Skip To Content

    16 Things You Didn't Know About Prince

    It's really too bad he never starred as woman in a movie about his female alter-ego "Camille."

    1. He Wrote His First Song When He Was Only 7

    2. He Danced With James Brown When He Was 10

    View this video on YouTube

    youtube.com

    "My stepdad put me on stage with him and I danced a bit until the bodyguard took me off," Prince told MTV in 1985. He would later dance with Brown – and Michael Jackson! – in this astonishing footage from a concert at the Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983. B.B. King was also on stage!

    3. He Was Once So Poor That He'd Go To McDonald's Just To Smell The Food

    4. He Refused To Be Produced By Earth, Wind And Fire

    5. He Played Everything On The Time's Debut Album

    View this video on YouTube

    youtube.com

    Prince assembled The Time in 1981 to make the most of a clause in his contract with Warners Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. Despite the fact he put the band through rigorous rehearsals, he would end up recording every single instrumental part on their self-titled debut. The only member of the group who can be heard on the record is singer Morris Day, who was forced to closely mimic Prince's delivery, and in many cases is overshadowed by his backing vocals.

    6. He Wanted Vanity To Be Known As "Vagina"

    View this video on YouTube

    youtube.com

    Prince also ghostwrote and produced a record for Vanity 6, a trio fronted by Denise Matthews, a woman he was dating in the early Eighties. He wanted her to go by the stage name Vagina – pronounced "va-geena" – but she refused, and went with Vanity instead. The group was called Vanity 6 because among the three members, there were six breasts.

    7. Michael Jackson's "Bad" Was Supposed To Be A Duet With Prince

    View this video on YouTube

    youtube.com

    Michael Jackson wrote "Bad" with the intention of singing it as a duet with Prince, and wanted to hype up a rivalry between the two of them in the press before releasing the single. Prince was not comfortable with the lyrics of the song, and objected to the song's opening line, "Your butt is mine." "Who's singing that to whom?" Prince asked at the time, "because you sure aren't singing that to me."

    8. He Almost Gave "Kiss" Away

    9. This Woman Inspired Many Of His Best Songs

    10. He Scrapped His Final Record With The Revolution

    11. He Intended To Release An Entire Album As A Woman

    12. He Thought "The Black Album" Was Evil

    13. He Did The "Batman" Soundtrack Because He Had A Crush On Kim Basinger

    14. He Met His First Wife Via Videotape

    15. He Nearly Lost His Paisley Park Studio Due To Overspending

    16. He Wanted Kevin Smith To Direct A "Rainbow Children" Movie

    If there is no source link, the information was found via Jason Draper's meticulously researched book Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution.