Off Record

/One/

Barcelona, Spain | July 25th, 1990

It's lovely to finally meet you Mr. Nelson, I'm Sasha Pierce. I heard you don't like tape recorders..so I tried hiding one in my pants, but then I heard your bodyguards do searches so I guess a pen and a pad will suffice.

I let out a sigh to calm my nerves, leaning on the back wall and looking up at the mirrored elevator ceiling. I'm looking very plain in jeans and a thin black shirt under my matching leather jacket. The elevator bell rings and the doors open to the top floor. I take one last breath before stepping out and looking both ways. The pair of linebacker looking bodyguards standing outside one of the doors lets me know he's more than likely going to come from that room.

They immediately notice me and the blue press pass hanging around my neck that was left at my hotel. "Are you Ms. Pierce?" One of them asks. Straight to the point. "Yes I am."

"Right on time. Boss should be coming out in a minute."

I nod in acknowledgement and step back, pulling the pencil from my ear and writing down details about them. They're no less than 6'3 and 260. No one would dare run up on these two.

I'm interrupted when the man himself opens the hotel suite door. He stands a few inches taller than me with butterscotch skin and wide hazel eyes.  His choice of clothing? A black satin jumpsuit, opened to his abdomen. I imagine that this is just dressing down for him.

"Have I met you before?" He asks, raising a thick eyebrow. "No but I was at the Graffiti Bridge premiere."

"Aahh, okay. I knew you looked familiar." He holds out his hand with a smile that is boyish and I think that's my greeting. I reciprocate taking his hand to shake.

"How'd you like the film?" He nods to his security as we begin to make our way back down the hall to the elevator. "I loved the music." It was true. The music was great, I just had trouble following the story. It wasn't until after that I learned it was a sequel to Purple Rain, and I had never seen that before.

"That's a very conservative answer." He pushes the down button the elevator then moves his hands to his pockets.

"I'm sorry. If I would've known it was sort of a sequel, I would've seen Purple Rain beforehand." We step onto the elevator and my confession has him stunned. "You've never seen Purple Rain?"

"Uhh..not yet?" I answer smiling. I'm hoping this doesn't upset him because my whole interview will be dead. To my surprise it does the opposite. "I like that. At least tell me you've listened to my music though.."

"Of course." We step off and his security is in action, flanking us protectively as we walk to the dining hall. His band members are already there, he tells me. People look but seem to be generous enough to not come up and give him his space.

"Ladies first." Prince holds his hand out and I thank him, walking into the huge dining hall. It quiets down a little as I'm met with a lot of eyes. "The Prince is here!" Someone yells out jokingly. It erupts into laughter which calms my nerves. He rolls his eyes and waves them off, leading us to the group of musicians.

"Everyone, this is Sasha Pierce from Rolling Stone. Be nice and please don't embarrass me more than you already have." By the smile on his lips, he seems to have a good rapport with them. With reports of tension between members of the now disbanded Revolution, some would think there wouldn't be any room to joke around with him.

"What's up Ms. Pierce, I'm Tony Mosley." He towers over me with his hand out and I shake it smiling. "Sasha is fine. It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine. I'm apart of the Game Boyz and these are my brothers in the group, Kirk Johnson, who's also a percussionist, and Damon Dickson." They come up and shake my hand as well. I want to ask them about their group, but the whole band is nice enough to introduce themselves. This is new for me because I'm usually ignored by band members when doing interviews like these.