Prince May Be A JW, But He's Still A Diva

Prince became a Jehovah's Witness sometime back in 2001.  Since then, from what I've been told, his concerts just haven't been the same.  I saw him in May of 2005, and, while it was quite an experience, it was a bit of a letdown.  Since becoming a Witness, there have been a number of songs that he refuses to perform.  Songs such as 'Cream', 'Gett Off', 'Little Red Corvette',  and 'Darling Nikki', just to name a few, due to their sexual content.

He changed the lyrics to other songs.  For example, in 'Purple Rain', the line goes "You say you want a leader...But you can't seem to make up your mind...Think you better close it...And let me guide you...To the purple rain".  During the 2005 concert, he sang it "Think you better close it...Maybe open up your bible and read it a little."  Yes.  He was preaching during his show.  He even made comments during his performance about how within 5 miles of the arena, there are probably 30 churches.  All of them believed that they had the true religion, but only one did, and it was up to everyone in the arena to figure out which one was right.  If it wasn't for the fact that I had 8th row floor seats that cost me $125.00 each, I would have walked out.

Anyway, getting to the point of this post, Prince was at Madison Square Garden Monday night.  Midway through every show he calls people up on stage to dance with him.  The results can be pretty interesting.  Monday night, he called Kim Kardashian up on stage to shake her ass to the music.  And, as everyone knows, Kim probably has the most famous ass in America.  She gets up on stage and just stands there.  Doesn't move.  #1 rule at a Prince concert = When Prince calls you on stage, you better damn well dance.  He put up with her lack of enthusiasm for about 15 seconds before saying "Get off my stage", and sending her back to her seat.  Pretty funny.  Check it out:



When I saw him in 2005, not only did he throw a faulty microphone at the sound engineer's head, but he refused to come out for an encore.  He told the local media the next morning that the reason he didn't do an encore was because not all the 20,000 in attendance "stood and danced for every song of the night".  So, becoming a Jehovah's Witness may have had toned down Prince's sexuality, but it has done nothing for his humility.  He is still the over the top, self centered diva that we have known and loved for the last 30 years.  Now if only he could go back to releasing music worth listening to.