{"id":403495,"date":"2026-02-02T06:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:34:10","slug":"bono-explains-the-one-flaw-that-undermined-the-genius-of-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403495\/","title":{"rendered":"Bono explains the one flaw that undermined the “genius” of Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prince<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Warner Bros \/ Daniel Hazard)<\/p>\n

Sun 1 February 2026 20:30, UK <\/p>\n

There are many artists who get assigned the \u2018genius\u2019 tag, and while sometimes it\u2019s a superfluous gesture of believing that someone is destined for greatness, in the case of Prince<\/a>, it\u2019s fully warranted.<\/p>\n

Throughout the history of pop, not many have achieved what he managed to do almost single-handedly, and the Minneapolis-based artist was celebrated for having built a reputation for himself as the sort of once-in-a-generation talent who was capable of moulding the rest of the musical landscape around him with his innovative range of styles.<\/p>\n

Prince could easily be described as a true shapeshifter in all senses of the word, yet all of his work was still very much identifiable by some of his innate characteristics. Whether he was operating in a more pop-oriented space, creating funk-rock odysseys or contributing to the emergence of neo-soul, it\u2019s hard to look at the work of Prince and identify it as having been out of touch; in fact, he was so frequently ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n

Not only were his songs and stylistic innovations above the majority of his peers, but he wasn\u2019t afraid of showing off his supreme musicality, either. On the majority of his records, he played all of the instruments himself, leaving little to no need for the assistance of others when it came to crafting his work. There aren\u2019t too many people who can create something so divine on their own, and for him to have consistently done this throughout his career is an astonishing feat.<\/p>\n

The fact that many of his songs were covered by other artists also goes to show just how appreciated he was by not only his peers but also by people from other musical backgrounds, and whether it\u2019s Chaka Khan\u2019s version of \u2018I Feel For You\u2019 or the outstanding Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor<\/a> rendition of \u2018Nothing Compares 2 U\u2019, the impact of Prince\u2019s songwriting can be felt in all corners of the pop sphere.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much really standing in the way of him being worthy of being called a genius, but like all others of his kind, there were flaws that stood alongside his frequent strokes of excellence.<\/p>\n

One person in particular who called out Prince for his faults was U2 singer Bono<\/a>, who in the book, Bono: In Conversation, was quoted as saying that he\u2019d much rather be known for being in a band than being a solo artist, using Prince as a scapegoat for the stereotype of the over-controlling genius.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, in some ways, it\u2019s easier to realise a vision that\u2019s singular and in your own head, but it\u2019s harder to keep the vision going without argument,\u201d Bono argued. \u201cLook at Prince. He\u2019s one of my favorite composers of the twentieth century. I really believe in him. But he needs an editor. He needs a row. He needs somebody in the studio to tell him to fuck off. \u2018And guess what? There\u2019s six great tracks and four of them are pretty average. I\u2019m sorry, sir. Your genius was having a bad day.\u2019 Does he have that? No chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a flaw, for sure, but while he was always seen as the authority figure in the studio who had the final say on his output, it never really hindered him to such a degree that his work fell completely flat. Besides, Bono has spent the entirety of his career working with producers and editors from the outside, and not all of them have told him when it\u2019s a good time to stop, so what difference would it make for Prince?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Warner Bros \/ Daniel Hazard) Sun 1 February 2026 20:30, UK There are many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10864,6491,96,30646,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-403495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bono","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-prince","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}