Prince Performs “Purple Rain” During Downpour | Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show | NFL

The morning of the game, I opened the curtains in my hotel room, and I was like, "Oh my god, it was like a scene from Moby Dick." It was, like, the winds were blowing, the palm trees, and the rain was one of those Miami rainstorms that just would not relent. We're in this truck, sitting behind don Mischer And I remember Don said, um, "Put me on the phone with Prince." Don says, "Now, I want you know it's raining," and Prince [was] like, "Yes, it's raining." [Don continued] "And are you okay?" And Prince is like, "Can you make it rain harder?" And I was like, "...Right on." We were told, "In 40 years, it's never rained in a Super Bowl. Don't worry about it." So... that went well. We were up in a booth at the top of the stadium and the rain is pouring into the booth. It was so windy and rainy, we couldn't even see. I was just panicked. Prince was using four separate live electric guitars. The stage was made out of a very slick tile which, when it got wet, was even more slippery. He had two Beautiful dancers with him. The twins, okay? They were wearing, I think, 8-inch heels, and I was just saying, "Oh my God. What's gonna happen now?" Count it That Prince set is so wild. He does other people's songs; he's not promoting himself. He's just making music. It's profound, and it's loud, and it's funky and it's just one performer, uh, shaking entire world It felt surprising; it felt spontaneous. Whatever script you might have had in your head for, "Okay, here's what he's going to do." He didn't do that. Musically, it felt very loose. He played big, epic Prince-style guitar solos. Turning the bad weather to his dramatic advantage... it was almost like a special effect. He could totally lean into that and make it seem like, "Sure, it's raining. Of course it's--- I would have wanted it to rain! Like, I ordered that." By the time we got to the end of the set, when he did do Purple Rain, that was one of those times where things just worked magically, and there's nothing you can do but just say, "Thank you." Come on, y'all! Don't it feel good? Can I play this guitar? To me, it's about one guy in the middle of a hundred thousand people and a hundred million people on television, and it's your moment to be Prince at the Super Bowl and Mother Nature is dropping thousands and thousands of gallons of rain. I always thought [about] how cool the guy is to rise up and just get stormed upon, and just bring what he brought That was so special. Y'all want to sing tonight?

Channel: NFL

Views: 41,647,006

Rating: 4.8851991 out of 5

Keywords: nfl, football, fb, game, play, sports, offense, defense, amazing, big play, highlight, highlights, afc, nfc, division, super bowl, playoffs, recap, prince, super bowl XLI, halftime show, guitar, purple rain, We Will Rock You, Let's Go Crazy, All Along the Watchtower, Best of You, Prince, best, ever, all time, Super Bowl, hafl time show, super bowl halftime, super bowl half time, super bowl 41, super bowl xli, incredible, best guitarist, performer, performance, legend

Id: 7NN3gsSf-Ys

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 12 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I had the privilege many years ago of setting up a monitor mix for Prince during his tour when he stopping in town at Jones Beach Theater, I was a roadie back then an the touring company rented some wedges from us. Prince came out onstage unannounced and asked us if we could turn up the volume a little so he can hear the performance of the wedges, needless to say he jammed for about 5 minutes solo, gave the crew a thumbs up and walked off stage. It was kinda surreal. PS: you can play a guitar in the rain.

[u/TheFungalVirtuoso]

“Can you make it purple?”

[u/Acadien83]

I bet this is one of Dave Grohl's holy fuck momemts. Prince killed that cover of Best of You

[u/Mrsparklee]

"It's just one performer shaking the entire world."

That poor backing band.

[u/TBone818]

Prince is the fucking shit. My second favorite Prince story is when he played the rock n roll hall of fame induction of George Harrison. They wanted him to play the solo to the T of George’s. He said Fuck that and did this

Prince crushing

[u/SouthernJeb]

Was there, drunk, no raingear, freezing my ass off, and loving every minute of it.

[u/chaosperfect]

I have to admit, I was never really too into Prince's music. But when I saw this performance, I was blown the fuck away by that man's dedication and artistic integrity. And he could play the guitar like a MOTHERFUCKER.

[u/tellittrue]

It was the best halftime show and the dancers in the rain were even more impressive.

[u/ThisAndBackToLurking]

Yes, they could. And did.

Source: was there, got very wet