Prince sacked his old bass player because he didn’t know enough songs.
The ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker, who continues to excite fans with a number of gigs in the UK, decided to get rid of the musician when he met Ida Nielson, who later joined his all-girl band 3RDEYEGIRL.
He said: "My old bass player, who shall remain nameless, didn’t know as many songs as Ida.
"She had to learn 150 to get the gig and she did it. So I sacked my old bass player."
The 55-year-old singer also gushed the band’s guitarist Donna Grantis – who has recorded the album ‘PLECTRUM ELECTRUM’ with Prince, Ida and drummer Hannah Ford – and said he was first drawn to her daring half-shaved hairstyle.
He told Mojo magazine: "When I first saw a clip of Donna, what struck me was her hair.
"I figured that anyone who ain’t afraid to walk into the supermarket with that haircut ain’t gonna be afraid of me."
The guitarist described Prince’s Paisley Park Studios in Minnopelis as a "parallel universe" where "time stops existing" and touring with the singer can be demanding.
She said: "You know how doctors are always on call, because their pager buzzes and they have to head to the hospital and do surgery. That’s what being in Prince’s band is like. The phone can go at any minute. It can be hard if you let it get to you, but at this stage in our lives we couldn’t ask for more."
Prince sacked bass player
