10 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE ICÔN PRINCE
By Lamia Rasmussen
In the eyes of 360 ICÔN, Prince is truly an ICÔN who has made a great impression on music history. We honor the artist by looking back on his great success and sharing a few interesting facts about him.
1. HIS REAL NAME WAS PRINCE
Prince’s real name was Prince Rogers Nelson. He had two musical parents, and was named after his father's jazz combo ‘The Prince Rogers Jazz Trio’.
2. HE HAD MANY ALIASES
Prince was among other called Alexander Nevermind, Christopher Tracy, The Kid, The Purple Purv, The Minneapolis Midget, & finally The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
As stated, his real name was Prince Rogers Nelson. But, when he was a child he was called Skipper.
3. HE WAS A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS
Baptized in 2001, Prince was a devout Jehovah's Witness; he even went door-to-door. In October 2003, a woman in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, opened her door to discover the famously shy artist and his bassist, standing in front of her home. "My first thought is ‘Cool, cool, cool. He wants to use my house for a set. I’m glad! Demolish the whole thing! Start over!'" the woman told The Star Tribune. "Then they start in on this Jehovah’s Witnesses stuff. I said, ‘You know what? You’ve walked into a Jewish household, and this is not something I’m interested in.’ He says, 'Can I just finish?' Then the bassist, gets out his little Bible and starts reading scriptures about being Jewish and the land of Israel."
4. IN 2017, PANTONE GAVE HIM HIS OWN COLOR
About a year after Prince past away, the global color authority Pantone created a royal shade of purple in honor of him. It is known as Love Symbol #2. The color was inspired by a Yamaha piano the musician was planning to take on tour with him. “The color purple was synonymous with who Prince was and will always be." said Troy Carter, an advisor to Prince's estate. "This is an incredible way for his legacy to live on forever."
5. HE WROTE HIT SONGS FOR OTHER ARTISTS
Prince was a very busy man. He wrote several songs for other artists of which many became big hits including: Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, The Bangles’ “Manic Monday”, Chaka Khan’s “I Feel for You” and Shiela E.’s “The Glamorous Life”. Others include Foo Fighters, Cyndi Lauper, Alicia Keys and Tom Jones.
6. HE SCRAPPED AN ALBUM RELEASE AFTER HAVING "A SPIRITUAL EPIPHANY."
In 1987, Prince was due to release "The Black Album." However, just days before it was scheduled to drop, Prince scrapped the whole thing, calling it "dark and immortal." The musician claimed to have reached this decision following "a spiritual epiphany." Some reports say that it was actually an early experience with drug ecstasy, while others suggested the artist just knew it would flop.
7. HE WAS A SUCCESFUL ACTOR
Prince was one of very few people to become a successful movie star and musician at the same time. On July 27, 1984, Prince topped both the film box office, single and albums charts, with his film ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘When Doves Cry’.
8. HE ACTUALLY MADE A FOLLOW-UP MOVIE TO PURPLE RAIN
Prince made a follow-up movie to “Purple Rain”, but it didn’t do so well. Unfortunately, Prince’s 2nd film, “Graffiti Bridge” did not reach nearly the success of his first movie. The flick was a flop, nominated for five Razzie Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actor, Worst Director and Worst New Star. Yikes!
9. HE AND MICHAEL JACKSON WERE NOT FRIENDS
Michael Jackson’s hit, “Bad” was supposed to be a duet with Prince, but Prince was uncomfortable with his would-be character depiction, with the song’s opening line, Michael sings, “Your butt is mine!”.
In an interview with Chris Rock, Prince asked, “Who’s gonna sing that to whom? Because you sure aren’t singing that to me, and I sure ain’t singing it to you. So, right there, we got a problem” laughs Prince.
10. THE LAST ALBUMS HE PURCHASED WERE…
On Prince’s last Saturday (April 16th, 2016), he stopped by The Electric Fetus, the local record store in Minneapolis, to support Record Store Day. These are the last 6 albums Price ever bought:
Stevie Wonder, “Talking Book”
Chambers Brothers, “The Time Has Come”
Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”
Swan Silvertones, “Inspirational Gospel Classics”
Missing Persons, “The Best Of Missing Persons”
Santana, “Santana IV”
At 360 ICÔN we are more than honoured to have been working with some of Prince’s most iconic album covers. Discover our Prince designs here. Available for both men and women.