A Superhero in a Human’s Body
IN A ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PUBLISHED IN 1985, Prince told writer Neal Karlen about a pivotal moment in his life: the time his father kicked him out of the house. From a pay phone, Prince pleaded with his dad to take him back: “He still said no. I sat crying at that phone booth for two hours. That’s the last time I cried.” It made for a terrific origin story: a sobbing kid—then known by his nickname Skipper—emerges from a phone booth to become Prince the star. Except it wasn’t true. As Karlen later learned, Prince’s father had never kicked him out.
Karlen says, “Ken Kesey had that line: ‘The trouble with superheroes is what to do between phone booths.’ I think that Prince had that problem.”
That revelation is just one of many about the star in Karlen’s newly published book (St. Martin’s Press). A former editor, the Minneapolis-based Karlen is one of the few journalistsbetween 1985 and 1990. In his book, Karlen draws from his recollections, notes and tapes, to paint an illuminating and intimate portrait of a supremely talented and complex artist. “He was a contradiction—more than any person I’ve known,” Karlen says.
