Mary Ann Heagerty writes:
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. I just saw a unicorn. At 9:00pm my roommate Sarah heard a semi-cryptic message on the KJLH radio saying,”The Purple One himself will be at Tower Records on Sunset tonight. If you don’t know who I am talking about, don’t bother showing up,” The phone tree went into effect and within minutes our friends had convened in the parking lot. Prince was going to play a secret show to promote his new album, 3121. We waited in the rain for hours. I silently prayed he would sing “Purple Rain.” My Catholic guilt made me feel greedy for wanting to hear it so badly. I thought a better person would be more grateful and not expect him to sing songs he surely must be tired of singing.
In the end, less than 200 of us were let in. No one pushed or shoved or caused trouble of any kind. Prince was gonna play for us, and he was less than 10 feet away. The show started promptly at midnight, but beforehand he walked around the store freely.There was no swarming around him, we all just watched in awe. There was some shrieking, but it was involuntary and he didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
He is half the size you would imagine him to be. He wore an all-white outfit that glowed under the black light – he looked so beautiful I wanted to hold his face and make him my bride. He played a few of his new songs, all of which were enjoyable, some obscure older songs that I am not cool enough to recognize, and a cover of “Play That Funky Music.” Sheila E was on drums.
Other details include:
1. He wore his standard cat-eye liquid liner and a white feathered fedora.
2. His manicured facial hair is just this side of a Fu Manchu.
3. He had identical-twin backup dancers.
4. So many tambourines!
5. He had a leopard-print guitar strap and he seems to be growing a duck tail.
6. He is sexier than you’d think, you are not immune.
AND THEN HE SANG “PURPLE RAIN.” O-M-G, He sang “Purple Rain.” We cried and screamed and sang along and when it was all done I thought for sure I was going to throw up. He sang it for me and he sang it for us. God bless him.
He finished the set with “Let’s Go Crazy.” After the show (did I mention it was free?) we saw him get driven off in his black limo, he waved his petite baby hand back at us. Holy shit. I love LA.
– Mary Ann Heagerty
