Prince & The Making of Purple Rain | 50 For 50

Before he was a legend, Prince was a teenage one-man-band sleeping in a friend's basement. On this episode of 50 For 50, hosts Garrett Gonzales and Mike Joseph trace Prince's climb from Minneapolis to Purple Rain — the album and film that made him the first artist ever to hold the #1 album, single, and movie all at once — and dig into how that fame changed him afterward. This is Part 1 of a two-part Prince deep dive, covering 1958 through Diamonds and Pearls (1991).

In this episode:

• The origin story — Owen Husney discovering a teenage Prince living in a basement, and the unusually generous Warner Bros. deal that gave him full creative control at 19
• The bands he built, used, and walked away from — The Revolution, The Time, Vanity 6/Apollonia 6, and the Family — who was in them, what they made, and why every one of them eventually fell apart
• The full discography climb into Purple Rain, then everything that came after it: Around the World in a Day, the Black Album recall, Sign o' the Times, Lovesexy, and the birth of the New Power Generation
• A full Deep Dive on Purple Rain itself — the making of, studio stories from the First Avenue sessions, a track-by-track, the film, and the numbers behind the biggest album of his career
• How Purple Rain's fame actually changed Prince — Paisley Park, the perfectionism, the control, and the start of the Warner Bros. tension that explodes in Part 2
• Grammy snubs, Tiers, Dream Collaborator (Miles Davis), and more

New episodes of 50 For 50 drop regularly — subscribe for our deep dives into the artists and albums that shaped music.

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Mike's Substack (Curmudgeonly Yours): https://mjoseph.substack.com/

Garrett's Substack (The Cool Check-In): https://www.thecoolcheckin.com/