Tough childhood helped Prince become a ‘musical prodigy’
Apr 22, 2016, 6:17 AM | Updated: 10:25 am
In this Feb. 18, 1985 file photo, Prince performs at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Prince, widely acclaimed as one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his era with hits including "Little Red Corvette," ''Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry," was found dead at his home on Thursday, April 21, 2016, in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist. He was 57. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing, File)
(AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing, File)
More than with any other artist, the question about Prince was always where does that music come from?
“Every song was either a prayer or foreplay,” CNN cultural critic Michaela Angela Davis explained.
Angela Davis worked as his stylist.
“He’s like, ‘I hear music.’ So sometimes you could be at lunch with him and he would get up and leave because there was a melody so urgent that he would just go to the studio and put it down,” Angela Davis said.
Related: What we have lost with the death of Prince
Which is why there are still hundreds of unreleased songs that are probably completely unlike what he HAS released – he said a new song was like meeting a new friend, and he wanted friends he hadn’t met before.
“Creating your own universe is the key to it, I believe,” Prince explained in the past.
Talking with Tavis Smiley a few years ago, he revealed he was born epileptic and was bullied as a kid.
“The first thing I did is I went into self and taught myself music,” he explained.
And as he got better and better, the bullying turned into admiration. He also admitted, reluctantly, that the reason he got so good was that his father – who was an excellent piano player – was relentless.
“It was almost like the Army when it came to music,” he said.
It left him with a mean side, that he kept mostly hidden, but it also made him a musical prodigy and gave him the freedom to express whatever danced through his mind.
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