Prince remembered from the current. Hi, it's Andrea Swenson. While making Prince the story of 1999, I got a chance to talk to Brittany Howard. She's a solo artist and she's also the front woman of the band, Alabama Shakes.
I got a chance to see Brittany play with the Alabama Shakes at Paisley Park in a moment that will go down in history because Prince walked out and played a guitar solo with them. It was incredible, so I knew I had to talk to her about that. And I also just wanted to know more about her relationship with Prince's music. This is our full conversation.
Hey, Andrea, how you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm good.
Thanks. I actually was at Paisley Park the night that you guys played and he came out and soloed with you. Which was such an incredible moment. So, yeah, I'm just really excited to talk to you.
Thank you. I'm so glad that you were there to witness that because when I tell people that, I said, I don't believe me. It was one of those moments where it was so fleeting. You know, he just kind of appeared and then he just kind of disappeared and it was such a big moment for all of us.
Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Let's do this. Great. So let's start with, you know, I would love to hear about your memories of either hearing, you know, 1999 for the first time or whether it was one of the singles, Little Red Corvette or 1999 or the album. What memories does that bring back for you?
You know, I remember being really little. And my dad, he owned a tow truck service. So he taken a tow truck and we go tow these cars and every time Prince would come on a radio, he would turn it up and be like, what you know about this? And we'd turn it up and it would be 1999 or be delirious or the Little Red Corvette, something like that.
And I just remember being like, Prince is the baddest. I learned from a very young age that nobody can do it like Prince. And my memories are just like being a little girl and riding around my pop and with me. So I'm going to go share that moment of just falling in love with this artist and knowing that he was special and how important he was.
Oh, I love that. I love that too because, you know, this was kind of the first time he was on mainstream radio. So I think a lot of people had that experience of maybe it was this album that was that window for them into his world. Yeah, it was kind of mythical because it was one of those things where a lot of people had problems with what he was saying or had problems with his image or what he stood for or, you know, like his album, he was controversial, you know what I mean?
And so it was kind of extra exciting that he was like dangerous to listen to her. That's what we were told. Well, as you became a musician yourself, can you trace ways that he has influenced your career or your creativity? Definitely.
I mean, I think that he's in every part of creation that I do just because when I look at the album credits and look at Prince's work, it's like Prince playing the drums. Prince is doing arrangements, Prince playing guitar. And he does all of it and he's sharing his vision with all of us. And so when I'm making music, I always know that I can do the same thing because he's done it.
I can sit here and play all his instruments and make my vision come to life. And I think only he could have put it together, how he put it. And I feel the same way about my work and just being uncompromising about what I want to hear and why I want to hear it because I think the best of the best is come on lay on whatever they want to do. But it's kind of a different feeling when you're trying to share something, so that you are playing all the instruments yourself and writing the rings and all these cards.
So that's definitely an inspiration to me. I would love to have you talk a little bit about the experience of going to Paisley Park and what was it like meeting him after all these years of listening to his music? I would never forget the last minute then, hey, can you stop at Paisley Park and do a show? And we're like, yes, we're all the excitement in the buzz among our crew, like when we pulled up to Paisley Park and parked our buses and, you know, there's some roles, don't need no music, no cooking, no drinking.
There's some rules around and we were all had a participation of, well, are we going to meet Prince? Is the kind of guy he wants to be felt like it? We're sure who to see him and then his assistant came and got us. And of course, we bought everybody.
We like 15 people with us. And we went through his low-compound, passed this purple 19-style piano that I've never seen before. And the ceiling was painted with clouds and blue sky. We walked into studio and it was like these wooden halls and we go in there and his Prince.
And he's wearing all beige and he's smaller than I thought. But he was also like really cool and funny. And he was like quiet, but he wasn't like that kind of quiet where he was full of anxiety or dash. He was just literally just like observing and listening to us.
And he was like a funny dude with like had some last in studio. He's like, you know, I want to play on this song. Give me a little bit like this song. I want to come on play on it.
I was like, oh my God. Oh, yeah. Yeah, please do that. So he's like, I'm going to learn it real quick.
What key is it in? I'm telling the key because I'm going to come out there right when I hit this part. Okay. We're going through our set and it's great and everything.
But we had the secret. We knew we Prince was going to pop out. So we started the song and I'm kind of panicking. I'm like, I don't see Prince.
We get to the bridge section. I was like, oh, no, I think he missed it. And then Adam know where he just pops on stage, plugs into the part and just starts the most epic solo. Just so full of feeling and we were jamming with him.
There was just like that. And then he was gone and going to the eye, you know, you catch me on the cheek. And he just literally jumped off stage and just disappeared. And it was the last time I saw him, you know, and he called me later before we left just to say, Hey, you know, I'm going to talk to you.
I hope you at a good time. Has a good time. And I literally was like, Prince is going to email me today until he unfortunately passed away. I checked my email.
I checked my trash holder. I checked the junk folder. We don't forget, you know, what did he want to talk to you about? I don't know.
That's the thing. I just wish I could find out like how he was feeling about what I do. And I wish so much that there's so much to learn from him still. He's one of those artists when he passed away was so shocking that it's still it.
It's still affects me like I can't believe it. I thought it was so poignant that you chose to do a Prince cover when you were here in the city's last and that you didn't go for one of the classics. You went for one of the new songs and I love that song Breakdown. Can you tell me about choosing that as a cover?
Yeah, I felt like that was to me him writing as long as I felt like told a story about how he changed from being someone that seemingly was into the party life and into the free love and all that expression into going into. Okay, no, this is what I'm about. This is what connects me to my spiritual side and feels me and this is why I'm at nowadays and it was him looking back at his younger self and saying, yeah, I used to want to party. I used to think this is where it was at because I think a lot of interviews he doesn't really talk about that older guy.
He never really talked about him partaking and all that and those. It's like he don't want to talk about it. So when the song came out, that was him kind of communicating to like that's not what matters to me. And so I related to that too.
I think everybody can relate to that because everybody changes. So when I heard that song, that was the one that really stuck with me. And so I wanted to perform that one just because I felt so connected to that. And of course, nobody else was playing it.
Right. Well, you absolutely made it your own. I thought it was just gorgeous. So I appreciate that a lot.
I have just one more question for you. And this is kind of a big general question. You can take it in any direction you want, but you know, looking back on 1999 came up 37 years ago. What do you think the legacy is of this album?
The legacy. I feel like it's a part of musical history now. It's a starting point to get education about what you can do to be a most individual self and to share that with the world by being uncompromising. Have your art be on campus and have your life, have your image, have your design, have your music, have your message and to inspire the people not to bend when it comes to your own work.
And it's a thing I love about parents is he always say truth himself always. And that even 37 years later, you know, him creating a record like 1999 and him performing all of the musical instruments and creating that vision for us. That's always stuck with me that you can still do that in this world even till today because it still matters. You know, it's not always about it.
It's not always about making so much money and being so famous. It was one of those things where he could do that from the most genuine place, which was leaving all of us to why you do what you do. I love that. Thank you.
Again, just so appreciate you taking the time and I'm just so happy we can include you in the podcast. Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Angel. Yeah, no problem.
It was really nice to talk to you. Good talk to you too. Thank you so much for listening. You can find the complete four-part series prints, the story of 1999, wherever you get your podcasts.