(following Madonna’s platinum-selling “Justify My Love,” a song cowritten by Lenny Kravitz and Chavez, who went uncredited until she sued Kravitz). “I had an apartment in Minneapolis city center above a barbershop on Lyndale and Twenty-fifth— or something ,” Ingrid says, straining to remember. There was a jazz bar below, and I saw Prince go in. So I went down, spoke to Duane Nelson outside, and gave him a six-song cassette of some new music. About a week later, I came home and I couldn’t get in my apartment—it was filled with flowers, addressed to ‘Gertrude.’ ” Cash-strapped and having to take on the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman movie, Prince would never again hit the peak of the Lovesexy ’88 show, his greatest achievement, nor would he make art as brilliant as “Alphabet St.” or “Anna Stesia.” The Lovesexy ’88 live broadcast would be released on VHS, but in a commercially motivated switch would have Act 2, “The Light,” released first as Livesexy 1 followed by Act 1, “The Dark,” as Livesexy 2 ; denying those fans unable to attend of the sheer brilliance of the original concept. “I remember telling my parents, ‘Please set the VCR at nine, the show starts at nine!’ ” says Rob, adding, “So I went to Dortmund, by bus, by coach, and when I got back, it was the middle of the night, around 2:00 AM, but I couldn’t sleep. So I went into the living room, put on the TV, my headphones, and I watched the entire show again.” .
fool singing ‘Will’? It’s ‘ Would ’!” “Yeah, Boni flipped him the bird one night!” remembers Roy Bennett, who laughs. “It was like, no matter how good they were, it was never good enough, and he had no qualms about calling you out in front of the audience if you screwed up, in front of everybody.” Back home in the U.S., tensions were mounting. Ticket sales had not been great and the tour was losing money, especially since the show was in the round and there were hundreds of obstructed-view seats that couldn’t be sold. “During the course of the tour, Prince’s relationship with managers Steve Fargnoli and Bob Cavallo had seriously soured,” Alan notes. “He tended to blame them for every empty venue seat, as well as the less than spectacular reception given the album and its singles. I became a ping-pong ball between them.” (Prince even tried to withdraw the second single, “Glam Slam,” at the last minute; but this time, Warner Bros. weren’t having any of it.) Prince and his management stopped speaking, and eventually Fargnoli and Cavallo were replaced. “We all appreciated that the show was brilliantly creative and technically innovative,” says Alan. “But it was our first real U.S. tour since Purple Rain . Whereas on that tour, we might sell out a major-city arena for four or five nights, on Lovesexy , we barely sold out one or two nights.” On returning to Chanhassen, Minnesota, Alan became vice president of Paisley Park Records. Lovesexy ’88 would be his last tour with Prince. Most of the band had reached burnout with Prince and left after Lovesexy ’88 . Only Miko, Levi, and Doctor Fink stayed on. While Cat remained close with Prince (he worked on her unreleased Warner Bros. project, I Am Energy ), she left with Steve Fargnoli after refusing Prince’s request to fire him. Ingrid Chavez reconnected with Prince and would go on to star in Graffiti Bridge , his next movie project, with her debut album, May 19th, 1992 , released on Paisley Park Records
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( top ) Ingrid Chavez and Prince from a publicity still of Graffiti Bridge (1990). Courtesy of Warner Bros.
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