(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
2016 was a truly weird year for music fans. Absolute titans of industry Prince, David Bowie, and Leonard Cohen all passed away, and as bleak as it may sound, it felt like the beginning of the twilight chapter. The years where it became apparent that we must enjoy every ounce of greatness that’s left, because soon, an entire generation that formed the bedrock of culture, would no longer be around.
Because it is of course easy to take for granted just how important they are to culture, when we aren’t presented with their mortality. Someone like Prince felt inherently futuristic and groundbreaking, that the idea he wouldn’t somehow be on hand to contribute creatively felt absurd. Both he and his music felt ever-present.
While that is obviously the case for the latter, we were confronted with the fact the former simply wasn’t true. Suddenly, in 2016, musicians all over the world realised that the great innovator, the man who exists somewhere in every fibre of influence, could no longer be relied on. It hit heavy, across the entire music industry, but none more so than those artists who shockingly turned down the opportunity to collaborate with him.
Three artists have been brave enough to publicly admit they have committed what many would consider the ultimate musical faux-pas, but all of them have very different and quite valid reasons.
The first was Gabrielle who simply did what most of us would likely do: chickened out. When asked if it was true that she did indeed turn down the opportunity to perform with Prince, she simply admitted, “Yes, because I’m a scaredy cat.”
While performing in Abu Dhabi with Nicole Scherzinger, Prince spotted Gabrielle in the wings of the stage and spontaneously invited her on stage. Understandably shocked, she let the moment pass her by and now forever holds a memory of ultimate regret.
“I was in awe of him, and how gorgeous she was with her amazing vocals, and just couldn’t do it. It was all down to my insecurity. I’m kicking myself now and today I would do it but some things are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
But not all musicians let the opportunity slip solely down to nerves, some rather shockingly declined Prince’s collaborative invitations on creative grounds. When composer Danny Elfman was penning the score for 1989 Batman film, studio executives had extended a creative olive branch between him and Prince, with a view to getting him on the score, but Elfman declined.
“There was a period where the producers wanted me to co-write a score with Prince, and I just wasn’t willing to do it.” He continued, explaining that Prince’s brilliant songwriting style would perhaps hamper the more muted direction of a film score. “My feeling at that point was that Prince was a great, great songwriter, but that he probably was not a film composer, and that he would come up with melodies, and I would essentially be turning those melodies into a score. And so, my feeling is that I would end up being a glorified orchestrator, or an arranger, not a composer on the project. And I just wasn’t willing to do that.”
It’s a completely credible defence for turning down the opportunity to work with an all-time great, in what sounds almost like a veiled “never meet your heroes take”. But while Elfman did what was the creatively right thing, the film turned out to be somewhat of a mess and so maybe Prince’s involvement would have been the shining light.
While nervousness and creativity account for the previous two instances, this final one leans on the more personal and bizarre. While the personal lives of artists are often used as fuel for creative fires, for Shania Twain, the immediacy of her own private life was too much to overcome, even when Prince came knocking.
“Prince called me when I got divorced” Twain explained, when asked about a potential collaboration between the pair. “We’re on the phone and he said, ‘Shania, why don’t you come to Paisley Park? I want to make the next Rumours album with you.”
She continued, “When Prince said that to me, I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m not even divorced yet’. I’m just like, I’ve been dumped, but I’m not, obviously, divorced yet. I’m like, this is way too ironic what you’re saying. Right? And I’m such a major Prince fan.”
Twain parked it, thinking that the door would remain open in the future. But eight years later, the great musician sadly passed away and all Twain was left with was the thought of what could have been, “I don’t think I was ready for what all that was going to mean for me. I didn’t give up on it or anything, but then he died.”
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