{"id":494697,"date":"2020-04-07T07:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=979464"},"modified":"2020-04-07T07:59:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:59:01","slug":"alicia-keys-had-to-audition-in-front-of-prince-to-cover-his-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/alicia-keys-had-to-audition-in-front-of-prince-to-cover-his-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Alicia Keys Had to Audition in Front of Prince to Cover His Song"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alicia Keys<\/a> was the guest on Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s podcast Broken Record<\/em><\/a> this week, talking about her new book More Myself<\/em> and her upcoming album Alicia<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While discussing her life story and career trajectory, Keys told Gladwell a \u201cbananas\u201d Prince<\/a> story: She had to ask for the late pop auteur\u2019s permission to cover his song \u201cHow Come You Don\u2019t Call Me\u201d for her debut album Song in a Minor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther people could call [him], but it would likely not go well,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that they understood that if I called, maybe it made it a little harder for him to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point in her career, Keys was 18 or 19 and had only released her debut single \u201cFallin\u2019.\u201d Because Prince<\/a> was the songwriter on \u201cHow Come You Don\u2019t Call Me,\u201d she was legally obligated to get his clearance before putting the cover on her album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t spoken to people that I adored like him ever before that phone call,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was not a normal occurrence \u2014 even today if he were still alive, and I was calling him, I would still feel nervous about calling him.\u201d Keys had also heard stories of Prince \u201ctime and time again\u201d turning covers down, \u201cSo that\u2019s what I was up against,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After getting transferred through multiple handlers on the call, which made her even more nervous, Keys finally got on the phone with Prince. \u201cI start talking to him, and he was super friendly and encouraging, saying he heard what I\u2019d been working on and that he knows I\u2019m writing and producing my stuff. He said to keep that up. I asked if I could play [the song] on the album, and he said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you come to Paisley Park and play it for me?’\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Keys had to travel to Minneapolis that winter and essentially audition the song in front of Prince in order to get his permission. Afterwards, Prince became Keys\u2019 mentor and friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was definitely observing what I was doing, and he was so veraciously a music lover and really excited about new music, all the time,\u201d she says. \u201cI never met anybody like that, who just knew the pulse of new music so well. That was him.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alicia Keys was the guest on Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s podcast Broken Record this week, talking about her new book More Myself and her upcoming album Alicia. While discussing her life story and career trajectory, Keys told Gladwell a \u201cbananas\u201d Prince story: She had to ask for the late pop auteur\u2019s permission to cover his song \u201cHow Come You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-494697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-07 17:46:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}