![]() ![]() I didn’t see him again until we flew to the next town. On his way to the stage, Prince paused, shook my hand, and softly mumbled something I couldn’t understand. The Prince dressing room door that Chick protected remained closed until show time. He said, “If you ask him that stuff, he’ll just think you don’t know what you’re doing.” For starters, I needed to learn Prince’s backstage rituals and travel preferences. I didn’t worry about the skill set, but becoming “liked” was less tangible. Gaining their confidence means not only demonstrating your skill set but making them like having you around. It’s a cliché and a stereotype, but most performers are remarkably insecure. The relationship between an artist and a tour manager is often more personal than one might expect. I made a point to befriend the band and bodyguard Chick Huntsberry, who seconded Steve’s warning not to bum-rush Prince. I met them in San Diego, direct from a tour with the rock group Kiss. “He takes a minute to warm up to strangers,” was Steven’s memorable understatement. With the hindsight of a couple decades, the now married couple share two very inside views of their purple years, but often through different sets of eyes.Īlan: Fargnoli sternly warned me to tread lightly until Prince signaled his comfort with having me around. Gwyn-from the sober world of science to the bawdy world of rock and roll. Leeds couldn’t have imagined that the gig would evolve into a move to Minneapolis and ten years by Prince’s side, not to mention a paradigm lifestyle shift for Ms. He was looking forward to winding up many months on the road and returning home to girlfriend Gwen Gwyn in New York where she was public relations manager for the prestigious but assuredly non-rock-and-roll Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Hurried to fill the mid-tour vacancy, Prince told manager Steve Fargnoli, “Just get that James Brown guy.”Ī freelancer, Leeds viewed the remaining weeks of Prince’s 1999 tour as just another credential on his résumé. Leeds was told his selling point was having worked for James Brown. In early 1983, Prince hired tour manager Alan Leeds sight unseen. ![]()
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