TAYLOR DAYNE ON MEETING PRINCE FOR THE FIRST TIME: “HE GOES, ‘WHAT’S YOUR NAME GIRL?’ AND I GO ‘TAYLOR’ AND HE SAYS, ‘TAYLOR WHAT?” AND I SAY ‘DAYNE” AND HE SAYS, ‘GIRL, I’VE BEEN WANTING TO MEET YOU FOR A LONG TIME.”
[Taylor Dayne reflects on her first encounter with the “hypnotizing” Prince and her first visit to Paisley Park.]
The first time I saw him was like everybody else. By the time I met him I was a breaking artist, this was the Lovesexy Tour, so it was 1988 and I had just finished my stint opening up for Michael [Jackson] on the Bad tour, which were all these arena dates. I had probably my first couple of singles out on my first record. We were watching Prince play in Hamburg – me and my girlfriend Diane Jones, who I took from Brighton Beach when I was working in the Russian clubs and I said to her ‘when I get famous I’m gonna take you with me!’
We were up in the front in the VIP, press section in the pit and this big beautiful man comes up to us and he was security and he says, ‘Hey Taylor, I’m so-and-so, I’m security but I’m Prince’s brother.’ He was talking to us and said ‘Prince wants to come meet you later and have you come to the after show’ and I’m like this isn’t real. Listen, I forget at the time I was probably the biggest breaking artist in Europe, but it doesn’t matter – seeing Prince and Michael, these men, these artists contributed to my entire repertoire and my entire being of wanting to be an artist, let alone emulating them, striving to be them, and hearing what they heard. Prince was in that top realm of artists that completely moved my world, so when they were talking to us I was just like [screams].
So we went to the club and it was kind of like a real small Roxy, but it had an upstairs balcony, so we were upstairs and I’ll never forget at one point we had to use the restroom so we were escorted downstairs. It’s myself, Diane and Joe Phillips, my rep. We walked past security and it was just this junky club in the red light district in Hamburg, trust me, and I just see someone descending the stairs and I just see these legs – it says Lovesexy up the legs – there’s only one person that was wearing that and boom he’s just standing in front me. Prince is looking at me and I’m looking at him and he gives me that little smile, and he goes “What your name girl?” and I go “Taylor…” [laughs] and he goes “Taylor what?” and I say “Dayne,” and he says ‘Girl! I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time.”
Needless to say, he calls me on stage and I’m blitzed by then and I’m so nervous I don’t even know what to do and I drag Diane Jones onstage. And I go Diane, you can sing anything in the book – she taught me everything, she used to work in top 40 – so I said you’re coming with me. So we go down to the stage and we’re at the wing, and Prince is at the piano and he says “come over to me,” and he’s staring at me, and I’m just shell shocked, I look like a doe in the lights, and he says “Go take my mic,” and I say “go take your mic?” And I look at him and I go, “Can she come with me?” And he looks at me and goes “Girl! You impossible.”
He knew I was so crazy! And I go “she’s gotta come with me” and he says “OK go take my mic,” and then he started calling me like [sings] “Taylor, I need some help over here, help me Lord, come on down!” Oh, he was so funny. I dragged her ass, I’m telling you, she’s right up there – our big hair, and he stopped the song in the middle and schooled me and said “Girl, time don’t stand still, still don’t stand time,” and I was like “what the hell does that even mean?” This was the man – funny as hell, loved it.
And a week later when we came back from Europe, he already said “you’re coming to Paisley Park.” I went with one of my managers and we flew and we just played in his house — Chaka [Khan] was there, Carmen was there. He lived it and breathed it and never stopped. He was always surrounded by the most incredible musicians and he always had incredible women around him. He’d look at you in Madison Square Garden and could see you in row twenty and he’d just go “Taylor…!” This was the man. He never stopped and I know there was a lot of exhaustion involved in it, he was so driven. I talk to Sheila a lot about it, but he just couldn’t sleep – it never stopped.
This was the beginning of my career and I just never felt more humbled in my life.
(Excerpt from Billboard Magazine by Nick Williams/Prince at Rehearsal in Rotterdam, 1988)
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