New Power Generation: Prince's backing band on keeping his music alive
'We try to represent the music in way that, if Prince was watching us, he’d want to get on the stage.' Picture: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
Sharing a stage with Prince was a thrill, an honour and an adventure, says musician Morris Hayes, who for 20 years led the pop maverick’s band, the New Power Generation.
Once Prince got going, you never knew what you were in for, he says. Hayes recalls a period in the 1990s when Prince would blaze through a concert and then stay up all night performing at an “after-party” for fans (as he did after headlining the RDS in Dublin in 1992).
“We would literally play three shows a day,” smiles Hayes from his base in Minneapolis. “Our sound checks would go for hours. In the sound-check, we would just jam. And then we’d do the easy part with the show. And then came the after-show. It was a long day.”
Prince passed away in 2016 — the year pop seemed cursed by the grim reaper (David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and George Michael would also die that year). But the New Power Generation live on and tour the world helping keep alive Prince’s music by paying homage to his iconoclastic spirit. Irish fans will have a chance to experience their emotive tribute to their late boss when they perform at Cork Opera House on October 29 as part of the Jazz Festival.
“He was such a magnetic artist. You can’t replace him,” says Hayes, explaining that NPG lead singer MacKenzie does not attempt to impersonate Prince. It’s about conjuring his spirit rather than looking or sounding like him.
“We try to represent the music in way that, if Prince was watching us, he’d want to get on the stage. The idea is to give the fans a good marker of what it used to be like for us playing with Prince. MacKenzie does a really good job singing the songs without trying to imitate Prince — because that just doesn’t fly.”
It’s been a fascinating several years for Prince fans. While the NPG toured, the late artist’s estate last year shared with the world Welcome 2 America, a previously unreleased Prince album from 2010.
If the project has its admirers and detractors, one thing that is undeniable is its foresight — with Prince warning on the title track that America was headed to a dark and scary place. A decade on, as the US recovers from the Trump presidency and reckons with the message delivered by the Black Lives Matter protests, his prescience is striking.
“That was a really an amazing thing,” says Hayes who played on Welcome 2 America. “I remember when he called me and I went over to the studio at Paisley [Park, Prince’s complex in Minneapolis]. He said ‘we’d love you to come down and play on something’. I remember sitting there listening to the tracks — and I was like, ‘wow…this is really poignant’.
"And then it went full circle and here we are. It’s still poignant — even more so now than when he did it. It’s remarkable. His ability to foreshadow that kind of thing was incredible.”
Prince was proud to be from Minneapolis, where he built Paisley Park (and where he died). The city was also ground zero of the Black Lives Matters protests after the murder there of George Floyd in May 2020.
“He loved Minneapolis. He always stayed close to home. It [the protests] would have hit him in a way like nothing else, man. I just wonder what would he have done? What music would he have made? I know it would have been something special because I know what Minneapolis meant to him. And so it being a centre point of all of that — it would have been interesting.”
As anyone who saw Prince in concert will testify, he was an extraordinary mix of humble and magnetic. He was visibly shy — and yet also electrified with a 24-watt rock star charisma.
“I guess it was that Gemini thing — that duality,” says Hayes. “He was very much a shy and introverted person in one sense. It was a Clark Kent-Superman thing. He was explosive on stage. He was very animated and also a very shy person. There were these two sides to him all the time.”
Prince created the New Power Generation as his backing band in 1990 (having previously played with The Revolution). Hayes was recruited in 1992, six years after Prince had discovered him at a club in Memphis. They were close — or at least as close as Prince allowed you to be. But he was also a demanding boss.
“James Brown was his blueprint: how he ran his situation. He was very tough on stage. He didn’t like mistakes. He said that people paid to see something great. He didn’t want you to come in with half your game. He wanted you with your full game. We rehearsed hard, and played hard.”
Yet if difficult to get close to he also respected the opinions of those he trusted. “I confronted him one time about an issue. I was a little worried about him. I confided in him about it. He assured me he was cool and everything. He took a week off and was just gone.
"We usually get an instruction what do when he’s out: do this or whatever. We didn’t hear from him. As soon as he got back, he called my name over the intercom. I was working in Paisley. He said, ‘Morris come to my office’. I was like, ‘oh God — he’s been gone a week and the first person he wants to see is me’”.
Hayes feared the worst. “But he said to me, ‘hey man — I just wanted to thank you for coming in and talking with me’. ‘Since I’ve been a professional — which is since 17-years-old — and I’ve never gone a week without picking up my guitar or writing a song’."
Hayes says the star was very close to the people in his circle. "Prince was very compartmentalised into the circle he was in at the time. He was always cool with me. But once you leave you’re out of that cube. He was a fantastic person — he was very good to me.”
Prince famously played Cork in July 1990. This was several years before Morris joined the project. However, the NPG members who were there speak highly of the concert at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. “It’s going to be a delight to go back. Tony [Mosley, NPG guitarist] was at that show. We’re going to be delighted to go back and bring the energy.”
- The New Power Generation play Cork Opera House on Saturday, October 29, as part of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. See guinnesscorkjazz.com
