What I Learned From Prince

In 1997, I was part of the touring crew on the “Artist’s” Jam of the World tour. He was only ever addressed as “Sir”, but he will always be the one and only Prince. Here’s what I learned from him:

• Work Hard
• Be Extraordinary
• Never EVER Tell The Purple Dude “no”
• Do 7 Impossible Things Every Day
• Take Your Moment of Joy. Somewhere in the middle of the hardest hour of that hard-working, impossible day, you can go hang out beside the stage and dance your booty off to the best goddamn show around.

And then GET BACK TO WORK, cuz we’re doing it all again tomorrow.

Taking my moment of joy

This Sunday I’m going to a local celebration/dance party/memorial, where— for one night only— I will wear my tour shirt, in public, as a mini dress and dance like it’s 1997.

And then…

I’m getting back to work because I had the unbelievable privilege of learning how to work hard, be extraordinary and do impossible things from those that served better, harder and more graciously than I did.

Kudos to my friend and ball-busting mentor T-Boy, and especially to my champion, friend and part-time consigliere, Paul Spriggs — both of whom shielded me from the backlash of my mistakes, and put up with my naive 22 year old self long enough for me to get reasonably good at stuff.