The one and only Katy Perry with her uber talented band, dancers and crew. Very cool hosting all of you at Paisley Park today. Wishing you a great show tonight at Xcel Energy Center in #SaintPaul #Minnesota. #PaisleyParkIsInYourHeart #KatyPerry #WitnessTheTour #Witness

It was 30 years ago this month that Prince’s Sign O’ The Times concert film opened in theaters across America, giving movie audiences the chance to experience the epic Sign O’ The Times Tour that had stormed across Europe in May and June of 1987. The concert film was originally intended to be captured in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Antwerp, Belgium, on the final nights of the Sign O’ The Times Tour, and the audio from those performances can be heard in the film - but after returning home to Chanhassen, Prince decided to re-shoot and overdub many of the performance scenes in his new soundstage at Paisley Park. Filming at Paisley Park took place on July 18-23, 1987, two months before the building was officially open for business, making the Sign O' The Times movie one of the first productions to use the new facilities. Did you see Sign O’ The Times in theaters? Did you get the movie on VHS? Or did you catch the screening of the film on Showtime last month in honor of its 30th anniversary? Share your #SignotheTimes memories in the comments! #Prince #PaisleyPark

#PaisleyParkHistory Three years ago this week Prince hosted a concert by the inventive R&B artist FKA twigs in Paisley Park NPG Music Club, and capped off the evening in a style that few of the 250 people in attendance that night could ever forget. After sitting quietly on a plush purple couch in the NPG Music Club's balcony with his band, 3RDEYEGIRL, to observe FKA Twigs and her band, Prince made his way to the upstairs green room entrance to shake each of the musicians' hands personally, then made his way to the soundstage to deliver a joyful surprise to the crowd. Once FKA Twigs and her band had left the stage in the NPG Music Club, the giant doors connecting the smaller space with the soundstage swung open, and purple smoke billowed into the room. Once attendees had made their way into the soundstage Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL appeared on stage to wail through their funky, swampy reimagining of "Let's Go Crazy" that stretched out over 15 minutes and put an exclamation point on the evening. Rather than launch into a full show right away, Prince and his band left the crowd wanting more, leaving the stage while producer Joshua Welton cued up a new remix of the song "BOYTROUBLE" (which features Minneapolis artists Lizzo and Sophia Eris), and played other unreleased Prince material. After an hour Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL returned for more, playing "PLECTRUMELECTRUM" and "Play That Funky Music," and attendees who kept dancing until 3:00 a.m. were treated to an extra special encore as the band returned a final time to play songs including "Kiss," "Hot Thing," "Sign O' The Times," "When Doves Cry" and "Housequake," with FKA Twigs dancing alongside them on stage. #Prince #PaisleyPark #3RDEYEGIRL #FKAtwigs #NPGMusicClub

In 1985, Prince was at a major turning point in his career. Both the film and soundtrack for Purple Rain had become smash successes and had catapulted Prince to global fame. His Purple Rain tours with The Revolution were incredibly tight and well-rehearsed, but their encores seemed to be growing longer and longer: Prince, ever the restless artist, was craving a new direction and new sounds. Nearly every aspect of Prince's 1985 album, the Purple Rain follow-up Around the World in a Day, was rooted in this sense of creative restlessness and artistic experimentation, from the psychedelic, expansive, shape-shifting songs on the release right down to the album's cover design. Designed by the artist Doug Henders, who had also worked on the Purple Rain movie and tour, the cover art for Around the World in a Day was partially inspired by the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album art, but it was designed with concepts that came directly from Prince's mind. “Prince gave me a laundry list,” Doug Henders told Red Bull Music Academy. “Old woman crying; a clown juggling the earth; a ladder going to heaven. So I could do it two ways: a collage or a surrealistic landscape, and [the latter] is what I chose, kind of a la Sgt. Pepper’s." Henders took Polaroid photos of the touring members of Prince's crew to use as models for the figures on the album cover (including Wendy Melvoin, Susannah Melvoin, and Sheila E.), and he even posed for one of the Polaroids himself, holding a white guitar in the same pose as the man in the cloud suit who appears on the right side of the gatefold. The cover design was hand-painted by Henders in a hotel room in Los Angeles while he was on break from the Purple Rain Tour, and he requested that the label buy him an extra seat on the airplane when he returned to Minneapolis so he could ensure the painting made it safely into Prince's hands. Artwork credit: Doug Henders http://doughenders.us/ #Prince #PaisleyPark #TheRevolution #AroundTheWorldInADay

Prince gave his first interview about his music when he was only 17 years old, and the article that appeared in his high school newspaper, The Central High Pioneer, serves as a fascinating glimpse into Prince's thought process when he was just starting out — and how certain he already was that he should be a star. In a piece by classmate Lisa Crawford titlled "Nelson finds it 'hard to become known,'" Prince has a very different attitude about his hometown of Minneapolis than the one he would have later in life. "I was born here, unfortunately," he tells the interviewer. When she asks what he means by that, he explains further: “I think it is very hard for a band to make it in this state, even if they’re good. Mainly because there aren’t any big record companies or studios in this state. I really feel that if we would have lived in Los Angeles or New York or some other big city, we would have gotten over by now.” Prince tells his classmate that he plays several instruments, including bass, guitar, drums, and his first instrument, the piano, and says that he briefly played the saxophone in seventh grade but had since given it up. And although he enjoys learning from the music teachers at the high school, he isn't in any of the school bands, he coolly explains, because "I really don't have time to make the concerts." He also took a moment to encourage anyone interested in music to take lessons, providing the world with the first written example of what would become a lifelong advocacy for music education, and hinted that he and his band, Grand Central Corporation (which at that point included Andre Cymone, Morris Day and The Time, Linda Anderson, William "Hollywood" Doughty, and Terry Jackson), were in the process of recording an album of original music that was due to be released in the summer of 1976. Those recordings would never be released, unfortunately, though Prince's music would soon find another way to reach the world. In the summer of 1976 Prince would record his first solo demos with producer Chris Moon, including the song "Soft and Wet," and begin shopping them around to major record labels; by 1978 he would release his Warner Bros. debut, "For You.” #Prince #PaisleyPark #CentralHigh #Minneapolis #RealMusicRealMusicians

N.E.W.S. for our Purple Friends & Family: ________ We are hosting a winter hiring event tomorrow and Tuesday - full details below: Paisley Park Hiring Event Monday 11/13 & Tuesday 11/14 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Courtyard Marriott 11391 Viking Dr Eden Prairie MN 55344 Please visit our website to download and print the application at: www.officialpaisleypark.com/pages/jobs-at-paisley-park And please bring your completed application to the hiring event. We look forward to meeting you and speaking about new opportunities! #PaisleyPark

Some of the music videos on the official Prince YouTube channel are familiar to anyone who watched MTV in the 1980s and ‘90s, while others offer a rarer glimpse into the productions Prince was staging with his band and crew at his Paisley Park facilities. The video for “The Same December,” which was just posted last week, was recorded at Paisley Park in the fall of 1994 — and it offers not just a look at the soundstage where so many different videos and films were recorded over the years, but also lesser-seen parts of the Paisley Park complex like the upstairs conference room where Prince and his team would hold meetings. The song “The Same December” was released on the 1996 album Chaos and Disorder, and was recorded during the period of Prince’s life when he had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. He was not shy about expressing his opinions about major record labels in this video, which depicts a music executive watching the NPG on television and approaching O(+> to sign a “lifetime contract,” and the lyrics also warn against viewing the world in black and white and encourage people to come together — as he sings, we all come from “The Same December.” “U only know what U know U only see what Ur heart will show U only love when Ur soul remembers We all come from the same December And in the end that's where we'll go So let's go” Prince - The Same December https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tIrT2sKPg #Prince #PaisleyPark #ChaosAndDisorder

#MyNameIsPrince There are many remarkable photographs of Prince on display right now at The O2, and each artist has a special story about their time with Prince. Another photographer whose work can be seen at the "My Name is Prince" exhibition is Steve Parke, who was Paisley Park's art director for 14 years. Like so many of the artists that Prince worked with, Steve started working at Paisley Park as a set designer, but his job would eventually morph to include numerous tasks in many different disciplines. In addition to helping design album artwork for numerous releases spanning 1996-2002, Steve would end up overseeing the redesign of Paisley Park in the mid-1990s and creating many of the murals that are still on display today. He was also the artist responsible for hand-painting the album artwork for Graffiti Bridge — a task that he approached with great detail and care, as any modifications requested by Prince would mean starting the whole project over again! While working for Prince, Steve had the opportunity to photograph him countless times, and because he worked at Paisley Park he had the advantage of catching Prince in unguarded, casual moments: shooting basketball, stepping outside to breathe in the fall air, or visiting the nearby Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a favorite spot for reflection and solace. "I feel like the nature of the then-new technology allowed for a lot of spontaneity and experimentation versus film (we were shooting with brand-new digital cameras)," Steve reflected recently, speaking to WHSmith about his new book, Picturing Prince. "Remember that the instant gratification of digital cameras was brand new; Prince was used to flying a photographer in and seeing the end result weeks later. So he was excited to be able to just head out in the woods and see what happened.” Steve Parke on Picturing Prince (WHSmith): https://blog.whsmith.co.uk/exclusive-interview-steve-parke-on-picturing-prince/ Photo and Artwork Credit: Steve Parke photography and art #Prince #PaisleyPark #SteveParke #Photography #MPLS

#PrinceHistory On this day in 1983, filming began for Prince’s iconic movie Purple Rain. The first scenes to be captured for the movie were the exterior shots (as crews were racing against the oncoming Minnesota winter, which dips well under freezing temperatures), and shooting began in and around downtown Minneapolis and Henderson, Minnesota, where the famous “That ain't Lake Minnetonka" scene took place between Prince and Apollonia. Other scenes captured early on in the film's production were the exterior shots of "The Kid's" house, which is located at 3420 Snelling Avenue in South Minneapolis, and the unforgettable motorcycle rides Prince took down country roads with Apollonia and around the First Avenue & 7th St Entry club. By the end of November, the production moved indoors to First Avenue and the nearby Crystal Court at the IDS Center. First Avenue was rented out from November 26 to December 20, 1983, for $100,000 and the scenes captured inside the club would soon be viewed around the world, catapulting Prince and the venue to worldwide fame. What are your favorite scenes from Purple Rain? Have you visited any of the Minnesota locations where the movie was filmed? #Prince #PurpleRain #PaisleyPark

#MyNameIsPrince With the "My Name is Prince" exhibition officially underway at The O2, let's take a moment to celebrate one of the most iconic pieces currently on display in London. Thanks to the music video's heavy rotation on MTV in 1985, many Prince fams will instantly recognize this suit Prince wore in the video for "Raspberry Beret." In addition to wearing it in the video, Prince was also pictured in the cloud suit on the cover of Rolling Stone that year (the magazine took a still from the video for their cover), and it can be seen on the cover of Around the World in a Day, worn by a character holding his white Cloud guitar. Visitors to Paisley Park know that Prince loved bright blue and white cloud designs; the same motif can be seen on the walls of the Atrium here, adding to the airy and ethereal nature of the space. It was a motif that carried through Prince's entire career - in 2014, he released a collaboration with Lianne La Havas on his album Art Official Age that was simply called "Clouds." Check out the video for "Raspberry Beret” on the official Prince YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7vRSu_wsNc #Prince #PaisleyPark #TheRevolution #AroundTheWorldInADay #MTV #Fashion #Icon

#MyNameIsPrince In addition to the numerous outfits, guitars, and artifacts on display at the "My Name is Prince” exhibition in London, visitors are being treated to a selection of very special photographs of Prince that were captured by some of the visual artists he worked with most often. One of those visual artists is Afshin Shahidi, a photographer who shared a long working relationship with Prince. Their friendship and professional relationship began when Afshin started doing video work at Paisley Park back in 1993, and extended to recent years. Afshin was invited to be the official photographer for Prince's One Nite Alone... Tour in 2002, he was granted access to Prince's famous 3121 parties in Los Angeles, and he was invited to travel with Prince to photograph him in Maui. The trip to Maui resulted in a book collaboration between Prince and Afshin, titled "Prince in Hawaii: An Intimate Portrait of an Artist," that documented Prince's deep love for the Hawaii Islands and captured behind-the-scenes images of the shows he performed there in 2003. More recently, Afshin just released a new book of images that span his entire time with Prince titled "Prince: A Private View." Each photographer who worked with Prince brought his or her own style to projects, and Afshin's portraits do an especially wonderful job of drawing out the magnetic power of Prince's eyes, capturing his penetrating stare from every angle. "His eyes were piercing, and they always seemed to be looking through you and to know so much about you," Afshin told WBUR recently, reflecting on his photographs of Prince. As Afshin shared during Celebration 2017 at Paisley Park earlier this year, even though Prince looks very serious in most of his portraits, some of his favorite memories of the artist were when he was relaxed and silly, joking around with his friends and making everyone laugh. “He was a complete goofball,” Afshin shared with Salon. “Some of the images of him that you see where he has such a straight and serene kind of face, the second I’m done taking the picture, he’s goofing off.” Afshin shared a touching post relating to his time with Prince last week: https://www.instagram.com/p/BanS2-OHeIl/?hl=en&taken-by=afshinashahidi For those who have visited the "My Name Is Prince" exhibition at The O2, let us know about your experiences in the comments! Photo credit: Afshin Shahidi #Prince #PaisleyPark #MyNameIsPrince #O2

Today marks the official opening of “My Name is Prince” at London’s The O2, which is the first ever official exhibition about Prince to be staged outside of Paisley Park. Prince loved his worldwide network of fans so much that he often referred to them as his “fams” - short for family - and those who attended his Celebration events in the early 2000s or visited Paisley Park for concerts know that it was important to him to open his doors to people from around the world to experience his creative space and see his incredible archive of iconic artifacts. Paisley Park lives on in that very spirit today, welcoming visitors from around the world into Prince’s creative sanctuary, and “My Name is Prince” is an extension of that same idea. Now, fams from across Europe will have the opportunity to see incredible pieces like the original bass that inspired the design of the famous Cloud guitar, some of the clothing he wore during his record-breaking 21-night run at the O2, the instantly recognizable cloud suit Prince wore in the video for “Raspberry Beret,” and numerous other outfits, instruments, awards, and handwritten lyrics. European fams, are you going to “My Name is Prince”? Tell us about your favorite pieces from the exhibition! My Name Is Prince http://mynameisprince.co.uk #Prince #PaisleyPark #MyNameIsPrince