It’s always awesome to be in audience of someone who is the poster-child for what significance is while it its ever-so-popular and trendy to chase “being relevant” which is only as temporary as it is trendy (which has an expiry date and terms).
Significance, unlike relevancy, is not something one seeks, it is something you command (via what you earned or solicited via some talent skill, product or service and too has everything to do with who you are-why you are-what you’re about, that transcends time, space and trend. Significance is not sought). If anybody is significant therefore, always relevant, it’s Prince. And when he shows up, I’m there.
Prince has been one of those artists for generation after generation that eerily has not aged-but too, transcends time, and has managed to become a household name through nothing but pure de talent, artistry and skill: no publicity stunts, no massive media campaigns to promote anything he’s ever done over the years. And even in the new age; without social media calisthenic “extras” in order to maintain relevancy and significance. That must be noted-and certainly gets my attention and what makes him significant (therefore forever relevant-always).
The typically reclusive artist “formerly known as” + forever will be known as “Prince” has come out to play with us here of late over the few years and has shared parts of himself that we never really get to see or know about-all that we’ve known about him has been strictly through his musical genius and with no publicity stunts or public scandals, that’s pretty much all we know about him: his genius and transcendence.
Well our royal highness graced the television audience and television viewing audience with his presence when he stopped by to see his old pal Arsenio for an episode that aired Wednesday night-and while there, we learned more about Prince.
Retro-clad, dressed in bell-bottoms, a long black fur vest, gold chains and a low 70’s fro, the fiercely private superstar commandeered the show like he is known for doing anyways.
Prince is not exactly the artist you can just shake a microphone at-with a catalogue of his very own work that could take hours to go through, on Tuesday night for over two hours, he performed three song (including his new single: “Funk’n’roll,” “Mutiny,” and “She’s Always in My Hair.” Additionally, he copped a squad with Arsenio to take questions from fans-many of whom had been waiting outside the studio braving the fiercely cold elements for more than six hours to see him.
Here are some things we learned about our Royal Highness:
- Sorry. Keep chasing your cell phones, clocking texts, and being a slave to vibration, text messages and all the busyness of you and your cell phone life-Prince doesn’t own one. So when Prince (who, according to Hall) called him to congratulate him on the return of his new show, he most probably called from home or a landline (rather than via bluetooth, or earplugs while on the go-like us. To that, Prince added: “Everybody I know has one, though”
- Well, he may not be able to teach a class on “How to be Significant” but if he wasn’t singing, he would be a teacher. Prince told Arsenio that when he was 16, broke, and in search of a career, before picking up that bass guitar, he let his fingers do the walking in the yellow pages and didn’t find anything he wanted to do so, he decided he was going to be a musician “and win at it” (Amen. The rest is history. I know, right?)
- If by some unfortunate chance you’ve never gotten to see Prince in concert, you may put into him at the Art Museum or some local or national monument where there is art history, history and something to be learned [that he never got the chance to do for winning in life all these years ya know].
- If by chance you do bump into your royal highness, back up off his fro. When asked what his pet peeve was, the She’s Always in my Hair singer responded: “Strangers Touching My Hair.”
- He’s domesticated. Although he can burn various instruments he says he can cook food yet, only whips up one thing: Omelets. “All my friends have high cholesterol,” he joked.
Well, I guess the rumors were true: Prince probably did only eat bread and drink water, huh?
Bow to our guy and royal highness and chant with me why don’t you:
“We’re not worthy. We are not worthy.”
