brush with stardom of a sort. As I posted on some of the forums. My schedule this afternoon/evening
4:30pm leave work
5:00pm go to the Hennepin Library
5:30pm: Dinner at Davannis
5:45pm: I hit Cheapo up quickly, with the intention of leaving by 6:15pm for the Edina Theater for "Untitled."
5:50pm: see Prince looking at the "Recent Arrivals" bin, which includes 2 or 3 of his cds, at least 1 was marked "$5.95 SKUF"
I saw him and and 1st didn't believe it was him. He had some girl with him browsing. So I figured, why not go up and ask him 1 quick question. The 1st thing that came to mind was Jellybean Johnson.
background: I saw Jellybean Johnson I wanna say September 2004 sit-in for a 1-hour jam with Paul Peterson of "The Family" as well, with Victor Wooten unmatchable live band. Jelly threw it down on GUITAR.
I knew he had played with Prince, okay, but I had no idea when I asked Prince, that he played DRUMS and not the guitar I saw him on with Victor. Looking back on that, I feel kind of stupid, but I explained to Prince that I knew JBJ from his guitar performance with Victor.
The rest of the time I spent at Cheapo, I was trying to cram-in my memory, many of the titles I had looked for at the St.Paul Cheapo within the last couple of weeks, with no luck (I just remembered now, Hammock was 1 in fact). But prince ended up heading over to the Classic Rock section soon after that, and I was going back and forth in the Modern Rock and Metal sections which are near the Classic Rock section. But to say I was distracted would be accurate.
So, that was it. It probably would have been dumb to ask him, but if I had my druthers I'd have wanted to ask him about any or all of the following.
a) Apes and Androids
b) Kevin Gilbert..the Chris Cornell attempt didn't do much though, and CC was actually a bit more relevant given the Jeff Buckley relationship, King's X/Doug Pinnick and timing of his career and Kevin's/age etc. I also happened to be wearing a KG t-shirt today.
c) Dean Magraw..this might have been a more obvious 1. Dean actually is probably pretty close in age to Prince, thus came up around the same time. They both have a love and influence for Jimi Hendrix. And chances are, Prince knows Dean. With Dean's recent cancer, it would have been all the more fitting. But who knows.
d) Jeff Buckley..mainly the fact Jeff's birthday was today. It's too bad Cheapo didn't have some JB on the intercom. They had the Rolling Stones though, which it might have been interesting to ask Prince, what his opinion on was.
but no, I really didn't want to bug him, as his personality is kind of *touchy* I guess I might say, just from things I've read and heard. Maybe he's more laid back, mellow, and has more of a sense of humor than I realize. But most things with him seem serious. Who knows about tonight. But he said "thanks" when I told him I'd leave him alone after that question. He sounded serious enough, so it was probably wise of me to not appear anymore starstruck or fanboy-ish than i did. But I can't deny, trying to browse with him there after that was weird. Like, I almost felt as if I shouldn't be browsing near him or something, lol.
I was just thinking..damn, a guy like him, whose worth millions of dollars. I dunno, at least 10's if not 100's of millions if he never overspent, invested well, etc. he could bail Cheapo out. Seriously, it's pretty sad. I don't think he cares enough though. He'd feel it's like pity $ or something. Cheapo should struggle and survive on their own.
But it does sort of break my heart, knowing that. I dunno, maybe if it ever becomes bad enough, which I sure hope it won't, he and maybe others like Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis, they would prevent it from dying. But maybe they also see the whole cd sales as a dying industry, too much so, that it's not worth it as, as a business decision it's almost a certain, big loss. But vinyl?
That was the other thing that surprised me. I figure Prince would be looking for VINYL, so he should have been downstairs. maybe he had been, or was going to go down there. Or maybe he was at Cheapo only for his friends. Who knows, questions that'll I'll never know, but are kind of fun to think about I suppose.
John, you missed out. Hopefully another time.
