When Prince died 10 years ago, on April 21, 2016, he left behind a body of work that testified to his songwriting genius.
Left behind too were some of the musicians who worked alongside him and can testify to his unique artistry, unstoppable work ethic and temperamental nature. Prince was known for drilling his musicians relentlessly, recording music practically nonstop and pushing everyone to be all they could be.
“He single-handedly helped me become the guitar player that I am today,” says Mike Scott, a blazingly skilled electric guitar player who had worked with the rap/R&B duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (among many others) before joining Prince in 1996.
Scott toured extensively with New Power Generation and contributed to the albums Emancipation, Crystal Ball, The Truth and Newpower Soul. As he tells Guitar Player, his lead work was more advanced than Prince’s. “Because I was listening to Return to Forever, Al Di Meola, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and stuff like that,” Scott says.
“But when I would take solos with him onstage, he was like, ‘Man, all those notes don’t mean nothing because they don’t translate in an arena. I’ll hold a high note and have people screaming while you play 100 notes, and nobody’s going to hear what you did.’
“That was one of the most important things he ever told me, and there were so many moments like that and so many things he shared that made me a much better player.”
Scott learned early on that Prince could be a harsh taskmaster. When he followed up Prince’s distortion solo with one of his own, the boss called him out.
“He said, ‘Hey, Mike, I just did a fast song and I took a distortion solo. What do you think I should use: distortion or clean?’ And I said, ‘Well, if you just used distortion in the first solo, then I would go clean.’
He goes, ‘Don’t ever step on a distortion pedal after I’ve taken a solo. If I take a distortion solo, you take a clean solo.’ So for the rest of the tour, distortion was bad.”
— Mike Scott
“And he goes, ‘That’s right. Don’t ever step on a distortion pedal after I’ve taken a solo. If I take a distortion solo, you take a clean solo.’ So for the rest of the tour, distortion was bad.”
That is until Prince’s rig cut out one night just as he was getting ready to solo on “Purple Rain.”
“So he points at me and shouts, ‘Take a solo,’” Scott recalls, “and I got to rip the shit out of that ‘Purple Rain’ solo once in the whole time I was with him.”
Prince assured him it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“At the end of the night, he said, ‘Did you enjoy that? You’ll never get to take that solo again!’”
Prince also expected his band to follow his lead at every turn.
“Prince would push you to the limits. Like, if you came in today for a rehearsal, he’d go, ‘I’ve got a new song,’ and we’d learn it. But we probably wouldn’t play it for six months, and he would still expect us to play it just like you learned it today.”
He went to the bridge too early and we didn’t follow him. He said, ‘I never make mistakes — you all made a mistake by not following me.’ So we all got fined.”
— Mike Scott
For that matter, he wouldn’t tell the band the set list.
“That made it a challenge and made you have to step up your game, because everything you did had to be on point,” Scott says. “And if you made a mistake, he would look at you and rub his fingers together, and that meant you got docked.
“One time he fined me $1,000. I said, ‘You’ll never fine me again.’ And he never did.
“Although he did dock the whole band once because he went to the bridge too early and we didn’t follow him. He said, ‘I never make mistakes — you all made a mistake by not following me.’ So we all got fined.”
But Scott’s deep work with Prince is evidence that his musicianship was valued. He recalls moments when Prince allowed his admiration to show through.
“Sometimes he’d play something and say, ‘Do a harmony to this.’ And it would blow his mind because I never had to practice that stuff,” Scott says.
He said, ‘Mike, you’re a great player and a great musician. If you started believing in that, you would take over the world.’ That was the only time he gave me any kudos.”
— Mike Scott
“There’s a live video of us playing in London, and he broke the band down and just had me play by myself. I was playing this guitar part that was a combination of my part and his part — and then he changed keys and I was still doing it in two-part harmony. That impressed him.”
Apparently, Prince raved about Scott to others but left the guitarist in the dark.
“When I started working with him in ’96, he had a studio tech named Hans Buff, and when I would go in and record, Hans would later tell me, ‘Man, Prince raves about you. He solos your parts out and he loses his mind.’
“But I never saw any of that. I thought Prince hated my playing because he would always ride me and give me shit. But one day he and I went for a limo ride to an after-show party, and we rode around town trying to find a club to go to.
“That was the first time he and I talked one-on-one. And he said, ‘Mike, you’re a great player and a great musician. If you started believing in that, you would take over the world.’ That was the only time he gave me any kudos.”
