Mind is particularly notable for its sexually explicit material.
Prince opened for Rick James in a 1980 tour with the label "punk funk" being applied to both artists, although it reportedly didn't sit comfortably with Prince. He released the album Controversy in 1981, with the single of the same name charting internationally for the first time. In February of 1981, Prince performed "Partyup" on the now-infamous season six episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charlene Tilton that brought Jean Doumanian's lackluster tenure as executive producer down when cast member Charles Rocket uttered the word "fuck" at the end of the program. Starting with the album Controversy, Prince used Controversy music[4] - ASCAP for publishing his songs, which he would use for his following sixteen Records until Emancipation in 1996.
In 1981, Prince formed a "side project" (a problematic label given that his band was only used for performance, not recording sessions) band called The Time. Prince was able to do this thanks to a clause in his contract with Warner Bros. The Time released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing all instruments and backing vocals throughout. the band's vocals were led by Morris Day.
In the coming decade, Prince would also collaborate with Vanity (of Vanity 6), Apollonia (of Apollonia 6) and Sheila E. He also wrote hits for artists such as Sheena Easton ("Sugar Walls"), Celine Dion (as she talked about in an interview with Arsenio Hall in 1993), and The Bangles ("Manic Monday"). Prince's own recordings would be covered in hit versions by artists as diverse as Chaka Khan ("I Feel For You"), Mariah Carey, Art of Noise with Tom Jones, and Sinéad O'Connor ("Nothing Compares 2 U"). O'Connor's cover, orignally written by Prince for The Family, was a huge commercial success in 1990.
In 1982, Prince released the 1999 double-album which "broke" Prince into the mainstream in the US and internationally, selling over three million copies[5]. The title track was a protest of nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit internationally. With his video for "Little Red Corvette" he joined Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie as part of the first wave of African American artists on MTV. The song "Delirious" also went top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was placed at number six in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1983.
Stevie Nicks related a story in a television interview that she had come up with her 1983 song "Stand Back" after being inspired by the synthesizer part in "Little Red Corvette." When it was time to record the song, it happened that Prince was in Los Angeles near her recording studio. She made contact and, soon afterward, Prince came by the studio and sat down at the synthesizer himself, to play song-opening riff[citation needed].
Around this time Prince began crediting his band as The Revolution, which consisted of Dez Dickerson on guitar, Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, and Brown Mark on bass. the band's name was printed in reverse on the cover of 1999; Prince refrained using the name "The Revolution" until Dickerson left the band for personal reasons. Dickerson was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, a childhood friend of Lisa. the band members were known for being solid musicians and a strong Live act, but their talents would be used sparsely in the studio. Their presence in Prince's recordings, however, would increase through the mid-1980s.
During this period, Prince brought to life the idea of b-sides--songs that were not previously released on the b-side of a single that were, at times, "throwaway" songs--becoming popular songs in their own right. Some greats and fan favorites include "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore", b-side for "1999"; "Erotic City", b-side for "Let's Go Crazy"; and "17 days", b-side for "When Doves Cry." Several of these b-sides were covered by mainstream artists, including Alicia Keys and Living Colour. Many of Prince's notable b-sides appeared on the 3rd disc of the compilation The Hits/The B-Sides.
[edit] 1984–1987
Purple Rain (concurrent with the film of the same name) sold more than thirteen million copies in the US and spent twenty-four consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200. The Academy Award-winning film grossed more than $80 million in the US alone, and has proved to be Prince's biggest cinematic success to date.
Two songs from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy," topped the US pop singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Prince simultaneously held the spots #1 film, #1 single, and #1 album in the US. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for "Purple Rain," and the album ranks at 72 in the top 100 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list[6]; the album is also listed in The All-time 100 Albums[7] of TIME Magazine.
It was the album's song "Darling Nikki" to which Tipper Gore overheard her twelve-year-old daughter, Karenna, listening that inspired her to found the Parents Music Resource Center. The center has enacted the mandatory use of a warning label ("Parental Advisory: explicit Lyrics") on the covers of Records that have been judged to contain language or lyrical content unsuitable for minors.
In 1985, after the U.S. Purple Rain Tour, which was a smash hit in the US and Canada, Prince announced that he would discontinue both Live performances and music videos after the release of Around the World in a Day, which held the #1 spot on the US charts for three weeks[citation needed]. Prince's ban on music videos supposedly ended when the album stalled in the charts and, after a video for "Raspberry Beret," then reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1986, Prince released the album Parade. The album went to #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #2 on the R&B album charts. The first single, "Kiss," would top the Billboard Hot 100. At the same time, "Manic Monday" by The Bangles reached #2 on the Hot 100, which Prince had written under the pseudonym "Christopher."
Parade served as a soundtrack to Prince's second film, romantic-comedy Under The Cherry Moon, which Prince both directed and starred in. Following the film and album, Prince returned to touring with a stripped-down show. After a few isolated dates (dubbed "the hit and Run Tour") in the United States, he embarked on his first full scale European Tour in the summer of 1986. He closed the tour in September in Japan, his first appearances in the country.
It was around this time that Miles Davis was quoted on his high regard for Prince's music. The prolific jazz musician proclaimed Prince to be "the most exciting artist of his time," and that "he could be another Duke Ellington." Prince was planning to collaborate with Davis on what would be the trumpeter's 1986 album Tutu, but plans fell through. Davis would pass away in 1991 before the two were able to work together.[citation needed]
[edit] 1987–1991
Sign o' the Times, released in 1987 as a double album, reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and achieved the greatest critical acclaim of his career, topping the annual and highly reputable Pazz & Jop critics poll, reaching the top 100 of Rolling Stone's list[6] and The All-time 100 Albums[7] of TIME Magazine, which declared it was the Best album of the 1980s.
Following the albums' release, Prince launched the Sign o' the Times Tour in Europe. At the end of the previous tour, Prince had disbanded his long-time performance band, called The Revolution since the release of the movie and album Purple Rain (although 'The Revolution' is mentioned on the album "1999"). He parted ways with long-time collaborators Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Bobby "Z" Rivkin, and Mark Brown (Brown Mark); his new Live performance band kept Matt Fink on keyboards, to whom he added Boni Boyer on keyboards, Sheila E on drums, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, and Miko Weaver on guitar.
1987 saw the potential for two of pop's biggest stars coming together to perform a duet. Michael Jackson talked with Prince about performing a duet together for the title track of his new album Bad. Jackson and Prince ended up having creative differences, however, and Jackson recorded the title track for the album alone.[8]
In 1987, Prince planned to release The Black Album, a funk-oriented album whose erotically-charged lyrics and Club-focused beats were perceived by many as his attempt to woo back the Black audience he was supposed to have lost as a result of his mid-80s forays into pop, hard rock, and psychedelic rock. In reality, the album was a collection of tracks recorded during the previous few years, some of which had initially been recorded for Sheila E's birthday party in 1986.[9]
The album remains legendary in Prince's career after its release was canceled at the artist's behest mere days before its release date. Though many already manufactured copies were supposed to be destroyed, several escaped and became the source for numerous bootleg editions. The album circulated through the bootleg underground music world and was not given an official release until 1994. Prince later attributed his eleventh-hour request for the album to be pulled from release to "a spiritual epiphany", but there are rumors that this epiphany was actually the result of a Bad experience with the drug Ecstasy.
The 1988 album Lovesexy is considered Prince's "spiritual" answer to the "dark" The Black Album. Lovesexy performed disappointingly on the US charts, reaching only #11 on the Billboard 200, but it reached #1 in the UK. (one track from The Black Album, "When 2 R in Love," also appeared on Lovesexy.) The US leg of the Lovesexy World Tour also proved to be commercial disappointment: Prince lost money as dates failed to sell out. He did balance this poor performance with the European and Japanese legs of the tour.
In 1989, Prince provided and released the soundtrack for Batman, which returned him to #1 on the US album charts. The worldwide hit-single "Batdance" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while another track, "Partyman," featuring the vocals of his then girlfriend "Anna Garcia"[10] became a popular song with the film's audiences. On September 24, Prince performed the Batman song Electric Chair after having been introduced by Batman co-star Jerry Hall[citation needed].
In 1990, Prince released the film Graffiti Bridge, a sequel to Purple Rain that performed poorly at the box office. The soundtrack to "Graffiti Bridge" featured Prince along with artists such as Tevin Campbell, Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers, and Morris Day with his other band and project, The Time. It would peak at #6 in the US and reach #1 in the UK. He also collaborated with Madonna on her Like a Prayer album for the song entitled "Love Song".
[edit] 1991–1994
The unpronounceable symbol (later dubbed "
Love Symbol #2").
The release of Diamonds and Pearls 1991 gave Prince his fifth US number one single with the song "Cream". Diamonds and Pearls debuted Prince's new band, the New Power Generation, that featured rapper Tony M, Rosie Gaines on vocals, Michael Bland on drums, Levi Seacer on guitar, Sonny T on bass, and Tommy Barbarella on keyboards.
1993 found Prince working significantly on Kate Bush's 1993 album, The Red Shoes; her name appears in the credits of his Diamonds and Pearls album. Prince chiefly contributed on the song "Why Should I Love You," playing bass, guitar, and keyboards, singing vocals, and arranging music for the mix. This would be the final "Prince" credit, until 2000. Kate Bush reciprocated in 1996 and is featured on background vocals on the Emancipation track, "My Computer."
Prince's twelfth album was titled with an unpronounceable symbol (later copyrighted as "Love Symbol #2").[11] It reached the top ten of the U.S. album charts. In 1993, he also changed his stage name to the Love Symbol, which is a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). Because the symbol was/is unpronounceable, he was often referred to as "Symbol," "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or simply "The Artist." In 1993, at the request of Warner Brothers, Prince released a 3-CD greatest hits compilation entitled The Hits/The B-Sides. The first two discs were also sold separately as The Hits 1 and The Hits 2. In addition to featuring the majority of Prince's hit singles (with the exception of "Batdance," which was omitted), The Hits includes an array of previously hard-to-find recordings, notably B-sides spanning the majority of Prince's career, as well as a handful of previously unreleased tracks such as the Revolution-recorded "Power Fantastic." A new song, "Peach," was chosen as a promotional single to accompany the compilation album. Unfortunately, neither the album nor single performed as well in sales as Prince and Warner Bros. had hoped, however, The Hits offers arguably the most thorough overview of Prince's musical output from 1978 - 1993.
In 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of Prince's output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word "slave" written on his cheek. Prince explained his name change as follows:
The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to the Love Symbol. Prince is the name that my Mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the Name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related Music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.… I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was the Love Symbol, a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.
Critics have argued Prince's name change as an attempt by the artist to reinvent himself, providing an opportunity to redevelop his style. one commentator noted:
Prince started his career as a big R&B star with limited mainstream success. At that point, he left the middle of the road and headed for the ditch. In 1980, it was risky to record new wave songs with lusty lyrics that assured no radio airplay (the classic Dirty Mind), but it paid off. Critics took notice and he became an underground favorite. This paved the way for his huge success with 1999 and Purple Rain. Certainly that was the pinnacle of his career, as far as worldwide earnings and universal adulation are concerned. But by heading for the ditch again, by changing his name and experimenting with his style, by lowering his stock value and escaping his record contract, Prince has become an underground artist again. In late 1996, the first collection of Prince music since his break with Warner Bros. appeared in record stores, a sprawling three-hour extravaganza integrating great Dance grooves and slow-burning ballads. Critical response has been overwhelmingly positive, and sales have been brisk despite the high price of a 3-CD set. It's no coincidence that he titled this album Emancipation.[12]
[edit] 1994–2000
In 1994, Prince's attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting that he release albums more sporadically. He also blamed Warner Bros. for the poor commercial performance of the Love Symbol album, claiming that it was insufficiently marketed by Warner. It was out of these developments that the aborted The Black Album was officially released, approximately seven years after its initial recording and near-release. The "new" release, which was already in wide circulation as a bootleg, sold relatively poorly.
Following that disappointing venture, Warner Bros. succumbed to Prince's wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come. The label had refused to grant the album a release in the past, believing the music on it to be dreadfully mediocre and lacking a potential hit single[citation needed]. When Come was eventually released, it confirmed all of Warner's fears. It became Prince's poorest-selling album to date, struggling to even shift 500,000 copies. Even more frustrating was the fact that Prince insisted on crediting the album to "Prince 1958–1993".
Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously with Love Symbol era material. Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February 1994. The release was successful, reaching #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in many other countries, but it would not prove to be a model for subsequent releases. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing "market saturation" as a defense. When eventually released in September 1995, The Gold Experience failed to sell well, although it reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially, and many reviewed it as Prince's Best effort since Sign o' the Times. The album is now out-of-print.
Chaos and Disorder, released in 1996, was Prince's final album of new material for Warner Bros., as well as one of his least commercially successful releases. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation. The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs in Emancipation, Prince did not use Controversy music - ASCAP, which he had used for all his Records since 1981, but rather used Emancipated music Inc.[13] - ASCAP.
While certified platinum by the RIAA, some critics felt that the sprawling 36-song, 3-CD set (each disk was exactly 60 minutes long) lacked focus, and might have worked better as a single or double disc.[14][15] Emancipation is the first record featuring covers by Prince of songs of other artists: Joan Osborne's top ten hit song of 1995 "One of Us".[16]; "Betcha By Golly Wow!" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and Linda Creed)[17]; "I Can't Make You Love Me" (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid)[18]; and "La-La Means I Love You" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and William Hart).[19]
Prince released Crystal Ball, a 4-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was shambolic, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them, and months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts.
In 1999, Prince once again signed with a major label Arista Records to release a new record, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In an attempt to make his new album a success, Prince gave more interviews than at any other point in his career. Nevertheless Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic failed to perform commercially. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros. The greatest success he had during the year was with the EP 1999: The New Master, released in time for Prince to collect a small portion of the sales dollars Warner Bros. had been seeing for the album and singles of the original 1999. Both critics and fans panned The New Master, declaring it unimaginative.
The pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was broadcast on December 31, 1999 and consisted of footage from the December 17 and December 18 concerts of his 1999 tour. The concert featured appearances by many guest musicians including Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton, and The Time. It was released to home video the following year. A remix album, Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (as opposed to "Un2") was released exclusively through Prince's NPG music Club in April 2000.
[edit] 2000–2005
On May 16, 2000, Prince ceased using the Love Symbol moniker and returned to using "Prince" again, after his publishing contract with Warner-Chappell expired. In a press conference, he stated that, after being freed from an undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince," and that he would formally revert to using his real Name. Prince still frequently uses the symbol as a logo and on album artwork and continues to play a Love Symbol-shaped guitar.
For several years following the release of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com (later NPGMusicClub.com). Two albums that show substantive jazz influence were available commercially at record stores: 2001's The Rainbow Children and, later, the 2003 instrumental record N.E.W.S which was nominated for a Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy. Another album of largely jazz-influenced music, "Xpectation", was released via download in 2003 to members of the NPGMusicClub.
In 2002, Prince released his first Live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features performances from the one Nite Alone tour. The 3-CD box set, which also includes a disc of "aftershow" music entitled It Ain't Over!, failed to chart. During this time, Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park, his music studios. Fans were invited into the studio for tours, interviews, discussions and Music-listening sessions. Some of these fan discussions were filmed for an unreleased documentary, directed by Kevin Smith. Smith discusses what happened during those days at length in his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD.[20] Performances were also arranged to showcase Prince's talents , as well as to collaborate with popular and well-established artists and guests including Alicia Keys, The Time, Erykah Badu, Nikka Costa, George Clinton, Norah Jones.
On February 8, 2004, Prince appeared at the Grammy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles. In a performance that opened the show, Prince and Beyoncé performed a medley of classic "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy," "Baby I'm a star," and Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" to rave reviews. The following month, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The award was presented to him by Alicia Keys along with Big Boi and André 3000 of OutKast. As well a
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