I cut my family’s Florida vacation short by a couple days in order to make it back for the show. So when it was announced that he would be coming to Atlanta for 2 shows, I knew it was inevitable that I would be at both shows. We went to all of the concerts together, we bought the albums, we learned the lyrics, we winced at the necessity of having to purchase the Lovesexyalbum with “that” cover, we were mad that it was all one long track on the CD, we laughed while reading the lyrics to It before we got to the record player to actually hear the song.įor me, the stories would keep coming year after year until it went dry in Atlanta and he toured the world seemingly avoiding Atlanta for 12 years with exception to playing background guitar for Tamar, but it still left a 10 year hole where his presence was sorely missed. My friend Rob and I almost based our entire friendship around Prince‘s existence. Over the years to come, I would meet most of my best friends at Prince concerts or during school talking about Prince. Prince had officially become my obsession. Then something magical happened and he added 3 more Atlanta shows and I bought a single ticket to each one. Two years later, I would camp outside Turtle‘s record store for two days to buy tickets to Prince‘s Purple Rain show in Atlanta only to have it sell out two shows before I even made it to the ticket counter. I just knew it was something bigger than I could comprehend and I had an overwhelming desire for more of whatever it was. I was 14 and had no idea what I was even watching. I had no idea what I was watching, but the ambiance was thick with sex and funk. So while I liked his music, I wasn’t a fully functional fan until that night. I had heard Controversy, I Wanna B Ur Lover. My relationship with Prince‘s music began in 1982 when a friend of my mother’s took me to see Prince‘s 1999 concert. I realized I would never have that chance again, so I went with my gut and joined them. I wouldn’t have had the nerve were it not for people on either side of me taking the leap of faith and jumping onstage before me. Then the following year, I found a way to get on stage with a half dozen other people and danced on stage while Prince stood 3 feet in front of me playing guitar facing out to the crowd. He came out into the crowd that evening to check the sound and I finally stood in front of him and got to tell him how much his music meant to me face to face. He would continue to “slap me five” multiple times that night. I shook his hand, I got a chance to sing next to him at the afterparty for the One Nite Alone tour as he nodded his head, smiled and acknowledged me by “slapping me five.” He sat literally arms length away to me playing keyboards while I sang along. He consistently tweeted about Funkatopia and I was beside myself every time he did so. I was also honored that Prince tweeted about Funkatopia as one his last tweets on Twitter. The acoustics at the top of The Fox is pure heaven. For the 10pm show, I was all the way up in the balcony and it was far more magical there. At the first show at 7pm, I was in the 5th row and he was right there 8 feet in front of me shaking hands with the front row. He played two shows in Atlanta that night of April 14th, 2016 and I was at both of them. That’s how many people on the entire planet that got to witness Prince‘s very last performance that he would ever play. That’s how many people The Fox Theatre in Atlanta seats in its venue.
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