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Memories of ‘chasing’ Prince while with blues band are triggered by mom

 

Mothers Day is coming soon, but when I talked to her recently, we talked not of that, but she reminded me of a near-Prince-encounter I had near New Ulm.
Mom doesn’t get all the celebrity worshiping thing, and noted that even as far away as Milwaukee, Prince’s death was all over the TV news.
She said the banner headlines made her recall when I joined members of a blues band and made a road trip to the other end of Minnesota, where they were going to play a big gig associated with the Minnesota Music Awards. Rumor had it that The Purple One himself, who was getting an honor in conjunction with the awards, was going to make one of his impromptu appearances and maybe even perform.
When we got there from Hudson in mid-afternoon, word had it that Prince had already been cited, and that’s where mom comes in. She remembered us joking at that time about it being hard not to notice a 5-foot-2, flamboyantly dressed black man in that part of Minnesota. Be that as it may, the group of us soon were part-taking in a whirlwind limo trip through the city to check on an alleged Prince citing — without really knowing exactly where we were going or why.
It would be awhile before my traveling mates in the Brandon Scott Sellner Band would take the fittingly big, theater-style stage, as they’d been asked to be a featured act in this annual festival. But during that time, there were phone calls made back and forth to various locations and assurances made that yes, Prince was in the area and would be stopping in.
It wasn’t until close to midnight that all involved fully realized that Prince would indeed not be in the house.

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