Prince Retires -- Maybe
He says be’s quitting studio work but don’t bold your breath.

PRINCE TO RETIRE FROM STUDIO RECORDING. That was the headline of a press release faxed to the media on the evening of April 27th. Earlier that day, less than a year after Prince signed a recording and publishing deal with Warner Bros. Records potentially worth an estimated $100 million, Warner Bros. chairman Mo Ostin and company president Lenny Waronker were informed by Gilbert Davison, president of Paisley Park Enterprises, that Prince would not be delivering any more new studio albums to the company. Instead, the press release said, Prince would fulfill the remainder of the six-album deal — for which he receives a per album advance of $10 million — with old songs from his immense library of “500 unreleased recordings.” In that way, Prince albums can be released ~~well into the twenty—first century.~~ The statement, which was sent out by Prince’s New York-based publicist Michael Pagnotta, also said that “after releasing fifteen albums in fifteen years, [Prince] is turning his creative talents to alternative media — including live the- ater, interactive media, nightclubs and motion pictures.” The announcement was greeted with skepticism at Warner Bros., throughout the record business and even among some of Prince’s associates. “Prince is a very mercurial fellow,” said Eric Leeds, a saxophonist who has toured and re corded with Prince and who currently records solo albums for Prince’s label,Paisley Park. “He could change his mmd tomorrow. I just kind of chuckle when I read those things. I say, ‘Okay,here he goes again. At Warner Bros., there was no official comment, but executives were apparently taking a low-key, somewhat amused approach to the news. “People were laughing,” said a source at the company. “Anything he says you have to take with a grain of salt,” said Danny Goldberg, a senior vice-president at the Time Warner-owned Atlantic Records. No official explanation from either Prince or his employees was forthcoming. Those who know Prince have a few theories about the announcement. Some feel this could be Prince’s way of expressing his disappointment with U.S sales of his latest album, 4~ ,which are in the neighbourhood of 2 million copies. The Warner Bros. source said that a week before the announcement, Prince had been in the office meeting with Ostin and Waronker “expressing his dissatisfactions and frustrations.” Eric Leeds thinks Prince may want to renegotiate some part of his deal. “Maybe there’s a point in the new deal that he’s not particularly thrilled with and he’s saying, Well, let me play hardball with them for a minute,’ “ said Leeds. Or it could be, as some current and former Prince business associates believe, that Prince is fed up with the rock-star treadmill. Alan Leeds, who was vice- president of Paisley Park Records until about eight months ago and is Eric Leeds’s older brother, said, “This is a guy who is simply uncomfortable with the confines of the 1990s music industry and the constraints it puts on a prolific artist. “The idea that you’re dictated to: ‘Okay, you make a record this month, you release it that month, you sit on ass for three months, you tour for three more months, you sit on your ass another three months’ — that’s not the kind of a guy Prince is’ continued Leeds. “He’s a guy who lives on the edge, who likes spontaneity above all else. And all of those things about his lifestyle are discouraged by the structure of the music Industry. It’s an enormously frustrating existence for him.” This is not the first time Prince has made a dramatic public announcement. In April of 1985, just a few days before the conclusion of the Purple Rain tour, Prince announced he was going to stop touring for “two to three years.” Prince’s explanation at the time, as relayed via his then manager Steve Fargnoli: “Sometimes it snows in April.” “Five months after that we were in rehearsals for the next tour,” said Eric Leeds. “And we were out playing gigs
within a year. Chances are that the retirement will be short-lived. In fact, a source who works with Prince said that the day after the press release was issued, the star was in an LA studio producing an album for his current band, the New Power Generanon. “I can guarantee that if he comes up with another ‘When Doves Cry the firstthing he’s going to do is go to Warner Bros. and say: ‘Release this. Tomorrow!’ “ said Eric Leeds. “There’s only three things for sure in lifer said Alan Leeds. “We’re all born, we all die, and Prince will make another record one of these days.” ass for three months, you tour for three more months, you sit on your ass another three months’ — that’s not the kind of a guy Prince is,” continued Leeds. “He’s a guy who lives on the edge, who likes spontaneity above all else. And all of those things about his lifestyle are discouraged by the structure of the music industry. It’s an enormously frustrating existence for him.” This is not the first nine Prince has made a dramatic public announcement. In April of 1985, just a few days before the conclusion of the Purple Rain tour, Prince announced he was going to stop touring for “two to three years.” Prince’s explanation at the time, as relayed via his then manager Steve Fargnoli: “Sometimes it snows in April.” “Five months after that we were in re
hearsals for the next tour,” said Eric Leeds. “And we were out playing gigs within a year. Chances are that the retirement will be short-lived. In fact, a source who works with Prince said that the day after the press release was issued, the star was in an LA studio producing an album for his current band, the New Power Generation. “I can guarantee that if he comes up with another ‘When Doves Cry,~ the first thing he’s going to do is go to Warner Bros. and say: ‘Release this. Tomorrow!’ “ said Eric Leeds. “There’s only three things for sure in life,” said Alan Leeds. “We’re all born, we all die, and Prince will make another record one of these days?’