Purple Memories: A Conversation with Damian Anderson

In this episode of The Violet Vault, Ava Cyr chats with a musician and long-time Prince follower, Damian Anderson about his experience with the purple one. As a Minnesota native, Anderson has been fond of Prince since the early 80s and lead a career in music hoping someday, he'll find the opportunity to play for the purple Yoda. After partying multiple times out at Paisley Park, he finally gained the opportunity to perform for Prince, however, he landed a dance audition instead. Anderson fondly looks back at his time at Paisley and the small moments he shared with Prince. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

The first time Ava Spear recorded fast. A 12 year old was tapping her room at the purple ring for something in her page. Now, years later, that moment goes on to the Violet Vault, a podcast exploring both legacy, music, and the world of creature. Join Ava Steer to open the vault. One story, one era, one purple mystery on the top.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello and welcome back to the Violet Vault. I'm your host, Ava Steer, and this is episode six. However, this episode will be a little different from our regular programming. In today's episode, we'll be hearing from Damian Anderson, a musician and a longtime follower of Prince. And today he'll be sharing his own unique Prince story.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

I grew up around here in Detroit Lakes. Well, uh born in Detroit Lakes when I was a couple years old. My family moved to the Iron Range. My dad had the wild idea he wanted to go work in the iron ore mines there because that was a a new great-paying job, I I guess, for people in Minnesota in the early 70s. So um he took off, um, brought me and my mom with, and we were up there until about 1980 when we came back to this area where they were both from. Um I started high school then, and that was the early 80s, and right about then was kind of the birth of MTV and those first few really big pop stars, and to have Prince be from Minnesota was so uh was so cool for me as a little kid and really inspiring too because I had already as a child been super supported by my parents and my love of listening to music and things like that. So uh once we got back to this area I started slowly finding ways to teach myself piano like in practice rooms at school. Uh eventually got a bass at a pawn shop. I convinced my dad to get for me, and I just kept kind of picking up instruments all through that time because of Prince and knowing that little bit about him that he played so many instruments and was so so well rehearsed, and you know, I guess I was just so inspired. I wanted to be ready if I ever got the chance to meet him, like to be able to do something. Also at the same time, and and how I ended up eventually meeting him wasn't through my music, but actually through the fact that I was a break dancer in the 80s, and so I did that to the point where um this group of folks that I was with my freshman year of college ended up getting sponsored by Pepsi. And even though that was super exciting for me, I at that same time I was turning 21, and I had I had just been holding my breath until I turned 21 to move to Minneapolis so I could finally go be around all the music scene there and go go do that. Um within a couple years, I was invited to my first party out there, and that just kind of happened randomly because of someone who was already going out there, and he worked at a bookstore near the college, uh near the University of Minnesota uh in Dinky Town where I was living at that time. Uh yeah, I just got so fortunate right off the bat to meet some people who were on that call list. Almost before me or most of my friends had cell phones. I'd get a call at like, you know, 11 o'clock or midnight, and they were like, Doors at 2 a.m., be there. Be in purple or be in black or be in white tonight, you know, little little things like that. Um and that's yeah, that's how I first got to start going out to Paisley Park. Couple people that, you know, started me getting on that call list, Tom, you know, for the I would say just over 50 times or so that I was out there that either because there was other weird nights where he wasn't there and and then there was stuff going on, but either he would DJ the party himself, um, occasionally have uh a guest to DJ and they might you know go back and forth or something. Um, or it or it would be the band. Um it was usually in the smaller room that they're calling the NPG Music Club now. That's where uh and it's kind of changed around a little bit in there now too, but there was still the staircase that went up to the DJ booth. He was usually up there just kind of watching, even if he wasn't actually DJing, he was up there watching everybody, and I'm in the middle of a dance floor with my girlfriend then and spinning around, jumping around, doing some you know, 90s, 90s club dance moves, and I jumped back and bumped into somebody, and they caught me, and I was like, Oh my god, I'm so sorry, thank you so much, and they pushed me back up and I said thank you, and I kept dancing, and my girlfriend's job was dropped. And I'm like, What? I I said I was sorry, and she's like, Oh yeah, you said you were sorry, but that was him. I go, shut up, and she didn't and she's like, Oh no, like he totally caught you, him and his friends were just totally laughing, uh, and they kept going. I'm like, shut that was him, he cut he caught me, and like so for the rest of the night, he's up in the DJ room, and I I swore he was watching me, but it was just such a weird weird night, and not long after that an almost the same thing happened with my ticket. She was watching walking through the dance floor, and the same thing happened, but she had security with her, and when I bought into her, they thought I did it on purpose, so security grabbed me and she's like, hey, no, no, no, no, I got in his way. Just just just leave him alone. And barely minutes later, she came over with two of the MPG like stage dancers, and she said, uh, excuse me, I'm really sorry about those guys. Um, can we dance with your boyfriend? And I was like, She's like, Yeah, I can dance with my boyfriend. And then she goes, Hey Damien, watch your hands because he's up there watching you, and Prince was up in the DJ booth with his arms crossed, and I was getting to dance with my day and these other uh two uh two female dancers that were stage dancers at that time. How that whole thing kind of ends is that I don't even it time-wise, it all kind of starts to blend together for me, but I was leaving one night, and at this time, uh Manuela was his assistant, and they they they hadn't been married yet. Um, everyone just called her Manny out there, and uh I was leaving one night and she grabbed my arm when I was leaving, and she's like, Hey, come here. Uh he really digs the way you dance, and he wants you here tomorrow for an audition. And uh like time kind of froze for me. I was just like, What? I I remember like moving my hair like out of the way of my ear. I'm like, can you say that again, like slower so I can take this all in? And she kind of laughed and she's like, Yes. He digs the way you dance, and he wants you here tomorrow for an audition. And I was like, I'll be here. You know I'll be here. I'm here every time. I go the following night and it's a dance party, just like these other nights had all been. And I'm waiting the whole night to like have someone come talk to me or have something happen. And now it's it's getting like 3 a.m. 4 a.m. I think it was finally like around 4:30 or 4 30 or 5 a.m. You know, we've been we've all been dancing for hours. And I spin around at one point, and he's standing right, right in front of me. Like he just he just uh appeared. I was like uh so he smiled and he crossed his arms and kind of almost posed for a second, and he's like, Alright, let's see it. And I gave him probably my best my best 60 seconds of all of his best dance moves, a couple of Michael Jackson moves, you know, just and all these things that I sort of felt like were the things that were getting his attention while I was dancing out there, and ended with some of his splits and I split up like he like he does, and he just kind of started laughing and he's like, Very nice, very nice. Uh we'll be talking. That ended up being like kind of the first and the last really up-close thing that I had with him, even though I would see him a lot, and I kept being out there. What from what I'm guessing, they didn't end up really doing a kind of tour for the album that they were working on at that time, which was the New Power Soul album. At one of these parties, though, um a really fun side thing, even though I didn't get to do anything like stage-wise with them. The uh hip-hop guy, Dougie Fresh, the original human beatbox, uh, he was out there one night and he came down the steps from that DJ booth that I was talking about, and he says, Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please? My name is Dougie Fresh, and I'm working on a out here working on a track with the artist, and we're wondering if you guys want to do some crowd chanting for this song. And they ended up the that song ended up getting on that album. Um uh it was called Push It Up. Just a weird, fun memory of an evening that I was out there and had gone out there with a friend from Chicago who didn't really believe that Prince showed up at these parties. I'm like, well, here he is. I remember times out there he would walk past, and I would be with friends that had brought me out there or that I'd come out there with. And he would kind of give me the what's up nod as he would walk past. And they're like, What was that? Did Prince just what's up you? I'm like, yeah, yeah. Like we I'm like, I would never I wish I could say we were friends, but he he just he knew me enough that he was he wasn't like he was cool with me and like wasn't worried about me.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

That's all I have today for the violent fault. So thank you to Damien for sharing his friend story. And if you would like to share your own friend story and have a chance to page on episode, make sure to like and follow our Instagram and Facebook page. I'm your host, Ava Sierra, and thank you again for listening.