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Prince · S3 E6
The Rolling Stones
Opening for the Stones in Los Angeles. The crowd throws trash. Prince walks off. He swears he will never open for anyone again
October 1981, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Prince walks on stage to open for the Rolling Stones in front of tens of thousands of rock fans, and before the first song is over, the air is full of bottles and garbage.
"Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" (Prince, 1979). A guitar-driven rock track from his self-titled album. The title becomes painfully literal two years later at the LA Coliseum, when Prince asks this exact question to 90,000 people who answer by throwing trash.
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?, Prince (1979)
"Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" is one of Prince's most guitar-heavy early tracks: a rock riff that would feel right at home on a Rolling Stones album, which makes it darkly ironic in the context of this episode. The song is built on a chugging guitar pattern and a desperate vocal that asks a question Prince will ask for real at the Coliseum two years later. Listen for the raw guitar tone: this is Prince proving he can play rock as hard as anyone. The Stones' audience wasn't listening.
Sources
Thorne, Matt. "Prince: The Man and His Music." Faber & Faber, 2012.
Hahn, Alex. "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince." Billboard Books, 2003.
The Coliseum
Prince takes the stage at the LA Memorial Coliseum to open for the Rolling Stones on their Tattoo You tour. The Stones' audience wants rock and roll, not a twenty-three-year-old in lingerie playing funk and new wave. The response is immediate and ugly: bottles, food, trash, whatever the crowd can find. Prince cuts the set short and walks off stage.
Sources
Hahn, Alex. "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince." Billboard Books, 2003.
Nilsen, Per. "DanceMusicSexRomance: Prince, the First Decade." Firefly Publishing, 1999.
“We went out there and they just weren't having it. Bottles, food, everything coming at us. Prince didn't say a word after we left the stage. Not one word.”
— Dez Dickerson, Prince's guitarist, as recounted in Alex Hahn, "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince" (Billboard Books, 2003)
TAP TO REVEAL: Who personally invited Prince to open for the Stones?
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The stadium where Prince opened for the Rolling Stones in October 1981. Tens of thousands of rock fans packed the venue. Every one of them, it seemed, wanted Prince off that stage.
The Rolling Stones Incident: The File
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?, Prince (1982)
Released as the B-side of the "1999" single, this solo piano ballad is Prince at his most stripped down and vulnerable. After an episode about humiliation and defiance, this song hits differently: just a man, a piano, and a voice full of longing. No band, no production, no armor. The kid who got bottles thrown at him can also sit down and break your heart in three minutes.
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?, Prince (1982)
The lyrics are deceptively simple: Prince is waiting by the phone, wondering why someone stopped calling. But the raw delivery turns a standard heartbreak song into something devastating. Every crack in his voice sounds real. This is the other side of the bravado, the quiet moment when the stage lights are off.
What was the name of the Rolling Stones tour that Prince opened for in 1981?
The booing fades, but Prince is already building something new. Next season: a LinnDrum, an Oberheim synth, a purple house in Chanhassen, and a double album called 1999 that will change everything.
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