and find their strengths. I had a mustache and curly hair, and it’s pretty easy to turn that into a suave character. Who doesn’t want to be suave? FINK I wore a gold satin tuxedo once; I looked like a freaking waiter. From there, I moved on to a black-and-white jail suit. In late ’ 79, we got on tour with Rick James, and he had this big oversize jail suit, and the front of it was Velcroed together so he could tear it off and be half-naked. So Prince said to me, “I think you better change your image.” COLEMAN Prince actually got mad at me because I was such a jeans-and-T-shirt girl. He was like, “God, you look like a roadie. What if Mick Jagger sees you?” He was always imagining the absolute nth-degree scenario. I was like, “Dude, it’s okay. I’m going to 7-Eleven.” FINK Prince said, “Did you have any other ideas when you thought of the jail suit?” And I said, “Well, you gave me this khaki paratrooper’s jumpsuit. I could wear that again.” He goes, “No, that’s passé.” I go, “A doctor’s suit?” And then the light bulb went off above his head: “That’s it.” He had his wardrobe gal run out to a uniform shop in Chicago and get me authentic scrubs. And Prince goes, “I’m going to get an easel and a canvas up there, and I want you to act like you’re painting when I introduce you. It will be weird. It will be funny. Watch.” So for several nights, I was introduced as Dr. Fink, and I’m up there painting. COLEMAN He’s really controlling, but he was also kind of a puppy. He’d say it in a way where you couldn’t say no. If you said, “I’m not going to wear that,” you’d probably get fired. MELVOIN I didn’t want to wear bustiers. Wearing that stuff, I just felt like a transvestite.

“WARNER BROS. HAD NO RIGHTS
FOR A SEQUEL. I HAD THIS IDEA:
‘PURPLE RAIN 2: THE FURTHER
ADVENTURES OF THE TIME.’”

Manager Bob Cavallo

Despite an R rating, Purple Rain grossed more than $7 million in its first weekend, prompting Warner Bros. to add 1,000 more screens its second week. The movie eventually earned $68 million in the U. S., making it the ninth-highest-gross-ing movie of 1984. And though critics were divided—the New York Times praised the concert scenes but noted, “The offstage stuff is utter nonsense”—it made Roger Ebert’s and Gene Siskel’s year-end Top 10 lists. Meanwhile, the film’s opening number, “Let’s Go Crazy,” hit No. 1 in September, helping the soundtrack remain at the top of the charts for 24 weeks. Purple Rain and its creator were impossible to ignore, no matter how hard some parents tried.

TIPPER GORE (founder, Parents’ Music Resource Center, in an excerpt from her 1987 book, Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society) I purchased Prince’s best-selling Purple Rain for my 11-year- old daughter….When we brought the album home, put it on our stereo, and listened to it together, we heard the words to another song, “Darling Nikki”: “I knew a girl named Nikki / Guess U could say she was a sex fiend / Met her in a hotel lobby / Masturbating with a magazine.” The song went on and on in a similar manner. I couldn’t believe my ears! The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us. At first, I was stunned— then I got mad! Millions of Americans were buying Purple Rain with no idea what to expect.

Clockwise from top: Day and Prince in chummier days, backstage on the Triple Threat tour, October 1983; Benton and Day looking sharp, November 1983; the Time, before the purge, in 1983 (Terry Lewis, Jimmy Jam, Day, Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir, Jesse Johnson)

CAVALLO We just didn’t pay attention. Any
time Prince got bad publicity, it helped him.
BOBBY Z. I thought she was kind of late. Where
was she during “Head”?
The Purple Rain tour opened on November 4,
1984, with a seven-night stand in Detroit.
Morris Day left the Time shortly after the movie
wrapped. Sheila E. served as the opening act.
C OL EM AN We were a crack band. Prince would
do these dances, and if he did a hand signal,
we’d do this little turnaround we had discussed
at soundcheck.

BOBBY Z. We’d been playing arenas, but it turned into multiple nights: seven nights at the Forum [in L.A.], 11 nights at the Summit in Houston. We put down stakes, just camped out in the city. FINK We were in Detroit or Atlanta—I can’t

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