Brief History
Born Prince Rogers Nelson
at Minneopolis Mount Sinai Hospital on 7th June 1958 to John and Mattie Nelson. His parents divorced when he was 7. His mother remarried and he did not get on with his step father. Prince spent a couple of years living with different aunts until 1972 when he moved in with his best friend Andre Anderson and his family. By the age of 15 both Prince and Andre could both play many intruments.
The first band they formed was Grand Central in 1974 with the line up of Prince on guitar Andre on bass Linda Anderson (Andre's sister) on keyboards, Charles Smith (Prince's Cousin) on drums and Terry Jackson and William Doughty on percussion. The band was then renamed Champagne when it was realised another band had the same name.
Prince with Andre
In 1976 Prince was working with Chris Moon to record songs for a demo which brought him to a newly formed company American Artists. Working with David Rivki he produced a demo which landed him his record deal with Warner Brothers.
Tommy Vicari was exective producer for his debut album and it was
recorded in 5 months.
The debut album was called For You and was realeased in April 1978.
Even at this early stage of his career he played 23 different instruments on the album.
His first single was Soft and Wet