Publication: The Palm Beach Post [US]
Date: August 11, 1997
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Title: "Former Prince Paints Portrait Of The Artist As A Free Man"
Interviewed By: Sonia Murray

To his right, five Crayola-bright shirt/pant combinations hang perfectly spaced. With matching heels directly underneath.

In front of the mirror, hair styling accessories are meticulously laid out over a towel. So far, this is what we expect.

Then he smiles. He becomes animated. He speaks in more than one sentence. And he doesn't speak in a whisper.

He is the new Artist, formerly known asPrince.And he's surprisingly forthcoming.

The 39-year-old Minneapolis native who has changed his name from the one Mattie and John Nelson gave him-PrinceRogers - toPrince,then to an indecipherable symbol, then to the Artist Formerly Known asPrince,and finally to the more sufferable the Artist, doesn't make things a fraction as difficult as pronouncing the glyph he adopted as his name four years ago. In fact, just two hours before he embarks on an evening that will begin with a concert at 8 and end around 4 a.m., the Artist is anything but the slight, half-naked, young man who responded to Dick Clark with hand signals so many American Bandstands ago.

In the dressing room at the CoreStates Center - past the bald bodyguard with the Secret Service cord around his ear - the still-slight but older man in black pants and a black lace shirt opened four buttons deep awaits.

In his first one-on-one print interview since his release from the Warner Bros. contract that reportedly could have earned him $ 100 million. "And the only time the artist I used to be shows himself is onstage. And even he is a little different now."

It is more important now than at any time in his career that he be an accessible Artist. Without the machine of a major record label behind him, it is up to the Artist and his small staff to promote his upcoming release, Crystal Ball, and sell it (solely) on the Internet.

The three-CD collection - actually packaged in a crystal ball - is made up of mostly bootlegged songs. It will follow Emancipation, a barely impressive effort on the Billboard charts. The Artist says, because of the royalty structure, it has earned him the most money he's made since the 10 million-seller Purple Rain.

The Artist is getting more than just financial payback by being in control of his music. Emancipation was also his first critically heralded CD of the decade."Click, click, the chains were released and I could go about my craft with a different mind state," he explains.

"You can hear the difference in the first thump of Emancipation," adds fellow funk pioneer George Clinton.

"I don't really know what to say to those who had a problem with those previous records," continues the Artist. "But it is what I felt at the time. When I made Chaos & Disorder, that's what I felt.

"An example is CP (Colored People) Time. You know how that came about? Ever since we've been here we've been forced to do things we didn't want to do. That ceiling was over us to keep us, and our minds, restricted. So, of course if you're going somewhere you don't want to be, doing something you don't like, you're not going to show up on time.

"The same applied, kind of, to my contract with Warner Bros. They put a ceiling on me. Wanted me to only put out one record a year. In effect, they wanted to put a ceiling on my creativity."

Now the Artist says his "new" career is fueled by the "ever-pressing fact that most musicians, especially of the darker persuasion, usually leave this business with nothing. That's why I'll be on the road until 1999, shifting the level of consciousness."

And drawing from those he feels do the same.

So in that vein, alleged Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is "a genius" to the Artist. "Have you read that manifesto? What he's saying in that thing, that you have got to stop restricting people and minorities or it could come back to hurt you, is brilliant."

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, he says, "may get the message twistedsometimes , but I like what he says about empowerment."

Same goes for Essence editor Susan Taylor and her monthly "In the Spirit" column. Muhammad Ali, whom the Artist will join for an October benefit, is a hero to him because "he has always stuck to his principles." Teen Summit, a Saturday talk show on BET, is his favorite on the tube. "It just inspires me to see young people talking it out and trying to work through it all. Elevating their level of consciousness."

"I'm approaching 40 but I feel like I'm 4," the Artist smirks. "Because I'm free. And it is amazing the sounds your soul makes when you're not writing for radio. When you're not writing to please a record company or have the No. 1 song on the Billboard charts. Your soul doesn't have a roof over it any longer."