Marshall Charloff, acclaimed musician, producer, and frontman of The Purple Xperience, joins Joe Kelley on Musicians Reveal to discuss music, legacy, and artistry. From his first encounter with Prince to leading one of the most authentic Prince tribute bands, Charloff shares insights on performing live, creating his latest solo album Next, and navigating today’s evolving music industry. This episode explores the inspiration behind his music, the challenges of independent artistry, and the enduring impact of Prince’s legacy on contemporary musicians.

📘 What You’ll Hear in This Episode

– Marshall Charloff on meeting Prince and its influence on his career

– The vision, authenticity, and energy behind The Purple Xperience tribute band

– Creating his new solo album Next and the musical inspirations behind it

– How live performance connects artists with audiences in a digital age

– Social media, streaming, and technology’s impact on independent musicians

– Challenges and strategies for sustaining a career in today’s music industry

– Lessons on mentorship, legacy, and staying true to your artistry

⏱️ Chapters

00:20 – Introduction to Marshall Charloff

06:15 – First Encounter with Prince

12:40 – Building The Purple Xperience

20:05 – The Art of Live Performance

28:50 – Creating the Album Next

36:15 – Navigating Today’s Music Industry

42:10 – Social Media, Technology & Live Music

49:00 – Reflections on Mentorship and Legacy

🔗 Links & Mentions

– Visit MusiciansReveal.com

– YouTube – Musicians Reveal

– Live365 – Musicians Reveal Radio

📝 Key Takeaways

– Marshall Charloff highlights the importance of authenticity in live performance and recorded music.

– His solo album Next showcases artistic growth and versatility in today’s music scene.

– The Purple Xperience tribute band brings Prince’s music to life with energy, passion, and originality.

– Social media and modern technology present both challenges and opportunities for audience connection.

– Charloff’s journey emphasizes mentorship, resilience, and honoring musical legacies.

Hey, it's Marshall Charloff.

You are watching Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly.

Welcome to another edition of Musicians Reveal.

Extremely excited this afternoon because we have a multi talented musician producer, plays just about every instrument that's in the studio and also has his own solo cd, the latest called Next, which is out standout singles which are charting extremely well.

He also is a performer with the Purple Experience, his tribute to Prince, and also does the purple piano.

Just himself, a microphone, a piano, and he's a Minneapolis native, so we got lots to talk about.

Marshall Charloff is in the house.

Welcome my friend Joe Kelly.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, I know we talked for a couple years.

I think we contacted.

I don't know, you probably don't remember.

But I see you on Facebook.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's how we're all connected these days.

Is socials, because I. I remember first becoming known.

You know what you're doing.

The Prince realm with his music was.

Fink came on the show.

You guys were about to play Connecticut, the Infinity Hall.

Okay.

In Harford maybe.

And he was talking.

He was hyping you up in the whole band, Tracy.

And so.

Okay, how far do you go back with Matt Fink?

I was 18.

So the same day that I met Prince, I met Matt.

But we, you know, it's not like we hit it off.

First day I met him, it was just I got to meet the whole band in one day.

And then I met Pepe the same day.

It was just one of these, you know, magical moments in time where I met everybody.

And then years later, through Pepe, I was in the studio with Matt because Pepe was releasing the 94 east recordings and I was fortunate to be part of that play on those.

And so I was in the studio with Matt and that of the first time we worked together.

And then I was actually doing dueling pianos, that format for years.

And Matt was just fascinated with dueling piano.

And he would come see me, and then we struck up a conversation.

And then when Pepe was asked to put together a Minneapolis all star project for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame does this benefit concert every year, and they celebrate the inductees and little Anthony, who I had worked with and who is Pepe is related to.

Right.

Clarence there, his uncle.

So.

So Pepe was invited to put together this project.

So we go back a little bit.

I'm trying to recall, did he get any inkling from conversations with Prince, how he felt about you guys going out and doing.

Doing this music.

Yeah, I mean, we had.

We had done it for a couple years and we didn't really know what we were doing.

We're just like, this could be fun.

Because Matt had done nothing else.

You know, Matt came out of high school and was in Prince's band and he knew how to be Dr. Fink.

Of course, he's master in the studio as well.

But as far as live performance, that's just kind of his bag.

And he wanted to keep doing it.

And at that time, you know, and we all know Prince moved on and he rarely looked backwards.

And so it didn't look like, you know, Matt was going to have that opportunity to play with Prince.

And we just wanted to do the music.

So we didn't know where it was going to go or how it was going to be received and whatnot.

So we just did it just to do it.

And it was.

It was received very well.

His Prince had actually talked about.

The.

Revolution and the possibility of any kind of reunion and whatnot.

And, you know, and where that.

Where his work with me, how that would play into an optics and.

And the end of the day, Prince supported Matt and wanted Matt to earn and have the ability to work.

And that was Prince's position.

I'm not.

I'm not here to take away from anybody else's ability to earn and work.

Be mindful of the legacy.

This was kind of Prince's, what he left Matt with.

And please make it about the music.

So he didn't.

This is what was relayed back to me.

I wasn't there.

Right.

Is that Prince really wanted it to honor the music.

And keep in mind, we were going.

Prince was still touring at that time.

Yeah.

So he didn't want it all.

He didn't want a circus.

He didn't.

He didn't want to be a mockery of in any way and just wanted the music to be right and whatnot.

And of course, Prince knew me and that was just basically the takeaway from that meeting.

Well, you mentioned the first meeting of Prince.

I.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was at a rehearsal out in the Eden Prairie.

Right.

First time I met him.

First time you met him at 18.

Yeah, it was.

What was that like?

Well, first of all, I didn't I was shocked that it was real because I was in a band with Prince's cousin, and that's how this kind of all came to be.

We were doing Cool in the Gang.

We were trying to be a Cool in the Gang tribute show way back before everybody was doing tributes, right.

And we just both dug Cool in the Gang.

And.

And we were close friends and.

And one day, Frank, who's still my friend, Frank lives in Vegas.

Okay.

He said, hey, Prince wants to meet you.

Oh, okay, sure.

Prince wants to meet me?

Yeah, why wouldn't he?

And I didn't think this, you know, I thought it was all bs, right?

And he's like, so we're going to go out and hang out with him.

Oh, okay, that's.

Sure, yeah, let's go hang out with him.

I had nothing better to do, right?

So, I mean, I didn't think it was real.

So I'm like, yeah, let's go drive to Eden Prairie and see what happens.

And I pulled up and he was outside.

So the timing was perfect because they were on a break.

So Prince took that opportunity to go sit out on.

It's just an industrial park, just a bunch of trucks coming and going and warehouses.

And he was, you know, settled in within those warehouses.

And just on the front lawn, he just set up a picnic and he had a couple gals with them, French gals.

And I pulled up and he excused himself and came over to.

To say hello.

And.

And I was introduced to him properly and.

And start off just kind of like a normal type of introduction that you would expect.

And then I was invited in.

That's when I met it, met everybody, the revolution and whatnot.

And so it was pretty.

Pretty crazy.

Kind of.

Kind of a trajectory.

It was like, okay, from that moment on, I was on this path.

Okay, now you're on this one.

And I've kind of been on that one ever since.

So that must have been around the time of the parade era.

Yeah, it hadn't come out yet because the first thing he ever said to me, the question he asked me was, do you lie?

Oh, there you go.

He said, do you lie?

And.

But that song hadn't been released yet, so just there was no context for somebody right, at a first meeting to say, do you lie?

And I'm going, how do you answer that question?

Yeah.

And now, anyway, so I found out years later, oh, that's why he said, do you lie?

They were probably recording it.

That's probably what they were in the middle of because they had two French girls who were on those recordings.

Right.

At the picnic.

So I think that's.

They were on break from recording that when I showed up.

Seeing Prince in the daytime, having a picnic must be like.

It must shake you up just a bit.

I. I would have been shaking.

Like I said.

I mean, this is one of those.

It was an appointment.

Right, Right.

Like, there was no.

It wasn't by chance.

That was an appointment.

I was supposed to be there.

He.

Everything went down the way it was supposed to, and I was set on this path from that moment on.

So another kind of blessing from that as I wasn't too nervous or.

Right.

I was composed, at least for a kid meeting, you know, my idol.

Now, you mentioned Pepe Willie, and I told you before, but I want to say, you know, I wanted to express condolences to loss of a great friend and a mentor to you.

So you did a nice tribute, which is.

It's on YouTube or just on your Instagram and Facebook page.

You were playing piano for Pepe.

Oh, yeah.

Song for you.

Yeah, I sang that for him.

I recorded.

Like I said, I told you before I was able to have him on the phone.

Yeah.

So, yeah, there's something about those lyrics that really spoke to me and, you know, his.

His belief in me from a very, very young age.

It was, you know, he had the same kind of involvement with Prince from the beginning is he nurtured that talent and believed in him.

Believed in Prince, you know, before it was, you know, a worldwide phenom.

And he did the same for me.

Of course, I didn't quite reach the same level as Prince, but he did the same for me.

Had the same faith in me and belief and has been there and my mentor and one of my best friends for most of my life.

Did he ever take you out on the golf course?

He did, but I'm.

I'm garbage.

I can't play.

So I. I would just hang out for the.

For the hang.

And that was.

For the hang.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember he.

But I couldn't hang.

But, yeah, he said.

I think he was making a.

He lived.

He lived out in Maple Groove instead of Maple Grove.

He used to call Maple Groove.

I like that.

Yeah, he.

I think he said that when Christy and Marcy were on the show with.

I never heard him say that.

Yeah.

So we talked about the new album Next, which released earlier this year.

But you've.

You've released singles.

I think you're on the third single.

Right.

Coming up.

We're just on two now.

Two.

Okay.

There's been two released about every couple months, two and a half months.

New ones released.

January, the whole album will be released.

Okay.

And that's.

Where do you want people to go to buy the singles?

Nobody buys anything anymore.

You know that, Joe.

But, you know, everything's online.

But we did do it a little differently where you can, you can do this.

What do we call it?

Pay what you wish.

So if you go to my website.

Marshallcharloff.Com we'll have the link all in description, everything.

Yeah.

So if you don't want to wait till January to hear the full album, you go to marshallcharloff.com you can buy.

Oh, hold on a second.

Watch this.

Okay.

You can get this thing.

Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, the vinyl.

Wow, that's smooth.

Yeah, vinyl.

Or you can get the CD or you can do this pay what you wish thing where you get an instant download and you can put in as little as a dollar.

Put in a dollar, you get the full album right now.

Wow, that's pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wait, and then you got to come to the show and support an independent musician.

That.

That's the catch.

That really is the only.

Well, you know, what's the currency for a musician right now?

It's a.

You should have some purpose in what you're doing, you know, besides the monetary exchange, which I certainly do.

Otherwise, it's that sharing, you know, when.

When an artist releases some music, you share it and get it out there so that it gets exposure.

That's the other currency.

And live.

Yeah, like you said, merch and live store and that.

That's about it.

Yeah.

So, I mean, are you of the opinion if you don't.

If you're not performing out there, is it really tough to make a living now as.

As a musician?

Well, I'm in a unique position where, you know, we're in our 15th year.

Yeah.

Touring.

And so it's getting outside of me.

Okay, let me try and get outside of me for a second.

Okay.

So you asked, am I of the opinion that it's challenging?

Yes, extremely.

If you haven't found a lane by now, like if you're an upcoming, if you're kind of breaking in now.

Extremely difficult to make a living as a musician.

And I don't know if you want to go down the rabbit hole of.

Of my thoughts on AI and what that's going to do to.

To music and creators and whatnot.

You could touch on it if you want.

Sure.

I don't want to bring everybody down.

That's the thing I really don't.

I already crushed his hopes that he was going to talk to an accomplished musician when it said, I'm a great bass player, heavy on the theory.

So.

That's right.

But that we didn't.

That wasn't recorded that part, was it?

No, no.

Yeah, you wanted.

That would be a funny story to tell about.

Oh, just real quick.

Just.

Yeah.

Before I came on the show, I wanted to do a somewhat deep dive on Joe so that I could be prepared for the interview.

And so I ran it through chat GPT and said, what do you know about musicians Reveal and Joe Kelly?

And it was.

Oh, you're gonna.

And of course my chat knows me because it re.

Remembers all our previous conversations.

So it knows me very well.

So it's like, oh, Marshall, you're gonna love it.

Joe's a. Joe's a bass player.

He's a theory nerd.

You guys are going to go into all kinds of music construction and he's going to want to know, you know, your compositional style, etc.

He's a very accomplished bass player in his own right and you guys are just going to hit it off.

And so that's what.

So it lied to me or I.

Could have lied and went with it.

Yeah.

It's a theme.

The answer.

Yes.

Yeah.

So, yeah, let's talk about the album and collaborations because you have a heavyweight on the saxophone, Gerald Albright.

How did you get affiliated with.

With him?

I got another heavyweight on there on that track also Patarianic.

Oh, yeah.

From Corey's band, right?

Corey's band, right.

Who?

We are friends and he's done many shows with us subbing for our drummer.

So he's done the.

The Purple Experience shows with us over the years.

So two heavyweights on that track.

Gerald, I did a private show for a gentleman who owns a string of music stores in Minnesota, and it was a surprise party for him that his wife put together.

And after the show he wanted to hang out.

It was just.

He's just a great time and he wanted to hang out and wanted.

He was one of these guys.

He's curious.

He wanted to know more about me.

Like, okay, you do the Prince thing.

Clearly, you know, you're a seasoned veteran musician.

What's your story?

So I just kind of went into, well, this, that and everything.

And Smooth Jazz Guy had the top.

And I got this new, new record coming out and I'm really excited about it and I'm looking for.

Looking for.

I just Kind of threw it out there.

Like I kind of need a, a sax dude.

If you know anybody.

I've worked with Jason Peterson as you know, and I love him.

But I, but I, I wanted to kind of branch out and see if there was any big, not that Jason isn't a big shot.

He is.

But I wanted one of these household names dudes on sax.

And he said, well, Gerald Albright I know very well I, I, I carry his line of saxophones.

So Gerald Albright has his own line and they, they supply him to the schools.

That's kind of what, what this guy was doing.

So he's like, I could, I could introduce you to Gerald Albright.

Okay, win.

I mean that, that's huge.

So just gave me the email introduction is all he gave me.

And, and because of the connection, Gerald's like, and this was around Christmas.

He's like, well we're getting through the holidays.

Send it to me right after Chris.

I'll listen to it.

Send it to him.

He dug it.

He loved it.

And I played the, the reference part.

I played sax on my keyboard.

Okay, here's the part, here's the reference track.

Get rid of, we'll get rid of mine.

You blow on it.

And he sent it back.

But he didn't do, he didn't do the lead line.

He did the solo.

He did like you know, pre chorus etc, but he, he didn't do the lead line.

And I said, well you got to do the lead line.

He said oh no I don't, I don't do that.

I don't.

Oh really?

Wow.

Because that's you.

I mean that's, that's what makes the song you.

And I said I get that as the com.

I wrote the song but this is featuring Gerald off.

Anyway, long story short, I got him to do the lead line.

So he, he's like I'll do it.

Send it back fully.

All the parts just unbelievably executed.

And one of, one of the prouder moments in, in my little career here is, is being able to have a tune with Gerald and, and it was extremely successful.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Actually went to number one on Smooth Jazz charts.

Yeah, I'd call that successful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, and it's, and it's real nice that I notice when because get promoters sending smooth jazz flavor tracks and a lot, there's a lot of trade offs with people playing on each other's records.

It seems that way.

Oh, the cross promotional thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, yeah.

100% and you know, right.

Now I'm just.

Because of how scared I've been of what AI is going to do with us anytime a human's involved.

And I don't think it's going to be as competitive anymore because it's going to be us against them.

So us is going to become even more united.

So anytime, you know, a human being wants me to contribute to their record or whatnot, I'm there.

And I think that's kind of going to be the attitude going around is, let's help each other out.

And you'll play lead lines.

I will fully play lead lines.

Yeah.

Right.

All day long.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaking of jazz and smooth jazz, your great friend Patty Peterson, you just visited her show and so you get support out in the Twin Cities.

Yeah, actually, that was by accident.

Oh, I got with Patty because, well, Jillian, who's my amazing publicist, is.

And that's how we got connected today.

Right.

She didn't know that I had any relationship with Patty.

She had no clue.

So she said, hey, I got this interview with someone named Patty Peterson, you know, the Minnesota Jazz 88.

I'm like, Patty of the Patty Peters, did you.

I mean, you know, we're friends.

And she's like, no, I had no idea.

I said, oh, my God, that's a strong.

Yes, let's do that.

Right?

So.

But yeah, so I, I get support all over the.

The country, but yeah, definitely at home and with Patty, that was awesome.

I loved it.

And the thing is, you know, I'm a huge fan of the Peterson family.

Huge one.

Probably one of the biggest of the Peterson family.

So here we are trying to have an interview, and we're supposed to.

At that time, I just released Eccentric with Gerald Albright.

And so that's what we're supposed to talk about.

Right.

Like most of the interview, we talked about the Peterson family.

Right?

Yeah.

And she's supposed to be interviewing me and I'm just like, asking questions.

Right.

Just.

And we're just talking about her family and her brothers and whatnot.

Yeah, they're all still going strong, creating music.

And it's funny, I, I aired Jeannie Arlen Peterson.

I only interviewed her once, but I put up the interview and I think, I think Vanessa was JPD's sister was listening.

She goes, oh, that's so cute.

Grandma had, had, had a cold when she, she was interviewed.

So, you know, it was, it was cool.

They got to hear, hear on the air.

Right on.

Yeah, yeah.

Just, just a history there.

There you go.

You got it.

You, you gotta.

When you Get a free breath, which you don't get too often because you're on the road a lot.

The Peterson's.

You maybe put something together.

Oh, I'm gonna do it.

No, I. I put.

I put my faith in you that maybe you can put something together.

Oh, man.

If I.

You're right.

If I had that, I think somebody.

I'll put this out there.

I can't believe that nobody has done a documentary.

And I'm quite serious.

Netflix, hbo.

I don't.

Whoever's listening to this, I am dead serious.

You're insane.

If I had the ability to go out and then if I was a documentary filmmaker, I would draw.

I would make time to go do that.

That would be.

I don't care who you are.

I mean, that is good.

I was gonna say good tv, but it's that.

That's just good content.

Yeah, yeah.

To just the lineage of that family and the successes individually and collaboratively, it's.

It's not normal.

And they're sweet people and they're great people and they give back to their community and they're involved heavily in their community and their church, and they're just great people.

Have you been downstairs to Paul's, the basement down?

No, No, I have not.

No, I've seen all the videos.

Yeah.

Yeah.

His mom's old house.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

So Marshall Charloff is with us.

Marshallcharloff.com and.

And you just did a gig in Maryland over the weekend, right?

Yeah.

Only.

Only that's what it's called.

Okay.

Only.

I know.

Not.

Not only, but O O L, N E Y.

So was that with the.

The full band?

The Purple Experience.

Okay, so you've got a lot on your shoulders.

Well, for both concerts.

But let me ask you first about the Purple Experience.

You know, performing as a tribute to Prince.

The look, the instruments, selection of music.

How did you get this into.

Into effect?

And to this day, what was the process like.

As far as.

Yeah.

Hotter to come?

Well, you know how it came together was.

It was formed by Matt and myself.

Pepe really put us together, and that was the impetus.

But once we got it rolling, we kind of.

We did the hits, you know, that's how it started off.

And we're.

We don't stray too far from that.

And that.

That's why we're able to appeal to the masses the way we do.

So hardcore, the hardcore folks we're giving him.

They're not disappointed either because, you know, they've.

They don't.

They don't necessarily want to Hear Purple Rain and let's Go Crazy little off track.

Yeah.

There's so many songs, thousands of songs like, you know, and they all have their favorites and can you go a little bit deeper?

And so there's, there's some opportunities in the show and one of those is we're not tethered.

There's nothing pre recorded about our show and I'm proud of that.

I think that's important that nothing's tracked, nothing's recorded, nothing sequenced, nothing's auto tuned.

And the beauty of that is we're, we can create in the moment.

So we can do extended mixes.

I can throw a solo to some, I could do a breakdown, I can do some crowd work or something happened in the audience and, and stop it on the one right, et cetera.

I can change verses, I can go to the bridge, I can do whatever I want the way Prince did it.

So that I think that's one of those what you call shared live experience.

And a shared live experience means this moment in time was unique to the people in the.

In these four walls.

It's never going to happen again.

When you go see a track show something that's, you know, they're just going through the motions.

Everything's pre recorded.

That's what's going to happen tomorrow night too.

And the next night and every other.

So why even go see that show more than once in our show?

Our fans come back over and over because it's never the same.

Even if we do the same songs, it's never the same.

So.

But there's an opportunity where.

And this is kind of.

I think you're gonna probably follow up and ask me about purple piano.

And so I'll kind of set that up.

Here is in the show, there was a segment even from the beginning where I would sit at the piano and the band would actually leave the stage and leave me out there and.

And I would play off the room and this is where I can kind of get a gauge and scan.

How deep, how deep is your love?

Like are you bleeding purple?

Are you.

These surface.

Do you want to just hear Purple Rain?

Let me know where you're at.

And I would ask them, you know, what do you want to hear?

And if I would hear some deeper cuts, that's when I would play them.

And I can tell if the audience is.

If 98% of the audience is checked out, you know, I'll probably just be able to give you a little, little nugget.

And so that, that evolved and now I spent a little More time on that segment.

There is no set amount of time I'm out there.

It's just whatever's going on with the audience.

And I can stretch out, I can go deeper because I, I have a 90 minute piano show.

This is just myself, so I can spend as much time as I want.

And I know, you know, many, many songs that I can play with the audience with.

So that, that part of the show is, is.

Gives a lot of freedom to customize it to that particular audience.

And what, what are they, are they hardcore fans or.

Not that kind of a thing.

But it's, it's, it's a theatrical show, so it is, you know, not one of these.

All right, the next song coming up.

This is a song.

It's not that.

Right.

You know, it's not bar band stuff.

This is really high paced, high energy costuming is, is, is a part of the show.

The look is a part of the show.

And that's what I think gives folks in the audience.

It lets them kind of escape into that little time capsule.

And you know that I'm, I'm tapping into Prince's energy and his essence, if you will.

And I think that that resonates with folks, you know, especially.

They get the, the look also and the energy and the musicianship and, and all.

Yeah, I noticed you went with the diamonds and pearls with the facial art and, and the bandana and everything.

Yeah.

Is that the.

Did you.

How did you decide on kind of a.

A look for, for the Prince?

It's changed.

It's changed over the years a little bit.

I mean, if you look back at some of the older, the beginning of the show, it's, you know, I found my way into it and I think literally too.

I mean, Marshall Charloff has found his way into this show.

So it's.

I am in character and, and the beauty is I get to be myself somehow within the character.

That's hard to explain.

Prince was very playful with his audience and so I, I get to take all kinds of liberties in the crowd work.

Part of what I do, I come from a dueling piano background, which is why I'm very comfortable sitting up there on the piano by myself.

Dueling pianos, the whole thing is crowd work, audience, audience engagement, call response.

That's the entire essence of that show.

And that's where I cut my teeth.

That's 10 years before I did this show.

So, you know, that's kind of ingrained and just.

Did you tour universities with that?

Oh, yes, sir.

Did you come to the east coast ever.

Do you remember?

I remember.

I'm not going to be able to.

Remember, but okay, that was everywhere because I, I did.

Our radio show was in the campus center at Fairfield University and dueling pianos were there like just every year at some point.

But it was right outside our studio.

We're supposed to be soundproof, but it was soundproof.

Yeah.

I don't know if you were part.

Of that, but yeah, good chance actually.

We could have met earlier.

Yeah, I might have done that.

But yeah, weddings, Tons of weddings.

Tons of corporate fundraisers, colleges, universities.

Yeah, all that stuff.

It was great.

Were you able to see Prince any of the dates?

Piano, microphone?

No, before he passed?

Nah, I've just seen the clips online.

And yeah, yeah, I. I haven't even seen a full show of panel microphone.

I've seen clips.

Yeah.

And I got the aesthetic and I saw what he was doing with the kaleidoscopes and whatnot.

Whatnot.

And really it was just kind of mood setting environment.

That's.

That's what I do in one in my one man show for the most part.

Although there's more storytelling in my show.

And I do break character because I can talk about my meetings with Prince and, and the different things that he's instilled in me and touring with Matt and, and Dr. Fink and I get to tell stories in the show.

So clearly I'm.

Although I'm still going with the aesthetic and the look.

You know, I'm.

I'm not, I'm not portraying.

I'm Prince up here.

I'm very much.

Yeah.

By myself, so.

And you got a stellar band.

You want to mention some of the players in there?

Sure.

Experience.

Sure.

Ron Karen on drums.

Teen in the B sides.

Minnesota People will know all this.

Tracy Blake, right.

Yeah, I was just gonna go a little bit of Ron's little credential.

So.

Played Tina.

Tina.

The Bsides.

The Melismatics is his original band.

And then he.

He's Michael Bland's sub for Soul Asylum.

So he does.

He has done shows with Soul Asylum and then he's the Rembrandts.

So Phil and Danny from the Rembrandts.

He actually did.

What would.

What anniversary was it when the friends had their anniversary and they were all on the.

On the Today show and the Rembrandts played and Ron got to be on drums for that.

Ron does shows with the Rembrandts.

Tracy Blake on guitar.

And we share a history in both being alumni from the west side Band.

And Tracy's very much an artist in his own right.

Producer, writer.

Doing country now.

Yeah, yeah.

He's got an album called One for Willie and he does tons of stuff, but he's produced stuff for Jelly Bean and with Jelly Bean.

Right.

He's just very connected in that way.

Cory Aishin correction on keyboard was hand picked by Matt.

So when Matt was exiting our show because he was touring, he was about to go tour with a reunite with the Revolution.

He said, what about, let's get Corey Eisen to fill in for me, take my spot.

I didn't even know who Corey was, so that was a great suggestion.

Corey also does sub work and plays with npg.

And when MPG goes on to this day, when MPG goes on tour, when the Revolution goes on tour, Corey Eisen gets the phone call because he is a genius sound designer.

Oh, okay.

So, you know, if you want it to sound like the record, where do you get those sounds?

How do you get that Oberheim or how do you, how do you get the.

Whatever the patch needs to be or that snare sound or that.

Whatever.

Corey is the one that, that can engineer that and create that sound.

So he's, he's really been vital to, to those folks and, and just supplying them with the different sound banks and, and helping them with their shows.

But then he also subs and plays with MPG and he's a producer also.

And who else?

Ron Long.

Ron Long, He's a bad, bad man.

I was telling you.

Victor Wooten.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yep.

So I was Ron and I went to go see Victor Wooten in New York and I knew Ron was one of the best place bass players in the world.

And.

But when Victor Wooten basically says that in my presence, I went, oh, okay, I'm playing one of the.

Because we all know Victor is one of the best, if not the best in the world.

And he just told me my guy is one of the best in the world.

So he plays, he's.

He's toured with Christina Aguilera, LL Cool J, the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees.

He was instrumental in a, in a band called High Five back in the 90s.

They were huge.

Did all those stadium tours with them.

Yeah, it goes on and on.

And presently besides full time playing with, with me is he does urban classics.

So when Michael Bland does that show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he'll do that.

So basically Ron's on all those gigs when available.

They try and work around our, our schedule.

But yeah, he's just really gifted on next level, as is everybody in my.

In My band.

So it's.

It's a joy, it's a pleasure, it's an honor.

Honor.

And you know, we'll keep doing it as long as we can.

And if you need a sub on base, you're looking right at.

Yeah, yeah, just ask Chat.

GPT.

Yeah, that's right.

You're the man.

So you got.

You're out in Texas right now.

I am in Texas right now, yeah.

What part of Texas?

Austin.

Austin, okay.

Music town.

My brother lives in Dallas area.

Yeah.

Okay.

But Texas, huge place.

We were just in.

We just did Arlington.

Oh, okay.

So that's.

That.

Yeah, that's right there.

I could have hooked him up.

Yeah.

Well, I'm sure you're going to be heading towards 20 years doing this, hopefully.

Or more.

Well, I joke that if, like maybe another.

At some point we got to retire, right?

At some point we got to retire and then what's going to happen?

We'll probably come back for 50th, because we, you know, it's.

What are we at 41st reunion of or sorry, anniversary of Purple rain.

That's right.

50Th.

It's like, all right, we're gonna come back.

It's gonna be called the Purple Cane Tour.

We're gonna come out there in our walkers, right?

And we're gonna do the Purple Cane Tour.

So that's only nine years away.

The Purple Cane Tour.

Yeah.

Hopefully we all stay intact and however we get there, we'll be there for.

For sure.

Hey, I got to ask you about guitars with the purple experience.

Do you have the style or, you know that Prince use kind of guitars do from his line?

I actually have the honor.

Okay, that.

The one that looks like a telly.

I don't have it here.

Display it for you, but I got a couple clouds here.

I got the yellow one, I got two white ones.

Because the.

This kind of backup Because I throw the white one in my show.

I literally throw it every night like Prince did.

Who's gonna catch it?

We got a guy.

Okay, got a guy.

He hasn't dropped it yet.

Okay, but, but, but it only takes one.

It drops it once.

I'll be breaking this one out here, but yeah.

So just the cloud and the.

And the Horner, are they smaller than.

Are they to his size that he had them?

No, some of them are like the.

The ones I have.

Right.

Okay.

Wanna.

Wait a second, I'll show you.

Yeah, sure.

Okay, hold on.

Take your time.

Oh, I forgot.

Oh, wow, cool.

Actually, actually, I forgot.

I have three white ones.

So I Have the one in the show that my road manager takes in his possession.

So I don't even have it here.

Then I have.

This is pretty much actual size.

This is the one print.

This is the.

Basically the size and dimensions of the one Prince plate.

Okay.

Mine is actually bigger, so mine's.

This one's bigger, but the one I play in the show is even.

Is even bigger than that.

Oh, okay.

Wow.

I don't know if you can see.

Yeah, yeah, I could see.

Doesn't have a symbol on the fretboard.

No, there's no symbols.

Oh, okay.

Well, sorry.

This one does.

Yeah, that's how I thought I saw.

Yeah.

Sorry.

I don't play this one in the show.

Right, right.

That's backup for my backup.

Right.

But.

Yeah.

Cool.

Thanks to showcasing the collection.

Yeah.

Well, man, I got others, but those.

Those are just the Prince ones.

The ones I use.

Yeah, yeah.

Before.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to make mention your dad dancing.

I Two.

Two of your videos.

I really.

I really dig one.

Your dad dancing.

Yeah.

How did that happen?

Let's see.

What song is that?

That's Nothing Matters.

Yeah.

Song called Nothing Matters and was inspired by.

He inspired me to write that one and those lyrics.

It's on my last album.

Right, the chart of number one.

No, no, the last album.

And this is on radio.

Yeah.

So every.

Anything that was released in that year, that album was in the top 100, which was a lot, because that was the COVID When nobody could tour.

Yeah.

So everybody put their album out because they had nothing else to offer and they couldn't tour.

There was just.

And so to be the top 100, it was even more of a milestone.

The number one is not the album.

The album's not even out yet.

For my new one, that's just the.

The song, et cetera.

Yeah.

Was number one.

But you're talking about.

Yeah.

Nothing Matters.

So my dad just sent me that footage.

He wasn't supposed to be.

It wasn't like, hey, I'm performing this for.

Put this in a video or anything.

He was just.

That's what he did in his house.

He was a.

He was in.

In the disco era.

Fever time.

Yeah.

He.

He would enter disco contests, and he was.

He would win them.

So he was like, I had my own Denny Terrio living in the house.

Danny Terrio reference.

That's cool.

And.

And we would have this before video.

So, yeah, you know, it's probably not appropriate that I was going to see Saturday Night Fever when I was nine, but.

But he would.

He would take us to go see Saturday Night Fever over and over and over so he could study, you know, whatever the movements were.

There was no other way to reference him.

So.

So he's still a great dancer, as you see in that video.

He sent me the video and just show me it and I saved it and I went, that's going in.

That's going in one of my music videos someday.

So I just did the little split screen where he's.

He's really displaying.

Doesn't matter how old you are, you can.

He's living.

He's living his best.

To this day.

He's living his best life.

Right.

And then you got on the other side of the screen, you see a lot of people that are kind of just running out the clock.

And so that was just kind of the juxtaposition in that video.

Another video you showcase sites in.

In Minneapolis, you're in front of.

Looks like right in front of First Ave. All the traffic.

And the funny part in that, I like this.

The traffic person that was conducting traffic looked at you both had like a smile or something in the video.

I don't know if there's a lot.

There was some magic in that one.

Uhhuh.

Yeah, for sure.

If you look at the.

The billboard on top of First Avenue in that, if you look at.

On the bottom, it says what if that's the name of the song?

Right.

If you look at that billboard, you'll be like, what is going on?

Yeah, yeah, there's some.

There's some crazy stuff in that video.

I have to go watch that again.

It's been a minute, but all up on YouTube.

And you can also look for a lot of.

A lot of videos for the Purple Experience and Purple Piano and.

And get the new music.

Pay what you can or empty out the.

The retirement account to support independent music.

The album's called Next.

Released early in the next year.

Right.

Full album is.

Yeah.

January.

Right.

But yeah.

Marshallcharloff.com if you want to get physical copy or that you can download it instantly on the pay what you wish thing.

And it looks like in the States you're playing just about every region of the country you're.

You're actually playing.

I don't know if you played there before.

Norwood, Massachusetts.

Oh, many times.

Okay.

That theater used to be ushers cleaning gum under the seats back in North.

My mom grew up in Norwood, so.

Yeah, that's strange.

Cleaning gum.

Yeah.

They used to have to clean the, with the razor under the seats and.

Right.

All the stuff, whatever was going on.

Yeah, it's because people didn't have cell phones.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

You know, because now they just.

Because chewing gum was like, hey, how do I, you know, just occupy my nervous habit now it's this.

Nobody's putting gum on the seat anymore.

Right.

That's my theory.

What's that like as a performer with all the, you know, I'm sure you get it all the time.

I hate it.

And it's, it's become part of my platform and part of my little elevator speech at the end is, you know, Prince didn't allow, he was way ahead of his time as you know, in, in everything.

But he didn't allow cameras in there.

And it's, it's a double edged, you know, as far as selfishly, is it good for the performer?

Yeah, I'm sure it is.

Because you.

Somebody's taking that video and they're, they're broadcasting it to their pool of folks and, and there's somebody inevitably that never heard of me and like, oh, let me check him out.

And so you gain fans that way.

But at.

It comes at a very high cost.

First of all, that person that came to the show, they're not fully enjoying, they're not in the moment, they're not enjoying that show.

And what are you going to do?

So it's all about documenting.

I was here versus putting the phone down and just being here, being there in the moment.

So I really discourage it, especially for those people in the front.

I.

You're right here.

You can't get any better.

You're in the front row.

Let's have some fun.

Let's connect with each other.

Because I operate off of energy, we all do as humans.

So if I'm performing to, to this to a phone, I'm not connecting with your soul and you're not receiving.

So, yeah, not a fan.

And it was the last of three nights he did there.

The guy in front of me for the whole show.

I'm looking, he's on his phone watching the Eagles play the Cowboys football.

And I'm thinking, what are you, you paid for a ticket, you're watching a game.

I know he must have had a better fantasy base football on it, but how I said, wow, that's bad.

I thought Prince wasn't allowing it.

Like you couldn't even get into his show.

Yeah, well, yeah, he was in front of me.

I remember because I, I told my wife, I said, look at this guy.

Because you don't really see footage of Prince.

Maybe you do.

Am I lying?

Like, when you see videos of Prince.

Right.

On YouTube, it's not handheld cell phones.

Like, it's, it's pro shot.

Yeah, no, he, he was watching on his own phone a football game during the print show.

Right.

But I'm just, I'm.

What I'm trying to determine is did.

Oh, okay.

Is there a lot of people that were allowed to, to film print?

I've seen, but they're usually like real crappy and the sounds off.

Yeah.

So I guess they'd sneak them in.

Yeah, I could see why he was, he was strict, especially in his own house.

Paisley Park.

Yeah.

Well, now it's worse because people, it's a deterrent to buy a ticket.

Theaters are struggling.

I know this firsthand.

This is what I do every weekend.

They are struggling to put butts in seats.

One of the reasons they're struggling is it's just too easy to stay home and sit on the couch.

Hey, somebody's gonna live stream it.

Oh, I got somebody there that.

I'm just gonna watch it on the live stream.

Oh, it'll be on YouTube.

Oh, somebody's gonna Facebook thing it.

And therefore you're not buying a ticket to the show.

Yeah.

And what.

So the theaters, they're going to close their.

They are closing their doors.

They're closing their doors.

And therefore, you know, it's sad to think the next generation, right.

The, the 12 year old right now going, should I dedicate my life to music?

Because that's what it is.

It's a, you don't just, you know, it's not a hobby.

If you're going to do this, you are going to, you are really going to put time in and sacrifice everything else.

Should I learn how to play this?

Why?

You asked me earlier, how hard is it to, you know, to earn as a musician and, you know, I've been very fortunate, but I'm.

What about the next generation coming up?

Should they even bother learning how to play instruments if there's no venues and if, yeah, there's.

It's not valued, you know, their original music isn't valued.

They can't monetize that.

So put your phones down.

Yeah, put your phones down and open up.

You know, buy some music, you know.

Yeah.

Unless you're watching this.

That's Right.

If you're watching this on your phone, don't, you know, don't put your phone down.

That's okay.

That's it.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Thanks for the plug.

Yeah.

So, yeah, every other marshallcharloff.com Next, the album and tons of show.

Purple Experience and Purple Piano.

He's out on the road.

All the dates are listed on there.

And sign up for his mailing list.

And do you do a meet and greet at any of the shows?

So after co, we used to do it all the time.

And then after Covet, what I.

This is just kind of inside baseball.

But what I do is I wait like five minutes.

Most of the theater clears out.

It's not a formal meet and greet.

Right.

I come back center stage, and whoever's still there, I'll.

I don't care how many they are.

I'll take pictures and chat with them.

And so, Tip, if you come to the show, don't let the Usher kick you out.

Just let everybody else leave, and I'll come out a few minutes later.

He may even play a song on acoustic guitar for you.

No, I'm just.

Yeah, they love that.

Yeah, sure.

Those.

Those Union Theater guys, they love it.

Yeah, when I used to DJ party, they said, like, when they're starting to give you the look, when you're wrapping up your equipment, it's like, okay, I better hustle out of this place.

Yep.

Yeah.

But hey, thanks to come on the show, man.

Finally.

Great to have you on and.

And hope to see you in November.

Coming our way.

Oh, right on.

I'll get you on the list.

Yeah, yeah, thanks.

Yeah.

Co host, my wife will definitely be coming there.

Yeah.

Love it.

Great speaking with you.

Yeah.

Thanks, Marshall.

Thank you, Joe.

All right.

Take care, brother.

You too.