Prince Is Regal On ‘V’ Magazine Cover, Refuses To Be Recorded For Cover Story

Christina Lee | July 3, 2013 9:19 am

Prince often refuses to be recorded — although he will shoot a smoldering look to the cameras, as he does for the latest issue of V. In an excerpt from the magazine’s new cover story, when writer Vanessa Grigoriadis arrives at a show in Anaheim, Calif., a security guard says, “No cameras, no cell phones — don’t even take them out of your pocket. Tonight, we’re not asking, we’re just escorting.” Yikes.

Later, Prince asks to be interviewed without a tape recorder or notepad. (Questlove tells a similar story in his new memoir Mo’ Meta Blues, where Prince’s assistant once invited him and Eddie Murphy to a roller-skating party.) After she agrees, Prince arrives at the interview in a new outfit, gives the final signature to his band 3rdEyeGirl‘s contract and answers a few nagging questions, including whether he has an iPhone.

“Are you serious?” he says. “Hell, no.”

Why? He never quite says — at least not in V‘s excerpt — but he does bring up how people come to see him live multiple times, at shows where a security guard will likely say, “No cameras, no cell phones,” and leave completely satisfied. “It’s no disrespect to anyone else, because we’re not checking for them. But we don’t lip synch. We ain’t got time for it. Ain’t no tape up there,” he says.

Read the rest of the excerpt at V’s website.