tavis: good evening from los angeles. a rare conversation with one of music ' s biggest superstars, prince. the grammy and oscar-winning icon has released a three cd set on lotus flower.com. we will get his thoughts tonight on a number of subjects including the state of the music industry and how the digital age is impacting everything from content to compensation. we are glad that you have joined us for a conversation with price coming up.

>> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing, like helping people live better. we are looking forward to help building a stronger communities and relationships. with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance probably -- proudly supports tavis smiley. working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- tavis: i am pleased to welcome prince back to this program. the icon that producer and

singer has been no one of the most prolific? for three decades. he was inducted into the rock- and-roll hall of fame in 2004. her new 3d set features a nude talented young singer. you can get his 3-cd set that -- at lotusflower.com >> ♪ i think i could love her i hope she walks over i have been waiting to show her crimson clover over and over ♪ tavis: good to see you as always. >> likewise.

tavis: do we look good? >> looking sharp. i am feeling the sideburns. tavis: that black-and-white is sharp. the book is a best-selling book. your photographer is here. i remember that conversation when we were talking about the fact that you stayed pretty much cleaned all of the time. it is not like when you are in the house you have on sweats. you are pretty sharp all of the time. that is not true? >> yes. tavis: do you know what? i would believe that except for the fact that you do not sleep. >> it journalist, advocate, insomniac.

tavis: the world's greatest musician, and sunday at. -- in insomniac. >> i watch your show every single chance i get. joni mitchell. tavis: i am glad that you said that. i did not tell you this story. one day when you were on before, i was around town somewhere. we have promoted that you would come on the next night. i walked past a group of people and i overheard them talking about the fact that you would be on the show with the next night. they were asking, why would prince go on pbs? prince watches everything, including pbs. >> you have been an advocate and i learned a lot from the state of the black union when you sent it to me. i try to check it out when i can.

that said, dick gregory, one time i saw him on here. it moved me so much that i put down the paper. i owe him money now. tavis: i want to talk about the song "dreamer" that you dedicated. i will come back to that because you got into unforgivable blackness. what did you make of that series? >> i am in celebration right now. i am thankful to be alive. i am thankful to have the friends and the teachers that i do. i spent the last year playing when i feel like it. i really look forward to the time in my life. i came across that show,

unforgivable like this. jack johnson moved me to no end. he had to deal with a seemingly insurmountable odds all of the time. if he would knock somebody down, people in the audience would get into the ring and pick him back up. i just related to it in a lot of different ways. i have never spoken about this before, but i was born epileptic. i used to have seizures when i was young. my mother and father did not know what to do or how to handle it. they did the best that they could with what little that they had. my mother told me, one day i walked into her and i told her that i would not be sick anymore. she said, why? i said, because an angel told me.

i do not remember saying it. that is just what she told me. from that point on, i have been having to deal with the lot of things including getting teased a lot in school. early in my career, i tried to compensate for that by being as flashy and noisy as i could. i look forward to this time in my life where i could reflect back on it and talk to people like yourself, and dr. cornell west. we would talk about heavy things. i just become thankful. i do not know. tavis: you have so many fans of all ages. there are some young people watching. they will be helped by your answer to this question. as a kid, being teased so much, kids get teased for a variety of

reasons, how did you what grow out of that into confidence and excellence? how did you grow into that? how did you navigate yourself past that? >> the first thing that i did was that i went into self. i taught myself music. my father left his piano at the house when he left. i was not allowed to play it when he was there. i was not as good as him. when he left, i was determined to get as good as him. i taught myself how to play music. i just stuck with it. i did it all of the time. sooner or later, people in the neighborhood heard about me. they started to talk about me. it was not in the teasing

fashion, it was more like, look at what he can do. there is something about having people around you giving you support that is motivating. once i got that support from people, that i believed i could do anything. i had a lot of really good teachers. my best friend and his brother eddie, i am entirely in debt it two in this regard. they told me that your songs are better than anybody. you can do whatever you want to do. i just kept rolling with it. i went out to york and i got turned down my first time. i felt like jack johnson there, too. i was not going to be put down. tavis: back to this excellent

thing. talk to me about excellence. it is clear that you are head and shoulders above anyone else in the world of music. that is my assessment. it you are head and shoulders above everybody else. talk to me about how we who are not prince can aspire to the level of excellence that you portrait in what we do every day. >> everybody is talented at something. that is what makes the world go around. we all need each other. it is about good mentoring and teachers. i had good people around. the other thing that i have to point out -- how can i put this. my father was so hard on me, i was never good enough. it was almost like the army when

it came to music. that is not even close to what i am doing. he would play again. i could hear it. by drummer is the same way. we learn from that. we learn from being shown. it does not just come from books and reading. we need to be shown. it is having read the good teachers and a bar that is so high. tiger woods and we could go on and on. >> you talked a couple of times about your father, which you do not do in public. do, everything about you is love. you create love. they come into your world and they feel the love. love is in your in lyrical content. your whole life is about a love

of humanity. how did you get into this place of being love when you have this relationship with your father that did not always exhibit love? he could be a very in -- you could be a very mean personnel, why not? >> i have a mean side. i could go there. i am a fighter. i am very competitive. by him being so hard on me -- the one thing i got out of it is that i understood in his harshness that he wanted me to excel. he used to say things like, do not ever get a girl pregnant. do not ever get married. do not do this or do not do that. when he would say these things i

did not know what to take from it. i would create my own universe. my sister is like that. a lot of my friends are like that. creating your own universe is the key to get i believe. and letting all of the people that you need occupy that universe. tavis: how have you chosen, how have you decided to maintain the friendships that you have maintained over the years? what is your barometer for knowing whether or not those friendships are beneficial? does that make sense? >> you can tell whether they are beneficial if someone is respectful of you. respectful of you when that are

not around you. most people are pretty respectful in front of my face. when they are not around me, sometimes you hear them say some pretty hurtful things. i do not think if they think it will not get back to me or if i do not care or if they think i am above it or whatever. i remember them as i remember them. we were in love then and we should be in love canal. -- love now. the world itself is a hurtful place. we do not need to add to get. we are in a place where we need one another and it is going to be rougher. i kind of hope people when they hear that, they do not think that i am going to lash out at them. i have never done that. i have heard a lot of things

from a lot of different people, pretty famous people. a lot of journalists. a lot of my work is based upon my personality or my past work as opposed to where we are now. it is hurtful. tavis: how difficult is it to live in a world -- i take your point that the world is already mean enough, we do not need to add to get, how do you contextualize emotionally having much of your work judged by your personality rather than on the merits of the work? >> one reason is because i like criticism. i'd like constructive criticism from smart people. i am blessed enough to be able to say that miles davis was a friend.

he was a wonderful mentor and really funny. he could critique something that you have done by humor. and out of love rather than calling you a punk and dis you. he was not like that. people he cared about he tried to help. when people criticize my work and attacked my personality, it does not help me. i cannot do anything with it. i do not know what they want. i have asked writers this before. a lot of times they say that they are just riding for each other. -- writing for each other.

tavis: i want to connect these things. i said that you were head and shoulders above everyone else in this world. most musicians acknowledge that. who is qualified -- that is my story and i am sticking to it, who is qualified to critique you? >> anybody. tavis: music critics? fans? other artists? >> i do not mind anybody if they do it with a sense of love. if they are trying to show me something about the work that they really feel is important for me to know. i do not see a lot in journalism -- of that in journalism today. most journalists are just lazy. tavis: you say that you love constructive criticism from smart people. how do people critique you if you are so ahead of your time?

if you are so ahead of your time, how could they critique you if they have not caught up to you? >> if they do not feel what i am doing, they are going to let me know. if it is someone i love, they will tell me the reasons why. i appreciate that. i write and record all of the time. tavis: i cannot get jack out of my head as far as this conversation is concerned. who have you felt most often like in the ring fighting the record industry? like jack or let the opponent? >> like jack. i knew that i was right. we talked about this in our very first conversation together. it is obvious now that artists are supposed to own their master recordings. in the future it would be

unconscionable to take someone's creation and claim ownership of it. unfortunately, this discussion is going to start to barrel into the human genome and dna and the rest of it. when it gets there, we are going to be in deep water. it is better to start the conversation now before we get into god talk. tavis: there are four songs that i want to ask you about. i have done what i have never done before, which is to print the lyrics out. i am learning some of them. >> who gave you the lyrics? i have seen some really strange rewrites. one time they said the lyrics to "when doves' cry" take a look at the picture of me, marvin gaye,

and the kids. then there was another one, this person will go unnamed, she did not speak the english language too good. she had a really cute daughter. that is why we were acquaintances. she swore up and down that " little red corvette" was "pay the rent correct." tavis: i am a fast learner. i cannot point to read any of these on the air. i am going to ask you about the lyrical content. for those of you who do not have the record, you can go on line and follow along. since we mentioned "dreamer" first, tell me about it. >> when i saw the state of the black union, dick gregory really

moved me and a lot of my friends and showed me this. they need to hear that so that they know more about all of us. what he said affects all of us. he said something that really hit home about this phenomenon. when i was a kid i used to see these trails in the sky all of the time. that is cool. a jet just went over. then you started to see a whole bunch of them. the next thing you know, everyone in your neighborhood is fighting and arguing and you do not know why. you really did not know why. everybody was fighting. he started riffing about the che m trails.

he started to say things that hit home so hard. i would recommend that everybody tried to get what he said online or whatever and try to get a copy of it and listen to it. i was so moved that i had to write this song. the first line of the song, since i was born on the same plantation, the united states of the red white and blue. we live in a place that feels just about like a plantation. we are all indentured servants. when i found out there were eight presidents before george washington, i wanted to smack somebody. i wanted to know why i was taught otherwise. tell me the whole story. i will fill in the blanks. do not tell me something that you think i am supposed to know. tavis: we are indentured servants and we have a black

president now? >> i do not vote. i do not have anything to do with that. tavis: for those who cuss me out and slapped me in person if i did not ask you why? >> i was born jehovah's witnesses. we have never voted. that is not to say that i do not think that president obama is a very smart individual. he seems like he means well. prophecy is what we all have to go by now. a very interesting idea, a sold- out concert in london we played 21 nights in a row and all of the concert were sold out. when i watch television over there and you would see the united nations feed, you would hear them talk a lot about religion. you would hear the bible mentioned constantly. this is not what we are used to

in the united states. it is almost that there is no need for god or religion or justice in politics. there is supposed to be a separation of church and state over here. we cannot have the separation of state and morality though. songs like "dreamer" and the other is the same thing. tavis: i have good news and bad news. the bad news is that i am out of time for this show. the good news is that i think a five been on my producer, i might get prince to stick around for another 12 minutes. if you can tune in tomorrow night, we can finish our conversations -- it is never over, but we will continue it. you can get his songs at lotusflower.com.

this fine artist that he referenced earlier in this conversation. >> yes. tavis: now we are talking. tomorrow is part 2 of the conversation with prince. she is on one of the three cds in this 3 cd package. that is our show for tonight. you can access our radio podcast on our website. i will see you next time on pbs. good night from los angeles. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: drug mean next time for part two of my exclusive -- join me next time for part two of my exclusive conversation with prince. >> there are so many things that

wal-mart is looking forward to doing, like helping people live better. we are looking forward to help building stronger communities and relationships. >> nationwide insurance probably supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> nationwide is on your side. >> and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis [captioning made possible by kcet public television]