98.1 Staff’s Prince Memories (#GrowingUpMinnesota)

Sure we're country folks here at 98.1 -- but we also grew up in Minnesota and have our own personal Prince memories. Was Prince country? Hell no! Was Prince music? Hell yes! Was Prince Minnesota? 110%. Here are some of our personal Prince memories.

Pete:

Two quick memories for me:  First, I saw Prince on his Purple Rain tour in December of 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center (which is where the Xcel Energy Center is today). Another memory is that my girlfriend and I went to First Avenue one night in the late 80's. We sat at a small upstairs table and there was a big 'reserved' booth right next to us. After a drink or two, Prince and his entourage streamed into that booth, and we spent the rest of the night right next to them. We thought it was very cool!

Ava:

I remember when I was like 7 or 8, I asked my mom for music to listen to on my Walkman. The tape she gave me was Prince's 'Purple Rain.' He's influenced my music choices ever since.

Barry:

When the Purple Rain movie came out on video tape I was surprised by my parents with the movie. When we went to play it we realized they bought the "beta" version of the tape. We didn't have a player like that. We went back to the video store and they were sold out of VHS videos of it, so I begged my parents to buy a beta tape player. It was the only movie we ever played on it.  Also, in the 80's there was a show called "Puttin' On The Lips," a lip sync battle TV show. I was going to try out for it with "Let's Go Crazy" as my song. I bought a purple bath robe and glued silver studs on the shoulder of one side to practice...with my cardboard white curly guitar. I know I'd have won if I could've got on the show.

Ashli:

I don't have a personal story for Prince but I was born and raised in Minnesota and Prince along with Bob Dylan were our musical claims to fame. I didn't listen to prince growing up and while I may not know his songs by name I can definitely recognize some of his big hits. Today is a huge loss for pop culture and an even bigger loss for Minnesotans. We've lost one of our own today.

Rest in peace Prince Rogers Nelson. Artist. Creator. Innovator. Minnesotan.