No-one did it quite like . The Purple One was an unrelenting force of nature and to be in his crew, you had to try and hoist yourself up to his skyscraper-y high standards. There is a strong case that his OG band The Revolution – keyboardists Matt Fink and Lisa Coleman, drummer Bobby Z.
, bassist Brown Mark and guitarist Wendy Melvoin – got closer than anyone else. One jaw-dropping example of the group’s colossal alchemy is the thrilling opening to their tour, which bursted into action with a scintillating version of . It's 40 years this week since was released as a single, becoming ’s second US Number One.
A few years ago, Bobby Z. and Brown told this writer about what it was like opening the show with it. “I was one of the guys in the front row so we had a different kind of energy we had to generate before [the band went on] - we had to get our psyche together before we walked out on a stage because the power that was coming from audience, the roar, the excitement, that’ll put you in a state of shock if you don’t prepare yourself for it,” recalled Brown Mark.
“We were so amped up that you walked out there like a gladiator, like a ‘Yeah, I’m gonna conquer’ kind of mentality. Prince taught that very well. I don’t know where he got it from.
I always say, he’s from outer space somewhere.” “He had a seriousness to it that other musicians didn’t have, it was like life and death up there,” added Bobby Z..
Brown Mark said Prince helped instil a co.