It's hard to believe it was just one year ago that we lost Prince, one of the biggest icons in music history. It was a shock to his fans all over the world. No one would have thought that one of the most talented stars of our time would pass away at a young age in his 50s.
His band, The Revolution, is touring in his memory and fans will be treated to a concert filled with songs that made him a legend. We have an exclusive interview with the keyboardist, Matt Fink, who was very close to Prince himself. Fink talks about the tour, the music, and the legend that you never knew.
Prince: the legend and his music
Matt tells us how the band is coping without Prince and life on the road.
"It’s different, but not like we’ve never done it before. Back in 2012, we did a reunion show for a special event, and we did one previous of that several years before," Fink explained. "We’re used to doing the shows without Prince. We certainly knew what to expect. But at the same time, there was always that possibility that we could have reunited and he was beginning to be warming up to the idea; I spoke to him a couple of years ago about it; he and I had a meeting out in Paisley Park and one of the first things he said to me was his desire to reunite with the band. Although he didn’t follow through with it, in between that meeting and his passing, I think he was thinking about it in a serious way but unfortunately it didn’t happen."
He also states that they are touring for the fans and themselves to heal their grief — it's what the fans would have wanted.
The Revolution and their onstage personas
The band had their own unique personas on stage. They would dress in their own stage gear and had their own look in the 80s and 90s videos.
Matt explains what inspired his 'doctor' outfit. Prince thought he was the "quirky" guy in the group and that he would "stand-out" in a doctors gear.
This was all because when they opened for Rick James, he was wearing a jail suit and so was Rick James himself and Prince told Fink he had to change his look.
"There were some other choices I named off three or four, and one of them was the doctor outfit, and he stopped on that one and the lightbulb went over his head and he went, 'You know, I always wanted you to be the quirky guy in the group the funny kind of goofy guy that’s humorous, because that’s how you are, so you should be the quirky guy in the surgeon’s outfit would be really interesting.'"
Matt also admits that when he wore a purple swede jacket that Prince loved, he might have influenced Prince to change his look from black and white to purple.
Matt Fink worked with Prince for more than a decade
Matt has known Prince for 12 years. He met Prince through his drummer, Bobby Z. He told us what it was like working with him.
"I said to Bobby, “You know, when he’s ready to put a band together I would like to have the opportunity to meet him and possibly audition for his group if he’s open to it. And Bobby said, “I’ll do my best to see if that could happen.”
In the process of all that about a year later, once they had his record deal in place and the record was done, he released the record they brought in a different keyboard player they knew of who Prince wanted just on his reputation alone, they didn’t audition him.
They just said, “I want to get this guy” and they brought him in and a female keyboard player.
Matt goes on to say, "the keyboardist didn’t stick with it very long, he had other things happening with his career and producing other artists in Los Angeles so he took off to move on to another project because things were moving too slowly for him in the beginning for Prince’s career. Prince said he wasn’t loyal to the cause and put his feelers out for somebody else and that was my opportunity to get an audition at that point. That’s how I got on board!"
Matt runs a new streaming service called "My, My Music"
"It's a new music streaming service which will cater to independent artists and unsigned artists primarily. It’s launching in Asia first, as we speak it’s getting going," Matt tells Blasting News." The name of the company is, My My Music and then it will launch in the U.S.
later this year. Right now, it’s in the Beta testing phase go to the website and artists and listeners can sign up as we’re going through this collection phase of artists. It’s very exciting!"
Paisley Park is open to the public
Paisley Park is now a museum and is open to the public. Prince had major plans for it to be done and wanted it to be a place for people to take tours. The band recently played two concerts there. Matt said it was bittersweet.
Prince was able to retain ownership of his masters from Warner Brothers, and his music will be streaming on all streaming sites. On this tour, the band will be using some guest musicians as the lead vocalists. One of them is Stokley Williams from the group, 'Mint Condition' who will be with the band the first leg of the tour until May 7.
After that, they will be looking into using other artists.
There will be a re-release edition of "Purple Rain" with previously unreleased material on June 9. The latest development is that an EP was blocked for release by Prince's family who maintains control of his estate and his music vault. They need to re-negotiate the licensing.
The response from The Revolution tours has been amazing. The fans have wanted this to happen for a long time.
"I just want the fans to know that we’re out here for them," Matt Fink tells Blasting News. "We were telling them that they can take ownership and sing along when we’re out there playing. We don’t need to sing they can sing along through the whole show."
