Prince’s iconic funk legacy lives on through the voice of Tony M, the trailblazing rapper and frontman of The New Power Generation. In this exclusive Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley interview, Tony M dives deep into the funk, freedom, and fearless creativity that defined his journey alongside Prince.

From his early days in Minneapolis and battle-of-the-bands competitions.

Takeaways:

• Mosley reflects on his journey with Prince, emphasizing the significance of mentorship and the impact of their musical partnership.
• The podcast discusses the evolution of Mosley's artistry, particularly in embracing his identity as a rapper and lyricist.
• Mosley shares anecdotes of his experiences within the New Power Generation, illustrating the camaraderie and challenges faced on tour.

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Tony M and We Were The New Power Generation (NPG): https://thebandformerlyknownasnpg.com

Musicians Reveal official website: https://www.musiciansreveal.com

Musicians Reveal Mixcloud station: https://www.mixcloud.com/joekelleyradio/

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Musicians Reveal YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@musiciansreveal

Just said, Tony, I don't let anyone dictate where I go next.

I go where, you know, wherever the music takes me or wherever I'm feeling right now.

I don't concern myself with how my fans may take it.

It's me creating.

This is my vision.

This is what I'm feeling right now.

So either you come aboard or you don't.

It's all good.

This is just what.

This is what I'm going to do.

So I need you to be able to take that.

Welcome to Musicians Reveal.

Up next, tremendous rapper, guitarist, dancer, and longtime member with Prince and the New Power Generation.

We finally can say Tony Mosley, also better known Tony M.

Is in the house.

How you doing, Tone?

What's up, Joe?

How you doing, man?

Appreciate it.

Love the intro, man.

Makes it sound like I actually did something.

No, no, you.

You did.

You were there.

You were there for some big transition with princess sound and everything like that.

So, sure enough.

Sure enough.

So you represent with the mpg.

Nice hat there.

Represent, yes, absolutely.

I'm in the.

I'm in the home studio in the back, so it's kind of doubles as my day job and then my.

My passion back there behind me.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, the passion.

Passion doesn't have to pay because you love it.

Right?

That's.

That's it.

Yeah.

And it allows me sanity during my regular work.

Right.

Hey, you're looking good.

Look like you dropped some weight, too.

You're looking good.

Oh, thank you, man.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I've come down quite a bit, so it's a.

It's a work in progress, but, you know, we've been able to maintain it.

So that's the.

That's the.

That's the main thing.

Right.

Not just losing it.

Can you maintain it?

You know, you don't want it popping back, you know, three, four months down the road, so.

Yeah, doing good.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, no problem.

We got.

We got to get some business out of the way.

Were you a fan?

Of course.

Of the T.

Wolves?

That's a.

So that's too.

It's too soon.

Okay.

It's just too soon, Joe.

Okay, stop.

I'm gonna stop you right now.

Right?

That's too soon for that conversation.

Well, I'm gonna be joining in the consolation round.

Yes, you will.

Yes, you will be too Good.

I mean.

Yeah, it's.

It's probably the most unsexy NBA finals that you will ever see.

Yeah.

OKC in Indiana.

I'm like, no one's tuning into that, and I'm sure that's not what the NBA wanted, Right, Right.

So you got.

You got to give me, off the top of your head, a starting five from the.

The Minneapolis crew.

Prince of the New Power Generation or the Time.

All those guys for a basketball team.

Okay.

Off the top, I would play the 4, 5.

Just.

I like to bang in the paint.

I like the physicality of it.

Damon Dixon would be my guard.

Him and I played together at North High, so he knows where to feed me, how to feed me.

I would probably bring in Jerome Benton as another guy.

He's a football player, but he's quick and shifty.

And then let me see who I would have at my other forward spot.

Ooh.

Probably Dwayne.

Dwayne Nelson.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, he was a tall dude, right?

Yep, yep.

Dwayne Nelson.

So what I got there?

1, 2, 3, 4.

I got four already.

Yeah, you got it.

Oh, you got to put Prince.

I don't have to put.

Oh, yeah, you don't have to.

I will put Prince because.

Okay.

He was a baller.

Yeah, we got to keep the left one, right?

Yep, exactly.

So that's four.

And then I got one more.

I would probably add.

Oh, I'm gonna get cussed out for this.

So.

So I'm a waffle.

It's.

It's between Hucky and.

And Gilbert Davidson.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Because we had lots of pickup games with.

With the fellas.

Right.

So much so that Prince would tell them to stop playing basketball with us before shows.

Yeah, yeah, we had.

We had a two and a half, three hour show, and we don't.

Probably played five pickup games before that, and we're a little wore out.

Come toward the end of the show.

And plus, you.

You.

You had a.

A job that entailed you.

You stayed in one piece.

Absolutely, absolutely.

That's why there was no extracurricular work and, you know, or.

Or excursions to be done.

He would cancel all of that just because of our nightly shows and just the volume of responsibility that we had during those shows.

So, of course, you know, you're from North Mini.

North Minneapolis and raised there and.

NFL, baby.

North side for life.

Okay.

NFL, right?

Yeah.

So the first encounter with Prince, do.

Do you remember exactly where it was?

You mean when I actually seen him or when we actually interacted?

A little bit of both, maybe.

Okay, so, well, first.

First visual and knowing who he was was probably some of the battle of the bands that we used to have at the Way in North Minneapolis on Plymouth Avenue.

That's kind of like where we all, you know, cut our teeth with Spike Moss and him being able to have that vehicle for us to perform.

You can imagine, probably back in the mid to late 70s, there was not, as far as the African American community, very small, and there just weren't venues that were booking bands.

So, you know, Flight Time couldn't play anywhere.

You know, Grand Central could not play anywhere.

You know, you name it.

Family, I mean, no one.

There was no place to.

To book a gig.

So a lot of people ask, where did Minneapolis sound derived from?

Woodsheding.

I mean, you would shed it all winter, and then when the summer time came around, you had your opportunity to show what you've been working on during these festivals and Battle of the Bands in.

In Minneapolis.

And then that's when you really started to see, wow, okay, this cat right here.

I mean, I know all these other fellas, right?

Like Terry Lewis used to be my Pop Warner football coach at Hospitality House.

Jerome and I, we all went to school and grew up in the projects together.

So I've known these cats, you know, pretty much all my life, right, in one form or fashion.

Prince was different.

He didn't live where we lived at, but you knew of him and just through speak.

And then when you finally got an opportunity to see him perform and do his thing, you.

You knew why.

Jimmy Jam and Terry and all the other musicians that you knew about were just so flabbergasted by his.

By his talent, you know, And Sonny Thompson were, you know, just like, man, this cat's something different.

But you played guitar in high school as well.

I mean, we know he has on the mic, but tell us about your guitar getting into that instrument.

Yeah, well, my grandfather gave me an old Les Paul and like a.

Like a knucklehead.

It was a vintage, and I.

And I sold it.

You know, just being a knucklehead, man, that thing would be worth so much right now, it's ridiculous.

So that he gave me my first guitar, and that's when I started delving into playing.

And again, it was.

I think I took one or two music classes and theory, and I'm just like, dude, this ain't it for me.

I don't want to learn how to play.

Mary Had a Little Lamb Care about theory?

I just.

I want to.

I just want to play.

So I started learning just by ear and picking up and learning chords and playing notes that way.

And then eventually, as Sonny would tell me later, he said, tony, that's why you got Pocket.

You just learned on feel and not thinking about structure and reading structure and where this comes into that.

It's just all feel whether you're a little behind the beat, you know, so you had that pocket, you knew right where to fit in and.

And I think that's just some learning by ear and just, you know, just playing, man.

Playing.

You always have the stylish guitars.

I got to give you credit for that.

Some of them even out shown Prince's guitars, to be honest.

They're nice.

Yeah.

I had a couple he wouldn't allow me to have on stage because he was like, wait a minute, I got to get my piano painted that color.

And yeah, there was lots of conversations around that, man.

So my favorite, probably my sectors right now I have a Corsair and then I have another custom that just came through, so I've been using those.

I love the hollow body.

I love the sound of a hollow body.

Again, I'm not a solo guitar player.

You know, it's more rhythms and, you know, I like to just be, you know, a part of the sound and chunky.

So I love the full body sounds of my hollow bodies.

You're gonna, you're gonna.

You're working up to give Levi a break on some of those solos?

No, not hardly.

Him or Mike Scott.

I'll let them handle that, bro.

Yeah, that's right.

I tell them stay away from the mic.

I'll stay away from the guitar solos.

Yeah, Gary Hines, I remember he, he's been on the show several times.

He's.

And he's was hitting me up to get Mike Scott back to.

To play with Sounds of Blackness.

Mike's a beast, man.

Him and Levi, man, those are my great musicians, my mentors and, and even I can't discount my, my, my, my little brother Homer o' Dell.

I mean, he's been there from day one and.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

So, so let's get back to.

Our friend Damon Dixon has told the infamous story continues that the Purple Rain days when you guys.

Thanks to your mom for letting you rehearse quickly overnight in.

In her apartment.

But you had, you had an interesting bathroom account encounter with Prince that led eventually to, to being featured in Purple Rain and other things.

Right?

So bizarre, right?

I mean we were just, we were extras on the set.

We had gone through these dance contest nights that First Avenue would have and so they would have a cabaret night, a dance contest night, and you kind of go through and you know, Damon and I were a duo at the time and we were, we won and won for like five or six weeks straight.

Then B train, which was Kirk Johnson, Pat Adams and Scott Zeke, we call him, were B trained.

They bumped us off and they won for about five or six weeks straight.

Well, during that time, I think they had.

Talent scouts are just looking for people who wanted to be extras in the movie.

And we were like, yeah, sure.

Well, when we got there, come to find out they had had too many extras for some of these concert scenes.

So we ended up being wranglers.

And I'm like, what the hell is a wrangler?

And what do you mean, you know?

Well, you guys get to go to the pool of where all the talent is or all the people are, and you get to bring them in for.

For scenes.

I said, so you mean we're not even going to be in anything?

And yeah, yeah, so we, we did that.

And then there happened to be.

This is the night before, they were getting ready to do a bunch of concert footage at First Avenue.

And we were in between lighting changes.

We happened to be in the bathroom.

It was Kirk and the fellas.

We were all up there just dancing.

We had a little boombox in there just doing our thing.

And Prince walked in and watched us for, like, you know, 15, 20 minutes.

Didn't say a word, man, just watched us and then left.

At the end of the day, we got that.

That famous tap on the shoulder where Alan Lee's came over and said, prince would like you guys to put together some rats routines.

And we did it, man, luckily.

And, you know, Prince has a way of putting you on the spot, right?

And he works so fast.

So I think the sheer volume of what he asked us to do was like, crazy.

But we did it.

We came back at, you know, 6:00am the next morning ready to film and blew him away, man.

So that, that was our indoctrination into his work ethic and, and what he was looking for.

So.

And, you know, if you.

I'm sure most of our viewers know this, but those are just popping in for the first time.

Purple Rain up on the balcony at First Avenue.

Tony Damon and Kirk and a few of your old running buddies up there.

You know, that.

That was cool, that.

I mean, that was just such a great, great era.

Well, let me tell you, I mean, like I said, we did full five, six or seven full dance routines to full songs, Computer Blue, you know, times music, everybody.

We did all this work.

And I remember we were PR us out to.

To Hollywood for the premiere of Purple Rain, and he was going to have us.

We got a call to say, hey, we'd like you guys to work on a routine for a song that Press has not even promoted yet.

But he, you know, he's not performing it, but he would like somebody to lip sync to it.

And it was Erotic City.

So we did Erotic City out in California and just that.

That trust to allow us to do that.

I.

I remember how excited we were to get our.

Our first Vaughn and Lewis suits.

You remember Vaughn?

Vaughn, Those were designers back in the day.

So they made.

We got, we got fitted for new outfits.

And every man, we were just like, look, you got to be this gut.

This is crazy.

And so here we were, man, out of nowhere, you know, I was still in the Marine Corps, right?

You know, and I had been out in Cali before, I guess, being stationed out there, but I had never been in the Hollywood.

Cali, right?

So it was just.

It was different, man.

It was.

It was exciting.

I think it Purple Rain, along with some of the parties, after parties that he would invite us to, and we would just come up, man, and just dance.

We would come to rehearsals, we'd find out when rehearsals were, and we would just show up and just do dance routines.

So I think it was our hustle and our grind that Prince noticed and saw.

Uh, it didn't happen when we thought it was going to happen.

We just knew we was going on tour for Purple Rain.

Right.

And I remember during the premiere, he kind of pulled us aside, and I think he was just giving us a heads up that all the dance routines that we did were cut down to that snippet, that 0.5 seconds of work you saw us do in Purple Rain.

Movie.

Yeah, yeah, the movie itself, right.

We weren't quite prepared for that.

He was giving us a heads up, but we weren't prepared for what we saw.

And.

But again, it was our.

It was our first break.

It was our.

And like I said, I think he just appreciated our.

Our grind and our hustle and our, you know, he.

He knew we wanted it and it just wasn't our time at that particular time.

But he kept you guys on ice, gave you hope, and then there was disappointment and everything.

All right, you know, through preparation.

What was the tour?

Was it sign of the times or was it the tour that you guys were so pissed you guys went to the bar and had a few.

Few extras?

Yeah, you've heard this one before?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We.

I think.

What's the sign of the times?

No, no, no.

It was love sexy.

Love sexy.

I think it was love sexy.

Okay.

Anyway, we were going out.

We Were out at Paisley almost every.

Every day, just again, grinding, hopefully.

And then we come up and do dance routines with Sheila and Kat and everybody.

And we just knew we were going to get that opportunity again.

Everything happens for a reason, right?

I look back in hindsight, of course, now, and I realized that if we'd have been given that opportunity during Purple Rain or subsequent tours after that, would I have been in a position to write lyrics?

Right.

Would I have been in a position to play guitar at that particular point?

Right.

I mean, he had everything lined up.

I'd have just.

Probably just been a dancer.

Right?

And then toured and.

And that.

That would have been it.

So everything happens in this time and.

And it's recent and.

And Prince is a.

He.

He was a loyalist, man.

You know, if you gave him your time and.

And you proved yourself, he kept you around and.

And what we didn't know that internally they were going through changes with the time disbanding.

Right.

Jerome coming in with the family, and he was just trying to find, I think, pieces and places to put people who.

Who have been there.

Right?

So, again, it just wasn't our time.

But, yeah, we were salty, man.

We went to a.

There's an old restaurant downtown Minneapolis in the city center called Nakin's, and they had this drink called the Wanderer's Punch.

It's this huge, massive drink, but it had like seven different rums and punch in it.

So you really didn't know you were getting lit, but you got about halfway through it and you're like, whoa, man, this is it.

Well, we drank two of those and we were told up from the blow up, let me tell you.

They had those out there.

I don't drink anymore.

But it was Long Island Iced Teas, kind of something like that.

Took all the bottles and just went like that.

Yep.

So this was.

Long Island's on steroids, man.

Oh, okay.

Was he there that night?

Did he walk in the bar?

No, no, no.

It was just us.

We were.

We realized that they were heading out.

We had started getting some.

Just some little birdies.

Was like, man, you guys are gonna go.

You guys are gonna go.

I think it's gonna happen.

And it.

And it didn't happen.

We found out they were heading out and just like, it wasn't.

It wasn't time yet.

And, you know, so that's when we just kind of went and tied one on.

It's just like, we've been paying dues for, like, five, six years, man.

We, you know, we started with, what, 84 you know, so it wasn't until well 89 when we really got our opportunity to join the band.

Yeah.

Going on the new tour.

So game.

Well, the origin of the Game Boys, what was the, the name for that?

Prince.

Okay.

Our name was, our, our name was Split Level.

That was the name of our, of our dance group.

And Prince didn't like it.

It.

He thought it was sound like an architecture firm or something like that.

It was something odd because I, I remember when we saw it printed for the first time we came to him was like, our name is not.

We're not the Game Boys.

We're Split Level.

And but again he said it, it was printed, it was done, it was a rap.

There's nothing we could do to change that.

So.

And we're like, well, Game Boys.

That just sounds like the handheld video game by Nintendo.

So what do you, what are we talking about here?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I was going through some of the, the history of the gigs like through on Prince Vault and because of the shows that I went to and the shows that you played.

And I was looking at some of the behind the scenes shows that were canceled and you know, rescheduled.

I had one when I went, it was after you guys had long left.

But there was a lot of stuff that the fans never knew if this information is correct, that shows were always changed at the spur of the moment, right?

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I mean that's why our sound checks lasted three, you know, three hours plus is that, you know, there were different arrangements.

You know, you realize here in the States and abroad, the hardcore fans, I mean, they're at every single show, right?

They, they, they pull their money, they save up their money.

I remember how blown away I was on our first tour, on the new tour and we were, we were in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands and you know, all we pulled up to the venue before soundcheck and just, I mean there, there's tents and sleeping bags and people lined up for miles just sleeping outside because you know, once they open the doors, it's first come, first serve in there.

There's no seating arrangements.

The stadium shows.

Yeah, yeah, so, so people are just breaking their NEC to this stadium.

I, I do, I have a, some video footage on a vhs, had a big vh.

You remember the vhs?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I remember right before the, the gates were about to open, one of the crew came up and said, Tony, you guys might want to stand behind the curtain.

You might want to film this.

And we came up, they said they're about to open the doors and I went up and hood stood behind the curtain and just kind of poked the camera out and them gates open, man.

Just the look of.

I don't want to say it was panic, but they were.

I mean, these people were running in, just trying to get that front row, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

I mean, you got guys dragging their girlfriends, man.

And the girls are just, they realize they're about to fall and they just dive, tuck and roll and don't miss a beat and get back up and keep running, man.

I was like, man, this is bizarre.

This is absolutely crazy.

So, you know, being able to experience that and, and also being able to.

We were new, we were the dancers and you know, Diamonds and Pearls hadn't hit yet.

So we would just walk out to the, to the, to the crowd in the stadium and just walk around and hear people, you know, discuss, you know, how excited they were to see the show and how many shows they've been to and how much a big fan.

And then they'd look around and see us, but not quite know who we were yet.

When we came back through with Diamonds and Pearls and they would have their tour books and we'd sneak up behind people and go like, who's that big head right there?

They turn around, look and go, oh my God.

Oh my God.

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was okay.

I mean again, Prince, Prince was unattainable and untouchable for them.

Right.

But, but we were.

So we wanted to make sure that we were able to provide that, that connection somehow and just being able to go out and say what's up to people.

Yeah, you interesting, you, you talk about that first show.

You wasn't there torrential rain and did you fall off the stage?

That wasn't.

No, no, Damon, Damon slipped coming down ramp.

Okay.

And that was in, that was in France.

I fell off the stage.

I think it was.

We were in Germany and we were flip flopping stages in this particular venue, the wings that went out toward the sides of the stage where you see Prince run up on and, and you know, and hype the crowd on both sides.

Well, facing stage, stage left, they had to cut a portion of the, of the wing off.

So it didn't go out as far as I thought it went.

And they didn't put the glow tape up there, so I couldn't see where it ended.

Oh.

So every night I go out to this part on cue and I, and I, you know, do my thing from, from that area.

Well, I, you know, not thinking, I You know, I didn't see any glow tape down.

I walked out there and stepped off that stage and you can imagine if you're stepping, it's not like I didn't trip off of a curb.

I fell off of a 10 foot high stadium, you know, a stage and fell all the way down.

All you could hear was a little bit.

But I didn't miss a beat.

I didn't miss a beat.

Matter of fact, Prince called us, the whole band into the, into his room to, to watch the show and he said, let me tell you something right here.

And I just came out from behind the speakers and I just rocked in my, in the crowd.

It was giving people.

He said, man, that, that's it, money.

So I got a little bump.

So that's funk night right there.

Yeah, you guys had that.

It was it every night.

Like a little bonus or not.

Not every night, but you know, a lot, a lot of times we would have a funk night.

So, you know, the competition was on.

We were all competitors.

We're like, man, we the focus.

And.

Or no Apprentice is Prince gonna be the funkiest, which he always was, but.

Or is it going to be Levi's night?

Is it going to be Michael Bland's night?

It's going to be Rosie Sunn.

It could be anybody.

So we would always go conjure up our own little ideas as, as a group.

I remember we were in Toronto and we found people who actually worked with the, the Maple Leafs, okay, Toronto Maple Leafs.

And they got us jerseys.

And we knew at this one point in the show we had on these white, we had these white outfits.

So we said, oh, this is going to match perfect.

We'll come out and we'll have the Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys on.

So Prince out, he's out rocking the stage.

And it was our time to come out and do our little dance routines.

And the crowd just went nuts, right?

And Prince couldn't figure out, he said, wait a minute, they don't usually go this crazy during this part of the show.

And he looks to his left and his right and he goes, yeah.

He said, where's my jersey at?

He leans over real quietly and he says, where's my jersey?

Yeah, I want one.

Well, so we actually, we got, we got fined a little bit for that one.

You know, Years later, it was the, the One Night Alone tour in Montreal.

My wife's originally from Montreal.

And Prince came, what Larry Graham did Days of Wild, wearing a Montreal Canadian hockey jersey with Prince on the back and number one.

So maybe he cop the idea.

He absolutely, he absolutely did.

I didn't know that that's where he got it from.

He got it from the Game Boys.

It's actually he released through the MPG Music Club days a while.

There's like a cassette version and it's from that night where he's.

It was 20 minute version of it.

So.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.

You got to give us some props for that one.

I appreciate that.

You know, you mentioned and I've read about some of the stuff, you know, never show, let the audience know about a mistake.

I was at Act 1 at Radio City Music hall, two of the three shows and one of the shows, I don't know if you saw this, but Prince wiped out during the ballad section and he popped right up.

You know, he had the beads and everything.

And you know, you mentioned a fallen off the stage and you know, yeah.

It'S not a mistake until, until, you know, you make it, you make it known.

Right.

You know, I probably don't remember seeing it because if it was a ballad, we weren't on stage at the time.

So we're probably all staged when it happened.

Right.

But yeah, there's been plenty of those instances, man.

He said, and it's not a mistake until you make it known.

One, one clip that always comes to my mind and we laugh about it a lot was the infamous All Star Game.

Okay.

When Carl Lewis sang the national Anthem.

Right.

And he started a couple octaves too high.

So when it came to, when he started breaking up and going in, the cardinal sin was he said, oh, you remember that?

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, y' all got to give me a chance, man.

And oh my God, we played that back even with Prince.

We played that little clip back so many times.

Just fell out laughing.

Dude, you don't ever say.

Oh, you just keep it moving.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean people, most people are not going to recognize except, you know, the ones running to the front row.

Exactly.

Who come to every show.

Right.

So let's get back the story on you finding your voice on the mic or Prince discovering that you, you were.

You had a great handle on the mic for hip hop and eventually putting it right into Prince's music.

What was that first instance of Princess became aware of that.

So in our, in our downtime or, or just not being able to be.

Get picked up and being a part of the band or going on a tour, we started our own band.

We were doing a college circuit.

So it was Kirk, myself, Damon Sister, Kathleen Kim, Rhonda.

So we had our Own little band.

And I think that's what really gave me the confidence to be out front on the microphone, because I.

I would.

I would start to do those duties when we were writing our own songs and, you know, playing covers, but we were also doing originals.

And so that's.

That's when my penmanship started to come into play.

So hence going back saying, if it had happened then I would not have been ready to take advantage of the situation when it came.

Yeah, right.

So we were.

We were in.

I think we were in France.

And Prince was flying back and forth during that new tour, finishing, doing finishing touches on graffiti bridge.

Right.

So he had just got back in.

Levi was leading sound check at that particular time, and we were just sound checking.

And then we started.

We went into.

I think we just started playing Humpty Dance.

Okay, right.

I had a guitar, and.

And I walked up to the microphone and.

And I started spitting the lyrics, not knowing Prince was even in the house.

And then all of a sudden, you hear a voice come over the loud speaker system.

Yeah, that was nice.

Can we get into a real sound check now?

We're like, oh, we're about to get in trouble for real on this one, because we were just clowning, man.

We went through all of the songs, and we were just, you know, just playing around.

Right.

Gilbert came up to me after that.

I said, prince would like to talk to you.

And I didn't know what for.

I didn't know if it was, you know, maybe he wanted to add something to the dance routines or.

Or something.

And so I went back and he just said, you know, I really.

I didn't realize that you, you know, you have a really good presence.

I mean, not just dancing, but a presence on stage.

Right.

And I heard you, you know, doing Digital, Digital Underground, Humpty Dance, and I was wondering if we could.

If we could put that into the show tomorrow night.

I go on a.

A wardrobe change here, and I'll just leave the stage to the band, and you come out and do Humpty Dance.

I'm like, what?

He's giving me the stage.

Wow.

I'm like, okay, yeah, absolutely.

I can.

That's the north side of me, right?

Absolutely.

I'm a knock.

I got.

I got you, man.

Don't worry about it.

Go do your wardrobe change.

I got it.

But inside, I'm going, oh, my God.

Don't, don't.

Don't this up.

Tony not mess this up, man.

And so luckily, I got through it.

We rocked it.

Crowd went crazy.

He dapped Me up at the end of the show.

He said, man, yeah.

He said that.

That's what I like.

He said, do you happen to have.

Do you write lyrics too?

I said, I absolutely do.

I got pads full of lyrics.

So when we get off a tour, let's talk.

Let's talk a little bit.

Not knowing he had already had it in his mind the switch and the pivot he was going to make for Diamonds and Pearls.

Right, right.

And toward the end of that tour, we actually started recording some music.

So I always had my notebooks with me and I would come in and it was just jam sessions.

He wanted to see how I performed in a studio environment.

And you know, they joked and called me one take because I'm not a.

I'm not a studio guy.

I would not like to be in the studio or ungodly told hours watching you mix and press buttons and turn faders and add verb and all.

I just.

This is not my thing.

So I.

I came in and I would knock something out so quickly and he would just look at me and go, you got to be kidding me.

You're done?

I said, I'm good.

Unless you want me to stack some vocals, I can do that too.

So I think as time progressed, he allowed me to actually write my own lyrics.

He would give me some direction and say, here's, you know, here's what the track is about.

He would send me home with a cassette or, or just send me away with a cassette and you know, an hour, hour and a half later I come back with my lyrics and knock him out.

And he didn't.

He.

He may have changed the, the way it was structured, but he never changed my.

My words.

Oh, really?

Okay, so where I would have had.

Or I had 16 bars structured for first.

First he would take it.

He may break him up a little bit into.

Into different spots.

Right.

So it didn't for me, the.

It was.

Is weird.

I wrote in a certain cadence and words flowed to each other, but that was his producing me at the same time.

So I wasn't used to being produced.

I just felt like he was changing up what I was doing.

So as I got more into.

I said, oh, I see what he's doing.

I see it.

I see how that works.

I says, the visionary that wasn't in me yet.

Right.

And you've got some lines that'll go down when we're all long gone, both of us.

23 positions in a one night stand.

And how's your kids reaction to that part of the career?

It's funny because I did not.

I didn't discuss my time with Prince, okay?

With my kids.

When I walked away from it, I.

I.

I walked away.

I didn't.

I didn't come to any parties.

I didn't.

I didn't do anything.

Right?

I just.

I.

I went on and I became suburban.

Dad got married, had kids, coach.

Nice.

Coach Mosley.

I was just.

You know, I was everything but this musician.

And as time went by, I think my daughter.

I think she was tooling around in the basement.

We had.

Our basement was not finished yet.

And she saw a poster because, I mean, all my plaques, all my awards, everything were shoved up under the house in the basement.

I didn't.

I didn't display anything, right?

And she just happens to tool pass, and she stops.

She looks at this poster, and this is my wife's account, and she comes back and she tools back around the basement, stops in the room, and she goes, mama, Daddy was in a band.

And she.

And then that kind of started it.

Well, the neighbors started.

My wife was showing videos of past videos of us performing to some of the neighbors, and the kids happened to see a couple of those.

And that's when they started to pick up on what.

What dad used to do.

Right.

Yeah.

I'm just happy that the current version of we.

We were the new power generation.

I still call, of course, the new mpg New power generation.

But you guys still put Call the Law in.

In the stage set list, right?

It's got to be.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's got to be there.

Y.

Call the laws there.

And it's.

It's interesting because that's one of the.

Like, my son, he.

He sings vocals.

So for our First Avenue show, you know, that we did back in September, you know, we had him singing background vocals, Right.

And my daughter's like, well, wait a minute.

I want to.

I want to get a part of some of this.

And so she teases me a lot because she'll come up and she'll just start spitting.

Call.

Call the Law.

The lyrics to Call Them.

She knows every single word, you know, where.

She didn't get it at first, but now.

Now she knows everything.

So.

Yeah.

Full circle moments.

Yeah.

Was the video that was primarily at Paisley park for.

For Call the Law.

Yeah.

Would you guys record the video?

I.

I should.

We.

We.

There were certain.

Certain sections, like if you see Prince playing the guitar solo, stuff like that, that was out of Paisley.

But I shot.

We shot it in Northside Minneapolis.

I went to.

He gave me the crew.

He said, you guys go shoot your video wherever.

So I took it to.

To North Minneapolis on Plymouth Avenue, where the Way was.

I even went and got Spike.

Spike Moss and a lot of the other people from the Way who were.

Who we grew up with and hung out with.

And we got.

We got.

Man, we packed it out.

We got the Plymouth Avenue closed.

So we shot it on Plymouth Avenue, also North Commons park, which is another.

Another area where we would all go hang out, play basketball, or even have Friday and Saturday night dance parties inside the community center right there.

So I shot some.

Some stuff there.

And then.

And then also there was a house.

Mansion that we had rented, and that's the.

The scenes in the hot tub and all that kind of stuff.

All that was shot in that house.

Yeah.

And one of my favorite songs and a lot of stuff that you.

You spit in that song still exists today together, right?

Yeah.

Ain't a damn thing change.

Is that the lineup.

Damn thing changed that.

That's it.

And how true is that?

Right?

Yeah.

Nothing has changed.

Not a damn thing has changed.

Right?

Right.

Even I.

I think back to a lyric I had in My name is Prince.

You know, still trying to put my foot in the ass of Jim Crow.

Right?

Yeah.

There you go.

It's still going down right now.

It's nothing.

Nothing has changed.

When I see some of this stuff, people like, oh, my.

They're all appalled by it.

I say, man, you guys.

You lived it.

Yeah.

You're living.

And we continue to live it every day.

So until people want to make that change or this country decides to make that change, we'll always be here.

Yeah, the.

The TV appearances that you and Prince and the MPG put together, just some.

Some.

I mean, not too many people topping what you guys did.

I'll give you a couple.

The Kiss.

Let's go crazy Kiss version on Arsenio, man, that's.

That stands out, you know.

Man, was that one of your favorite on tv, like the Main Street?

Yeah, I think.

And that was our.

That was our main.

That was my first big.

Our first big one.

Right.

I mean, we did.

We did some stuff with Tevin Campbell.

We did.

But to take over Arsenio, that had never been done before.

Basically.

It was a mini concert.

Yeah.

On Arsenio Hall.

Right.

I mean, he would cut back and he would ask a couple questions or chat with Patti LaBelle a little bit, but it was on to the next song.

So, I mean, we.

We basically did a concert, and I.

I just remember him being so happy after we finished taping that Segment, and we were.

He invited us up to the house out in California to watch it when it aired that evening.

And, man, when that.

When that show was done and he took that microphone, tossed that, and hit, bam.

Spanish, we went into that dance routine.

He just.

He lost his mind, man.

It's like, oh, my God.

Is it?

Yeah.

So the phone call started coming immediately after it aired, you know, in various places.

We hadn't seen it yet because, of course, we're on the West Coast.

Okay.

But it aired earlier, and, you know, people on the east and the Central, and people were like, man, y' all killed it.

We hadn't seen it yet, so it was like.

Yeah, that was.

That was probably the first major.

Yeah.

And then, of course, Ride Divine was another one.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

You know, so.

Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was, man.

It was.

It was a crazy time.

It was an exciting time.

It was.

And it was a lot of work, man.

I mean, people are just like, man, you guys, man, you guys were the luckiest.

And it had to be so much fun.

And I remember Levi saying somebody telling somebody once you were an interview, hell, no, it wasn't fun.

It was work, man.

It was pressure.

It was a matter of fact, if you look at that picture that's behind you right now with me playing guitar.

Yeah.

Allowing me to play guitar on stage, right?

You see Prince performing and grinning and playing the audience.

You see me focused on with a lollipop in my mouth on that guitar because I don't want to miss a damn note.

Yeah.

Right behind one of the greats on that instrument, right?

Yeah.

Bro, you got to be kidding me, man.

I'm standing here playing guitar, and he's allowing me to play.

Just.

Just so grateful for the opportunities that he provided for.

For the mentorship that he provided.

I remember constant conversations, man, when we were going into Diamonds and Pearls, and I.

And he kind of talked to me about the direction he was going, and he asked me what my thoughts were, and I.

I said, absolutely not.

Do not add no rap to your.

To your set, man.

What are you talking about?

You just.

All the bootleg copies that are out right now from the Black Album and dead on it, and some of the things, man.

Man, we're gonna get chewed up and spit out, right?

And especially me.

Oh, yeah.

I'm sure you were aware on the websites and crap like that, right?

Yeah, Yeah.

I tried not to.

To pay attention to any of it.

And if anyone tells you that they don't read the interviews or the commentary or any of that stuff, they're, they're lies, right?

Well, Prince had a way of, of, of stoking fire in individuals.

So we were on a couple shows.

I think we had a, I think the album had just came out.

There was some negative reviews, and I think, you know, Prince purposely put a review, like, in our dressing room.

It's already, it's already at the page.

So he, he knew I'd pick it up and I'd see it and read it.

And, boy, that night, there was hell to pay.

Tones coming.

Tone's coming in hot.

Yeah.

That's like the sticking the quote from the NBA team against the bulletin board, right?

Absolutely.

He gave me bulletin board material, man.

But again, you know, we would have serious conversations, and he just said, tony, I don't let anyone dictate where I go next.

I go where, you know, wherever the music takes me or wherever I'm feeling right now.

I don't, I don't concern myself with how my fans may take it.

It's me creating.

This is my vision.

This is my, this is, this is what I'm feeling right now.

So either you come aboard or you don't.

It's all good.

This is just what, this is what I'm going to do.

So I need you to be able to take that approach, coach, and not, and not worry about what everybody in hip hop is going to say about you coming out.

You know, I, I put you in this, in this role.

You are, you are killing it.

I, I had his utmost confidence.

You know, people say, well, Tony, you were the first rapper.

And I always like to clarify this is that I was not the first rapper, but Prince.

Tc, Chief C.

Ellis.

Right, right.

Yeah.

My man David.

Right.

And we grew up in, in St.

Paul's I've known, we've been knowing each other since Shorty, so I always want to give TC his props.

Yeah, yeah, good guy.

I, I, I was just, I was the one who was given the vehicle to actually do it in Prince's band.

Right.

So.

Yeah, yeah, David T.C.

ellis.

Yeah.

Great guy, my brother.

Yeah.

So when's the last time you spoke with Prince?

Prior to his passing?

It was, we went out to a, a party.

I, I remember I finally showed up at a after party out of Paisley, and that's when we, we chatted.

We, we laughed a lot.

Uh, we joked about, you know, things that had happened in the past and, uh, uh, so it was a good conversation.

I just remember being a fun, joking conversation.

It wasn't, it wasn't too serious.

He was Happy to see me.

Always asked about why I never came out to anything.

And.

And I always told him, I said, Prince, when I.

When I walked away, I.

It's hard for us to transition as.

As artists, especially if you have to transition to a day job.

Right.

For instance, and.

Or just transition in life.

And for me, if I'd have kept coming back, you'd have kept sucking me back into the studio.

I'd have been recording this or recording that, and I had to walk away.

So for me, walking away was just cutting it off altogether.

And so, you know, he respected that, but he still wish I came out to some, you know, some more things.

You know, people want to see you.

The fans always ask, where's Tony M?

Where's Tony M?

And it was just.

It was.

It was a way for me to be able to transition and get my head into a space where I knew I had to be.

And that was, again, supporting my family, supporting my wife, and not getting caught up into that lifestyle again.

Yeah, well, you guys ended on a really positive note.

And, you know, the good thing we did.

As sad as I'm sure, because personally, your personal friend with Prince is as sad as his passing.

It's great to see the musicians who help Prince create this great legacy have continued along.

I just wish you guys did more dates.

That's my thing with the.

Yeah, I know.

Especially in the.

In.

In the.

In the.

In the States.

We've been challenging these promoters and.

Because weren't you sk.

This one.

We were living in Connecticut.

You were supposed to do Norwalk, Connecticut.

Did you do that gig?

I don't know if we did.

Pandemic came in, right?

Yep, exactly.

Matter of fact, Pandemic hit.

We had a show in Chicago that one of us contra got covet and we had to cancel that show.

And then everybody got home and got sick.

And, you know, that's.

Yeah, the Pandemic happened and that really.

That took us out of two years worth of work, you know, especially when we had first jumped in and at that time and we looked at it like this, you know, especially after we did the Celebration of Life at the Excel center for Prince.

And we, you know, Stevie Wonder, we had the whole lineup.

Right.

And we knew, you know, there were going to be a lot of bands.

And I.

I hate to call them cover bands or.

Or whatever, but our thought process was like, who better to go out and represent this music and play this music than people who created it with him?

Right, right.

Especially in the Diamonds and Pearls era, those were collaborative efforts.

With the whole band.

It wasn't just Prince coming in saying, here's the music, learn it and go.

We actually created these groups in the studios with him.

So we were part of that process.

So who better to do it than us?

Hey, we could quickly talk about a big gig.

You got revisiting First Avenue in July.

And Sonny T, I guess, is not doing the gig.

He's.

I think he's in Italy right now, but.

He is in Italy.

Yep.

Brown Mark coming in to lay down the four string.

Right, bruh.

That's a huge get right now.

Right.

So it's.

It's been something that we have been working on from a collective NPG standpoint to.

To try to get us all on.

On a show together.

Right.

I mean, how funky would that be, man?

You got the mpg, you got the time.

Yeah.

You know, you got the revolution.

All of us to get together and just do one, one good string of shows, man.

I mean, that's what the fans want to see.

It'd be nice to do a festival like, you know, like a package tour like that.

I mean, they got the groups doing Cameo zap and all them, but let's get them.

Yeah, exactly.

And do.

And do the Minneapolis sound.

Right.

And I mean, because then people, you know, we.

We do it well and because we had to.

And that's one thing we.

We joke about, but it's really not a.

A running joke is that not every.

Not everybody can do the npg, but the MPG can do the revolution songs can do.

All because we had to.

Rehearsals.

Those were the hits that we had to learn how to play.

Right.

Right now I would rather see them, the Revolution do their thing and then MPG does theirs.

And the time is always going to do their thing.

Right.

So being able to separate that.

But, you know, we're.

We're in a space now where we're trying to.

To lock that in.

And we would love for that to happen.

Yeah.

I got a question from my wife.

My wife was a ballroom dance champ.

And you know, the aches and pains and the injuries from dancing.

I know, I know Kirk and Damon have the own problems.

How about you and Prince, of course, had his.

But how about yourself?

How.

What's the damage?

I've got.

I've got hip damage, so I'm probably going to need some.

Some hip work being done here pretty soon.

Okay.

Knees are not bad.

I know.

Kirk just had his knee work done, right?

Yeah.

You know, some other things and so.

Yeah.

But for.

For the most part, I'm you know, I'm no wearier for the work, man.

I'm not.

I wouldn't change the thing again, you know, it's not only just the dancing, you know, played basketball and football, so it's just, it comes with the territory and then age, right?

You get out the bed, you barely move and you're like, where'd that come from?

That's right.

So, yeah, so for the most part, I.

I feel blessed, man.

Yeah, you feel like you wake up and stagger into the bathroom or something like that in the morning.

That's it.

Yeah.

Well, that and you're getting older, so you're always getting up and going to the bathroom.

So, yeah, I'm just thrilled when I get one peaceful night's asleep without having to get up and go to the bathrooms.

Hey, we're our age bracket.

We're all going through the similar stuff.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

All right, I'm going to give you the final question.

Always in my mind, the Cream extended CD release with the multi mixes.

That, that's the skit in there when the prank call, you know, calling.

I know Kirk, that Kirk's voice is in there, but try, try to give us some information on how that went down in the studio and how.

Who.

Who were you guys calling?

So it was a real prank.

We, we did a lot of these and we were just, you know, Prince was a prankster, man.

So we would just call up.

He heard about one individual, his name was Morris, and he.

Prince must have saw an interview or a write up where Prince, like, I've never liked.

This guy, says, I've never liked Prince.

He was a local musician.

I don't like his music and I never like Prince and blah, blah, blah.

So we, we called him up on, on a prank.

And then Kurt goes into what's up with you?

And then all of a sudden it just escalates into this.

F you not fu.

Click.

And man, we were dying.

But that was a real, that was a real call, man.

And yeah, it took everything for Kirk not to break character.

And Prince, man, we're just on mute, man.

We're in the studio, muted, and we're trying to mute the microphones and she's just on the floor busting, man, we couldn't believe it went that well.

Anything off the top of your mind, video or audio, that you would love to see the light of day from, from the Estate?

Because I'm sure there's tons of stuff.

There's a ton.

But like, we were working so much so you don't even recall.

I mean, I remember when we were going through tracks for the re release of the Diamonds and Pearls album, right?

And they were playing tracks to me.

Dwayne and them were playing tracks to me that were going to be released.

And I'm like, oh my God, I don't even remember doing that.

Wow.

Then you hear and you go, oh, my God, that was this date we.

Did we cut that or we cut this in London or so.

I mean, you know, just.

I couldn't pinpoint anything.

I'm sure there's a ton that I would love to see.

We.

We were working so much and we're.

There are plenty of shows that I know is just on fire and I would love to see those released.

But, you know, I think, you know, hopefully as we've been working toward with the estate to better cultivate some of this music and his legacy and that we stay involved in helping package and release some of this stuff and what we know that the fans are really looking forward.

Yeah.

Well, we got an amazing Glam Slam show from that latest release.

Kudos to you and Prince in the band.

That was amazing.

That was fire, man.

Those are the toughest gigs to do are the home shows, man.

Right.

You know, it's friends, family, you know, you want to put on your best.

Yeah.

So those are.

Those are spots.

I say Minneapolis, Louisiana and New York are.

Are probably the hardest spots you can go to.

Some places like Detroit, it's going to be party.

You go to bc, it's going to be rocking.

You know, I mean, there are certain places that you go, you just know they just came to make noise in the party.

Other places you kind of know that the.

The stars are out and the, you know, people who are there to critique are there.

So you want to be able to make sure that you slap them in the face.

Yeah.

Right off the jump.

Radio City was.

Was one example.

We came in there, we came in hot.

And then Glam Slam was the first time they introduced the actual band.

So we wanted to make sure that we gave the best impression possible.

Yeah, definitely.

People pick up that box set.

I know it's a.

It's not the cheapest set, but it's well worth it with all the audio unreleased and the video and.

And the Special Olympics rehearsal and performance.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So that.

I'm glad you pointed that out.

That's one thing to mention is that, yeah, it's a little spendy, but the.

It's a beautiful package and curated sound that a lot of people have never heard.

There's a lot of additional music and in there for you to enjoy or to.

To re.

To re up on.

Basically.

I love Prince joking with you, pulling up your, your pant leg.

What was that about in the rehearsal?

Dude, dude, who knows Prince, he had a way of just surprising you on stuff.

I, I remember we were doing one show and Prince would walk.

Walked up behind Levi and, and took his guitar and went up between his legs while Levi's standing there playing guitar.

So all of a sudden here's his guitar neck coming up between his legs.

So he just had a way of just of keeping you on your toes shows.

Right.

And then seeing how you reacted to, to change.

Right.

Because you get regimented right in your show.

So that's why he kept these sound checks.

He kept the set list fresh so that we just did get comfortable and it just didn't become mundane.

Because let me tell you, when you're on a 87 city or 80 something tour show, after three months, man, it.

You need something to spice it up for yourself and then for the fans.

So it gave us an opportunity.

That's why we've learned so many different arrangements on songs.

So that's probably the one thing that was the toughest to do was to remember which arrangement is he talking about now.

So.

Because we did so many.

Yeah.

Well, I gotta thank you for being a big part of my musical life and seeing you in concert and continuing the MPG and Prince tradition.

So look forward to what?

What's to come?

What's to come, man?

Well, we're working on new stuff right now.

We've got some bangers.

So it's, it's us as a collective creating on our own and, and being able to put that new music out here.

So that's what we're looking forward to, man.

Just working on new music and getting it out there to, to the people who want to hear that.

Yeah, you'll be heading back to the Twin Cities July and people go out to First Ave.

The legendary First Avenue, July 10th.

Uh, we're back in our old haunts.

Uh, it's funny, whenever we walked in, you walking in, the first place I looked to is that balcony where we were dancing on and the bathroom where we were discovered.

Yeah.

Has it changed much?

Nope.

That's right.

It's like the New York club.

Like a bitter end CBGB's is like, man, this place got the worst bathrooms around.

But it's like a legendary spot.

It's a legendary spot, boy.

It hasn't changed, not one bit.

Right.

So.

Hey, thanks, brother.

Thanks, Tony.

M.

Tony Moses.

I appreciate you, Joe.

Appreciate you for having me.

Anytime.

Yeah, love to you and your family.

Thank you.

I appreciate it, boss.

All right, thanks.

What's happening, y' all?

It's your man Tony.

I'm in the building hanging with my man Joe Kelly.

And you are watching Musicians Reveal.

Right.

He finally had me in the house, y' all.

Can you believe it?

He opened the door.