{"id":11814,"date":"2016-04-29T08:24:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T14:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11814"},"modified":"2016-05-01T08:10:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:10:17","slug":"nothing-compares-a-montana-musician-pays-tribute-to-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/04\/nothing-compares-a-montana-musician-pays-tribute-to-prince\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing compares: A Montana musician pays tribute to Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2yGCvOAYfhI\" width=\"720\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>\u201cDearly beloved \u2026\u00a0<\/i><i>we\u2019re gathered here today to get through this thing called life.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>\u2014Prince<\/i><b><i>, <\/i><\/b><i>\u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If you\u2019re reading this, you\u2019re probably a Prince fan. If you\u2019re not a Prince fan, you might be dating or married to one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Growing up, I wasn\u2019t a Prince fan. When I was in high school in the late &#8217;90s and early 2000s, he was a symbol, and I didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe used to be a Prince,\u201d my dad, a now-retired Presbyterian pastor and musician, told me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">With his outlandish dress, his high heels and his feminine dancing, he was somewhere between Madonna and Michael Jackson. My dad called him \u201cthe Dennis Rodman of pop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The first time I ever heard of Prince was in 1992. I was a 9-year-old looking for Bobby Brown\u2019s latest album at Wal-Mart and I stumbled upon \u201cLovesexy\u201d (featuring Prince posing nude in front of a purple flower) and my mom shook her head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cSome people think he is a sex icon,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Again, I didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I didn\u2019t understand Prince\u2019s versatility. I didn&#8217;t understand his innovative, creative voice. He bent and broke genres, he fused pop, rock, jazz, blues and soul, and he did it his way.\u00a0He had a vision, a voice and he let it pour out of him like purple rain from the sky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I remember the first time I really heard \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d My blues-guitar playing friend, Hambone, and I were bowling after a gig at a coffeehouse in Georgetown, Ky. The chorus was going and I remember not caring about bowling anymore. I wanted to hear it again. That spiritual outro stayed with me, sanctifying me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThis is Prince?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cYeah,\u201d Hambone said. \u201cPrince is awesome. He\u2019s a killer guitar player, too. You haven\u2019t heard this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I had many moments like that with fellow musicians. My old roommate at the University of Kentucky put on \u201cMusicology\u201d during a jam session one time and I was like, \u201cI didn\u2019t know Prince got that funky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Then Prince played the Super Bowl in 2007 when the Colts beat the Bears in a rainy blowout. Being from Indianapolis, I was in Indiana at a sports bar in Bloomington watching that game with my best friends. That\u2019s a night I\u2019ll never forget. One of my best sports memories. And we were singing \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d It couldn\u2019t have been more perfect. It hadn\u2019t rained during a Super Bowl in 40 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>Although I was into \u201cPurple Rain,\u201d I didn\u2019t really seek Prince out, but he\u2019d keep popping up, whether from someone telling a story about when they saw him playing a sensational drum solo at the age of 15 at a club in Minneapolis, or a middle-aged man requesting him while I played an acoustic jam session at a dive bar in Glendive. Prince was in the air, and respect for him was evident among people from many walks of life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But it wasn\u2019t until I met Kari, my fiancee, that I began to realize his magnificence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kari is a die-hard Prince fan. There is no other artist she gets as excited about, no other artist that makes her dance or sing like he does. This was clear when we had a dance party, getting down to Rolling Stone\u2019s Top 500 Songs of All-Time early in our dating lives. I couldn\u2019t believe how many songs Prince\u00a0had on that countdown: \u201c1999,\u201d \u201cLittle Red Corvette,\u201d \u201cPurple Rain,\u201d \u201cWhen Doves Cry,\u201d \u201dKiss,\u201d \u201cSign of the Times\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>and \u201cNothing Compares&#8221; (Sinead O\u2019Connor sang it, of course, but he wrote it).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I was blown away, and, after that, started paying more attention, listening to his albums and watching the movie, \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The opening live performance of \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d in itself is worth watching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Being a guitarist and singer and being in love with a Prince fan, it was only natural I started covering him a little, playing an acoustic version of \u201cPurple Rain\u201d and a chill, bluesy version of \u201cLittle Red Corvette\u201d in the style of Mike Zito. I did them for Kari, but\u2014while singing his songs and paying such close attention to his lyrics\u2014I realized again how complete the songs were and how cool they were. I started playing \u201cPurple Rain\u201d with my band, with Headhunter playing the sax on the climax. We did this once when a storm was about to hit, and the impact hit as soon as Headhunter started the solo, but that calming presence I felt in Georgetown hit me again. When you step into that world, you feel at ease.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><b>April 21, 2016<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\">When I saw an unusual story come in about someone not breathing at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minn., I didn\u2019t want to believe it was Prince. We just lost Merle Haggard, Glenn Frey and David Bowie. Could it be?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At 57 years old, it was hard to accept that he was gone, especially for Kari.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When I called her at the library, she\u2019d already heard. One of her childhood friends had sent her a text. Years ago, they\u2019d vowed to go see a Prince show together someday. I could tell Kari had been crying when she told me. Kari had told me he was who she wanted to see more than anybody. Now she didn\u2019t have that chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe was looking great, was touring and putting out a lot of great music,\u201d she said. \u201cI just don\u2019t understand. What was it? The flu? And he was found in an elevator? Was he trying to get help? Oh, that\u2019s so sad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As everyone\u00a0knows, Prince broke the Internet that day. Any concert footage or videos people could find, they posted. There were photos, anecdotes and tributes by fans, friends and stars like Bruce Springsteen, Chris Cornell and Chris Stapleton. We were all shocked, so we grieved together, many of us learning more about him throughout the day.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><b>Paying tribute<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\">Two days after Prince\u2019s passing, I had a songwriter\u2019s showcase in Lewistown, sharing the stage with Lewistown musicians and my father, who came up from Big Sky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kari was there with her mother, and they were both wearing purple.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Like my mother, Kari\u2019s mom didn\u2019t much care for Prince, but that night it didn\u2019t matter. She grieved him with her daughter and my mom listened to my dad and me play \u201cPurple Rain\u201d as Headhunter stepped forward and played the sax. They were in it with us, and we grooved, we all blended together. People sang along and then moved their heads back and forth as Headhunter brought it home. As the outro rolled on, we felt euphoric, just as Prince would want us to feel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">My dad couldn\u2019t believe he\u2019d just played along to Prince, putting in guitar fills that accentuated Headhunter\u2019s solo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI thought I\u2019d raised you better than this,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Later that evening, I was able to show my dad what Prince was capable of by putting on his righteous solo during a 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d with Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others. Unquestionably, he stole the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A phenomenal guitarist himself, my dad never put Prince in the same class as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page when it came to guitar skill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThat\u2019s Prince?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Prince could do it all, whether it was to stun the audience with an out-of-this-world guitar solo, shock them with a remarkably bizarre wardrobe or belt a song out in a way that would put even Michael Jackson to shame. He is a great loss to the creative world and a great loss to musicians everywhere. Fortunately, however, he will live on, as he has enough music in the vault at Paisley Park to last another lifetime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s hard to be a musician and not at least be a Prince appreciator. But if you haven\u2019t given him a try, take a listen to \u201cPurple Rain\u201d and let it guide you. As I listen to it now, I hope he\u2019s in a place that looks and feels as majestic as the song sounds.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><b>Afterword<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\">Today, walking Lewistown\u2019s Main Street with Kari after lunch, a calm, subtle rain coming down on us, we stepped into the outro all over again, as the end of \u201cPurple Rain\u201d played outside of the Western Bar. Kari, wearing a purple sweater, stopped our conversation, grabbed me, kissed me, and said, \u201cListen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And, together, we transcended, stepping back into Prince\u2019s world, purifying ourselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Not really.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But we had a moment, and we had that moment just as many have around the world thanks to Prince\u2019s vision, artistry, creativity, talent and his remarkable individuality. There will never be another like him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Here\u2019s to Prince and his Purple Reign. May he live on forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDearly beloved \u2026\u00a0we\u2019re gathered here today to get through this thing called life.\u201d \u2014Prince, \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d If you\u2019re reading this, you\u2019re probably a Prince fan. If you\u2019re not a Prince fan, you might be dating or married to one. Growing up, I wasn\u2019t a Prince fan. When I was in high school in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":11835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4264,4263,4265,4266,4262,1008],"class_list":["post-11814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-purple-rain","tag-charlie-denison","tag-madonna","tag-michael-jackson","tag-prince","tag-super-bowl","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}