♪ (industrial music) ♪
♪ (Prince, "1999") ♪
- (gasps) Yay, Prince!
♪ (stirring synthpop) ♪
- This is gonna make me cry just 'cause it's Prince.
- ♪ I was dreamin' ♪ - Oh.
- "1999."
- ♪ ...if it goes astray ♪
- ♪ The sky was all purple ♪
♪ There were people runnin' everywhere ♪
♪ The sky was all purple ♪ - He is so sexy.
I know, even in heels.
- This is really '80s.
- That's the stuff from the '80s.
- This is pre-Purple Rain Prince.
- ♪ So tonight I'm gonna party ♪
- (singing along) ♪ Like it's 1999 ♪
- I'm still a little bit in denial.
- ♪ Two thousand zero zero ♪
- This reminded me that he went down recently, man.
- This one makes me sad.
I mean, it's such a happy song, but it breaks my heart.
- ♪ We gonna, oww! ♪
- Oh!
- Mm, mm, mm. I don't know how he does it.
- ♪ Don'tcha wanna go (1999) ♪
- It's so sad. I wasn't ready.
- (emotionally) Oh. (sighs) Memories.
♪ (electric guitar playing intro to "When Doves Cry") ♪
- Is that him playing the guitar?
- He was like a "multi-instrumentalist."
- "When Doves Cry"! We are the doves. We are crying.
- Oh my goodness.
When he crawled in that tub, honey. Ooh!
- Whoa, bro... whoa, hold it now, bro. Don't get up.
- He took a lot of chances, man.
And you know, he was the man, dude.
- He did it for a lot of women. (laughs)
- ♪ ...picture ♪
- (singing along) ♪ Of you and I engaged in a kiss ♪
- It's seductive.
- ♪ The sweat of your body covers me ♪
♪ Can you, my darling ♪
- It's like, who else would do that?
- ♪ How can you just leave me standing? ♪ - Look at his outfit.
He's the only man that could do that!
- ♪ ...world that's so cold? ♪
♪ Why do we scream, why ♪
- Get it, Prince.
- If Michael Jackson and David Bowie had a baby,
it would be Prince. (chuckles)
♪ (song fades out) ♪ - Wow.
R.I.P. Prince.
♪ (Prince, "Purple Rain") ♪
- Oh!
- ♪ I never meant to cause you ♪ - Super Bowl?
- ♪ Any sorrow ♪ (crowd cheering)
- It was pouring, the rain, huh?
And then how perfect, "Purple Rain."
- ♪ Only want to see you, see you laughing, yeah ♪
- (singing along) ♪ In the purple rain ♪
- ♪ Purple rain, purple rain ♪
- (snaps along)
Everybody.
(singing along) ♪ Purple rain, purple rain ♪
- (Prince) Can I play this guitar? - Yes, you can.
♪ (shredding guitar) ♪
- Yes, you may play the guitar.
- Oh my god! This is what I live for, dude.
♪ (guitar solo continues) ♪
♪ (crowd vocalizing) ♪
- I want to fox him by his stand right there in the front.
- Such a spectacle.
- Are you kidding me? His own special stage, of course.
- Epic. Epic performance right there.
- I'm gonna have my moment right now.
- (awestruck) Oh, so good.
The rules did not matter with him at all.
- This is the year of the dead rock star.
Like... (sighs)
(groaning) Oh, god, no. It's so sad.
♪ (industrial music) ♪
- (Finebros) So what feelings do you get watching Prince
and hearing his music with him recently passing away?
- Oh man, I get all kind of feelings, because
it's like a family member passed away.
- Man... gosh.
I didn't think I would react like this.
Realizing that he's gone
sucks.
- I was so hurt.
Text my kids. I'm like, "Prince died.
You know it's Purple Rain night."
- They're like the soundtrack to your life.
So you feel it personally,
even though you didn't know them personally.
- I'm saddened that Prince has passed.
And I'm kind of happy that his passing is gonna bring
so much publicity to good music.
- Hearing his music now in retrospect, after he passed away,
it's like, that's what created this phenomenon of Prince.
- I wish I would've learned more about his songs
so I can express how much he meant to music.
- (Finebros) Would you consider yourself a fan of Prince?
- Of his music, not really.
- I didn't grow up listening to a lot of his music.
- (breathes) I'm breathing, so yes.
The legacy and the impact that he had.
- He was my very first poster on my teenage wall.
- I look up to a dude that plays guitar like him, you know?
I'm like, "Damn, man. I wish I could play guitar like that."
- I really, really dug Prince.
When Musicology came out,
I remember driving to the music store on my lunch break
to go get it and then popping it in the CD player
and just windows down, like "(content sigh) Man."
'Cause the dude was just FUNKY.
- (Finebros) Prince was a huge icon and was embraced by people
for being so different than many popular artists at the time.
Why do you think he was so successful for so long?
- Well, first of all, the talent just speaks for itself.
- He definitely had something really unique
and embraced this androgynous femininity
while still being kind of sexual.
- The music is brilliant and genius and all of that good stuff.
He was able to bring all different types of people together.
- He was just like a freak of nature
who just could somehow do all these incredible things.
- Every once in a while, there comes a person.
Creativity just exudes from them.
Prince, if you would've tried and stop it,
you'd probably explode.
- And the talent of Prince that is lost.
I just don't think there's anything equal out there right now,
right now.
- (Finebros) So Prince was well known
for having very raunchy lyrics.
And his music was even a major catalyst for record companies
adopting that Parental Advisory label for albums in the '80s.
- Oh, really?
- (Finebros) Why do you think his music
was such a big deal back then?
- Because back then, it was like, again, nobody talked about it.
Prince is just like, "Yeah, Nikki masturbating with a magazine."
The songs now can't even compare to that.
But back then, it was like, "Ooh, did he say 'masturbate'?"
- When some of the songs came out,
I really had no business listening to them.
I would sneak downstairs and turn on the TV on low
and be watching like this.
- That pushed more kids towards the music.
"We can't listen to this? Well, I'm gonna listen to it."
- (Finebros) Now, talking about him as a person,
he was seen as very private and was infamous
for being one of the hardest people to get an interview with,
even though he often would put on unannounced shows for free
or would play big concerts at his own recording studio
for his fans. - Right. Right, he did special things.
But he didn't want to necessarily get all this credit.
- (Finebros) In today's age of ultra accessibility,
with social media and celebrities
constantly putting themselves out there,
what do you think about Prince's unwillingness to do so
and yet still being so famous?
- Okay. I hate-- I HATE-- when artists do that.
You're famous, you have a responsibility.
- I think that's still what made him Prince.
It was about the music.
- He didn't have to put himself out there.
When you have a little bit of talent, you have to keep going,
"Ohmygod, look at me. Are you still seeing me?
Do you still see me?"
- You give so much that you need some kind of privacy,
something that's my own.
- I'm thinking about Sia right now,
how she tries to hide away yet we want more of her.
- (Finebros) So at one point in Prince's career,
because of a disagreement with his record label
when they wouldn't release his music as fast as he wanted to,
he decided to change his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol.
- "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince."
- (Finebros) For that period, he was widely referred to
as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince." - That's hilarious.
- (chuckles heartily) I didn't know that.
- (Finebros) What do you think about the fact that he did that?
- Right. Unprecedented move.
- That was what he could do to take back some of his power.
- Some people can see it as cocky.
But he just has so much self-respect for himself,
and he knows he deserves more.
- He was really smart for doing that, because
he's not gonna compromise for anyone else's needs.
- (Finebros) So as we wrap up this tribute to Prince,
for those who were not alive in the '80s,
can you talk about how big a deal Prince was?
- (softly) Man, dude.
Man...
Prince was his own genre of music.
- Prince just gave that edge.
"I know I'm not supposed to say this.
But I don't give a [bleep]. I'm gonna say it anyway"
type of thing.
- We should know more about true talented artists out there
to encourage other kids to actually pursue their career
and take it seriously.
- Prince is the only person who could wear platform heels
and be like, "That dude's manly."
He just changed everything:
the way we thought about music, the way we thought about talent.
- A unique artist that didn't care about the rules
and didn't care what people thought,
but he's gonna put out good music that connected with the people.
The dude was unreal.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Adults React.
- Let us know in the comments what we should react to next.
- Goodbye, and we'll be back soon, partyin' like it's 1999.
♪ (industrial music) ♪