Papa Dove

Miles began calling Prince but he had to call me because Prince famously kept his number to himself. It wasn’t unusual to come home and find a voicemail on my phone:

That legendary, raspy voice barking: “Alan. Tell that little Purple Motherfucker to call me.”

Miles had a gig in Minneapolis and flew in a day early to visit a Prince rehearsal and then a private dinner at Prince’s house also attended by Eric, Sheila and Prince’s Dad John Nelson.

A former jazz pianist, John Nelson struggled to relate to Miles and at one point asked him, “What ever happened to Lucky Thompson? I always wanted to play with Lucky Thompson.”

With a puzzled look, Miles dryly responded, “Why in the world would you wanna do that?” Then he turned towards Prince and said, “Now I know why you such a crazy little motherfucker.”

“This happened sometime in 2006. I was on the phone with Prince late one night when he discovered a kitten must have followed him into the garage at Paisley Park. He was in the studio and saw it on the video monitor wandering around, and he had a fit. (Like a real fit!)

I convinced him he should give it something to eat. ‘What can I feed him?’ he asked, so I ran through a list of things that cats can eat…hamburger, chicken, even a couple hot dogs cut up or bologna. There was dead silence on the phone. He says, ‘You do remember I am a vegetarian, right? You think I have any bologna or hot dogs around here?’ I suggested cheese or tuna and some milk. ‘I think I’ve got some tuna and milk’, he says. I told him to give the poor thing a little bit and then set the rest outside the door so he will go out, but I said he probably doesn’t have any friends and will most likely die out there. There’s dead silence on the phone again and then he says, 'I’ll call you back’ and hangs up.

Two hours later (3:30 am or so) the phone rings again and it’s Prince asking, 'What should I name it?’”