The Night We Got To Play Guitar With Prince.
Its one Year ago today that the legendary musician passed away. This amazing musician Prince Rogers Nelson death still haunts us at My Guitar Lessons, even a Year after he passed away. We where not only lucky enough to see him perform many times but Simon Devlin, our guitar manager got a chance to jam with him using Prince’s Fender Stratocaster.
Simon remembers the night well – “It was after one of his 21 nights at the O2 arena in London and Prince had put on a special after show concert in the night club next door. He didn’t come on until at least 1AM, leaving his incredible band, including Candy Duffler, Maceo Parker and Larry Graham to jam for a couple of hours. Prince swaggered out onto the stage in only the way he knows how to. I’d managed to get myself to the front, so watched him play within an arms length from my face! He seemed so excited to be there and I could feel the energy coming off of him – even though he had just played a full 2 hour arena concert a few hours before. The band jammed with him, making some amazing funky, jazz style music up on the cuff. Prince played keyboards, sung and of course ripped on the guitar like only he could. I fondly remember Prince playing Billy Cobhams ‘Stratus’, as I’d only seen Jeff Beck play it a few Months before”.
At the end of the gig Simon remembers the jam with Prince – “I was on cloud nine and just wanted to play with him, so screaming at the top of my voice (remember I was less than a couple of meters from him) I said – ‘Pass me your guitar’. He finished the number and just threw the guitar over to me, allowing me to play it above my head with him looking on. Now the way Prince played this Fender Strat (I remember it was dark blue and had a Floyd Rose on it too) I thought this is going to be so amazing to play, but it just felt like the other Fenders I have at home, no real difference. Prince also used a Mesa Boogie head and 4×12 cabinet, but strangely it was on the side of the stage angled at him, so not as traditionally done at the back of the stage behind him. Anyway to put the cherry on top Prince then knelt down and shock my hand. How cool was he”
Prince passed away one year ago today and we along with millions of music fans miss his incredible creative genius. You want to know what a great guitarist he was. Check out his 2006 live at the Montreux Jazz Festival video – totally insane.
https://youtu.be/nYINKgZTEm8