St. Paul Peterson (The Time, The Family) joins Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley for a wide-ranging conversation on the Minneapolis sound, his musical roots, and working with Prince.

Peterson reflects on his family’s deep musical legacy, new solo projects, and the creative energy that continues to define Minneapolis music. He also shares stories about collaboration, mentorship, and his evolving career as an artist and performer.

From Purple Rain-era history to present-day music, this is a conversation filled with insight, authenticity, and timeless musicianship.

🎙️ Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley — on air since 1982, featuring legendary funk, R&B, and Prince-associated artists.

Up next, he hails from Minnesota's first family of music.

They were awarded not too long ago a prestigious award in Minnesota.

And he is coming to New York City to play at the Iridium nightclub Thursday night on the 12th this week.

And he's just a great guy.

He's been a great friend to our show.

I don't know how many appearances he's been on the show, but we always are so happy to have him on.

His name is Paul Peterson.

How you doing, Paul?

So great.

Thanks for having me on again, my old buddy.

Yeah, we.

I think we last touched bases just shortly after Prince passed away.

And you've been awful busy with a lot of things Prince related, Minneapolis related.

But you've been cooking up some great solo music and nice videos and what.

You know that that's it.

A speed version of what's been going on.

But what's been going on lately since we last talked.

Well, you're right.

I've been recording a lot of new music, so that's been exciting.

I decided to focus more on my solo career than F Deluxe or anything like that, just for the moment.

So I'm actually in the process of negotiating a deal with the European label.

So that's the good News.

We're getting 30 close to signing.

So that means new record by me.

I'll have it done in the summer.

God only knows when they'll put it out.

But I'm really looking forward to diving in on that.

I'm already halfway done.

Right.

And lots of playing, man, it's been

a lot of fun.

I did a gig in California in January at Vibrato and Andres Simone was there, David Z was there, Ingrid Chavez was there.

There's so many purple people were there.

It was fantastic to see them.

The support I got was just great.

Susanna sat in with me, Wendy was there, she played a little bit with me.

And we just did a gig here in Minneapolis at the Dakota with Sinbad.

And we called it Fun Funkity, which was a blend of funk and comedy.

Yeah, we had absolute ball.

He's such a good guy.

And we.

We have known each other for many years, but finally got to do a gig with each other.

And now this New York date in this coming Thursday, March 12th, at the Iridium.

Yeah.

Which is first time playing.

Yeah.

Looking forward to that.

Yeah.

You're playing with one of our great friends on guitar, Carl Burnett.

And your brother in law's also playing on the gig, right?

He is.

It'll be great to have.

Excuse me.

Have him with us and Power trio, man.

We've got video, we've got.

So you get to see all the stuff from the old days, the old videos sync up with everything we're doing.

So it's really a cool show if you haven't seen it.

Well, you also tour with the Minneapolis Funk All Stars.

And this is a trio.

Now, I know Carl because he played my TV show with Will Calhoun and Tony Tino a few years back.

And Carl likes to improvise and just plug in and play.

How do you, you know, you're not playing with these guys all the time.

How do you get.

Get a gig together like that and make it sound so smooth?

Well, Jay and I have played this gig, this particular gig quite a few times, and I have played with Carl been quite a few years, but we've remained friends for years and I trust them.

I send them the stuff ahead of time.

We've got a rehearsal booked Wednesday and then we do the gig on Thursday and we're gonna be fine.

Plus.

Oh yeah, a lot of it.

They've got such great sensibilities.

It's all about partying and having a good time and, you know, we don't.

We don't take it so seriously.

But the music is serious.

But you'll hear the fun in the music.

I mean, it's spontaneity and it's funky and you're gonna love it.

And let me get people the particulars on Paul Peterson's show.

Tickets are extremely cheap.

20 bucks.

And Paul Peterson.

Paul Peterson.

Paul Peterson with the time and in Purple Rain and he's been going at it strong for so many years.

We'll talk more about Paul and his family, but we're going to get into, I believe, the first single that came off a record, which a future record, but this is one of your latest singles, you Got to love.

Oh, yeah.

Where'd you do the video for this?

That's all done in Minneapolis.

A lot of it was shot in and around the studio that I've recorded at almost 30 years called creation Audio.

Right.

So nice young kid from Poland actually was the director on that.

I thought he had a great vision and we had a great time.

Stylish clothes too.

You had some vintage, vintage suit on that one.

Oh, yeah, you know, that's right.

The old dog still is clean, you know, that's right.

Paul Peterson, St. Paul is with us always.

Great to talk with him.

You can go to Paul's website, PaulPeterson.com and check them out.

Down in New York City.

This is.

You got to love Mr. Paul Peterson.

Yeah.

Funky as ever.

Only Those from Minneapolis, St. Paul can make that authentic music.

Right there.

That is St. Paul Peterson.

You got to love.

Love that song.

Paul.

Paul Peterson, you there?

Hello, Paul.

Hey, Paul.

Hey, Paul.

Yeah, I love that song.

You got to love.

We're connected with Paul Peterson coming to New York City.

And you got that true Minneapolis funk and roll style.

Thank you.

Well, that was a fun one to write with my nephew Jason.

That's right.

JP DeLaire, Jason D', Alaire, who brings his buddy Frank Frank into the studio.

You ever record with Frank Frank Frank

and I haven't sat down together quite yet, but he's been pestering me to do a record with him.

That's right.

He's a little uptight, but he's very good.

He's very good.

Yeah.

He may show up at the iridium.

You never know.

I hear sometimes he's in that area.

Yeah.

I thought he used to work in the Catskills, but here he comes down to the city once in a while, Right?

Hey, Paul Peterson is with us.

And you can go to paulpeterson.com and let me ask you about the big award you received and long overdue in Minnesota to the entire Peterson family.

They were honored recently and just a night of the Petersons.

Tell us about it.

Well, we were honored with the hall of Fame award, Minnesota hall of Fame award, this last November.

And we.

We went down to New Ulm, Minnesota, where the museum is.

And it's such a quaint, cool little town.

And the ceremony was beautiful.

So heartfelt.

And these guys are so into what they're doing.

Definitely not Hollywood, but which was great.

And they really were excited about having us there.

And the other.

We were honored to be alongside people like Soul Asylum and many other folks.

So to be recognized at this point in our career is so, so great.

You know, it's always nice to get a pat on the back.

And I'm so proud of my brothers and sisters.

And the fact that we continue to play music together is a testament to the love that we have and what music does for us.

It brings us together.

It's like the greatest thing, greatest communication tool we have.

Right.

It was really an incredible night.

You know, your mom and your dad were honored as well.

They set the tone for a great family.

Let me.

Let me ask, playing the keyboards.

I know you played drums as a little kid, but did you start to touch Your parents?

Keyboards a lot.

Piano.

Oh, sure.

They made me take piano lessons from the nuns from the time I was four.

So I think I didn't want to do it anymore at age 14.

Then I started gigging.

They had me gigging at age 15, so it threw me to the wolves, that's.

So to speak.

So I was playing drums at 15 and keyboards in the time when I was 17.

Okay, the keyboard thing, Yes.

I definitely would sneak and play, but I was playing way more Stevie Wonder than I was playing Bach or Chopin.

Hey, Paul, we gotta say hello to a few people listening out there.

I want to say hello to Jackie Thompson, our mutual dear friend out there.

Listen, who I love you, Jackie Thompson.

And she.

I was gonna play you the track when you're playing on the bus with your daughter and everything.

Jackie was there, too.

I saw her in the intro.

Oh, I think she was there.

Right, Jackie.

Which.

Which video?

When you were playing on the bus in.

In la.

Oh, yeah, she was there.

Yeah, yeah, I saw.

That's why I was saying I saw her.

Right, right.

Jamming the van.

Yeah, yeah.

That was incredible.

I wasn't putting it together.

Now I know what you're talking about.

Right, right.

I didn't give you the right.

Right, right.

Also, our dear friend out in Australia, Lady Lisa, she.

I know she's listening.

My little niece.

That's right, your niece.

Yeah, yeah.

She's been on a show several times and has a show of her own in Australia.

So she's been supporting you guys for so, so long.

And, man, well, we love her for that.

And I get my Lisa fix every time I go there.

Yeah, yeah.

She's always there.

I'm overdue now, though.

I am overdue.

And Jellybean, you've been jamming with him off and on.

We saw her Jelly Bean over the summer.

Jellybean has worked with you on a couple things.

Right?

Bean and I play together all the time.

We'll be playing again together during Celebration.

It has not been announced yet, but I'm playing June 5th at the Ice House.

Okay.

Save the date if you're coming here to Minneapolis.

And I'm doing a bunch of other cool things that I'll let Jackie fill you in on.

Right.

And I'm doing also lots and lots of activity around that time in June, but soon to be announced.

Now.

Now, we.

We talked a little while back about your last time you hung out with Prince.

And for those that didn't hear you want to say a little bit about the last time you hung out with Prince and some of his words of advice.

The Lombardi of music.

Oh, you mean coach.

Coach of music, yeah.

Coach Lombardi.

Yep.

It wasn't the last time we hung out, but it was one of the last times he and I went to the Dakota, which is a great, great music bar here in Minneapolis.

We were watching Victor Wooten and we talked the entire show.

I thought Victor was gonna be like, hey, you two up there, shut up.

We sat and talked the entire time, and it got around to a conversation of, do you have a mentor?

He asked me.

And I'm like, well, yeah, all my brothers and sisters are my mentors.

He said, well, you should have a mentor.

Mine's.

Mine's Larry.

Larry Graham.

I went down, man, that's great that you have somebody who can.

Does he actually give you, you know, advice and all that?

He said, absolutely.

So he kept prodding me, and I said, prince, you want to be my mentor?

My coach maybe said, okay, coach, what would you do differently that I'm not doing?

He said, you know what he said to me?

He said, put down the base, play the keyboards like I showed you 20 years ago.

He said, here's what you got to hear.

He said, the bass is a feminine instrument on you.

I was like, what?

That's some classic stuff, you know.

And, you know, I must say, the next show I played keyboards.

I listened to them, and it was quite fun.

I mean, bassist, super demanding.

So I could do more things while just playing keyboards once in a while.

So he has a point.

And it was fun that we had that connection, especially towards the end of his life, considering the, you know, the up and down relationship we had for years.

So I really, really appreciated that connection and camaraderie we finally found after all those years.

Now, I gotta disagree a little bit with Prince on there because I saw a video, you.

I think you were in Amsterdam and did a string break on your bass.

Oh, sure.

And you were playing without a string.

I'm saying, that's impressive.

And singing.

The show must go on, man.

The show must go on.

Right, right.

How soon into the gig did the strap break?

Oh, it was fairly immediate.

They don't.

But, you know, you just make do and those things happen all the time.

Right, right.

You can't stop the show.

We're going to get into the second recent single from Paul Peterson.

It's called Something in the Water, which really gives respect to all the musicians in Minneapolis, many who have been on our show, but have definitely you've collaborated with and grew up listening to and how did you get the concept for the video for this one?

The video is real nice.

Same gentleman filmed this one as well.

We just wanted to do something that was stylized and modern, but yet a throwback, considering what I'm wearing and the car I'm driving.

But it's funny.

I do pay homage to a lot of the.

My mentors and my cohorts in crime.

And John Breen called me out that he.

You didn't mention Prince, when in fact he was the first one I mentioned.

That's true.

We called him Uncle Pete, Uncle P. Yeah.

I don't think that John was.

He wasn't hip to that.

Yeah, that's right.

You'd have to talk to Chris over at the Star Tribune.

He's probably hip to that.

I saw John Bream last night.

I went to the Liv Warfield show.

Oh.

John's an old friend of mine.

He's been very good to my family.

Yeah, he's been supportive of the music scene.

I mean, he's a legend out there.

He is a legend.

And so is Liv, by the way.

She just knocked me out.

Yeah.

Where'd she play?

The Dakota Fine Line.

Oh, Fine Line.

Okay.

She was unbelievable.

I love that girl.

She's just a powerhouse.

Yeah, yeah.

Great, great vocalist.

And, you know, the record she did with Prince, you know, vastly underrated.

Right?

Yeah.

So let's get into this track, Something in the Water, and we'll come say goodbye.

And Paul Peterson is my special guest.

This is called Something in the water.

Go to paulpeterson.com.

thursday night, New York City, the Iridium.

Right.

In Manhattan.

Paul Peterson and their company tearing it up, Minneapolis style in Manhattan.

Hey, that's Michael B. Thompson

there.

It was little Uncle P mentioned right there.

So it's confirmed.

Correct.

St. Paul Peterson with us.

Yeah.

At the Iridium.

And your brother in law on drums.

Let's get his name out there, too.

Jay Corcoran.

Okay.

And he's married to.

To what side, Julius?

My wife's sister.

Yep.

Okay.

So, yeah, that's gonna be a great power trio there.

And we're really looking forward, the New York fans to go see St. Paul Peterson.

He is, yeah.

Please comment.

St. Paul Peterson is heavily involved in social media.

Always.

I don't know how you do it, to be honest.

No, no, no.

I'm saying that's a lot of talent to be able to keep things organized and, you know, have a great following.

And, you know, I give you a lot of a lot of credit for doing that as well as producing and also hosting a really great podcast.

And talk about this because you got our friend Victor Wooten on Tomorrow Night.

So this podcast is called Music on the Run.

And I've been interviewing all sorts of artists about how they stay healthy on the road with their relationships, physically, mentally, because nobody really knows what, how hard it is to be out on the road.

I think your relationship with your kids, your significant other, how you stay in shape, what you eat, all that kind of stuff.

And of course we talk music.

But Victor Wooten is on tomorrow.

We've had on Steve Miller, Sinbad, Kevin and Michael Bacon.

So many people.

So go to musicontherunpodcast.com, get all the links there.

We also shoot video on it so you'll be able to see that as well.

So Victor Wooten is tomorrow Music on the Run podcast dot com.

I remember asking him years ago, how do you, because this guy's on the road all the time.

How do you, you know, keep it together?

And he said, you got to get a lot of sleep.

You got to manage the sleep.

You can sleep anywhere.

That guy.

That's a gift.

Wow.

Yeah, I couldn't do it.

I call that survival.

Well, I sure love being on and

catching up with you when you're always nice.

One day we'll release the box set of appearances from St. Paul Peterson on the show.

I love it.

Yeah.

Say hi to your brother in law and also Carl Burnett at the Iridium.

Paul Peterson bringing the Minneapolis funk and roll to New York City.

And you know, we hope to have St. Paul Peterson Co.

Here in Connecticut in the near future.

So have a great gig and thanks, Paul.

Thank you so much.

Thanks to your fans.

I appreciate it.

It's been seven hours and 13 days since you took your love away.

I go out every night and sleep all day since you took your love away oh w w w w w Since you been gone I can do whatever I want I could see whomever I choose oh oh, oh

I can

eat my dinner in fancy restaurant

but

nothing I said Nothing can take away this blue Cause nothing compares Nothing compares to you Nothing, nothing It's been so lonely without you here Like a bird without song.

Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling Tell me baby where did I go wrong?

I can put my arms around every girl that I see

but then only

remind me of you.

I went to the the doctor Guess what it told me Guess what he told me he said boy, better try to have fun no matter what to do She's a fool cuz Nothing compare Nothing compares to you Nothing, nothing.

All the towers that you pawn in the backyard I died when you went away.

I know that living with the baby was sometimes hard But I'm willing to give it another try.

Cause nothing compare Nothing compare to you.

I said nothing compare Nothing compares to you.

My special thanks to Paul Peterson.

And go check him out this Thursday night, March 12, in New York City at the Iridium.

And that's going to be a special show.

Paul Peterson, one of the funkiest cats around and just.

Just a nice guy from a nice family out in Minnesota.

That was the version.

Nothing compares to you.

Great orchestral background right there.

Paul Peterson, Susanna Melvoin and the Family, they recorded that on record.

Prince wrote that song, of course, and they also changed the name.

Prince actually made them change the name.

But they go by F Deluxe now.

And that was Nothing compares to you.

I wanted to play this right now because I love what they did here.

There's a great show called Jammin in the Van.

And Paul Peterson, Jackie Thompson helped hook that up.

Paul said they performed in the van.

That was back last year in la.

Paul's daughter was on the particular couple songs.

Maybe three songs they did.

But this is one of my favorite because I love this song.

Mutiny, originally recorded on the family's record.

This is live.

Jamming in the van.

Paul St. Paul Peterson.

And he's gonna get you dancing.

Trust me, trust me.