Morris Day on Prince, The Time, Michael Jackson, Rick James, Purple Rain (Full)

all right here we go we have funk royalty in the building Morris day lead singer of Morris Day in the time with classic hits like jungle love and jerk out the bird gigolos get lonely two years right and last but not least musical collaborator with the one and only prince rest in peace well you have a new book out which I got to read awesome in the name of the book is on time that's right a princely life in funk right and I think what I like about the book is that you kind of have conversations with Prince throughout the book in his own voice which is kind of dope yeah I thought that concept was the last thing that I wanted to do was do a book and just straight tell the story you know I wanted it to be different and have a little different you know edge angle whatever you like to it and I think we came up with it very cool there's gonna be a link under all these videos awesome can actually go and purchase the book nice nice ah so definitely check it out well there's your first time here so I want to get into your whole story yeah so you grew up in well you were born in Springfield Illinois that's right where did you actually grow up grew up in Minneapolis my mom got us up out of Springfield when I was about eight years old went up to Minneapolis as the story go was stopped to visit a sick aunt and we were supposed to be on our way to California ended up staying in Minneapolis for the next 20 years and your mom I just get got married at 16 yeah something like that yeah yeah yeah was your dad around no he wasn't around yeah he was uh in the service and over in Germany which I probably have some siblings over there that I don't know about but anyways so he was doing this thing and you know they just you know party Wednesday yeah you definitely missed out okay so here you are growing up in Minneapolis and I guess Prince lived at his mom's house and down the street from you I didn't know that yeah I grew up we first moved to South Side Minneapolis then we moved over Northside to my aunt and uncle had a I think you call them bungalows where the same house but they split into two side-by-side we lived on one side and I didn't even really you know Prince had a nice house you know this nice dog you know when them big poodles and [ __ ] you know and you know he lived right down and I see him in tyka you know out plan and I met him really years later but for that time I lived right around the corner from him okay and you guys met in high school yeah and you were already a drummer yeah and I guess you joined a band that he was already in he had a band called Grand Central him and Andre Simone and Andre and I got kind of tight because I went to see these guys that I saw in the book by the way but you know he lifted bits and I went to see them at a lunch room after school Friday night concert or dance I guess it was and I was just mesmerized by these guys man they were like 14 15 years old principals playing like Carlos Santana solos and Hendrix and just I mean flawlessly you know not trying to chop his way through and the band was super tight and I was just like in awe and got to know Andre from that we start hanging out you know smoke a little weed together one day we skip school went over in my house smoke some weed you know and I had my drums upstairs you know so I had this big speaker behind my drums and you know blast some tower power I started you know knocking out some what is hip and some soul vaccinations you know and just because I was really into David Garibaldi and tower power at the time I mean among others but I was just something about the way Garibaldi played that intrigued me and I patterned myself in a funkier way behind Dave and so anyway I got done hitting these songs madness you know turn my turntable off and Andre sitting there with his jaw drop he's just staring mass like what's up me he's like dude I didn't know you could play like that and he's like man it just so happens that our drummer were having problems with them who was Charles Smith we caught him Chas and that was Prince's cousin so he said you should bring your drums by and try us out man you know you know check you know audition and so I did a couple days later and my drums never left well I guess when you first met the band everyone was really friendly except for Prince yeah he was not like standoffish yeah very much Prince was always in the cut and true to form he's never changed but he he was just sort of I guess checking me out you know and and and and you know he was real cautious we only talked music arrangements this and that songs and stuff like that and you know aside from that you know he was in the cut you know just kind of looking and now finally you know maybe a month went by we started talked a little bit you know sort of broke the ice and you know eventually through it all we became really good buddies well I guess back then in high school he had an afro yeah a turtleneck bell-bottoms and pink girl gloves the fingers cut off yeah there wasn't even you know finger there was big mittens the big girl mittens and he always had this kind of metrosexual vibe to him even back in high school absolutely even before I knew what this metrosexual you know I you know come to know that word but before I knew what that [ __ ] was yeah he was he was on that tip right and I guess he took a lot of his style from like hairdressers and like feminine you know like ways and so forth but he really knew how to kind of he also keep it macho with the same he got a kick out of yeah the the gay hairstylist and stuff and the way they talked the stuff they laughed at it you know and he incorporated and some of that and the way the the the Grace and all of that and and you know he just got a kick out of this stuff okay but you said that he was always straight as a gate as far as I know you know as far as I know he was into the girls alright because he really pushed it at one point I remember I think it really came to the extremes when he had like the pants with like with the butt cheeks hanging out the dirty that and the dirty mind album you know that the leg warmers in the hot pants and the you know all of that that was that even you know all of you know the you know the guys in the band and me and everybody was just kind of sitting back now where is this going and where is it coming from right I look at the dirty mind cover right now yeah I mean that's that's kind of different but not not like the the open but chic pants yeah that was a step further you know it is all out there you know out of my lane for me so you know right that's one of the things that no one really copied it was like when he wore those pants well he pretty much was the the one of one of that the thing about prints and that's an that's a testament to his genius that he's such an incredible musician entertainer that you know guys who normally wouldn't even like by somebody's record who dressed like that he got a Hall Pass because he was such an incredible entertainer right you said in the book that he was a different breed like you were a serious drummer but he didn't just play music he was absolutely lived it 24/7 you know I always turn the lights out you know at some point and you know the only time Prince would is just as just to maybe feel in time when he couldn't be doing music but you know I've never been a workaholic so you know that's kind of where we clash a little bit because uh I couldn't you know when I moved out to the suburbs I couldn't even go to the grocery store without running into this dude and I'd be like trying to take the evening off you know go out to a club do a little something in here but I come by my house tonight we're recording oh just this dude never stop man so one point he left Grand Central and went solo yeah was that like a big blow to the group left the group it was sort of it was a blow because you know that trying to find somebody to fill that spot never happened you know we found guitar players and and we we carried on if you know but it just wasn't the same it tried to replace prints that wanted ads looking for a prints replacement exactly exactly so he went solo yeah and he got signed yeah and then one day you're hanging out in Minneapolis and you heard soft and wet on the radio actually I was hanging out in Maryland I lived in Gaithersburg Maryland my mom moved us there and I was working at a car rental counter and believe was called Montgomery Ward's and they had a little car rental counter in there and I was working there now I'm standing up one day and soft and wet comes on the radio and that was pretty incredible for me because that was almost like me hearing my own music because you know we grew up together so you know I'm standing there and I'm telling random people that's my buddy on the radio right now and they're looking at me like yeah whatever but yeah that's how I went okay so he moved to well you moved away yeah he formed his own band the revolution that's right and the revolution already had a drummer but at one point you came back and you hooked up with him again yeah but like I said the Revolution already had a drummer and I was coming back to town to get that job - that was my slot so you know I'm thinking you know I can play better than Bob easy so this should be a no-brainer so you know principles blunt you know he's always you know he never you know he always give T straight he's like nah I already have a drummer okay he said but you know you can come hang out and videotape the shows which was a little bit of a slap in the face but I was like you know what I'm gonna do it right it became his cameraman bass oh yeah yeah yeah okay and he went on tour with Rick James yeah he opened up for Rick James actually and Rick James was on fire oh yeah at this point yeah this was one super freak was out yeah I think so yeah right around there oh yeah so was that the first tour you went on yeah I believe so I think it was the I don't I think it might have been after that because it was actually the the dirty mine tour and I don't think he was opening for Rick at that time but I could be wrong local time ago all right but at one point he did go on tour with Rick James yeah yeah and I remember reading Rick's biography and Rick just hated Prince I don't think yeah I think he hated him I think it was a pressure thing you know I think I think it was more threatened by than hate if I had to you know because you know Prince coming on strong man you know he's he's gaining momentum you know probably kicking Rick's ass some nights you know and and so I think it was probably more threatened you know by Prince than anything okay and what exactly was happening on the tour between Prince and Rick James man you know I don't really know what was going on you know with them you know because my thing was the cameras I wasn't doing much hanging out back then I was just camera room you know and so you know I hadn't I hadn't turned into MD yet okay and Prince even back then was wearing the the metrosexual type stuff he was wearing like the the bikini underwear and the trench coat and how would the crowds dealing with him back then opening up for Rick James you know he was he was holding his own you know and like I said you know because you know once they saw his musicianship and his ability to entertain and you know he got that Hall Pass you know the women they they don't really care about that kind of thing anyway but guys especially you know gave him that hall pass because he's such a talent dude oh yeah absolutely and then at the end of that tour he really didn't need Rick James anymore he was on fire his own exactly well and then he started opening up for the Rolling Stones were you on that tour I was at one show and it was a it was like a Woodstock Coachella kind of thing out in the middle of nowhere and I could kind of see it coming on man because we we get out here and you see all of these these dudes man hardcore biker looking dudes you know beards and motorcycles and tattoos and you know and then here comes Prince I'm out at the sound board you know and I'm seeing all this developed man and here he comes out you know trench coat back legs out and stuff man and he still they wasn't having it man next thing I know I start seeing beer bottles flying up on stage and I was like I'll [ __ ] it's time to go so I had a bee line get backstage and catch him coming off we were straight into the car to the airport and back to Minneapolis right away well right I interviewed Stokely Williams mint-condition who worked with Prince later on and he said he told me about a conversation him and Prince had about that and he said that that that show was so bad and because guys were literally throwing beer bottles everybody and really was like you know calling him gay and everything like that yeah the whole tone just oh yeah that he actually wanted to quit at that point completely and Mick Jagger how to talk him like off the ledge talked about when he he's like I'm Stokely when I first went on my first tour like that Rolling Stones thing that first toured with maybe it was and if someone here I got booed and I was just like and I didn't want to come back and he said Mick Jagger's the one who actually called him back because he quit you didn't want to go back when he got booed is like I said what you doing sighs walked offstage what could I do and he said Mick is the one actually called them back you can't quit man come back and you know so I guess he finished the tour you see that could be I didn't I didn't catch that because the part that I caught was once I made it back he was on his way out car airport I know he was humiliated and you know but he wasn't talking like quitting I think that's a bit extreme for Prince you know that was that that was part of his being you know I mean how did he feel about that whole experience that sounds pretty brutal now it was it was crazy he was humiliated but you know what I think I think it motivated him you know so because you know we got right back he was right back in the studio you know didn't miss a beat and you know I just think that that somehow fueled his tank you know in a positive way well Prince had a deal with Warner Brothers and in that deal it allowed him to bring other groups and artists under his deal and one of those groups was the time that's right so when Prince first approached you and said hey I want to produce you guys and and so forth how did you feel well first of all there was no time it was just me and kind of around that time that we got back from from the whole Rolling Stones ordeal you know he said if you want to use the studio because I would stay at his house when he you know go on some shows or go do stuff la I'd stay at his house and he's like you want to get in the studio and cut some stuff you know you know have at it and I was like great so the first song I really cut ended up being party up so he heard the song and he liked him so he was like you know I want your song he said oh I'll give you money you know 10 15 20 grand whatever he said and he said or I'll help you get a deal put a band together I said that's what I'm talking about so that's what we did we started cutting we basically cut the whole album he and I and you know a few background singers and fill in stuff like but we cut the album right there at a studio a few songs in we had finished up get it up he took that out to LA to Warner Brothers mo Austin and the crew heard it and they signed us sight unseen so then we went back and we had like two weeks to finish the album completely and we finished it so basically we put the band together after the album was done okay and the group kind of I mean more stay in the time came out of a group called flight time most of the members were in flight time and that was Terry Lewis and Jimmy jams group super talented guys you know Prince didn't really want them he wanted some other musicians that I had been working with used to come out to some of our shows and I was in a band called enterprise band a pleasure and there's a guy on base Jeffery McRaven you really wanted Jeffery in and he was kind of going in a different direction and I told him that I wanted Jimmy and Terry because I had heard stuff that they a cut on a what's-her-name you know Funkytown you know I'm Tom I'll leave cedar [ __ ] yeah yeah at least sing I not name somebody I'd heard some production ISM Cynthia Johnson Cynthia Johnson I'd heard some productions they had done on with Cynthia stuff they had written and produced on her and I was like these guys are really good you know so I really wanted them in the band plus they were super solid players and entertainers so we ended up using most of them because Monty was in their group jelly bean wasn't gonna be in the band because I was supposed to be the drummer and that's what I wanted to do I never wanted to be a lead singer but I'm I'm glad that it happened that way because drummers phased out after that you know back in the day you should be able to go from Studio to studio you know and you know make a thousand dollars a session and you could just do that all week long but that's a drum machine start getting popular which they were starting to get popular then you couldn't do that so you know I wanted to be the drummer and we had different people Alexander O'Neal was gonna be the lead singer at one point ah and he wanted more money and we didn't have it so we passed on him we checked out a few girls to maybe be the lead and you know after we exhausted all of our options principals like you do it like I don't know how to lead up a band and he's like well just be cool you know put your hand in your pocket so if you watch the cool video you'll notice my right hand never comes out of my pocket the whole video so I was following you know his advice through that and then from there just kind of mushroomed and you know I learned how to be a lead guy but yeah that wasn't my plan and by me being a lead singer I was happy because then jelly bean was kind of sidelined we were able to pull him into the band and so it felt complete well here you are in a band with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who went on to become the biggest producers ever they did all the Janet Jackson stuff I mean new addition hello everybody everybody at some point but with Prince being Prince he played every instrument on that first album yeah and every instrument and even your vocals he laid him out and you had to do him note by note pretty much how does a Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis really just sit back and say okay I guess we're not going to contribute at all it was like it was you know what it was all of us because you know we had Jesse Johnson Terry and Jimi myself we were all busting at the seams creatively and really wanting to do our own music or to have you know some control over our music somehow you know we were getting offers from at one point Evelyn Champaign Kings people came and wanted me to produce a single on them they offered me good money but I couldn't do it because he wasn't allowing it right and actually Prince was producing everything under Jamie Starr correct a fake name as I guess he didn't want people to know that he was doing everything I think I think he more than anything he wanted to create that mystery so there'd be tidbits tidbits out there is Jamie star Prince so he liked that mystery you know so he wasn't really hiding behind it but you know it was just it made it controversial okay so you drop your debut album the time 1981 then you guys go on tour on the controversy tour and the two bands kind of started a beef during this tour how bad did it get it got bad principal was like he he wants to play jokes and he wants to [ __ ] around and you know he wanted you know and mess with you when you're on stage but he'll tell you don't do that when up on stage so we're up here you know doing our show and all sudden eggs start flying by our heads you know and and hitting some of the guys and stuff and he's always just laughing having to offstage just laugh and having a good time we're on stage you know at an arena you know what thousands of people kind of watching this unfold so we get done and a couple of guys were really pissed off I was pissed because I was like why are you gonna mess with our show like that man so he said yeah you know but you guys can't do that to me when I'm on stage and we're like okay so everybody suited up you know Jimmy Jimmy Jam had a big garbage bag over him taped on you know and we had eggs we we start firing up we start firing them up with the eggs and right in the middle of his show and he got super pissed so it just turned into a big I mean Jesse Johnson they took him handcuffed him to a coat rack in the dressing room he tore the coat rack off the wall came out trying to hit people in his band with it it just turned into a big a big fight yeah sounds crazy yeah it was crazy okay so I guess shortly after that time Prince drop in 1999 which was like his biggest song at that point yeah that was just a monster a monster when you heard 1999 what you think I mean I knew what he was going for with it I knew he wanted to be a pop star he wanted a big pop record with the big fat pop hook you know and when I heard it I said you did it that's it yeah I mean I remember what it was about to turn 2000 that song was played to death he had people wondering if we was gonna make it out of here I know right so you guys go on tour with him again for the 1999 Triple Threat tour and I guess the band was playing for vanity 6 right at the time and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were starting to build themselves up as producers and they started doing a bunch of different projects they're doing the SOS band they were doing climax and there was a situation where they couldn't make it to a gig you talk about that yeah we um I mean I knew Terry and Jimmy were moonlighting in um I was like awesome because I really wanted to do the same thing so but and they would have gotten away with it you know but this particular show we had in Atlanta I think or were they in Atlanta anyway we had a show they got snowed in somewhere they missed the show and that was pretty much the beginning of the end we after that we retreated to want to say sunset sound or Cherokee sound one of those Studios right up the road here on Sunset and uh Terry and Jimmy Prince called them in for a meeting we were cutting ice cream castles at the time and Terry and Jimmy coming I had no idea what he had in his mind so me and Jesse Johnson and Prince sitting in a studio on Terry and Jimmy come in and he's you guys are fired just like that and you know I just kind of dropped my head because and walked out of the studio because I never wanted to be in one of those bands with the revolving door I was kind of like loyal to my bands and I always hated to see them switch members whether it be a guitar player a lead singer bass player you know I just kind of liked you know the bands like you know I get to know them the way I you know get to know him and I don't like to see that revolving door concept so that's when I kind of realized that's where my band was heading and I wasn't I wasn't too happy about it right because uh Vontae Moore also left the group right around that time yeah and when you you know fast forward a Purple Reign that's the current group no jimmy-jam no Terry Lewis exactly no Monty right it was the new band yeah at that point yeah then new guys okay which leads me into the next part so then you guys start working on ice cream castle this is your third album yeah and you guys have had some strong records but no huge smashes yet so you guys you guys start working on ice cream castle and you put together jungle love how did that sound come together that song came together a bassline submitted from Jesse Johnson really came came up with the bass line and Prince just took that ball and ran with it okay yeah when you put it when you have sorry when you first heard jungle of did you know that was a hit oh yeah okay yeah yeah and and you know jungle Oh sounded like a hit to me the bird I was on the fence with the bird because we had a studio version of that song that was supposed to be on the album and the studio version was just super funky and just clean and it was hard-hitting and then Prince said you know what he said we're gonna do the song live they said you guys are going to record the song live and we're gonna use that version on the album which the live version I mean it was really cool it's a really a brilliant idea but I still was kind of hung up on wanting to put the studio version out but it gave us bragging rights because there's not too many bands in history who have hit records that they performed live which was actual live recording yeah great record as well yeah yeah but jungle love was my [ __ ] just keep it a hundred I love jungle love that's my my favorite song that you guys put together : plane and right around that time that's when Purple Rain the movie was coming together right now so I guess the whole movie the way you described in your book was born and bred and shot and chaos pretty much explained that well the first of all we're just doing business as usual recording songs and and doing shows and all of a sudden we're on a break and Prince comes up and he's like we're gonna do a movie okay I've never done a movie before so you know he you know next thing you know he's he's got us going to doing stupid [ __ ] in my book you know like going to dance classes and and going to acting lessons and and all of this stuff you know and you know it still didn't seem like it was gonna be a reality necessary necessarily because you know we were just you know doing all this stuff but then it started to come together you know then also a director comes to town and the script shows up and it's starting to look like you know we're really gonna do this and so it to me you know people ask me did I no I mean like that was one of the most honest or innocent efforts because we didn't we didn't know in my opinion we didn't know what we were doing we were just they you know the director showed us the script he sat me and Jerome down and line for line we went through the script and he said okay this is what the script says what would you guys say and so we basically rewrote all of our parts and the next thing you know we we shoot in a movie and Apollonia played the love interest who if she was bad yeah she was what she was a vanity replacement is what happened you know because all the way up until basically we shot the movie that was supposed to be vanity her and Prince had a falling out at the last minute and the next thing I know here comes Apollonia out of nowhere I'd never heard of her before never seen her before but just right prior to us shooting the movie here she come very similar look to to a very simpie anity I think he was going for the same thing there you know well him and vanity were they dating he was hitting everything you couldn't be in princess you couldn't be in his movie on his record without you know I mean okay now you actually played the villain in Purple Rain you're the one trying to get Apollonia and yeah you know and you kind of had a beef with with Prince throughout the film and I guess that's actually based on the reality of you guys throwing together as it as it turns out yeah we had an element of that you know because I'm competitive princess is super competitive individual so you know we were always cool until you know we started touring and once he realized that he created this Frankenstein monster we start kicking his ass on stage and and you know that's when the tension came in as far as I'm in the movie and in real life really happened on stage I mean we weren't that competitive offstage but as far as performing was we were so I think that the movie hits on that a little bit but I had to live with you know everybody thought that was so real so everybody you know a lot of especially a lot of girls come up here you so mean two prints in the movie I'm like it was a movie well the jungle of music video was actually from the movie yeah which was pretty dope it was like you got to see the music video they come out before the movie I think it came out no it came out during right cuz I remember you know being in you know being a school at the time and you're watching MTV and you watch music video and you haven't seen the movie yet but you're hyped up to see the movie because the music video is basically the movie I know between the live performance and all the cutscenes it's like you get to really see what the movies about in that music video and it was also a smash on top of that and I guess the film costs 7 million to make see I never know that and it made 70 million at the box office yeah I just know that um because shortly after the movie I we did we did where you call him out we did I forget what you call him but we did the we shot some scenes in downtown LA because we were basically done with the movie and we just had some fill-in shots to do so that was it for me I got to LA and you know like I told you my mom had me in Minneapolis for 20 years I said so this is it I'm in LA I'm staying so I was basically out of the band I was out of the camp and on People magazine I saw him you know it said that prints made 17.5 million that year you know and that was partly off a Purple Rain and you not told him about it cuz I made 50 grand and that was it and I had to use that 50 grand to pay my band weekly his dude was shrewd but uh so I told her I said yeah see you may you know seventeen and a half mil last year and he said yeah he said that's uh he said that's a little bit of an understatement but yeah well I mean the story goes the prints actually he had to use his own money to underwrite the budget because the studio wasn't really feeling it initially and he had a you know basically use his own money to get this thing going and the movie made 70 million at the box office they went on to do better even after that now what was interesting was that even though the songs jungle love and the bird were in the movie they were not on the soundtrack and the soundtrack sold 25 million copies again he nobody knew what he was doing it's like I'm not sharing the movie money with you so he said I'm gonna take your songs from the movie and put them on your own record and I will have the soundtrack out are you pissed off about that I questioned it I can't say I was pissed off but I did question it I was like you know ok just because everything was so strategic with this dude you know he's just always thinking so you know I knew I knew that it was somehow cutting me out of something yeah well those songs ended up on ice cream castles yeah and that one double platinum yeah so you couldn't be that mad and I wasn't too mad about it you know so now you actually have hit songs under your belt how did that feel I mean it felt great it was you know what they say is nothing like you know the first time you know Lee and and so really that feeling when we had our first record and the single was get it up I'm still working clubs in Minneapolis I get a call from Prince and he's like and we still hadn't really put our band together yet he's like you better start putting your band together he said you guys he said you have a hit record and I was like wow you know but Minneapolis you're in a bubble you know there's no urban stations we had I think it was kmo J it broadcasts sunup to sundown and about a three block radius it was an AM station so you know I didn't know and so you know I put the band together and we're going out to do a showcase for Warner Brothers and we got out of the airport we rented a station wagon the whole bands piled into this station wagon and we're on the 405 and no sooner we got on the 405 boom get it up comes on the radio and that feeling was incredible we pulled over and people looking at us like we're crazy we dancing and stuff all up on the car and and that you know that was amazing I think by the time we got to the bird and jungle love you know it was exciting but it wasn't as exciting as that first single and plus jungle love was on her Hill so much man I think it every every station you know I turn you know I would hear it I turned to another station because maybe I didn't want here and guess what it was all I was just the rotation was incredible well right around that time and a lot of people don't realize this but you know Michael Jackson has always put on a pedestal but around the Purple Reign time Prince and Michael Jackson were kind of neck-and-neck AB see because you know Michael had Thriller yeah Prince had Purple Rain and he had the movie on top of that exact movie star and Purple Rain the sales were up there with thriller and I guess the two of them had a kind of a rivalry they did but you know I think they kind of squashed it I I remember Prince told me that he went and met with Michael at some point and I guess they talked about some stuff you know I always thought that was an interesting comparison I think that they were on the same level as artists but I think Michael was he was straight entertainer well Prince did it all you know principles the Entertainer the writer the producer everything so to me I just thought that made his worth and not to try and take anything from Michael don't get me wrong one of the greatest that ever walked the planet but I just thought that Prince as a rounded I mean was the whole package right he was a musician a songwriter he didn't need anybody to get him from A to B to C he you know he could do it all himself yeah Michael needed Quincy Jones there you go Michael needed our Kelly Lee yeah you needed he needed producers yeah he needed a songwriter yeah yeah yeah my prints played like a hundred different instruments yeah yeah did you ever see the two of them actually get into it cuz there was like this one video where they were like like remember Hulk Hogan was there and the two of them were kind of kind of battling on stage a little bit I never I never really was around you know that was you know like I said you know I kind of you know we loaded up and did what we did and then I got out of there so a lot of that stuff really came about later and you know Princeton swandam kind of Katz where you know I never had his phone number not after I left Minneapolis so I never knew how to call him and he always contacted me at some obscure hour of the night my phone rings and I I mean I had it you know or I could count on one hand I had some crazy cousins who called me in the middle of night but usually it be him and he's got some kind of idea something he wants to do but I could never just pick up the phone and say hey what's up you know or nothing like that he had it had to be him calling ok so then in 1985 you guys actually split up you walked away yes more like 84 but yeah no it's round 85 you rang what was like the final straw the final straw for me was I got creative input you know I did a lot with the early records you know I always was in on the jam sessions and did the drum parts and play the drums on even a lot of his stuff but I wanted to produce my own record and write for myself and I asked him and you know he had a Steve Cavallo come up to my place and Santa Monica there and you know we talked it through and and Steve's like so you know because I had already threatened to leave and Steve's like so you're telling me you want to produce and write and be in charge of your own project and I say yeah that's what I want and he said ok he said so I talked to Prince about this and Prince said that's fine he said as long as he can be the executive producer and in my mind I knew what that meant that meant the same [ __ ] different days so I was like ok I get it it's time for me to move on so basically that was the straw that broke the camel's back well in your book you said Prince needed to control everything and everyone around him including religion and he believed that the Jehovah's Witness way of living was the way to live and that he would no Prince had this rant amorous you would call a sermon and I guess the sermon came in two parts he said Princeton like confusion he enjoyed clarity and feeling secure even with the religion wiped out confusion he wanted everyone on that same Accord so was the religion kind of a breaking point well the religion came later I was long gone you know that had nothing to do with me leaving but it did have to do with later on he's you know he came and he's like you know you come to our shows and he always loved the shows and he yeah and then he said that after we did a show inevitably a day or two later he would call I got some songs you know I want you to come out I want you to do this so I was living in a in Atlanta at the time he calls me I fly out to Minneapolis I'm ready to cut songs you know I'm there to work I show up and he's like we're in the studio he said let's you know go in my office you know before we start recording you know and so he saw he's like you know what what what's really gonna help me do this and for us to work together again as he said us being brothers we have to be on the same page and he said I can't do this unless I can bring you into the religion unless we can pray together and believe have the same beliefs and all it is saying now at that point you know even though my arms are probably like this but my arms are crossed because I'm like you know I'm not trying to to do that I've never I've never understood Jehovah's Witness enough to you know subscribe to it you know and then after that he had him like coming to my door in Atlanta like twice a week you know oh he would send your whole witnesses to your door you know because that's part of their thing in order to be a Jehovah's Witness you to spread the word so you got to go knocking door-to-door and I guess he considered himself doing it through his musical circle but yeah he he stopped the tape and I said you know I don't think I can do that and he said well you go home and think about it and he's like you let me know he said once you you know I'll come to terms with it if you do we can cut if not you know I understand and so I jetted back home and and that was that I hadn't I didn't see him for a few years after that well you felt that Prince was haunted by his dad and I guess right like a few weeks after his dad had passed he ended up bulldozing his dad's house what was that about yeah I don't know and you know I never some things you just don't ask people you know and I never really you know had that on my brain number one and number two even if it was obviously it was a sensitive issue for him you know if he volunteered that information I would have you know talked with him about it but he never brought that up and I heard about it which I thought was interesting but I never talked to him about it well one of the most famous prints moments actually came on the Chappelle show where they did the whole basketball game thing and I actually interviewed Mickey free from Shalimar who was down with Prince during that time and it was actually there at the basketball game all down and yeah he said it went exactly like that he actually said the Prince played like Michael Jordan we're in our street clothes bro remember we just came from the club okay so we're in our street clothes so for instead give me the ball back and I swear to you guys listening wherever you're gonna be Prince took the ball it was like Michael Jordan after that shot after shot like nothing but net and I looked at Eddie and I was like oh yeah you know and after we were done true story Prince's cook at the time her name was Randy cooked us pancakes blouses was principally that good at basketball he was good man he was a good basketball player yeah you know little agile really quick had decent jump shot yeah okay so you leave princess camp and you started dropping solo albums you did a daydreaming yeah in 1987 yeah how did that do it did okay the first one was color success and that one you know what went platinum ah yeah yeah and uh daydreaming uh it's it's it might got gold you know something like that but okay I mean solid numbers yeah solid numbers yeah but you ended up actually coming back to princess camp and doing pandemonium yeah why well it's what happened again now this was before the religion thing because the religion thing happened later on but he wants me to come to Paisley Park so we're gonna cut a record but first of all I weed me and freeze my bass player Ricky freeze we write a lot together we had submitted some songs to Prince to listen to and he dug one of them and so he took it rewrote it layered it and called a corporate world and so we ended up he wanted to do a whole record and call the out the project corporate world so we did that so we finished a record Jerome was in on it me and Prince again and so we finish and then all of a sudden the movie graffiti bridge comes into the pictures now we're gonna do another movie this is half way through the corporate world album and Jimmy and Terry decided they wanted to be involved so we pretty much scratched the whole corporate world album and started new with Jimmy and Terry and that's how we went into jerk out and all of that stuff right and what's interesting about the pandamonium album is that there's a song called Donald Trump a black version yeah which tells listen to on the way here it's a cool song no you know in 2009 gets lost in translation a little later like this I'll Trump was just a baller back though guy that's how people were the money yes the money man yeah right yeah so you guys come back and you do you do the pandemonium and then jerk out was the big single off of that yeah and you do the whole mirror thing in the music video once again you originally did it in jungle of yeah and then I guess is Jerome yeah what was holding the mirror yeah before you yeah how did that thing even come together well that that came together the song cool somebody bring me a mirror we had already been on tour we were back rehearsing again revamping the show at this little rehearsal hall in south Minneapolis called the yasm and I forget what that was something backwards I'm sure but anyway we're doing cool and I'm like somebody bringing me a mirror and Jerome just you know hopped up ran into the bathroom snatched the mirror off the wall and then next thing I know he's standing around me with the mirror and hotter guys were just kind of looking at each other like just shits pretty cool man so Jerome went from being at that time he was like our valet you know he did all the luggage and all that stuff so that was his introduction to the stage and he was he was in after that well around that time Prince had just done the Batman soundtrack and he was messing with Kim Basinger who was like the hottest girl at the time and I guess because the whole Batman thing the jerk out video had some interesting cameos Jack Nicholson was actually in the music video Quincy Jones was in the video you end up taking his girl right right Sugar Ray Leonard was in the video is pretty stars star studded video that was and you know jerk out was actually even though it's not our most popular song was actually our highest charting song yeah yeah well in the song you said you ain't got to go but you got to get the hell up out of here was that the first time that was said well first time on record yeah you know you you know you keep hearing that over the year yeah you coined that phrase I guess on that record no I didn't you know as a matter of fact I'll tell you we used to do clubs and we used to do this club called the Riverside and there's a MC I forget his name and he would say that at the end of the night he's like you know after the band's you're done playing and he's wrapping it up and he's like you ain't got to go home but you got to get the hell out of here and you know it just came back you know we that was one of them lines that we just you know we're gonna use this at some point in time yeah and it worked for that right yeah well the time got back together did the album and then things fell apart again group broke up once again well the group you know the group never stood a chance at that at that point because everybody it used to be where we had some kind of leadership and some direction but once once we got back together to do that record Jesse Johnson he already you know I had some solo success Terry and Jimmy were off the charts they were through the roof so it went from having maybe a chief and a co chief and then some Indians to having a roomful of Chiefs oh we couldn't get nothing done because everybody's opinion counted or you know took precedence over you know so it was just hard we couldn't get nothing done you know based on the book things started to go kind of downhill for you after that your marriage wasn't going well marriage wasn't going well you know I was I don't know I was in a funk you know I couldn't I couldn't think and I think that it was my way of saying I'm gonna take a break they even though I didn't consider myself taking a break I just looked up one day and I went from you know my house in the hills to sleeping on my sister's living room floor and I couldn't figure it out and I didn't really have the ambition to figure it out at the time now there have been times in my life where I early on had a serious drug problem and that I got passed got through it kept going but this thing wasn't drugs alcohol nothing like that I just I just didn't have it and so I looked up and I was all my sisters uh sleeping on the floor and one day I'm sitting up in her little dark studio apartment we didn't get much sunlight and buddy of mine around Sweeny call me and he's like what you doing I was like I don't know he's like well why don't you put the band back together and just like that a light went off in my head and you know next thing I know the guys I got the guys back together we put the show together and never look back you know the phone's been ringing off the hook ever since right because I guess nine years passed until you saw Prince again yeah that's a long time yeah and I guess you're supposed to open up for him and it didn't work out you know if you're talking about the target arena show yeah he uh he had us fly to town you know a good faith I fly my band in first of all he's got us at this little rustic like wood cabin Hotel out in the middle of oh and I'm like I'm not staying here so I went and got you know the nice little you know five-star right across the street from the Target Center I'm posted up and it's about maybe an hour before the show and I we get a phone call Prince changed his mind he doesn't want you guys to open for you him tonight like okay I'm like so I said okay so I get that I said so can he give me some money just to reimburse me for my out-of-pocket you know I got my guys here you know I pay him I pay them per diem I pay them uh whatever you know if I bring them out I pay them and I said and plus my airfare I say can I get and like prince said no so I said okay this is some [ __ ] so anyway he ended up giving me yeah we went two rounds and I end up giving me enough money to reimburse me for the airfare and I got the guys home and I said you know what that's it you know I said no more calls because he had done this several times and changed his mind I said no more calls I said I'm not leaving the house for this dude unless he pays me 100% up front yeah princess is interesting sort of you know generous cheap thing I know has went on the whole time cuz I remember I interviewed Kurtis Blow at one point and they were doing a music video as a tribute to Martin Luther King and back then music videos were expensive yeah I couldn't just pick up a video camera an iphone and shoot a music video exactly and he said that they didn't know where they were gonna get the money for the music video and they went to Prince and they need like 50,000 Prince just wrote him a check without any credit or anything and he was like yo man thank you so much and Prince was like hey man smile at the king don't even mention it yeah and he was like literally just throw off 50,000 like that but then when it comes to reimbursing your airfare right right look seventeen and a half million at your house like thinking now I helped make that movie I'm like what if you're gonna do write me a little check you know but that never happened well you guys continued to uh you know to play you guys were in the Jay and Silent Bob strikes back movie and I guess you you called yourself the original seven at one point that was when we got together and decided as the time that we were going to do a record Terry and Jimmy wanted to do a record and of course Prince said no you can't use the name so oh we had will hold on hold on Prince really had a problem with you guys using the name that far later you know what this do is was such a control freak that I thought that you know because I renamed the it used to be the time when I started touring I changed it to more today in the time I thought I said wow I've been doing you know doing this for years now and I said I haven't had any problems with prints that's like you know the dude you know he's finally coming around you know he's not trying to squash me but then I later found out that legally I can't use the time to record but he can't stop me from using the time as a touring name so legally there was nothing he could do so I just wonder if he might have tried to shut me down because he wasn't letting us use that name for the record real Ron and when he changed his name to the symbol a couple times I mean I wasn't around but I saw him a few times in it okay like I told him I said I don't know what to call you what do you say he said just he said don't call me he said don't call me anything just you know just don't call me Prince yeah I already had a problem people actually calling him Prince at that time yeah okay so you guys continued to tour and we dropped a new album in 2011 condensate yeah how did that one do wow that record didn't do well at all it was sort of doomed in its own way out of the box because we weren't able to use our signature name the time so we had to be creative the original seven you can look at it like the original 7 members the original 7 letters the time but it didn't catch on partly because I don't think we had a good business plan we tried to do everything internally Terry Lewis is a very very smart guy but he also you know kind of wants to do a lot and so he was kind of being our music rep you know in the layout liaison between us and the label and everything which I think we really needed somebody to handle all of that for us and have a plan in place the for the record came out and we were just kind of handling things as they happen instead of having a solid plan in advance well leading up to 2016 were you in contact with Prince at all yeah yeah like I said hit this dude he stayed in touch with me like I said yeah the most obscure moments of the day the phone will ring and yeah you know or else he come to a show or else we go to his show he called a Jerome and I to do Coachella with him one year we we were you know we and you know you know we did musicology with him Coachella we went on unannounced and did the Bernadin jungle love and so you know through the years he would keep in touch rude I still close or just a gig and that's it no it's funny because you know I mean you know how you can be apart from somebody and you'd be like ah he's [ __ ] up you know idea and then you see people and and and a lot of times that animosity just goes away and you're happy to see them it was always that kind of thing where you know we might not talk for a year or a few years or whatever but it seemed like every time you know we cross each other's paths it was genuine and he was sitting on a massive amount of music at the time from what I understand that he was just working himself to death up to his his final his final day because even though he wasn't putting out albums he kept making albums he kept making songs just over and over and over again yeah even when we were kids you know we he you know he told me uh he had a hundred songs in his you know binder before you know he even got to his first single so that was his thing went cut music yeah and I remember one of the things that he said well the story goes that because he was a Jehovah's Witness he didn't want like a um like a hologram of him after the after the fact after he passed cuz he thought that was demonic you know anything about that now we we hologram him up in the book that's a we conjured up his voice in the book you know so that's how we did but no I didn't you know like I said you know I was um you know there was a time when we were kids and and early on and would the music's break-in a man we talked about everything but you know once I was out of the camp that was it I was really out of the information looping so it just you know the little bit of time that we spent creatively trying to do stuff it was just you know it wasn't the same so I didn't really hear a lot about you know his beliefs and all that yeah quite a loss quite a loss what do you think was your greatest moment with Prince if you look at all the years you guys spent together greatest moment if you could just relive one moment with him right now man I would just say I would say probably that first record that we cut together I mean we laughed we partied we went out we would go out go to the club go back cut I mean it was just it was just and and it was coming out magic the songs are coming out magic and was to the point where you know the house we kept a lot of it in the house said he bulldozed that his father lived in obviously príncipe there at the time had a studio there and yeah it was on a lake and so we you know some nights you know 2 o'clock in the morning the cops are knocking you guys got to stop you know the music's you know reflecting across the lake and you know the neighbors are up and so you know just those times man we were we live in a it was a it was really enriched musically and friendship and all of that you know and there's so many artists that have come out over the decades but it seems like Michael Jackson and Prince are the two that people really put on a pedestal above all yeah why do you think that is well I think the numbers kind of speak to that you know they touched you know the world you know with their music yeah even even to this day yeah and about a year later at the Grammy Awards you guys actually did a tribute to Prince with the original lineup yeah and then Bruno Mars I think there's something after that yeah yeah was that bittersweet it was cool man I thought you know I thought it was cool I'm not gonna say bittersweet I I enjoyed it I you know I found something out about Bruno I didn't know he could play guitar like that yeah and then you guys just had a recent performance once again yeah at the Soul Train Awards yeah everyone was talking about that it was awesome man it was awesome because it was it was nice just to be in the house to see Jimmy and Terry get honored but it was also awesome because that band was incredible so that was only the second time that I heard my songs played with a real horn section and they were firing man I was loving it was like Christmas time for me and one other time when we did Coachella when Prince called us out to do Coachella his band of time had a horn section and that was the other time that I've heard the song so it was it was it was incredible incredible night well Morris day is a hell of a story a hell of a life and by the way you look great on the dais you're still doing music man yeah I said you got the new book out and you killed it at the Soul Train Awards if you ever miss a step appreciate it man and you know I'm sorry for your loss with Prince I know you guys had your ups and downs over the years but I'm pretty sure you you're glad that well you know it's it's you know the thing is we're all heading in that direction so we'll party later can't get fast that door man this is true we're all gonna end up with Prince's right now at some point well Morris thank you again for coming in I've been a big fan since I was a kid oh man and you have some classic songs classic movie scenes and man just looking forward to what you have ahead appreciate that man no doubt until next time all right my man peace

Channel: djvlad

Views: 754,798

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Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama, Morris Day

Id: brc057hg8sk

Length: 66min 21sec (3981 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020