It was a different experience touring with Prince as his girlfriend. From the time I was little, I had always tried to perform at my highest possible level, but now I knew that anything less than an 800 percent effort would reflect badly on him. It was lovely, however, riding along listening to music he loved. He introduced me to Kate Bush and Miles Davis and so many others I still love. And, you know, I didn’t exactly hate staying in the A hotels with the full-on foo foo.
My love/hate affair with room service took an ironic turn. When I was broke, I’d scavenged people’s leftover bread and Thousand Island dressing from carts in the hallway, because if I ordered my own, they would charge me ten bucks for the bread. When I was with my rock-star boyfriend and money wasn’t an issue, they’d offer it for free, but I cringed at the thought of ordering it because it reminded me of my past. I loved getting breakfast at the start of a busy day, but to sit in a room and order food is so weird to me. Get out and greet the day, already! But of course, that was out of the question for him. When I’m traveling with friends now and someone suggests room service, I don’t mean to stare daggers at them, but all we ever did back then was room service. Dinner out was extremely rare and took a lot of planning, which is why dinner out is so special to me, and I cherish a light breakfast out in the sunshine as one of life’s great simple pleasures.
In the old days, I’d hang out with him till the wee hours, but except for my initial visits, I never spent the night, even when things progressed to making out. After “7,” I started spending the night with him and riding with him to the next venue. As we traveled, I was on the bus with him. It was lonely at times, but I didn’t miss the drama, and I rather enjoyed being put on a pedestal, the cherished object of all his famous and infamous romantic tendencies. He was particular and very protective of me, but I never felt like there was a lid on me or that he was trying to make me do or be anything I didn’t want to do or be.
This was my first real boyfriend, so I was tripping on all the emotional ecstasy most girls get out of their system in high school. Prince loved that I was so in love with being in love. I’d never had my heart broken, so I was open and unjaded. Any old trick in the romance handbook—a candlelit bubble bath, rose petals on the sheets, a sexy handwritten letter—none of the novelty had worn off for me. I was thrilled with all the small gestures of affection, and he enjoyed being appreciated. There wasn’t much drama between us, but I discovered that, if anything, I danced better when I was mad, so we always ended up laughing it off after the show. Somewhere around this time, he wrote a song called “Courtin’ Time” that came out later on the Emancipation album, and I was touched to hear an instrumental version on a concert video just a few years ago.
baby, now you’re gonna know
what it’s like when a boy truly loves a girl…
But all that was off-hours. Our working relationship didn’t change. He wasn’t one for showing affection in public until after we were engaged, maybe because he liked to keep people guessing, but mostly because when he was working, he was lost in the music and entirely focused, moment by moment, on the work. Raquel Welch could have been standing there naked and he’d never notice. Prince consciously surrounded himself with coworkers who were able to find and maintain that same laserlike focus. Take a look at what he’s doing on that stage. (He kept most of that stuff off the Internet when he was alive, but now tons of footage is spilling onto YouTube.) Performers can and do get hurt when they’re operating at that caliber. Everyone has to have his or her head in the game.
About six months after Prince died, I performed “7” in a tribute concert put together by his family. I was horribly nervous about the way it was coming together. People seemed to think we could do all this without a lot of planning and rehearsal. And they were right. I was silly to worry. I should have remembered: These people are the best. No one could walk in, rehearse for one day, and put on a show like NPG, because all of us had been trained by this man who took each unique talent and pressed it to the next level.
The Act I Tour ended in April 1993. We’d be at home in Minnesota for the summer, rehearsing for the Act II Tour, so before we started, I went to Puerto Rico to see my parents and fetch Hena. When I got there, I found the most spoiled dog in canine history. She was dolled up with a little fountain hairdo, ribbons, and charms. Basically, my mother had replaced me with her. When I put Hena in her little carrier and put her in the car to go to the airport, Mama looked so stricken, I couldn’t bear to take Hena away from her.
“Mama… keep her. She’s yours.”