way I can describe it. We could do whatever our minds came up with, and Prince was game for that. He said, “I want to hear everything that is in all of y’all heads at the same time.” [ laughs ]
what they normally did, because Prince wasn’t interested in just rap the way rap was. Prince was like, “I’m going to explore some different topics, and I need to add the musicality to it as well.” So, in most rap music, it was beat driven and then you’d put your rhyme over that. So you were only dealing with two elements. But when you were dealing with a band, it was different. Prince always felt like you couldn’t just come with your standard flow, because this was a musical band. We were playing the harps and the strings and things that come in, and also you couldn’t just pick a subject that didn’t fit with the music. In other words, to make a long story short, Tony wasn’t allowed to write something that could’ve been competitive with other rappers. His challenge with Tony was like, “Man, yeah, I know. Don’t listen to them, man, because we’re trying to write stuff that will last for an eternity.” Prince would be like, “We’re trying to write music for the history of music not just a time period.” Because even the great artists of the world, they didn’t even like their paintings until they died. Prince was on that Picasso type of thing. “They ain’t going to get it right now. But let’s wait—let’s go to the peak of what we can be, and then let time catch up with our work.” When I was with Sheila, we played a lot of jazz, jazz fusion, funk jazz, and funk soul. When I came to Prince, I felt like I brought that kind of thing into it. The musical arrangements got a little bit more intricate, and that was due to my background with Sheila. Sheila was in a band too. We would play Santana, George Duke, and all that kind of stuff. Prince always wanted to push the boundaries, because he was always learning as a musician too. But at that time, going from the Revolution sound to the New Power Generation sound was a change for him; Sheila, me, and the rest of the band kind of brought those elements. He said, “Okay, you guys can go there, and I’ve been wanting to go there, so let’s go.” I did a little bit of writing and producing on the album. I was his musical director, so some of the pieces that I would put into the live show, he ended up incorporating them into the album. Like on “Daddy Pop,” there was a two-minute section on the song where the band jams. I added that in conjunction with the band during rehearsal, while Prince was out of town. He came back, and he put it in the show. When we were working on the album, he said, “You know that little piece y’all added on? I need y’all to add that on the song.” We went back into the studio and recorded it and added it to “Daddy Pop.” He was cool with us like that. It was the Prince show, but if he liked something, he would incorporate it into what he was doing. He was cool like that. Talk to me about the synergy that the rest of the musicians— keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, bassist Sonny Thompson, saxophonist Eric Leeds, and drummer Michael Bland, and you—had during the making of this album. Levi Seacer Jr.: It’s weird, man, but we were in sync with each other before we met each other. [ laughs ] When we got together, it was kind of like, “I’ve been waiting to meet somebody like you that plays the way you do.” When I first met Prince, he was an incredible writer, musician, and stuff. But the thing I was trippin’ off of with Prince was, how did he get that sound that he had—from Minnesota? [ laughs ] When I first heard him thirty-five years ago, there was nothing but hayfields, snow, and cows out there. I didn’t know how he was coming up with all that funk from a place where there was five months of winter and thirty degrees below zero. How was that happening? What were his influences? Did he go to church? Where was it coming from? That’s what was trippin’ me out about Prince. But when we all got together, it was like we knew each other in a spiritual, music universe. It was a breath of fresh air. It was like a musical Disneyland. That’s the best
You previously mentioned that he had a notepad for some of the songs. What was his writing process like?
Levi Seacer Jr.: Sometimes, I saw him write hits right in front of my eyes. I didn’t know that was what he was doing at the time though. We’d be in the studio, and he’d say, “Give me a second.” He’d be down there writing and writing and writing. He’d tell me, “Tell the band to take a break for about an hour and come back.” So we did. I came back, and he had just written “Cream.” [ laughs ] I asked him, “Was that what you were scribbling?” Because he was writing really fast. He asked me, “Do you like it?” I said, “What?” He was that prolific. He was like, “You know, I’ve been thinking of a song called like that. So it was just coming to me.” When ideas came to him, he would stop heaven and hell to get the idea out of his head. What was amazing was, he would write it down, and when we’d come back from lunch, he had started recording the vocal already. I said to him, “Man, are you kidding? You just did that?” He responded, “Yeah.” [ laughs ] It was almost unfair to be around somebody that talented. It was nothing to him. Nothing. He could’ve done it all day long. There were times where he brought in songs and they were finished. Sometimes, he started writing songs right on the spot, or making notes for the show. He wasn’t keeping it as a secret. It wasn’t like that. You’ve discussed the making of “Push,” “Willing and Able,” “Daddy Pop,” “Gett Off,” “Cream,” and “Diamonds and Pearls.” I wanted to ask you about the three other singles that were released off the record, starting with “Thunder,” “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night,” and “Insatiable.” How did those songs come to fruition? Levi Seacer Jr.: “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” was written in Japan. It was one of those four that we had to do basic tracks for. Now, lyrically, I can’t say what his actual inspiration for it was. During that time, we would always talk about what was going on in the world and the state of our community. I would like to think [that] during that time period, those conversations might have been the inspiration for that song, because he felt like, what’s the point of money? Don’t let money throw you off-kilter. Keep your family together. Don’t let money separate you from them. During that time, we would talk a lot about social stuff and the economy. He was very sensitive to those types of subjects. “Thunder” was just a straight Prince thing. He came in with that. So your guess is as good as mine where that came from. With “Insatiable,” on every album, he was going to have something sexy on it. He loved funk music and all that, but to counter that and balance the record out, we always had something lush and sensual.
Let’s discuss Rosie Gaines and engineer Michael Koppelman’s influence on Diamonds and Pearls .
Levi Seacer Jr.: Rosie came aboard after Boni left. Prince was a little leery about bringing in another female singer. He liked her sound, but he said, “I don’t know, because I don’t want to get used to it and then something happens.” I used to gig with Rosie back in the day, and I said, “Prince, don’t worry. Trust me, dude. I got someone. If you give her a shot, it’s over, man.” He asked, “Is she really that good?” I said, “Man, I’m telling you.” He trusted me, so he flew her in. Prince said,
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