(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 27 September 2025 16:30, UK
Prince was a hard man to please.
While never overtly catty to the press, the Minneapolis multi-instrumentalist and 1980s pop sensation has offered hints and clues over the years as to his low regard for otherwise much-loved artists, across Eric Clapton, The Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, and Ed Sheeran, reportedly bemoaning the Framlington rapper’s bludgeoning radio play: “They keep trying to ram Ed Sheeran down our throats and we don’t like it”.
He was also a ceaseless workaholic. Fuelled by a fervent work ethic ever since 1978’s For You debut while still a teen, handling production, most instruments, and even the conceptual vision of his MTV dominating videos, clocking up 39 studio albums before his death in 2016. Known as a taskmaster when recording, Prince’s high standards were always set by the creative and professional peaks he set for himself.
Yet, Prince was magnanimous with praise for the artists he cherished. When asked by Entertainment Weekly in, yes, 1999, as to who exemplified rock and roll, he fired an answer without a moment’s waver. “Patti LaBelle…I played a show with her, and her keyboard player had just died of cancer. She was wrecked, but she came out and gave her all. A lot of people around her have died of cancer in the past few years, but she keeps on keepin’ on. That’s rock and roll”.
Hailing from the 1960s R&B tradition, LaBelle shifted to a mononymously named band outfit, injecting her Philadelphia soul with a little P-Funk rock grit into the 1970s, eventually cutting the immortal ‘Lady Marmalade’ disco classic from Nightbirds. LaBelle would survive the 1980s by broadening her sound, scoring a dancefloor hit with ‘New Attitude’ from the Beverley Hills Cop soundtrack.
Prince was such a fan that he wrote and produced 1989’s ‘Yo Mister’ off the popular Be Yourself, as well as that album’s ‘Love 89’. He and LaBelle were such good friends and mutual admirers that they’d routinely play on stage together, Prince allegedly affording her the affectionate nickname “mother”.
Favours were returned in June 2010. With the tenth Black Entertainment Television Awards taking place in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, Queen Latifah hosted the star-studded event, presenting Prince with a glittering Lifetime Achievement Tribute. A roll-call of big names performed his numbers, Janelle Monae having a stab at ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, Esperanza Spalding eyeing up ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’, and Alicia Keys treating the crowd to a rendition of ‘Adore’.
The best was to come last, however. Entering the stage was LaBelle, who proceeded to bellow a passionate and thunderous performance of the canonical ‘Purple Rain’ with such gusto that the implacable Prince visibly holds back tears as the camera hurriedly swoops his direction, eager for a reaction shot. As the show carries on, Prince expresses a dazzled mixture of eye-watering stir and sheer disbelief.
Ever the fan, LaBelle kicks off her shoe to the audience, Prince running over to nab it like a kid enthusiastically trying to grab a star batter’s hardball. When it came to “mother”, Prince’s boyhood fandom would always break through his ice-cool demeanour.
Related Topics