5. PrinceSign “O” The Times

There had to be a Prince album on the list, and Sign O’ The Times is the most “Prince” of the Prince albums. When I was doing Hamilton in New York, we all got a text at intermission saying, “Prince invites you to the Avenue club afterwards”, so everybody just piled into cars and went down there. It wasn’t a big spot, and it was us, a few of the cast of The Color Purple, which was also on Broadway at the time, and that was it. Bill [Hutson], from Clipping, happened to be seeing Hamilton that evening. I’ve known Bill since I was nine; we grew up together, he’s my best friend. And every time Prince played the Bay Area, he would give some super-secret after-party, and you would hear where it was on the radio, or via word of mouth, and we would line up, and were always 10 people or so away from getting into the club. I’d never seen Prince live. So me and Bill are in this club after the Hamilton performance, and it’s an open bar, and Pam The Funkstress, the former DJ for The Coup, is DJing, and everyone’s dancing, but there’s no Prince. Then, at two in the morning, the lights go out and a spotlight comes up on the balcony, and Prince performs for 90 minutes. Pam is scratching drum breaks, Prince is singing and playing piano, and there’s a dancer, and that was the concert. I remember this incredible, euphoric feeling when he played ‘Sign O’ The Times’. And then, 31 days later, he died. It was one of the last shows he ever played, and I feel very, very grateful that I got to have that experience. The feeling of him playing that song, in that room, at that time, with the whole history of my life leading up to it, is one that I will hold on to forever.