Are we still talking about Prince? Is that cool? May I? He was the first person I had all over my bedroom wall. I was 4. I convinced my dad to paint my room purple when I was 5. My mom saw him on the Purple Rain tour and I begged her to take me. She said I was too young. I held that grudge until I finally saw him 20 years later. I’ve never been so excited for a concert in my life. I would see him again two more times after that, plus a bizarre after party where he showed up and sang, but hid right behind us the entire night and mocked us while we looked for him. That was Prince. Anyone else and there would’ve been a riot. But, I don’t know. It just made sense. I was even one of those fools who stood in the rain in 2014, waiting to buy tickets to a concert that would never happen.
He set the bar mega high for my music and entertainment tastes for the rest of my life, I’m sure. Not sure what my parents thought, but at least they knew their kid didn’t have crappy taste.
I absolutely love rock concerts. I’ve been to so many in my life. There is nothing like the anticipation of waiting for the band to take the stage, the adrenaline rush when they play your favourite song, the thrill of the encore and the inevitable let down when the lights come up. No two Prince shows were ever the same, and the effect they had on you would stick for days, weeks and now hopefully, forever.
No one could make an arena feel like a small intimate club like he did and no one could exude so much life, love and energy out into the crowd so you felt it for days later like he did. His reclusive, random, sporadic and often bizarre behaviour made his appeal a million times greater for odd ducks like me. He imitated no one and no one will ever be able to recreate what he was able to do so effortlessly. His interview habits, his concert announcement stunts, his music distribution rules, his demands to wear purple printed on his concert tickets, his sudden appearances that end as swiftly as they began… Everything he did was uniquely Prince. He got away with stuff that others just couldn’t. It’s what made being a Prince fan so much fun and equally frustrating at times, but never ever boring. His sense of humor rippled through so much of what he did and there will just never be anyone else quite like him. Happy I was able to experience it for the brief time he was here. Thanks Prince, for keeping things interesting.
“Toronto I used to live here.. Keep that up and I might have to move back! .. I don’t take up much space.” #prince
— Leslie (@uhleslie) November 27, 2011
