Kerry Gordy pays tribute to Prince
Prince’s former manager Kerry Gordy has paid tribute to the singer and song writer.
Gordy, who managed Prince’s record label, spoke to ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning about the star who died yesterday. Speaking to Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard from Los Angeles, Kerry said: “He was amazing. It was truly a fantastic run that we had.”
“He was a great songwriter, he was a great producer, he was a great arranger and he was a great musician. Not only was he a guitar player, he was a keyboard player, he was a drummer, he was a bass player, he did all of the instruments and he did all of the arrangements. He was a total talent as opposed to people who just do one thing…he did everything. He will be remembered for a person who was truly multi-talented. “
Speaking about Prince’s reason for wanting to change his name during his career, Kerry said:
“I was there when he decided to change his name to a symbol or to ‘the artist formerly known as Prince’ and the reason why he did it was he felt that Warner Brothers owned him and he didn’t want to be owned. He felt that they owned the name Prince and that they dictated when he could release a record, when he could not release a record and he didn’t want anybody to own his name. Therefore he decided, ‘I’m dropping my name and I’m going to release records when I want to release records and I’m going to do what I want'”
Speaking about the legacy Prince has left behind, Kerry said:
“First of all I got to meet him before he became a star, when he was out trying to become a star when he first got his deal with Warner Brothers Records. I didn’t start running his company until long after that but once he became a star, it was amazing and he had incredible business acumen he definitely wanted to own his music, his copyrights and his masters. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and the r’n’b acts before him never really owned their own music….and then Prince showed them how that they could now start owning their own copyrights and music and sound recordings.”
Prince Rogers Nelson died yesterday after being found unresponsive, in an elevator at Paisley Park. He was 57.
