1. We (my brother and I) were all team MJJ so we were not feeling my dad bringing home Purple Rain. Also my little Southern Mind was shocked to see the dude half naked with just a sheet barely covering him. I was such a prude and could not abide.

2. Was it appropriate for my dad to take his 7 year old son to see Purple Rain? Maybe not, but he actually went to see it by himself before taking us to make sure it was okay. It was OK.

3. Learned what the word materbate was from Darling Nicki. Let me stop lying. Even though all the big kids on the beach were giggling and talking about what it meant I didn't have an exact idea of what they were talking about. I just knew it was something to do with sex and you did it in a magazine in a hotel lobby.

4. I remember my dad vividly breaking down what the lyrics to "If I was U Girlfriend" was all about. Easily my favorite song. Or maybe it's

5. Do you know that moment when your musical taste change from Kid Pop Commercial songs to like brooding artsy deep stuff? I remember one fall day outside raking the leaves listening to Sign of the Times and the artistry of it all just hit me. I let that tape rock until that tape pop'd.

6. I swear Prince got me into college. The school that I ended up attending had this section no other college application had and it was a chance to describe a few of your favorite things. For favorite sound recording I talked about Sign of the Times. I just imagined that there was some poor admissions person who had slogged through hundreds of applications seeing that, perking up and giving me the go ahead without reading anything else.

7. This weekend I went to visit my dad and he was in worst shape than when I last saw him. Not only memory bad but he could barely walk. It was hard to get him to even try and get out the bed. So I finally I put on a mix of Prince songs and he perked up. I asked him if he remembered who sang the song and he said "That's Prince of Course". We rocked out to a few of his favorites. It will be another reason why Prince will forever remind me of my pops and probably won't be able to ever listen to Sign of the Times again without getting choked up.



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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"