Publication: Guitar World [US]
Date: November 1994
Section:
Page Number(s):
Length:
Title: "The Guitarest Formerly Known As Prince"
Interviewed By: Alan Di Perna

Call him "funky", call him "bad", but don't call him "Prince". A rare conversation with visionary composer and one of the best guitarists of this generation.

The room is small and cave-like, maybe five feet long, with a low, rounded, gold cellin that slopes gradually down to a floor covered with a snow white, shar pile carpet. The space has a slightly clustrophobic feel and smells vaguely of perspiration and Lord knows what else. If there were a whorehouse in Disneyland, it might look something like this. At the big end of the cave, right behind a red velvet curtain, stands a huge mixing console. Down at the smaller end there's a mirrored dressing table and a throne-like chair upholstered in leopard skin.

Welcome to the Endorphin Machine- the on-stage inner sanctum of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

Who else but -as he wishes now to be identified- would desing a stage where the artist can hide from his audience? Excusive and withdrawn, is a man of mistery. Ticket holders will never see behind trhe red velvet curtain. Perhaps they are meant to imagine scenes of deliciously untterable decadence unfolding in that lair everytime retreats inside. But now the truth can be revealed: he goes back there to primp and mix the show.

The mirror and mixing board are fitting symbols for the boudless ego encased within the 5-foot, 3-inch frame of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. If it weren't for theincredibe, genre-bending, funkier-than-God music created by that Artist, the ego might be totally unbearable. You think that (1) singing his heart out, (2) make his guitar wail like St. Theresa on ecxtasy, (3) leading his awe-inspiring band and (4) being the all-round focal point of the whole damn show would give the guy enough to do. He's gotta be the sound man too? Everybody knows you can't mix house sound from the stage.

Or can you?

"It's been a real trial-and-error process, but it's getting a lot better",says Michael Bland, the drumer for 's current band, The New Power Generation. "Right now dosen't trust any sound man- and rightfully so . Back in 1990 during my first tour with Prince, as he was called then, he would go into his guitar solo on 'Purple Rain', and sometimes it would be like four bars before the sound man wolyd boost the signal and the guitar would finally kick in. Now, where's that at? The whole solo would be shot. is a very hands-on person. His attitude is, 'If you can't give it to me, I'll get it myself.'"

It certanlly sounds good inside 's Glam Slam club in Mineapolis, where the man is leading mighty New Power Generation through a set that comes on as hard, srtong and relentless as a lubed-up locomotive. The whole crow is dancing three feet above the ground -elated at seeing feet above the ground- elated seeing their hometown hero at such close quarters, in the intimate confines of his own night club. Chalk up another one for . If anyone can mix house sound from stage, it's this slendre enigma, who can get utterly slammin' funk out of vereything -from a "cloud" guitar to an SSL mixing computer.

He has in fact, made a lifelong career of breaking all known showbiz rules. At the tender age of 17, Prince, as he was known, was singed to Warner Bros. and given complete artistic control over his music -the youngest artist in the company's history ever to be so privileged. Since then he ahs resolutely refused to conform to anything resembling a safe or predictable career path, always taking chances that many would deem reckless, if not downright foolish. He's never been afraid to expose himself to potential ridicule. And he has consistently been vindicated by the superlative quality and imaginitive intensity of his music.

Speaking of imagination, designed the entrance and interior of his onstage mixing cave as a stylized replica of the female sex organ - complete with a two-foot high, faux gold clitoris. This may seem sexist but it should be remembered that his stage set also includes a massive gold tower that in no small way suggests the main anatomical peculiarity of males. His bands have always included musicians of all genders and races. His music spans a wide spread of styles, from rock to funk to bop. The man has always delighted in taking what apear to be irreconciable opposites and demostrating that they are really part of the same cosmic Love Vibe. Tyipical is the new name he's taken on: , a combination of the symbols for male and female. Even the disign of the form-fitting bodysuit he wears at the Glam Slam-one black trouser leg, one white, and a bold interweaving of the two colors up and down the garment- reflects his obsession with the true harmony of apparent opposites.

But there is a down side to all this. With one foot squarely in funk and the other one firmly planted in rock, has never gotten his full propers in either field. And his talents as a songwriter, singer, multiinstrumentalist, producer and all-around image maker have tended to obscure the fact that he is one kickass guitar player.

But he certainly isn't hiding his mastery from his Glam Slam audience. opens his show with several thunderous hard rock numbers, tearing up the fretboard of his eponymous "love symbol" guitar. The set is heavy on brand new matirial, mostly from albums the public may never get to hear (see below). Never one to pander to audience expectations, isn't preforming any of his old hits tonight. (they were, in any case, recorded by a forgattable someone named Prince). His one concession to comercialism is his preformance of his newest single, "The Most Beautiful Gril In The World". Not surprisingly, the concert is compelling from begining to end. It's clear is that is currently going through one of his most rock-guitar-intensive phases since the glory days of Purple Rain. He even closes his set with a medley of classic Santana guitar moments, deftly evoking Carlos's hot phrasing while adding something of his own unique tone and style.

"I always wanted to be thought of as a guitarrist," quietly admits. "But you have a hit and you know what happens..."

The interviewer must content himself with such tantalizingly brief pronouncements when dealing with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Just as he showbiz conventions for concerts or albums, he ignores the rules when it comes to playing the interview game. Journalists are forbidden to even use the word "interview" in his presence, use a tape recorder, refer to a question sheet or take any form of notes during their "conversation" with . ( Of course, the "P-word" is verboten). Reporters are simply supposed to remember everything he says. This seems a daunting task-untill you realize how little he does say: 's responses are monosyllabic and often deliberately evasive. The man seems to harbor a deep mistrust of the written or spoken word. Even his new name is a symbol that cannot be expressed verbally or represented in the alphabet of any language. Knowingly or otherwise, has allied himselfwith those post-modernist intellectuals who feel that lenguageinherently deceiful -a tool of oppression wielded by those in power.

On the other hand, the possibility does exist that is something of an idiot savant. (Who ever said that musical genius has anything to do with inteligence?) Or perhaps his long time friend and current bassist, Sonny Thompson, has the best take: "He'd just rather say it through his music. His thing is, 'I'll put out as much music as I can and express myself that way'".

In any case, inquiring reporters are given little oportunity to learn whether the Man Who Calls Himself 's mind is like Albert Einstein's-or more like Forrest Gump's. Audiences with are typically brief. Journalists are generally kept waiting for hours and hours, typically till two or three in the morning. It should be noted that the press aren't the only ones singles out of this kind of treatment. On the evening of my own appointment with him in Mineapolis, he also had Barbara Streisand's lighting director flown in all the way from Ney York, presumably to discuss hiring him for the big upcomming tour. This poor fellow was kept cooling his heels for five hours before being ushered into 's presence, where he was told, "My work is my love. My love is my work. We'll talk".

My own first meeting with the Man Whose Name You're Not Supposed To Say comes a few hours after the Glam Slam gig, at an after-show party held upstairs at the club. Two of his functionaries lead me with due reverence up to a spot next to the DJ's console where is standing, holding court. Despite the strenuous set he's just played, he looks quite fresh. He's changed into a striped polo shirt and flares -the sailor boy look. (The Hendrix-cum-Little Richard bouffant seems to have gone out with the P-name). His pencil-line sideburns and mustache are conected in a singlesinuous line. My research on has prepered for me for his slight stature and the quarter-inch thick layer of make up on his face. But the real surprice is his everyday speaking voice. He sounds so normal, like a regular guy from the Midwest. This comes across with particular force over the telephone, where he is carefully-preened physical presence can't serve as a decoy.

As the crowd around him thickens, abandons his post and scoots up onto a brick window ledge behind the DJ booth. He's said to be sensitive about his height, and from this ventage point he's able to look over the heads of most of the other people in the room. was purportedly eager for an interview that would deal with music and guitar playing instaed of focusing on issues like his sexuallity or what Kim Bassinger was like. So I start by inquiring wherther he considers the guitar his main instrument. He replies reasonably enough, that he dosen't considers any instrument his "main" one. He just reachers for whatever seems necessary to bring a song into being.

"I start with the city. Then I choose the street." Says somewhat cryptically.

GUITAR WORLD: And what instrument did you start on?
: Piano, I went to guitar latre on, when I was about 13.
GW: What is your idea of teh ultimate guitar tone?
: A woman in climax.
GW: Do you plan your solos on record or are they spontaneous?
: Spontaneous.
GW: Wich solo or guitar track of yours is your favorite?
: All are different.
GW: What was the genesis of the Santana medley you preformed tonight?
: It was Sonny's (Thompson) idea.
GW: Is Carlos a praticular favorite guitarrist of yours? Have you two evere met?
: I would consider Carlos a friend.
GW: Who are your all-time favorit guitarrists? Your biggest guitar influences?
: I lisened to ereybody. My fovorite of all time is Sonny T.

The influence question is a sticki one with -there's no making him cite any name players who's affected his guitar style. Not that he dosen't wear many of his musical antecedents on his sleeve. Whether it's because he grew up black in whiter-than-white-Minnesota, or because of the man's own voracious musical appetites, the young Prince cut his teeth on a mixture of R&B and early-Seventies FM radio rock: Sly And The Family Stone aand Earth Wind and Fire, along with vigorous helpings of the likes ogf Grand Funck Railroad and Chicago. According to the account, the ability to play the solo from Chicago's album rock hit "25 Or Six to Four" was the acid test for aspiring guitarists in Prince'`s high school. And an early band of his was named Grand Central, in homage to Michigan's own Seventies trio, Grand Funck Railroad. Also, as the son of a working jazz pianist, Jhon Nelson, the young Prince must surely have picked up on that side of the African-American musical tradition.

But today there's no getting him to aknowledge any of this. It's as though he wants to create the impression that he was created ex nihilo-from nothing, like Venus springing fully formed from the forehead of Zeus. So he won't play the name game when asked about his influences. Perhaps he's afraid of leaving someone out, or naming someone who might be considered unhip. The more he is pressed to identify role models on the guitar, the more he returns to Sonny Thompson, the bass player in his own band. Thompson played guitar with severeal Mineapolis groups before joining the New Power Generation.

"I though Sonny was good," says the man many speak of exalted terms. "Sonny was my hero. A lot of what I do on guitar, I learned from him. I'd go over to his house and we'd play records and he'd show me things on guitar."

Thompson seems agreeably surprised when informed of his boss high praise: "Oh, man! He said that? Wow!" Sonny has known since chillhood. "We grew up together," the bassist narrates. "I met him on the south side of Mineapolis. I was carring ny guitar somewhere and he was carring a guitar too."

Sonny remembers what he and the young listened to during their formative stages as guitarists: "At that particular time, I was about 13 or 14. I was listening to a lot of Hendrix and Grand Funk Railroad. I had a band I was playing guitar in then. Chick Corea and them were around and I was just starting to get into them. A whole bunch of wild stuff."

Sonny adds that was a fast learner .

"Oh, man! Photographic memory. Anything you played for him, he could repeat it.I've never seen anything like it. He's definitely got perfect pitch. Anything he hears, he can play.

It's hardly surprising that and Sonny worked out on Hendrix riffs during the early Seventies: what guitarist who grew up it that era didn't? At times, specially during the 1984-85 Purple Rain phase, seemed intent on turning himselv into Jimi Hendrix. The lace neck cloths and spangly frock coats were a defiantly blatant rip from the cover of Hendrix Are you Experienced? album. Many of the stage moves for his lengthy in-concert guitar solos during this period also seemed carefully copied from Hendrix film clips. One wonders whether the whole thing was just another costume change for him -another disguise, something new to wear, like his Sign O' the Times terrycloth miniskirt or the Zorro get up in the front cover of . But in donning Jimi's stage weeds, seems to have taken the man's music deeply to heart as well. Even his latest album, Come, concludes with a free-form solo guitar track called "Orgasm," which finds erupting on the fretboard in a manner that bears no small resemblance to Jimi's Woodstock rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner". Only, has added his own inimitable touch of the proceedings. The only other sound on the track is that of an indentified female experiencing a prolonged, and rather vocal sexual climax.

GW: You've often been comapared to Jimi Hendrix. How do you feel about that?
: People make the world go 'round.
GW: Was your guitar solo on "Orgasm" directly inspired by in the the track's title/subject matter?
: Yes.
GW: So many people think os the guitar as a phallic symbol. Do you?
: People make the world go 'round.

Sonny Thopmson has his own respective: "A lot of people say he sounds like Hendrix; but to me, he dosen't really. His vibrato is different. Just the way he attacks the guitar is different. I think his guitar sound is comming into its own at this point. I think he incorporates whatever he hears into his guitar playing, like from diferent instruments and all. It's like his absorbing all this stuff and spitting it back out."

One reason why it's difficult to get a fix on the musician is that he's so incredibly prolific. In addition to his own prodigious output-roughly an album a year since 1978 plus a slew of singles, remixes and non-albums B-sides- he's said to have some 500 songs in the can that have never been released, not counting bootleg material. And let's not

Forget his cativities as a film and video actor/director/screenwriter. Or the hits hes writen and/or procuced for other artists, including Sheila E., the Bangles, Sheena Easton, The Time, even Keny Rogers. He'sall over the just relased 1800-NEW FUNK album wich includes his duet with Nona Gaye (daughter of Marvin) "Love Sign". Beyon this, songs are always turning up on soundtracks and he even finds time to play keyboards on recordings by the jazzy instrumental grup Madhouse. The man is almost perpetually writing and recording. His whole existence is apparently set up so he can do as much as posible.

The paisley Parck headquaters is located near 's house out in Chanhassen, Minesota, a suburb of Mineapolis. It's a sanitary, corporate-looking building that could easily be the headquaters of a prosperous Midwestern insurance company. Not a rococo phallus in sight.

"People are always disapointed that there aren't women in bondage gear hanging from the rafters", deadpans Paisley Parck's house pubilcist. Instead, the place is staffed by clean-cut, efficient-looking young woman and men-again racially mixed- all of whom seemable to say "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" with an entirely straight face. "Hope you have a good conversation with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince", one told me, beaming. Or "have you seen this new picture of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?" Among themselves, though, they usually just refer to him as "The Boss".

The top floor at Paisley Parck houses 's many bussines operations. This includes his newly creaded NPG Records, headed by Levi Seacer Jr., who left his post at the New Power Generation's consummately funcky second guitarrist to concentrate on the biz. On the main floor, there's justly famous Paisley Parck recording studio wich houses, among other things, one of the slickest SSL consoles on the planet, and certanlly the only one that bears a symbol in place of the manufacturer's logo. Down a lebel is a masive sound stage wich is used for everything, from video shoots to full-scale tour rehearsals and impromtu jams.

Bassically, whenever the inspiration strkes him, will slip down from his house ans futz around with any of these state-of-the-art facilities. People at Pisley will tell you that their Boss "is very hands on" with the bussines, and that he's in his upstairs office by 10 or 11 every morning. But far more of his time is spend in the studio. Aparentlly. sleeps very little. It's not unusuall for his band members to be awakened at three or four in the morning and summoned to a recording session.

"It's like being a fireman" Michael Bland suggests. "If there's a fire, you get up, put yourrubber pants on and you slide down the pole. The turnover rate in terms of writting material and recording it, is incredible. worck quicker than anyone could imagine. He has a tendency to walck around the with his notebook that has words on it -just lyrics looking for a song. And if he hears something he likes while we're jamming, he'll pull (the book) right open and we'll be working on a new song. Other times he'll come into the studio with a complated song that he'll have finished in his house, at his grand piano and a cheap little cassette deck".

himself dosen't like talk about songwriting, "chillbearing" he calls it. "Those questions are too personal. Thank you for not asking." But if we talk to the people around you learn things. From the guys at his band, you learn that is a virtual antenna for song ideas. He's perpetually in recive mode, ever ready to snatch a new song idea from the air around him.

"A lot of ideas for songs come from our soundchecks" says Levi Seacer. "I mean our sondchecks are sometimes longer than our shows! We just start jamming. If someone has a good idea, we put it on a cassette and we may go to the studio after the show and cut the song. Like Diamonds and Pearls -the basic tracks for that album came togather in like a week and a half. I remember one night we cut three songs: 'Money Don't Matter,' 'Willing and Able' and ( the non LP B-side) 'Horny Pony'. All three of those in one evening."

tends to go for spontaneous, firsttake, live-in-the-studio tracks-even when his cutting a complex, episodic piece like "Three Chains Of Gold" from the album. "that's one of many we had to do in one take," Michael Bland remembers. "We had to cut that all in one big hunk, and it was murder man. All had was all this little sections that he'd writen while he was in Paris. We had to piece it all together and then play it."

Another artist has been compared to is Frank Zappa -for the stagering amount of high quality work he's relased, for his ability to play instruments, and for his obsessive, workaholic perfectionism. And like Zappa , he meticulously composes and arranges some of his records in advance, whilre on other discs, like "Come", he trusts more to improvisation.

"The Come album really evolved from a boerdom during Christmas vacation", Michael Bland laughs. "Sonny and I were the only two cats in the band whohung around Mineapolis during Christmas vacation. And got bored, as he usally does. Because when he's not creating he's not alive, you know. So he went down to the soundsatge were we set up for rehersal before vacation began. And he just played by himself all day; they say he stayed in there for like eight, 10 hours, just messing with around with ideas. And then the second day he got up the courage to call us and ask, "You guys are bored too?" So we came out and worked on a good halfdozen tunes. And we went in the studio and started cutting them -WE cut the rythem tracks for 'Darck", 'Papa' and afew other things like that."

As his band members returned to town, did quite a bit more worck on this basic tracks, and Come ultimately turned out to be a pretty slick album. But the idea of just working in a trio context with just Sonny and Michael triggered in the idea for another kind of record. In the midst of work on Come, the three of them set up together an the soundstage at Paisley Park their amps crancked up full, and did some bluesy jamming. The result is an album called The Undertaker.

"Picture this" says Michael: "A DAT machine, a 32-channel board, two techs and three players. It was about three o'clock in the morning. We got our sounds togather and just let the DAT roll. We took about an hour to make that record, from start to finish, playnig straight through with no overdubs. The sequence of songson the record is exactly the way we played it. The guitar guitar segues from one song to the next, like when we do live staff."

There'd been talk for a while of a straight-up blues album from the Artist They Used TO Call Prince, but the UNdertaker, says , is not that album. It starts of with a blues vein,"he admits, "bit then quikly goes to funk. But because of the first song, people tend to want to put it in that (blues) glass of water."

I take a seat behind the SSL board in the control room at Paisley Park's big studio. An engineer cues up atape and a lean, powerful three-chord blues called "The Ride" flows from the speakers. The song is squarely in the classic automotive double-entendrč tradition: "If you got the time baby, I got the ride". But 's guitar solos (and there are many of them) fling themselves violently outside the confines of traditional bluesriffing. The first solo is fluid and slippery, with a tone that combines honking wah and the envelope fliter sound from a Zoom 9030 effects processor. (aparently has become infatuated with the Zoom. He's currently usingit heavily, much in the same way he used a harmonizer on the "Diamonds and Pearls" album). And with the second guitar solo, all hell breaks loose - mega-distorted, dissonant madness wich in its own guitarristic way, is the most excessive thing yet from an artist noted for always going over the top.

"He tends to really start opening up and playing a lot of diferent things when me and Michael do a trio thiung with him" Says Sonny Thompson. "There's no keyboards there -no nothing. So he can venture out and play what he wants to play."

As for , he says he's really pleased with the Undertaker; "It's real garage, you know? But Warners won't relased..."

Which brings us to the real sore for The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. To the essence of his dispute with Warner Bros. To put is as simple and naturally as possible, produces more music per year than the label feels it can profitably reńase. So they don't.

"Don't you think there's restraint of trade? demands , who has avidly followed singer Georg Michael's lawsuit with Sony Records over artistic freedom. His own impasse with Warners has been building to a crisis over the past several years. The public first first awarness of the struggle came circa 1988, with the notorious Black Album -a scatching disc full of gansta rap material that the Artist Then Known As Prince was originally going to relase through Warners, but then decided to pull. The reason generally cited for the record's withdrawal was its "darck subject matter", but there werealso gripes from the Pşrincely camp about "scheduling conflicts" with Warners. Meanwhile the Lovesexy album apperared so quicklty that the Black Album was soon forgotten - by all the bootleggers and collectors, that is.

Cut to 1994. After losing money for some time, the former Prince's Paisley Park Records label (distruduted by Warners) finally folds. Meanwhile the Artist Who Formerly Owned the Label, has at last three worth of material in the can. Warners says it will relase only one. So what happens? The Artist anounces that he is no longer Prince, that he has changed his name to . Thanks to a special dispensation from Warners, he is allowed to release his first work under his new identity -the hit single "The Most Beautiful Gril In The World" on his newly created NPG label. The record is distributed not by Warners, but by a r&b entrepreneur All Beller's Bellmarck Records.

What will happen with The Undertaker? If Warners won't relase it, will they permit the Artist They Continue To Market As Prince to put it out on NPG/Bellmarck? In other words, was "The Most Beautiful Gril In The World" deal a one-off courtesy or aws it aprecedent-setting policy move on Warners part? Aparently, lawyers and managers are ducking that out right now. Ask about the whole affair and you'll get a charactecristically enlightening answer.

GW: Will The Undertaker come out on your own NPG label?
: Idon't know. Levi runs the label.

Ask the same question to Levi Seacer and you don't get much further: "As to when it's gonna come out, I don't know. The thing is that he's always working on something. But I think this needs to be heared.

If the controvery were only about some bonus jam-out disc, it wouldn't be worth all the ink that's already been spilled over it. But also in the can is a brand-new, full-fledged and the New Power Generation studio album called The Gold Experience, wich was a much deliberate effort than Come, says Michael Bland, who drumed on both discs. "I think wanted to write some strong songs taht are classics".

Hearing and the New Power Generation preform songs from The Gold Experience in concert, one is inclined to belive he succeeded. Songs like "Acnowledge Me" and """Days Of Wild" are stupefyingly funky -among the best stuff has recorded under any name. And yet, according to Bland, The Gold Experience will probably never see the light of day. is presently attempting to release it by himself. But his contract prohibits him from doing so. "There's no relase date," says Bland. "We don't know where it's gonna go-exept for into the hands of the fans. There's a possibility that we maight just give the record away. It's about time that we actually gave something back to our fans who have supported us for so many tears".

Distribution of the album vie the much-vaunted "information superhighway" is another possibility that seems to be unger discussion. is reportedly quite interested in the new computer thecnologies and recently issued his own CD-ROM disk. So does his mane change signal 's entry into the new cyber era -perhaps like Todd Rundgren's fecition to change his name to TR1? In adopting his new name, The Artist We've Been Talking About All Along Here had p´ruportedly decided to relase only old material on Warers - things laying around in the can that he'd recorded back when he was still Prince. Yet according to his sidemen, Come album dates from the same period as The Undertaker -and is consequently, a fairly recent work. Yet, it has been relased on Warners under the name of "Prince" . so is the name change a merely a bussines convenience- a thinly veiled ploy to bring out extra product under another imprint? Or is it apersonal thing, as has alleged in interviews? Perhaps a rejection of the identity his parents thrus on him at birth? Or is it yet another artistic persona? Questions, questions.

GW: Does your name change signal a shift in your approach to marketing music?
: We'll have to see, not deliberately.

In the midst of all this there exists the intriguing possibility that the Ego Formerly Known as Orince is simply and finally spinning irrevocably out of control. If the Paisley Park complex resemles your average mid-sized American corporation (and it soes), it seems distinctly like the kind of company run by a real "cut-to-the-chase", "shoot-from-the-hip" kind of CEO. You know, the kind of guy who's got so many plates spinning in the air that a crash seems inevitable. Around Minaepolis, there's talk of the high employee turnover rate at Paisley Park. "If you want to talk to disgruntled ex-employees, you can do plenty of interviews", one local informs me. There's also talk of money leaving the company under mysterious circumstances.

There ceretenly have been moments in the past when the Artist Then Known As Prince looked like he was really losing it. He fallowed the rampaging success of Purple Rain with the lackluster Around The World In a Day, and the willfully obscure (but musically fascinating) Parade. It seemed he'd never had a hit again. Ultimately, however, had the last laugh over his detractors -many times over. There can be sensed among the peoplewho work with an almost cultic faith - unshakable belief that, no matter how things look to the outside world, everything is really and truly okay. The capacity for this kind of faith of seemsto be a requirement for working with .

GW: What do you look for when hiring a musician?
: Sickness.

Up on the stage at Glam Slam, in full cry, the New Power Generation are a sight to behold. Keyboardist Morris Hayes, his hat resembling a Hostese Snowball leans over a transparent plexiglass Hammond B-3 that is festooned with George Clintonsque white feather boas. Tommy Barbarella, the other keyboard man, with his floor-length hair, looks like somebody's hippy mom who picked the wrong biker bar to get drunk in. Michael Bland pounds a 14-carat gold drum kit -a gift from "the Boss"- while Sonny Thompson wrestles a five string bass bigger than he is, his dreadlock-style braids half obscuring his face.

And then there's Mayte (pronounced My-Tay) Schooled in every form of dance from belly to ballet, NPG's resident temptress knows more ways to shake her remarcable derričre than her boss knows ways to dodge interviewers' questions.During extended guitar solo on the Ride, Mayte ascends the clitoral tower atop the Endorphin Machine. A magician's top hat crowning ler long, dark, silky hair, she preforms a series of splits and squats defy the laws of both gravity and anatomy, and wich surely be iligal in certain Southern satates. What heavy metal shred god would ever cosent to be upstaged in this way during his Big Guitar Moment? as guitar heroes go, is a breed apart.

And he's such a loose guy that he'll even introduce a new song to the band right in stage. About mid-way through the Glam Slam set, the nergy of the show changes drastically. The rock concert vibe gives way to the ecstatic feel of a hip hop show. has slipped on a demo tape he'd recorded eryer that very day.

"Right in the midle of the show he asked us, 'Y'all wanna hear a new song?'" Michael Bland leter explains. "And he went back to the Endorphin Machine and put it on." The song called Pussy Control," inspires three women from the audience to leap on the stage and dance in a manner appropiate to this title. Ostensibly, they're just ordinary concert-gores but the woman in the almost non existen red dress is more certain a por.

"You mean was that, like staged or something?" Michael Banl laughts later. "No . Un-uh. We did'n have a clue it aws going to happen. But then I gotta say -all sorts of ffreaks come to our shows. And we see'em. You can identfy them a mile away. So sometimes you just let'em get on stage and do their thing. 'Cause you know, we're pretty freaky too."