*Morris Day of The Time has released a new book in which he recounts the tension on the set of “Purple Rain” between himself and the late-great Prince.
In the book, “On Time: A Princely Life in Funk“ (Da Capo), Day outlines his tumultuous friendship with Prince, and blames the music legend’s ego trips for much of the turmoil on the set of the 1984 music drama, “Purple Rain.” Day even recalled the time they nearly came to blows during production.
Via New York Post:
One morning, Day turned up late and Prince exploded, shoving him. Day prepared to throw a punch — only the intervention of Prince’s bodyguard and The Time drummer Jellybean Johnson stopped them from trading blows.
“Of course it would have went my way,” Day told The Post with a laugh. “I outweighed the dude by a good 25 pounds!”
The movie — fueled by Prince’s untouchable music and Day’s charisma — went on to clean up at the box office, grossing $70 million and making them both stars.
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(July 4, 2019 – Source: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images North America)
Prince is the mastermind behind The Time, and he controlled the group and co-wrote their songs, including the hits “Jungle Love” and “The Bird,” under the pseudonym Jamie Starr, the reports states. Day often found himself competing with Prince. “I wanted to scare him,” he writes. “Wanted him . . . to think twice about how to outfunk us.”
He also noted that “there was even competition when it came to partying.” The singer said Prince’s hotel-room soirées were tame compared to how own, which were all about “drinking. Smoking. Coking. Couples moaning and boning.”
Day claims Prince was in “macho mode” during the making of “Purple Rain,” as he wanted to silence reports that he was effeminate. Day writes, “I know the humiliation remained in his mind.” So the Minneapolis-born singer created a self-assured character that dressed in black leather, rode a Harley and seduced super hottie Apollonia.
Day noted that the performance was “overcompensation for his earlier image of sexual ambiguity.”
“After ‘Purple Rain,’ everyone’s career took off. [But] there was definitely stuff that made me think he had a Jesus or a God complex,” said Day. “I think if he had his way, he would have [had] a Paisley Park compound, with my house, Vanity’s house, and [percussionist] Sheila E.’s house, that he personally bought and that he could kick you out of if he wanted.”
Day last saw Prince at a private Paisley Park show three months before his death in April 2016 at age 57.
“When he passed away, I almost didn’t have feelings,” said Day, now 61. “Then something woke me up in the night, about midnight, and I thought, ‘Hold on, I have history with this guy.’ Then the floodgates opened, and I started to feel. We learned how to be funky together, so musically, there’s just no way that boy will ever go anywhere!”
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