Now Reading: The Reason Prince Was Snobby Towards Accomplished Musicians, Engineer Susan Rogers Explains
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The Reason Prince Was Snobby Towards Accomplished Musicians, Engineer Susan Rogers Explains
The Reason Prince Was Snobby Towards Accomplished Musicians, Engineer Susan Rogers Explains
Prince’s engineer Susan Rogers recently appeared on the Sunset Sound Recorders podcast and recalled her first conversation with the singer and how he was snobby towards accomplished musicians. She retold the story from the start, from a day that she was fixing his equipment. She explained:
“So I’d been working with him or for him I should say. I’d been his employee for about a week as I recall. I would come in walk into the house through the garage and back door entrance go into this studio do my work and go home at night. I was installing a new console and doing some repairs on his equipment and I didn’t see him.”
She went on to explain her first interaction with Prince and how he ignored her at first. Susan added:
“I was finally finished so I called Sandy Sapioni who was his personal assistant and I said, ‘Sandy, I’m done. Can you tell him?’ She called him and said, ‘All right, she’s done downstairs.’ Prince came downstairs and he didn’t even introduce himself. He came downstairs and I was standing on the landing and he was just a few steps above me and he right away asked, ‘What about this?…’ He asked several questions and I answered. He said, ‘Okay,’ … and he turned to go upstairs.”
Susan added that she wanted to make a lasting first impression so she introduced herself. She recalled:
“There was a little voice in my head that said, ‘Don’t let it start like this, don’t.’ I just moved 2,300 miles. I left every human being I knew on Earth to come here. It’s not going to start like this. I interrupted him and I said’ Excuse me, Prince, I’m Susan Rogers,’ and I stuck my hand out to shake his hand. He… thought that was very formal and very funny and he said, ‘I’m Prince.’ We did this kind of little shaking hands and bowing like two diplomats you know meeting each other.”
Rogers finally spoke about Prince’s outlook towards others musicians, even if they are accomplished. She said:
“He was funny about people and I’m sure others have told you similar stories. He kind of knew often from the get go if he was receptive to knowing them or not. For many people he he was absolutely not receptive to knowing them and there are stories of that happened right here in this room behind me of him being introduced to very famous accomplished musicians and him ignoring them.”
You can watch Susan Rogers’ interview with Sunset Sound Recorders below.