Story #37 Pre-Purple Prince Part Three: Bible Study
I am one of the few people I know that when all is said and done I could sing "I did it my way" and not be lying. The big difference between me and Frank Sinatra is he had a few regrets, too few to even mention, whereas my regrets may be too many to count. Then again I am so stubborn and head strong that if given the chance I would probably do everything the exact same way again. My biggest interaction with Prince happens to include what is easily one of my top ten all time regrets and proves once more I am not as smart as I think I am.
Prince might have been aloof and mysterious, some might even say a pretentious jerk, but his crew and band couldn't have been nicer. They were great!
I spent a lot of time hanging out with his crew in the afternoons while they were waiting their time to hit the stage. I hung out so much because they let me play Prince's guitar as much as I wanted. I had never played on such a good instrument or through such good equipment so I was having a blast and spent hours playing everything I had ever learned to play.
On one such occasion, I was playing the Beatles song "Day Tripper" when Prince came walking in and caught me. He was half laughing, something I had never seen before, and half sneering. He walked over and said "interesting phrasing" and I knew he did not mean that in a complimentary way.
Embarrassed, I took off his guitar and apologized about using it without his permission. He waved his hand and said "No, no. no, don't stop now. I think you need the practice" and he walked away. That constituted my longest conversation with Prince but it is longer than most people had.
Not only was his crew nice but his band was great, too. I particularly got along with Matt Fink, the keyboard player that dressed up like a doctor. As the tour went along, we discussed many different effects he wanted to add when they headlined their own tour. It was his desire to expand on the doctor theme and have all sorts of gadgets and sparking devices around him so he looked like he was playing in Frankenstein's lab. I even drew him up some plans and made some phone calls to people I knew in movies that could help him.
But by far, my favorite member of Prince's crew or band, in fact my favorite person on the whole tour, was his female keyboard player Gale Chapman.
Gale was beautiful and sexy and smart and talented and funny and successful and just plain wonderful. She was way out of my league but I was never that smart when it came to such matters so I overstepped class boundaries and befriended her.
Of course, every guy on the tour had the hots for her and if they were not in love, then they were certainly in lust with her. Who could blame them? There was, however, something different about the woman on stage dressed in lingerie and dirty dancing with Prince and the same girl off stage.
The girl on stage in her underwear was playing a role and the real person was a born again Christian. There is nothing like overdose of Jesus to dissuade most suitors and the word quickly spread that there was no party here.
Most of the guys thought "What a waste" and went about pursuing other more available conquests. Most guys but not me.
If she wanted to talk religion, then I was her man. As I mentioned earlier, I had been raised in a very religious environment from the time I was baptized at age one on. I had not only taught Sunday School and been an alter boy, I made it all the way to Sub Deacon in the Episcopal Church. I had even applied to go to Seminary after college to become a full Priest but the Church felt I did not have enough worldly nonacademic experience and I should go learn about life and apply again later. I guess I took their advice because nobody can say I was not getting my share of worldly experiences.
Anyhow, I could discuss theology with the best of them and that would include a beautiful young musician new to the flock. I could be seen happily whistling away, hotel Bible in hand, making my way to Gale's room on our days off. This got to be so commonplace that after a while nobody even seemed to notice. The guys on my bus would grill me with questions like "You guys aren't really reading the Bible all that time" and I would assure them we were, and start to go into whatever the latest topic was. This was always enough to make them wish they had not asked in the first place and pretty soon they left it alone entirely.
The truth is, that is exactly what we did most of the time, and I enjoyed it because she was a very bright and interesting person. The thing was, the more I hung out with her, the more I liked her and the more attracted to her I became. This was not hindered in any way when she began taking me clothes shopping with her. Prince had told her he wanted her to wear sexier stuff in his show, so I kept her company as we hit the more intimate ladies apparel shops. Then once she had made her purchases, I was treated to private fashion shows in order to offer my manly opinion if the garments were indeed sexy or not. I started the tour not even knowing what a Teddy was, and ended it a connoisseur of unmentionables.
I asked her about her boss and she told me that he was actually very much into women in spite of how he dressed and acted. He had even made advances towards her, but she had made it clear that she was not interested in that kind of a relationship and he had accepted and respected this. I couldn't help but notice all the female fans he was attracting, so maybe the little guy was onto something after all. What the hell, whatever gets you through the night.
Gale seemed to enjoy my company as well, and it was not entirely Bible study after a while. It wasn't anything dirty or scandalous, either. It was all very sweet and innocent, and never went any further than kissing. I never, however, ever kissed a cousin, Aunt, Grandmother or my sister like that. If we had been in sixth grade, it would have been a world class romance.
This all led to that fateful day when I was lounging around her room playing with fire. I was laying on her bed, it was made up and I was relaxing, so I had my shoes off. Anyway I was making up little wads of flash paper and lighting them and throwing them into the air before I got burned. This gave the illusion I was throwing balls of fire out of my hand...very impressive. Unfortunately, I threw one a little too high and the fire alarm went off.
I started jumping up and down on the bed as if it were a trampoline and began punching the fire alarm that was attached to the ceiling. After about three or four good punches the fire alarm gave up and everything was quiet again except for Gale's laughter. Suddenly, there was a loud pounding at her door. I figured it was the hotel security checking out the alarm, so I swung the door open all prepared to start making excuses.
There in the doorway, was not hotel security. but Prince himself backed by this great big bodyguard. He looked startled to see me, looked down at my stocking feet, and then looked past me to see Gale with an equally surprised look on her face.
Prince began to stamp his feet.
He was wearing those little star booties, so I guess he must have really liked them. While he was stamping his feet, he started making the strangest sound. Very high pitched and coming from somewhere deep inside him. I thought he looked like a steaming teapot about to erupt.
This went on for a few seconds until I did the only thing I could think of. Not having anything to say and having seen enough of the exploding teapot, I slammed the door shut and dead bolted it.
Everything was quiet.
I looked through the peep hole in the door and the corridor looked empty, but I was not about to go out and see. I waited over a half hour before I cracked the door open just enough to see if the coast was really clear. Seeing nobody, I shrugged and said goodnight to Gale and headed back to my own room.
The next afternoon, I saw something truly out of the ordinary. Prince was in the building early and he was talking to Rick.
I had never seen him talk to Rick before and Rick looked equally surprised as he just listened and occasionally nodded his head. I wondered if this could possibly have anything to do with me but that would be ridiculous. The next thing I knew, I was being told to go see Rick right away. Maybe it was not so ridiculous.
I found Rick in his dressing room. The security guard let me in, then closed the door. I looked at Rick's face and could not tell if he was mad or not.
He eyed me up and down and said, "Watkins...you fukk Prince's woman?"
So much for ridiculous. I stalled, wanting to be extra careful not to say the wrong thing.
I also started getting a little pissed off, so I told Rick. "In the first place, that is not the kind of thing a gentlemen goes around telling. In the second place, it is none of yours or his business, and finally, she is not his woman."
Rick stared at me, and then he began to grin.
"You did, didn't you? You smooth little player!"
"Think whatever you want, I am not going to discuss it."
Rick stopped grinning. "You know he wants you off the tour."
That sucked. I did not want to go home, but I stood my ground. All I said was "and..."
Rick looked away "and what do you think I should do?"
If I was going to lose my job over this silliness, I was not going to go out begging, so I decided to just go for it.
"Well, if Prince is running this tour, I guess you better send me home."
Rick thought a moment then looked at me again.
"I aint sending you nowhere." and then he spoke to the security guard. "Run out there and tell Princess I just gave this motherfukker a hundred dollar a week raise."
Without a word, the guard nodded and disappeared out of the room.
There was an awkward silence and I didn't know if I should just leave or not. Then Rick said "What are you standing around here for? Go back to work."
When I got to the door I said, "Gee, a hundred dollar a week raise. Thanks, Rick!"
Rick started laughing. "I told him to tell Princess that, don't you go getting all gullible on me now. Raise my ass...get out of here."
That was the end of that. In time, I did stop seeing Gale, but not because it upset Prince. The closer Kathy got to having her baby, the more I knew I was going to have to make a decision about what I was going to do. To be honest there was no denying my feelings for her, so I cut off all my other relationships, including the one with Gale.
I know realistically nothing further would have come between Gale and me, but I never had much use for reality. I sure did like her, and I secretly always wished I knew for sure. Considering how things turned out, it could not have been any worse. That's for sure. Now, looking back after all this time I think I actually I understand the truth in the old saying " They say the saddest words ever uttered by men are "What could have been"
Oh well, so it goes.
I'm over here in tears
