Jakob Dylan on Meeting Prince

It's really interesting watching someone's path when you know that they already did it. That's, there's something about that, like reading about kinescent, like knowing that he already did it, like just to read the path and how it all went down. Yeah, and it's interesting too, if you look at like, you know, Prince had a really good book, and it was actually a collection of things he'd written with somebody just before that he passed. But you read the book and you're like, it's interesting because you're like, you are, of course, you know he's gonna be Prince from the more talented people that may have, you know, walked the planet. And so you're reading it, and you're hearing him get denied with demo tapes, and you're hearing no one's believing in him that he's a weird kid and all that. But you know that he's Prince. You have like, as you read the book, you kind of have a secret that like, you're unstoppable. Like this stuff doesn't really matter what you're going through in your high school, and you're like basketball, and this person denied, and that person didn't want to be, like none of this is, it's interesting, but what's actually most fascinating is you literally, you were destined to be Prince one way or another. This stuff is almost inconsequential. You're going to be Prince someday. Well it is fascinating knowing that he did become Prince, but you kind of feel the anxiety of the journey, right? Like when you're reading about someone, even though you know it is inconsequential, you are, there's no denying he became Prince. But he didn't know that. Wow, it was all going down. No. That's what's cool about it. But it's fun to read, you can read that, and you can hear the people who don't believe in him, and you can be like, we all have a, I miss that one kind of moment, or I didn't see that, but like, I imagine being the guy who's like, Prince came into my, I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it. I remember the exact moment I first listened to Prince. I was in an Audi Fox, I had an Audi Fox, it was this little shitty front wheel drive car. I was driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and I had a cassette that I just bought, and I just unwrapped it, and I popped it into the cassette player, and it was, I listen to I'm Gonna Be Your Lover, I wanna be your lover, that song. And it was the one where, you know the cassette where him, it's like he's got no shirt on, and it's like he's just staring at the camera. And I remember thinking like, holy shit, like who is this guy? This is just different. It's like he's singing in a falsetto about being in love with a girl, and his voice is incredible. You could be that outrageous if you're gonna be really good. We get a lot of the other, which is people who are outrageous, and they're compensating for not really having much to sing or say, but like, he was fully loaded. Well, he was that guy. I mean, that's who he was. I mean, it was outrageous because he was an honestly eccentric human being. I mean, that really was who he was, an insanely talented, eccentric human being. You know, I met him once. Actually, I met him with Dean Del Rey. No way. Yeah, at a club out in New York, maybe it's early 2000s, and I forget what the club was, it was very crowded, and somebody, this is a true story, somebody would come to me and tap me on the shoulder and say, Prince is here, he wants you to come sit down. And I seriously, I just heard I followed, and I thought I was gonna go sit with Prince William. That sounded more believable to me. That sounded like that, I believed. And then we went over and it was obviously. Prince Roger Nelson. Yeah, but it was a really funny night. I'm glad Dean was there too. We sat in a booth, it was Prince, and it was his lawyer bodyguard. He had a lawyer slash bodyguard? That's what he was, and he was a very big guy. He sat in a booth, and it's hard to imagine now that the guy, he wasn't being swarmed with people in Prince, but it's awkward. It's like sitting, four of us from the booth, just kinda like, I know what to say, and it's kinda loud, so if I did wanna really have a conversation, it'd be difficult, but the bodyguard kinda nudges me, and he says, it's been 25 years since Purple Rain. And I was like, oh, that's awesome. And then he's sitting next to me, he goes, excuse me? I said, that's awesome. He goes, what's awesome? I go, the Purple Rain is 25 years old, what a great record. And he goes, great record? I say, yeah, and he goes, well, tell him. And he's pointing at Prince. So now, he's a very large man, he's nudging me, and I'm thinking, that's amazing, Prince seriously. He cannot be insecure that people don't love Purple Rain, but I leaned over and I said, Purple Rain, wow, 25 years, what a great record. And he kinda fanned himself, he's like, oh, well, you think so? And even Prince needed to hear once in a while that he was awesome. How weird is it that his bodyguard, this big giant dude's nudging you to tell Prince that he's awesome? I felt like I got set up, like he knew Prince needed a compliment, maybe. I'd be nervous that he would be going, of course it's good, motherfucker. Yeah, I was nervous, well, it was awkward. What is it, it's like the night at the rocks where you just kinda sit in the booth, just like, you know. It is Prince, it is him, it is Prince, right? It is, and then like, you know. And so you guys aren't really interacting? A little bit, not a lot. I think he just, he invited me just to come sit. Just to sit? Yeah. But it's also very, it was very loud, but that wasn't the problem. I think he just, you know, I don't know why I was asked to sit, but he's very nice, he's very cool. Catch new episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience for free, only on Spotify. 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