At the dawn of the Nineties,
Prince appeared to be entering not merely a new decade but a period of rejuvenation. He had completed his third dramatic film (
Graffiti Bridge), had hired new managers, was about to embark on a stripped-down hits tour of Asia and Europe that eschewed the ostentation of the
Lovesexy shows, met the woman (Mayte Garcia) he would eventually marry, and was in the early stages of forming a post-Revolution band that would grow into one of his most versatile. "I feel good most of the time, and I like to express that by writing from joy," he told
Rolling Stone in 1990. "I still do write from anger sometimes, like in 'Thieves in the Temple' [the initial single from
Graffiti Bridge]. But I don't like to. It's not a place to live."
Prince: Remembering the Rock Star, Provocateur, Genius »
As the decade wore on, those thoughts would prove to be sadly short-lived. Few artists of Prince's caliber would endure the creative and business highs and lows that Prince did, publicly, for most of the Nineties. He remained as creatively frenzied as ever, logging more and more time in his Paisley Park studio, and he was still among pop's most galvanizing live performers. He would still exhibit his standard control-freak wackiness: Before an album playback for Warner Bros. staff in a label conference room in the mid Nineties, one of Prince's security guards entered the room first, checking behind curtains and shooting everyone an intense, check-you-out stare before Prince was allowed to come in. Whether colleagues were baffled or amused, it was all part of the Prince experience.
But the promise of the Nineties would soon give way to music business feuds, management shuffles, personal tragedy (the loss of his and Mayte's child in 1996) and dramatic moves – like changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol and writing "slave" on his face – that would confound musicians, co-workers and business associates alike. For every strong album came a disappointing one to match. By the end of the decade, he would no longer have the same band, managers or label he did at the decade's start, and he would enter into a more scattershot period in both his music and career. Here, in the words of people who worked with him, is the story of Prince during the pivotal New Power Generation years, an era that would set his career on an entirely different course right up until his death.
Randy Phillips (co-manager, 1990-1): He had just left his previous managers. I don't know if he fired him. He just stopped talking to them, which was very Prince. His attorney came to me and my partner Arnold Stiefel and we said, "How can you hire us? We haven't met with Prince yet." We flew to Paisley Park and we ended up sitting in a conference room waiting for him for eight hours. Then we get summoned to his apartment on the top level. You walk into this room that's all white. It was like a Fellini movie. There's a heart-shaped bed and in bed, in gold lamé, was Kim Basinger, reading a magazine. Prince is in the back of the room, sitting at a Plexiglas desk in a heart-shaped Plexiglas chair.
We go in there and say, "Let's talk about the Nude Tour, the European stadium tour [summer 1990]." He looks at me and says, "You know what? You're a manager. Then go manage." And that was the end of the meeting. We got back in our car and went to the airport.
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Too long to quote the whole thing . . but it's a good read
, Prince is clearly high off something in these pics too 
