Join Scottie Baldwin, the renowned front-of-house engineer for Prince, Madonna, and Lady Gaga, as he sits down with Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley for a masterclass in live sound artistry. Baldwin opens up about his unforgettable experiences working with Prince—highlighting his belief that Prince’s voice was his greatest instrument. He shares powerful reflections on capturing the emotional resonance of live performances and preserving the raw beauty of an artist’s vocal delivery.

This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative and technical side of some of the world’s most iconic shows. Baldwin details the evolution of his role from drum technician to creative collaborator and reveals how working with legends shaped his philosophy. From the intimacy of Prince’s Piano and a Microphone Tour to the future of music production in Asia, Baldwin’s stories offer rare insight into what truly makes a live performance unforgettable.

🎙️ Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley is a podcast featuring legendary and emerging funk, R&B, and Prince-associated artists. On air since 1982 and now spanning five decades, the show was personally spotlighted by Prince on his website in 2004. He also gifted us the One Nite Alone box set in 2002 — before any media outlet.

#Prince #Funk #npg #scottiebaldwin #MusiciansReveal

His greatest instrument.

I've since then amended it to be his vocal.

His vocal was unrivaled.

His range, his clarity, his, the constitution of his voice.

It was in the same shape near the end as it was in the beginning of his career.

There's, he never did anything in alternate keys that I know of when I was there because I always know what key was in and I'd be like, oh, B flat.

He might be headed for Purple Rain.

Or, you know, I would know where he was going by what key was in.

He didn't alter his keys.

It was effortless.

His falsetto was present and very strong.

Princess, that guy's vocal was perfect.

This is Scotty Baldwin and you are watching Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly.

Welcome to Musicians Reveal.

Joe Kelly here for an outstanding chat we're going to have with a premiere front of the house single sound engineer Scotty Baldwin from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He is well known for being the sound engineer in concerts with Prince, Madonna, Earth, Wind and Fire.

And for the last year few years he's been with the best performers out in Asia.

We catch him on a brief break.

Ready to go back to Asia in a little while.

Scotty Baldwin, welcome to Musicians Reveal.

Joe, I'm jet lagged but I will put it, keep it together for an hour and a half here or so just to make sure I, I don't hit the, hit the wall here.

I'm, I'm on these, I'm on one of these five day home trips from Asia and I do a lot of those where I'll go back and forth and I'm, I'm in Asia for a week and then I'll come home for just five or six days and it can be brutal, but I'm up and I'm ready to go.

I love your podcast, so I'm excited.

Yeah, no thanks.

I mean we've been, obviously you've been a big part of our, our live with, you know, all the great sound with, with some great artists including Prince and back home.

And what do you do when you're not music focused when you get back home?

Reacquaint yourself with the family, I'm sure.

First and foremost, of course my wife and daughters.

There's all sorts of family time to have in the time that I can't be spending doing that when I'm gone.

I make up for it when I'm home.

It's summertime now in Minneapolis in Minnesota, so it's nice.

I love to go up to the Boundary Waters canoe area and do solo trips and Family trips up in there.

And then I just.

That's where I get to get divorced from all of the music industry.

And I don't bring.

I don't even bring my phone in there.

We just go in for a week and come out with paper maps and, and take it all in there and just paddle and portage my way to the middle of nowhere and look at the Milky Way.

Just stare up at the Milky Way.

I think it's, it's refreshing and resetting.

So that's one of the things I like to do.

Yeah, it's a beautiful state.

So are you originally.

Did you start out playing music or was it first into the technical side?

It was a little of both.

I saw.

I was inspired by Eddie Van Halen, as were a lot of people who are in their late 50s.

You know, we saw Eddie play or heard him play and just thought, what is he doing?

And I got into guitar and I quick.

I found out I didn't have much aptitude for playing guitar, but I was good at guitar teching and I was very good adept at taking guitars apart and routing necks and adjusting action and intonation.

And so I worked for a couple of bands in Minneapolis before Michael Bland, of course, from Prince fame kind of discovered me and, and said, hey man, will you just go on the road with me?

At first to set up his gear.

He was such a busy session and a gigging drummer in Minneapolis that I started by just basically being Michael's in town tech.

But it was only a few months before I was at Paisley park and sitting behind Michael as he played and setting up sessions for Prince.

And then the next thing you know, Michael's like, do you want to go on the road?

Yes, I do.

And that turned into four plus years as Michael's drum tech.

And all the while, Joe, I was learning sound in, in concert kind of at the same time as I was setting up drums and I learned how to run sound and, and, and I would apply the principles that I would learn being in the room with Prince.

He would talk a lot about sound and he would talk a lot about arrangement and live arrangement and how it differs from studio arrangement.

I would just sit back behind Michael and just sort of soak all this in and memorize all these things, just kind of compartmentalize all these sayings he had and file them away.

And then I was able to pull those out later and use them in my sound career.

So I've still, I still use Architectural tenants and principles that I learned from sitting behind Michael Bland for, for Four plus years behind the drums and you.

Couldn'T meet a nicer guy.

Michael Bland and you know, a true.

Master, you know, at what he does.

A leader in, in his field.

And when you're around, it takes a.

It takes a fair amount of humility.

But when, when, when you're around great people who are great at what they do, if you just sit back long enough and you'll learn.

There's so much to learn just by example.

It doesn't need to be taught.

It's taught by example.

And all the discussions that Michael and I had on the gig and in the studio and things I would ask him or things he would ask me and I was kind of learning about myself as well and my proclivities and interests and Michael, great people like that sort of pull it out of.

Of others around them and, and you can't help but get better when you're around people like Michael and like Prince.

How about for past drum text, do you talk to Brad Marshall up before the gig?

No, I, I haven't.

I've never had much interface.

Brad and myself, our, our overlap was very short.

I think it was during the Diamonds and Pearls tour, I believe.

Okay.

Was our, our overlap where I was starting to do all the acoustic stuff and Brad was setting up for Michael, but he was mostly on electronics back then.

And then it.

So Brad and I have very little overlap and I haven't kept in contact with.

I'm.

I'm unplugged from all social.

So when people say, hey, there's a Facebook meetup or there's an Instagram meetup or there, you know, I've, I've sort of.

I've gone the other way and I've sort of.

I don't know when it was four or five years ago because I've been exclusively in Asia for seven plus years now.

A lot of that isn't allowed over there.

And trying to run a VPN, they kind of catch up with the VPNs and shut them down.

So at some point I just kind of gave up with.

And you know, with your experience of being in Asia, even though it was a while back, is I just sort of went, you know, I don't need this and I don't need this.

And I sort of got used to not being on social media and it's kind of refreshing.

Yeah.

When I was over in Asia, the, the only way I would get U.

S News was USA Today.

I would buy the paper and I'm reading it one day and they said There was a fire at a supermarket.

I was like, my brother worked at that supermarke and it was an arson job.

But you know, we, we still have a joke like somebody burned it down, but.

But that's how I found it.

Brother's not talking, right?

Yeah, he's not talking.

He was up at Boston University for college at the time.

But yeah, yeah, that's his story.

But yeah, it's like, but times have changed, but it's good to kind of branch, you know, shut down.

I'm sure it helps, right?

Yeah, it does.

I, it.

There's never been a better time.

I think.

Even though I don't consider myself an overly political person, I, I'm.

Most of what I take in ingest is world geopolitics.

If I watch anything when I'm over in China, it's, it's a different, whole different take on it.

So I've seen all sides now and so I just, I think the safest place is just on the outside looking in.

I don't, I don't get too wrapped up and all that stuff, but it's a good time to be divested as far as I'm concerned in all the social medias because everyone is in on, on everything.

I mean I, I'm still on Reddit.

I follow a couple of, of groups on Reddit and I've recently been on.

Can't remember what it's called now.

Discord to follow a, A canoe.

A canoeing group.

But otherwise no Insta, no Twitter, no Facebook, never been on Facebook.

I just don't.

It's not something in which I'm, I'm interested.

I'm certainly not a techno adverse.

Right.

But I just think that's not where I want to spend my time when I'm home.

I really want to keep my focus on my family and what's going on in front of me.

Right.

Sounds good.

That's right.

Yeah.

I've kind of tried to peel back because there's just so much out there.

I mean we put announcements out, but we've been putting so much focus on YouTube and MixCloud.

So, you know, everybody's got their, their recipe.

Yeah, yeah, they'll be wrestling YouTube from my cold dead hands.

YouTube is where I have the most fun because I can look up exactly what I want and watch exactly what I want and kind of control what's volley back at me.

You know, I kind of defend those things that are just those little quick clips that they try and grab, get you to go a certain way.

I Try and stay away from all that stuff as well.

Yeah.

Let me ask you about as, as a drum tech, you mentioned in the studio with Michael Bland and Prince giving you advice, you, when you transition to drum tech live, what goes into setting up Michael Bland and other drummers?

Great question, great question, Joe.

That's.

I learned a lot about the difference between how you tune for a studio session, how you tune for live.

Prince taught me the most of that.

Michael taught me some.

But there was a particular instance where Prince heard me tuning on a Saturday morning.

I was the only one at Paisley park other than Prince, assumedly, because he kind of caught me tuning the, the sonar kit.

And he came in and he said, hey, listen, I know you're proud of making those drums ring, but in the live setting you don't need, we don't need any ringing in the drums.

We just need it to be dull like a thud, like a Cadillac door shutting.

And I, when he said that, I went, oh, I get it.

Like that's a really good way of describing it.

So he said, you, you retune and I'll come back when I hear you and I'll take a listen.

And I did.

And 45 minutes later, or whenever, however long later, he came back in and he played the kitten.

He's like, that's how you should make him sound live.

So he knew, he was a guy who knew what.

First of all, Prince always knew what he wanted and if he didn't, he faked it really well.

But he, he, he knew how to arrange.

I can't emphasize this enough or in enough interviews.

Prince knew, he was a master live arranger.

He knew how to arrange things live differently than they are in the studio.

That was, that's particularly important to me now because as a front of house engineer of a long list of high end a list acts, they have the, they can afford to bring in all their old tracks and have them in the playback rig and often they don't edit those down enough.

And then you've got a lot of fighting between drums and the loops that are from a record.

And there's a lot of, there's a lot of agitation, a lot of things that get things out of focus.

The mix can get out of focus, I guess is a good way of saying it.

So I'm very experienced at working with programmers and playback engineers and saying, let's take that out, we don't need that, let's get rid of this, leave that part in and try and make it really gel together and sound like it's cohesive.

And a lot of that came from just listening to Prince and Michael about live arrangement and how to keep things tight and sparse.

You want to create pockets of little parts of, you know, you want to create some space in between those notes.

Back when you were doing the tech for the drums, what.

What are some of the things that could go drastically wrong in the middle of a show?

And, and, and how was Prince afterwards?

How did he respond to maybe something going off kilter?

He.

With Michael, I think there was one time.

There was one time when Brad had trouble.

The loop got off.

Michael started the loop on time, the loop stopped or went off or was intermittent.

And Brad, I think, had it traced down to a MIDI cable being unplugged.

I'm not sure if that was Brad.

That was what.

Brad got back to Prince or needed to get back to Prince or whether or not something else went wrong.

But there are gremlins and they do occur.

That was the only time I saw something go wrong with Michael.

We had a pretty, well, pretty good system ironed out.

The issue with Michael was because of Michael's size and power and energy and the fact that Michael hit through the drums basically early in his career anyway, things would break.

He would break cymbals every night.

He would have.

At the end of a set, he could go through always 20 sticks.

Sometimes it looked like a forest floor, just sticks, shredded sticks everywhere.

And he would.

And we had to have systems in place of fixing drums, fixing broken kick drum pedals, fixing, you know, and we did.

We, Michael and I sat down and came up with some really creative ways of doing that along with the electronic tech, Dave Keffer, where we would.

We had the sound engineer at the time, the front house engineer, I believe it was Dave Natal back then.

We had Dave record Michael's kick drum and give it to us on dat.

And we put a recording of Michael's kick into the sampler and gave Michael one specific pad.

I believe it was the lower left pad, the farthest away from him, that always had Michael's kick drum on it.

So when Michael hit the real acoustic kick.

I hope this isn't too inside bass.

No, no, no.

Michael would hit the.

Michael would hit the acoustic kick and then he would hit the sample kick.

And we got those to be the same level.

So if Michael.

And he did break kick drum pedal chains, he would.

He would just look over shoulder.

I would already know what was happening.

He would move his foot and he would start playing the kick with his left hand.

And I would reach in and Change the pedal out.

And we.

Michael and I would rehearse this some mornings.

We would rehearse things going wrong.

How are you going to fix this?

How are we going to fix this?

We need a speed clamp on these for you cymbals because these are the ones I'm more likely to break.

We always had and like.

Like a.

An F1 or a NASCAR pit crew.

How they practice their pit stops.

Michael and I would practice things going wrong.

So we got really adept at being able to fix things quickly so that no one noticed.

Yeah, I.

You know who was in charge the Prince's guitar pedals.

That's always like if something.

You got to go out there and you're slipping.

I think on Arsenio, one guy grabbed.

A string of his pedals.

Yeah.

There was a guy named Joe.

There was Z.

Clark.

There was.

I mean there were so many guitar text for Prince and they all had their challenges because his.

Prince's.

His idea of what a great guitar tone was changed.

Even though if Prince were here and I always try and talk about it as if he were next to me.

Right.

He would probably disagree with that.

I know that's not the truth.

Is his guitar tone changed over the years.

I happen to like his Batman era guitar tone.

Like on the song Bat Dance, the aforementioned Bat Dance, where he would.

He had that really fully overdriven tone, but it was very compressed and controlled.

I used to like that tone.

I think Prince played into that tone very well.

He liked heavy distortion, but with a controlled sound and.

And his guitar text.

Every tour, Prince would have a slightly different guitar tone.

You know, so he would.

His distortion was a little more distorted or his distortion was a little less distorted the next tour.

And I noticed that it was ever changing and he wanted even his.

His.

Even his pedal board that you mentioned.

You can find all sorts of pictures of that online.

It always.

It always housed a round bass stand for his vocals.

He never used a.

A boom stand.

He always wanted a straight stand so he could pick it up and they could take the pedal board away and it would.

He would still have a straight stand.

There were.

There were all sorts of requisite things for Prince's performance.

The.

The little quick clips had to be pointing a certain way so he could quickly press the thumb button and lift him off.

That button always had to be faced the same way as the microphone.

So I was very good at making sure that was over the years of not only being his drum tech but being his engineer, that all those were set to the right.

The Right.

You know, setting so that it was easy for Prince to seamlessly go between venues and tours.

And it was always the same for him.

Now graduate, you did step aside and went back to work in Minneapolis.

You went to work back in the clubs.

After the drum tech era, I would.

I was constantly working in the clubs when I wasn't on tour, especially mixing.

And I was kind of getting my chops down for mixing.

And then I got the call.

I think my first big.

I went on tour with Sheila E.

And got noticed by a singer, an RB singer named Maxwell, who's gone down to great promise.

Yeah.

And won many Grammys.

And Maxwell took notice of me then.

But before I did that, I did Seal.

Seal was a popular in the early and mid-90s, and Seal wanted me to come out and take over on his tour.

And I was in kind of in over my head, but I had the right attitude for getting it done.

And I just never run systems that big before.

And I kind of just took my same approach that I had, which was a little bit guerrilla style.

Just go in and make it super musical and make it.

Spread things out.

Get the real estate side to side, very well done so that you could hear Seal and.

And I learned a lot on that tour.

I learned a lot about touring itself on that Seal tour.

Even though I didn't have a great experience personally professionally, I.

I learned how to tour.

That was big for me.

And then.

Then once I got going on Maxwell, then it was off and running because I got noticed by so many artists on the Maxwell tour that I got a lot of R and B gigs off of Maxwell.

That's a pretty quick ascension.

All the names are.

It was first tier performers.

Yeah.

It was exponential.

It was not linear in any.

In any way.

It was just sort of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16.

It just sort of took off and.

And I went right up to the top.

Did you do the she tour?

We saw a gig at Tramps in New York City, probably.

Was that the E Train?

Sheila E.

And the E Train.

Yeah.

Eric Leeds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was the strangest con as from going to see a concert with.

We had to sit on the floor right in the middle of the dance floor.

The whole thing.

People were shouting and everything.

I don't.

Wait, did you say.

Did you say Tramps in New York City?

Yeah, New York City.

A club.

Okay.

So that was the night it was raining.

Yeah, exactly.

We left and we got soaked.

Yeah, it was raining sideways, actually.

The rain went all the way up to the front door of the Place went up over the sidewalk.

And that is the only reason I don't have a good memory for gigs, Joe.

The same as if you asked me about the load in last show.

Right.

Of course, I'm never at load ins or loadouts anymore, but if you asked me how the hallways looked, I would go, I don't know.

I don't remember that stuff.

It just doesn't.

It doesn't.

I don't have that gene.

But Tramps, I wouldn't have remembered anything except when I got hired by Maxwell.

His manager said, you may not remember him, but he remembers you.

Do you remember Tramps?

New York City, it was raining sideways and blah, blah, blah.

And I said, no.

And he said, well, he talked to you after the show.

He had a little afro and he was.

But I went, oh, my God, I do remember that guy.

And he said, well, he remembered you.

And he said it was a great compliment.

He said you talked about.

He never heard people talk nice about Prince.

He said you talked about Prince the way he hopes people talk about him when they're done working with him.

Wow.

And I said, oh, that's a nice.

That's a compliment.

And so I do remember that show Tramps, because we got a nice spot.

In front of the stage and the people who had tables on the sign, sit down, sit down.

So we're sitting like kindergarteners on the floor.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, we like.

How was.

Do you remember Tramps?

Did you like working other than the rain coming in?

Is it still there, by the way?

No, they closed down.

But at the time, I remember it was sideways.

Yeah.

The venue was side where they could go in.

And the venue was.

You played it sideways, you didn't play it front to back.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And so.

And I do remember that being a good room because it wasn't very deep.

It was wide, but not deep.

And I think they had a pretty decent system in there because I remember having good results right on that show.

And Maxwell certainly was impressed because he came up and asked for my number and asked for my name for me to write down my name.

Back in the old days when you'd actually write down name and number and that's right.

Put in the wallet.

And it paid off.

It paid off pretty well for me.

I've been going ever since.

So he just doesn't tour as much as, you know, people would like.

But great, great performer.

Yeah, yeah, he is.

Yeah.

Now the big.

The big start.

The house engineer with Prince, Front of the house engineer was the first tour I believe I might have seen the fourth.

Fourth show you ever did with Prince in that capacity.

It was hit and Run.

I.

I joined the tour and they had Prince.

One had two of us kind of running front of house.

Okay.

He.

He was still in this sort of.

He was in a.

He was sort of had this shell shock about engineers.

So he said, I want Scotty on board, but have him come along.

He can do all my effects on my vocal vocals over on the right side of the console.

And it wasn't very long before he.

They let that other guy go.

Okay.

And then I took over.

I.

I remember leaving in Boston because I got a call that one of my.

That a great bass player, Doug Nelson from Twin Cities had.

Had been.

Critically.

Had been killed.

Yeah.

And so I remember I left the tour and that was one of the first shows, and I.

I left and I came back a week later and then I was there to stay.

But.

And it's one of the few times Prince really showed emotion, but very cold emotion where he.

When.

When I got back and he had known Doug as well and he had employed Doug.

Doug was in Margaret Cox's band, MC Flash.

Right.

And Doug, you know, was a mainstay and part of the Dr.

Mambo's combo.

Whichever.

All the Prince fans know is still being there at Bunkers.

And when I got back to the tour, Prince walked out to front of house and very coldly set his hand on my shoulder.

Didn't cup it or anything, just kind of went, sorry for your loss, and then got up and walked back to the stage as if it was required of him.

And I kind of laughed as he walked away.

I kind of laughed and I thought, well, that was.

That was touching.

That was really touching.

But, you know, it's something from a guy that you didn't get a lot out of in that way.

Well, obviously he, you know, had his heart for use all these.

All these years going through so many different projects.

Yeah, we went through a little.

We went through little bouts and stuff.

And I know you've had it.

I watched your interviews and I've seen, you know, Susan talk about it, Monty talk about it, probably even Michael.

But the, you know, Prince was a very.

He was a very focused individual and focused.

It was usually, I mean, mine.

It had to do with him, his thing, what he was doing, and there was a lot less we, ours, us.

As I now spend my entire career in Asia and want to finish my career in Asia, everything over there is.

We Ours, US team.

Everything's team over there.

Okay.

The west is very much about, I mean, mine.

Even if you're a front of house engineer, it's like it's.

Or you're a modern engineer, you're a band member, you're an artist.

Things are focused way more on self in the west than they are on the greater good.

And so I'm much more comfortable in the east.

And.

But Prince was definitely an, I mean mine artist and you had to sort of go along with that and figure out where you were going to get yours, so to speak, within the confines of.

Of that being so focused on him.

Yeah, he probably, you know.

Do you think if he went to a different approach, like they do in Asia, that you're familiar with now, he wouldn't have accomplished probably half or, or more of what he.

He put out?

Do, do you think that's true?

I don't know.

Yeah, I think he would have done really well.

There's.

There's no crime against appreciating people for what they are and letting them know how you feel about them.

I don't think there's.

There's not.

It doesn't cost anyone anything to do that.

I can already feel the comments negatively toward me saying that it's incumbent upon people to show appreciation when they feel it and when they realize it's happening.

It.

It's as Prince once said to a guitar tech, Fred.

I forgot his last name, but it was one of Fred's last days.

He was leaving and Fred held out the guitar for Prince.

I was drum teching back then, okay.

And we all knew that this was going to come.

You know, Fred was leaving and Fred went out there and held the guitar up and Prince wouldn't step into the guitar.

Just stared at Fred in rehearsal and there was this tense sort of pregnant pause.

And then Prince finally like stepped into the guitar and put it on.

And Fred, Fred, his last day, his last like hour of working, he just went, you know, a thanks.

It'd be nice once in a while.

And, and Prince said, your check is your thanks.

And I remember going, well, number one, that's true.

And number two, it's just heartless and poor leadership.

It's just.

That's not how good leaders lead is through fear and intimidation.

And we all dealt with that on different.

On varying degrees, depending on what your position was.

And it is true your check is your thanks.

But thanks are also thanks.

So I, I find you can do a lot more.

You can.

What is it?

You can catch more flies with honey?

Yeah, something like that.

Yeah.

So you just, just being, just being nice to people and being, and saying, hey, I really appreciate how much you've done.

I'm noticing what you're doing.

I appreciate your extra efforts.

And thanks for being a part of this collective that's helping my career.

And you wouldn't believe what that does.

And people out there know what it does.

It makes you feel like, it makes you realize you're part of a team and that you're appreciated.

And even though I'm looked at as a big pickup by these mando pop artists, you know, Chinese pop music artists, it's like, oh yeah, I have Scotty Baldwin.

I have Scotty Baldwin.

Scotty Baldwin's mixing my tour.

You know, I'm getting.

I'm.

He's got my tour next and that's.

I'm really appreciative of that.

But I also don't abuse that.

I make sure that.

I understand that, that it.

It.

I can't do what I do without.

I can't do my job without a whole host of people.

I don't fly until I fly a couple days from now to Beijing, right where we're playing.

JJ Lynn, the artist with whom I'm working now, is playing nine sold out.

Nights that she put out a new single.

Right?

JJ did, yeah.

I'm not sure if you did, but he could have.

He's always working on music.

JJ's endlessly working on music and.

But that's nine nights at, at Bird's Nest Stadium.

That's 100 thou.

Capacity is almost 100,000 people.

Wow, that's nine.

That's three weekends.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, nine shows at 100,000 people per show.

That's no joke.

That PA is already being set up.

That pl.

That stage is already set up.

That PA is already hung.

I don't even get there.

When I get there.

All I have to do is plug in my laptop and my, you know, multi track recording into my laptop and set up my headphones and I'm good.

My system engineer over there doesn't speak English.

My Mandarin is very poor.

But we communicate.

He knows exactly what I want, what I'm looking for out of the system.

I can't do it without him.

When you have 22, I think we have 22 delay towers in that stadium.

That's how massive the setup is.

All of those have to be perfectly time aligned and, and he knows what EQ I'm looking for.

All that is him.

So he makes me look good.

So.

And I don't I appreciate that.

I do appreciate that.

So I make sure people.

I.

I make sure I'm.

I'm.

I'm a very grateful person, and I make sure people know when they're appreciated.

Where's the best place to sit in a football stadium if you're a fan?

Right at the front of house.

Well, the reason that I always tell people get tickets at the front of house board is because, number one, if you're in the front row, more than likely not with me mixing, because I try not to do this to people, but you're getting just killed with subs.

You've got.

You've got a bunch of subs.

You got maybe 32 subs per side and these little speakers on top that are supposed to balance that out.

I.

In Mando pop, the sub low is much less prevalent.

I can mix a show with a lot less sub, and I do.

It's way more about the vocal pronunciation and making.

Making sure that the vocal is.

Is inordinately higher in the mix than you would in the West.

Like engineers in the west, they go, whoa, like, you're crazy.

You're mixing it like that.

And that's.

But if you don't mix it like that, they get on Weibo, the fans will get on Weibo and said the vocal was.

I couldn't hear the vocal.

You know, it's just a different mix.

I had to learn how to mix.

You know, Mando pop is a whole different thing.

So is Korean pop.

Korean pop is actually a little different than mantle pop.

So learning those mix differences, but still the best.

The best place to take in the show is probably halfway back to front of house or at the front of house position, because then you can.

Number one, you can see everything.

You can see how the lights sweep.

You can see these patterns.

We've got an incredible lighting direct.

The most incredible lighting director with whom I've worked, and he's on JJ Lynn, and his movements are so beautiful and so sweeping.

And we've got a great laser team.

It's really worth taking in.

And you can't read a book when the book is right up to your face.

You've got to get back to be able to see the full page.

And that's how I tell people.

Just take it in from a little ways back.

So you're talking.

Yeah, you're talking on the floor by the board.

On the floor.

I would always be on the floor.

Okay.

Yeah.

You're connected to the.

You're connected to the sound.

You know, the sound is Connected to the floor and so to speak.

And so you're.

That's where you get the good stereo reference as well.

The imaging is best there.

Definitely got to keep that.

I'm going to keep that in mind when purchasing tickets next time.

Yeah, yeah.

I wanted to go back to the.

The beginning days the.

The house front of house engineer.

The Hit and Run tour at the Academy of Music in Philly.

And I don't know if you were on.

If you joined it then or.

But anyways, I had a question specifically about the start of the show with Rhonda playing that stand up bass.

Yes.

The vector.

Yeah.

I felt like the bass was going through my heart.

What was the technique you used to.

To get that there specifically on bass?

And Rhonda had that vector base.

Okay.

And it's.

It actually for.

For a direct input base.

Okay.

That didn't have the shell and you weren't using the wood.

It was just a stick base essentially.

Rhonda had that thing sound.

It sounded amazing.

She.

That was one of the few times you could just plug the bass in and give it a nice warm sound or give it a tube preamp and it sounded amazing.

And Rhonda is just that kind of player anyway.

Kind of everything that she touched, she.

It always sounded great.

And Prince's Prince kind of taught me the trick on bass.

He said everyone just puts a high pass down at 50 or something and then they just let the bass.

Then they compress it.

He Prince said let's run the high pass up.

Keep going up until it sounds like a bass guitar.

Don't make it sound like a bass.

Make it sound like a bass guitar.

Don't forget it's still a guitar.

You need to hear all the notes.

And Prince's argument is a correct argument in that when you get down on the east, the low E or the D, you anything below the fifth fret kind of turns into one note.

You know, unless you.

Unless you kind of carve that out and made sure that.

That you lose the notes down below.

They just turned into mush.

In a venue they'll record fine.

You can hear them in the recording fine.

But if you get mushy down there, it gets so I remember I always used to kind of slightly chop off the bottom of a bass and then just turn it way up.

I had to compress it less and it acted more like a bass guitar.

Prince did the same thing with kick drum.

I used to cut my kick drum off.

I still do at 50 hertz right below where the sweet spot is and where it connects with your chest.

Then I just drop it.

It's all gone.

I don't let any of that through.

And so you don't get this double woomphing in a venue.

You don't hit the kick and goes, you know that.

That's gone.

My kicks always sound like a Cadillac door shutting a nice old like 78 Coupe de Ville.

You get that nice, you know, you just get that nice.

Yeah, there's no double sound.

There's no like low end.

Nothing's rattling.

Because after all, that's not where the money is in any mix.

You know, the money is in the vocal and the money is in the.

The guitar and the key and the piano and the money is up in the.

The high mids.

That's where all the pronunciation you want that.

And unfortunately, low end can obfuscate some of that pronunciation if it's let left unchecked.

So keeping a nice tight low end on the bass like we did on Rhonda on that tour and like we did on drums and get very frequency specific about all that stuff.

You can really control it, make it nice and tight and sound full of energy, but not.

Doesn't run around a room, you know, it doesn't suck all the air out of the room.

And that was one of the keys to that.

The funny part, we were waiting in line, I guess it was a long.

For us, it was a long sound check because we wanted to get in there.

But all of a sudden there's like a scream.

And Prince ran across from the hotel and in his high heels into the venue across Broad street in Philly.

And Aaron is, you know, following him in for security.

Aaron had a tough job he had because he came on the heels of Trevor and, and Zachary, and Zachary came back and got Joey back.

Then all the Prince security guys, the.

The one that was assigned to Prince always had the hardest time, you know.

Right.

Keeping up with that guy.

Right.

Never takes the shoes off.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Like the movie Ronin.

You just wake up and in your suit, just throw your shoes on, you're out of there.

And within a minute.

Yeah.

A gig which I have referenced this to people in interviews before which the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The director there, I think on the 25th year anniversary, they asked him, what's the best concert you ever saw?

And he said, prince in Montreal at the Jazz Fest.

We were there.

We were in the second row.

You, you, you did that show too, right?

I.

I didn't do Montreal.

No, no, Montreal in Canada.

Oh, Montreal.

Oh, yeah.

Before the One Night Alone.

Yeah, yeah, for.

I did all of One Night Alone, so that.

Well, that's good.

I'm glad I was part of that.

Yeah, he.

He did it, like, did a lot of.

Yeah, it was a lot of shows in Canada because Prince's wife Manuel, at the time is Canadian.

And so we did.

We did like a month in Canada.

We.

Where we went up into Canada.

We were up there for a month.

In fact.

I remember right.

We did so many shows all the way across Canada and had these beautiful drives from city to city up there.

And yeah, Montreal for sure.

Yeah, that was venue.

Yeah, it was Wilfred Pelletier, Plaza Arts.

Plaza Arts.

It was like a midsize and it started.

Prince had the lights turned off for the first part of the show.

It was really abstract and somebody even in the crowd yelled, wake up.

So.

And then there was an intermission.

Did.

Did I have the low voice?

Did he start it?

No, no, it wasn't the One Night Alone.

No, it wasn't One Night Alone.

It was just some other.

We.

We saw actually the last One Night Alone show that was at the Bell center where they took the Days of Wild and.

And released it the 20 minute.

Oh, yeah, yeah, he had the hockey jersey on.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

So, yeah, we just.

I just got that in the mail.

Someone sent that to me.

I said, oh, I don't have.

I've only got the.

The box set, the One Night Alone live box set on vinyl and cd.

And then I had maybe some of the Live from Aladdin Las Vegas DVDs that I'm going to give my daughters.

And so someone was kind enough to send me all the discs that I didn't have.

Days of Wild Hawaii.

I think there was controversy from Hawaii.

Like I.

Because I'm not into bootlegs or any sort of like, odd off release.

Matter of fact, I don't really collect anything at all.

So that was nice to be able to send that to me and, and I.

I'm able to.

To give that to my daughters because as a live engineer, there's not a lot I can say I did like I did this.

Can you hold it?

Oh, no, it disappears in the air.

Right.

And I just throw my backpack on and walk away.

But it's nice to be able to have done stuff where Prince appreciated it enough to release it and then let me, you know, say, hey, ask me, can you write something for the release of this.

Yeah, right.

And that's a big deal.

Right?

That's.

I didn't.

I didn't.

I didn't fully realize it then, but I do now how important that is and how much he.

That was his sign of appreciation of, like, you were responsible for this.

Why don't you write something about how you did it and.

And to be able to.

To.

To still hold it now and hear it on Spotify.

I can go on Spotify and listen to I.

Somewhere.

I created a playlist of everything that I had mixed alive that was released.

And.

Okay, it was a long list.

I didn't.

I didn't think it would be that long, but they're like, oh, I did that too.

And I did that.

And that's all really brave of Prince because that was right from the front house console.

You know, Duran Duran did the same thing with a.

With a.

A Japan box set of mine that I mixed.

And they were like, this is good enough to mix release.

We're just going to release it.

That's a hard to find one, but it's nice to be able to do that.

That's pretty brave.

And if people.

The book you open, you'll see Scotty's words right there, detailing his experience on the tour.

And, you know, he was really happy with that from you, right?

Yeah, he was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And.

And again, that's about it.

The.

The best.

Thanks you.

I mean, there were.

Don't get me wrong, and I don't want it to be.

Hopefully people can see this interview and see the.

See it in its entirety and say that.

Not said I was ungrateful.

Prince did.

There was a particular time where I think he had had a glass or two of wine that he pulled me outside in the.

In LA after the Leno show, I think, and we were at.

I don't know, the.

I forgot the name of the play.

I always forget the name of the place.

But he pulled me outside there and he was talking about the box set and he was saying how I.

He's like, scotty, you get it.

See, you get it.

Not a lot of people get it.

We get it.

We're from Minneapolis.

And when I wrote.

He said, when I.

You know, when I got what you wrote, because he called me the next day and asked me if he could take one line out of that essay I wrote.

And I.

I said, okay.

And he said the line and I went, okay.

And it.

And it still worked.

So I.

That was kind of cool that he permissed that he had me Permiss that.

And then.

But then he, when it was released, he pulled me outside in LA and he said, you know, I read what you wrote.

And I said, oh, he gets it.

And then I read it again and I said, no, he really gets it.

And then I read it a third time and then I said, he's one of us.

He's a band member.

He really gets it.

And, and that's what it.

That, that's a.

That's.

Believe me, that's about as great a thank you as you could get from Prince.

And that was.

I really do appreciate that because he didn't often take a lot of time to reflect and thank people for things, but when he was grateful, it was usually financial, you know, transactional.

Thank you.

But in this case, he, he took the time whether or not it was the, the red wine talking or not.

But I, I think sometimes that's a little bit of a truth serum, right?

You know, certainly I don't.

Certainly I don't downplay the, the history of, of alcohol and drugs in, in the creation of art in the past.

It's a very important part of the past.

So I think that was a nice little window that he had that he decided to thank me on that.

So I won't forget that and that perform.

I.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he did Everlasting now, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's always one of my favorites to, to go in there.

I mean, it.

That sums up the, the style of Prince a little bit of everything.

He did a great job.

Yeah, I, I totally agree with that.

Because that, you know, the, the thing is, Prince did a lot of important work around that time and he did a lot of.

But he had so many good messages and adroit and on the mark messages in his music.

You have to search through some cruddy stuff too.

There's not, not everything is gold, but when you mine, when you pull those nuggets out, a song like the Everlasting now is really important.

And it's very.

It's one of those that, that a true Prince fan will understand what I mean when they say there are certain songs that really are speaking and they speak throughout time and they still speak today.

I think Dwayne Tudall told me he was in the, the audience during that show.

He said, yeah, it was incredible.

Too live.

I Mean, probably better than watching on tv.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

To be enveloped.

That's what, you know, you hear occasionally.

You hear Joe, the people will say, you know, I never saw Prince live.

You know, I just.

I never got a chance.

It was really special to see Prince live because we never knew what was going to happen.

Right.

He would deviate occasionally, but you had people going up and down and a lot of motion under the stage as well.

So you kind of had to stay on a schedule.

You couldn't just riff the whole thing.

But as far as what he would play during the acoustic section, what extra song he was going to do.

The after parties, for sure.

The after shows, they were so extemporaneous and so in the moment that you just.

It's hard for one to really appreciate it unless they were there and truly enveloped in the feeling of what it's like to be surrounded by.

Especially how great Prince fans are.

I mean, they're the.

I.

I still think count them among amongst the best fans in the.

In.

In music history because they.

When they really love an artist and get around an artist, they know how important that artist is.

And when they're in a room and that artist is filling that room with their art and you're in the center of it, really.

Man, that can be transformative.

Where.

Where were you situated on the Musicology tour?

I was always at the.

Either in the back.

Because that was a theater tour, more or less.

Yeah, we saw it in Jersey.

Yeah, yeah, Yeah.

@ PAC NJ Pack Center.

Is that what it was where we were?

I think it used to be called the East Rutherford or it had like a branding.

But I remember talking to a guy was setting up stuff on stage.

He.

I said, wow, you guys are going to Connecticut the next night and coming back here?

The night after was like a weird travel schedule.

Yeah, yeah.

I think they booked another show.

So they.

But usually a one night alone live was a tour that I was in the center in the back of the theater.

There's usually always the.

The place for the sound board and the tech, you know, the lighting and stuff like that.

On Musicology, I was just to the right of the vomitory where the Zamboni would go in and out.

I was always just outside that to the right.

It didn't matter where I was there because I.

I should have been able and could have been able to mix it from anywhere in the venue because it's.

We were almost equidistance from every part of the venue.

The PA was about the same distance from everything being in the round, which was an advantage because that's a disadvantage for sound.

You're yelling into every part of a venue at once.

But I had the volume under control and I had a good thing going so that it, it made a lot of sense and it was very intelligible.

So we had to iron some things out.

But that, that really worked and that, that.

I think that tour sounded good anywhere you were, which I like.

Yeah, it was the only, the only thing we, we were part of the NPG Music club.

We had like front row seats near the stage and my wife's like, I never saw Renato the whole show because, you know, you're so close but you're looking at, I mean, you're shaking hands, you know, to, you know, with Chance and Candy, you know, when they're coming off stage.

But yeah, yeah, great tour.

I know exactly where your seats were because I know exactly where you were.

Oppositionally to Renato.

Right?

Just like, I think he's over there.

I hear him.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's again part of the benefit of being a little ways back, right.

Being able to sort of take it in.

And I, even the.

The dynamic of working with artists and bands now being at front of house, I have a unique advantage of everything is within probably about a 45 degree depending on how far away I am in state.

You know, I only mix stadiums now.

I have the luxury of mixing all stadiums, sometimes arenas, but usually it's 40 to 70,000 cedars and everything is within 35 or 40 degrees of my.

I see all the dynamics going, I see what's going on.

I have to have binoculars.

I'm that far back where I can see when things are happening.

Like, okay, here she comes, she's coming to the mic now or whatever because they're all, they're all speaking in Mandarin.

So I have to sort of either go, oh, I think that means yeah.

And I can kind of understand more that I can speak, but I can, I can watch the stage, but I have a unique perspective where I'm not, I'm not wrapped around with the whole dynamic.

I'm watching it from afar so I can see the dynamics happening.

But yeah, certainly being back a little ways will let you see every band member and, and, and the whole entirety of what's going on physically with the show.

And so many shows now have video is Such an important part of the show.

Yeah.

And the interstitial video pieces that you want to be back a little ways.

You don't want to be looking up at a, you know, 35, 40, 60, 80 foot tall.

It just doesn't look right.

So I always encourage people to get back a little.

Take it in.

How about the preparations for the.

The debut, the la.

You know, the staples.

The first night of that tour, we went to the movie theaters.

What.

What went into that and what went wrong?

What went great?

Oh, okay.

Just nothing went into it.

Okay.

I.

I was let.

They let me know.

Very, very.

You know, we rehearsed.

And then those were the first shows, right?

One of the first shows on the tour, I think.

So I had the mix dialed in at Paisley park.

So I was already set with the mix.

And.

And then I think the promoter came to me.

I forgot which of the promoter.

Maybe it was Megalind or Gangaware.

One of those guys came to me and said, hey, by the way, we're gonna.

This is gonna be in movie theaters all over the nation.

I was like, cool.

And he said, we're thinking of bringing in a truck and having someone mix it in a truck separately to go to the movie theaters.

And I said, oh, okay.

Like, you better talk to Prince about that.

So he asked Prince, and Prince said, no, no, Scotty's mix, he's mixing it.

It's not complete without his.

You know, I did all the effects from the record.

I did certain harmonic or harmony effects where Prince had talking the octave voice and not the octave.

It was like a fifth down.

There was some stuff that was a fifth up or a third up.

You know, I had all these effects and none of those would have been.

It wouldn't have been logistically easy for them to take all the inputs separately.

And my effects.

And we just didn't have time.

It was like they said, this is going to happen, right?

It's going to happen on this night.

They said, well, we insist.

We're gonna.

We'll pay for it.

We just want to bring in a truck.

So the mix is good.

And Prince's like, no, Scotty's a band member.

He's part of the band.

You gonna play Renato's keys, too?

And they say, no.

And you go, cool.

Then don't play the soundboard.

Scotty does the sound.

And Prince sort of went to bat for me, and I just did.

I did nothing different.

The only thing they did is add audience ambient mics around the state, the arena, and kind of add those in but otherwise we just approach it like any other gig.

And that's what I appreciated about Prince.

He played the same show.

He reminds me very much of Spring.

I'm not a Springsteen fan, but I certainly am a fan of him as a performer.

I don't.

I don't take in his music, but I.

I appreciate him very greatly as a performer.

And those are two guys who played just as much, just as long, just as well, or three people as they would for 30,000 people.

They played the same show and nothing's different.

So to us, it was just another show.

You know, take that how you want it.

It was just one of the staple center shows.

It was one of the six that we played there.

And so we didn't treat it different.

It's just.

They had a stereo output from me that they put in the theaters and they added some crowd mics and that's it.

We just.

It was run and gun.

Very guerrilla style back then.

Yeah.

And definitely a profitable touring.

And it must be tough.

It was a long tour and.

But Prince was real happy towards the end.

Was it.

I.

I read something.

I think so.

Yeah.

They came in presenting with the.

The check is.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Something he did say to me on the last day of the tour.

Okay.

Prince came in inordinately early on musicology.

And I had had a friend of mine, Janine, a friend of mine sent me roses on.

On the last day of the.

You know, I came to my front house desk and there were roses there.

And I said, did you send these?

She said, yeah, I was just com.

Commemorating your last show.

And I remember when I got to front of house, I left.

And when I got back, Prince was there kind of playing with one rose.

He almost looked like he did in purple.

You know, he's holding a rose and the purple rain or the.

Like, that's how he looked.

He was spinning a rose around and then he stuck it back in the vase and he goes, we probably should have done this longer, huh?

And I said, yeah, probably.

Yeah, like he, he.

I could see that, you know, he was saying goodbye not only to a lot of money, but him.

It was saying goodbye to a lot of shows, a lot of cities.

He said, we could probably do them one more time around.

I was like, yeah, for sure.

Because it was only six months long.

That's not a long.

To me, that's not a long tour.

All the artists in China and asia, they tour three years.

You know, it's a three year tour.

The commitment is three to five years on a record so they'll do 100 or 150 shows, you know, in stadiums over a three year period.

Because I was looking at your girl Jolin.

Sai.

JoLynn.

Yeah, I think I.

And I saw like the tour and it's like broken up like four years or something like that, right?

Yeah, it's a four year tour.

Right.

And she's, she's gearing up to, to go out again because she's got a new record out and she's really excited about it and that you talk about a show.

I mean, I, you know, I wonder.

Joe, recently, I was thinking about the fact that Prince didn't do anything to click track.

He never had click tracks live.

He never had playback live.

He had live loops and he had Morris and he had Tommy people playing loop, you know, samples like that and Renato.

But he didn't play anything with time code or click tracks or play real playback where there was an arrangement, solid arrangement.

That's how every show is done nowadays.

Every artist you see is done with, with almost without exception is done with timecode and click tracks and some form of backing tracks.

And that allows lights to be perfect, that allows lasers to be perfect, that allows.

When Katy Perry is flying through an arena.

That's all on Timecode.

That's just, you know, all those motors, all the motion control is done over time code.

So that I always wondered how Prince would have done had he kept progressing and finally given in and just said, all right, fine, let's.

I want perfect lights.

Let's just use time code or let's use this Locked arrangements.

It's always this arrangement.

So let's just.

For those songs, let's do it.

And then where the lighting engineer can just go like this.

Like when I'm mixing now.

Yeah.

In China, I'm kind of grooving.

I turn around and everybody's there, just stoic with headset.

Because they're all watching timecode.

They're watching what's happening, making sure that, that things are locked in.

I'm the only one that's really mixing analog, so to speak.

Right, right.

So.

Oh, before we get into like your, your later years with Prince and piano and microphone, I.

I gotta tell you a condensed One Night Alone box set story which you, you know, obviously that's your, that's your baby right there.

You were heavily involved in all facets of it.

But I, I told you the Montreal show we saw and I think that was the end of the, the North American.

And you guys had like a two or three month break before you went to Europe and then Japan?

Yes.

Okay.

I get a email.

I think it was like beginning of September.

Paisley park wants to see you in the chat room in aol.

So I'm like, okay, I'll go.

Some of the names, I'm not going to say just to protect their innocence, but you'll get the gist of the story.

So I went in there.

There's PP3 in there.

The person who invited me in leaves.

I'm there talking and typing.

The first thing someone says to me, where did you get the bootleg photos from the Purple Rain tour?

You gave me to this person, somebody who was in his band before.

I was like, what?

It wasn't me.

So we're going back and forth.

My wife's sitting in a chair there.

It's like a 10 minute battle on the keyboards.

And.

And I'm saying, it's not me.

And the person saying, come in peace.

Well, do you know where the bootleg suppliers are from Europe?

I'm saying, obviously they got me completely misunderstood.

Well, it went back and forth.

And the last thing was like, you know where to find us if you know, if you want to give us that information.

So I called someone from Prince's organization and said, what's going on there?

She goes, you know who you were talking to?

You're talking to Prince.

And the, the story, what happened was the person who I did an interview with was also on another DJ show a couple weeks after my show.

That's where the bootleg stuff came in from that dj.

So the way I'm going to wrap it up as a good story, the Prince being nice and saying, I'm sorry in a roundabout way.

You guys were in Japan.

I get a, an email from Paisley park says, can you send us your mailing address?

I was like, okay, I get a FedEx package, open it up.

It's the One Night Alone box set.

And it was like a few days before it was released to radio and the MPG Music Club.

I'm the only media outlet who had it.

The next day we had to go to Montreal.

So that night where doing shows, loading up the music, people are all into it.

How did he get this set?

Yeah, good.

That was, that was a thank you.

That was his thank you for, for sure, for sure.

He, he operated with olive branches.

That was what he would do.

Yeah, right.

Instead of just saying, I mean, the one time that he wrote down the words, I'm sorry, you were right.

Yeah, I.

I'm sorry, you were right, I was wrong.

Like literally in his beautiful handwriting, you know, he apologized for accusing me of something on a.

Doing something to his guitar that I wasn't doing.

And he listened back to the tape, and he was like, oh, the.

My actual recording board recording.

And he wrote that.

And Zachary March said, call me to the.

Outside the.

The dressing room.

He said, read this.

And he was holding on to it.

Read this.

And I read it.

I was like, wait.

And I tried to kind of grab it and pull it, and I'm.

I'm pulling.

He's going like this.

And he said, you know.

You know, and then I.

I was like, oh.

And he went, you read it anyway.

And tore it up.

And I said, oh, come on, man.

You should have.

Come on, you should.

He's like, no, sorry.

Years later, which was only.

Which is only, say, five, seven years ago, right after, you know, Prince passed, and then we somehow got in touch.

I got in touch with Zachary and he said.

I said, hey, remember when you tore that.

He's like, man, I feel so bad about that, man.

I should have just given you that note.

I know you wouldn't show it around.

I was like, yeah, I have a couple of handwritten things that he wrote.

Right.

But otherwise, it's just the photos.

The photo behind you there that Afshin Shahidi was so kind to.

Yeah, that's.

That's a great photo, Afshin.

You know, I.

I don't always give credit that I should.

Afshin Shahidi was so lovely.

He's such a lovely guy.

And he.

When I left and they knew I was leaving, and I had said, hey, I'm leaving.

I'm gonna go do this, he was like, here, you know.

Know, here's.

Here's these shots of you and Prince, you know, all these candid shots of you, which I never knew were being taken, obviously, because Ashen was always around.

So you kind of never knew.

Good photographers disappear into the background.

You know, they.

They wear black and they just disappear, and you don't know they're there.

And at the end of the tour, you go, whoa.

I.

You know, I didn't even know they were there, so.

That was really kind.

Ashen.

I.

I owe a debt of gratitude because it's one thing to say, oh, Prince and I, we were tight.

We were super cool.

Yeah, we.

And it's another two, which I've never said.

I just said, here's where I was on these dates and whatever.

And then somebody backs you up with, you know, a.

A.

A cool photo, like the one behind you, which is.

We're working together.

It's not posed.

It's not thought up.

It was just two guys working towards something else, you know, on the show.

And.

And which is.

I'm really proud of that.

And that was a really kind gift from.

For Ashen to give me because he.

He's like, hey, this will be important to you.

You know, he.

He kind of saw what it was going to be.

Yeah, I think it's one of the best.

I.

I love photos like that where you.

You see.

Yeah.

Not a stage photo.

It's just.

You both didn't know what was on you.

Yeah, probably.

And Prince, everything he did was stage.

He kind of controlled everything from all the sort of looks and everything.

So to see even any candid photo of him is kind of a unique treat.

Right.

So the musicology tor ends, and then there were some stints you did on.

Did.

You did the residency in Vegas.

I did not.

Oh, I was asked to do it.

I didn't do it.

Denny Yeager did that.

He did a good.

Denny did a really good job on that.

He got a little crap from Prince midway through, I think.

Okay.

They flew me out to.

I don't know whether they flew me out to intimidate Denny, but if they did, it didn't work because I flew out.

I checked into the rio.

I.

I asked to meet Denny, and we talked and I said, how's it going?

Like, what's going on?

And he knew right away.

He had a.

An advocate in me.

Like, I was like, what's happening?

How is he doing?

And he's like, are you here?

Are you, like, taking over?

I was like, no, I'm.

I'm.

Prince wants me to hear the sound and.

And make suggestions.

I said, but how do you feel?

What are you looking?

What do you want to change?

He's like, well, I'd really like this.

And I wanted to do this, and I wish I hadn't done that.

I was like, let's get it done.

So then I remember I recommended to Prince on a sheet of paper before I left, like, handwritten, because I didn't have time to type it up and print it.

I said, you should do this and this and this.

And I kind of said the things that Denny had talked to me over dinner about what he wanted, how he wanted to be supported better.

And when you get in the middle of a run like that in Vegas, everything becomes incubated in your mind as far as how you're doing things, and it's harder to change than not.

It's hard to revisit.

Like, hey, let me take a new approach to this.

Let me.

Let me freshen this up.

Or maybe we're dealing with people seeing the show a second time.

Let me give him this.

Or try this effect or let me try something cool during rehearsal and see if Prince bites on it.

You know, it's just like fishing.

And then if he goes.

If you go like, yeah, do that during the show.

Okay, cool.

So, Denny, I think.

I think he did a spectacular job, because when I was there, it sounded great.

I don't think anything should have changed, but Denny just.

Prince wanted another set of ears on it, and I was kind enough to.

To a fellow engineer with whom I had more in common than I did with Prince.

Right.

I have more in common with engineers than I do with, you know, other people.

We all have a lot in common.