The Family - The Family

When Morris Day decided to leave the group The TIME, Prince held a meeting with the remaining band members. We were all sitting in a circle, Jesse Johnson, Jerry Hubbard, Mark Cardinas, Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson. He looked at us all, and said that he wanted to start a new band. He knew that Jesse was anxious to do his own solo career, so he asked those not into a new band to leave. Then off went Jesse (then later Mark, and Jerry). Prince then said "I have a concept, and I want to base it around you" (then he spun around in his chair and landed at me) I was totally off gaurd. I guess he heard me sing when we were filming Purple Rain - while Morris and I were in the dressing room at First Avenue, which was adjecent to his -- by a bed sheet!

Lucky for me, he was impressed. We made the album in a warehouse in Eden Prairie, MN. He played nearly everything, and then imported Eric Leeds, his road

manager's very talented brother to play saxophone, Susannah Melvoine (the sister of his new guitar player at the time, Wendy Melvoine) and Claire Fisher to orchestrate the strings. David Z produced the record. (He also produced the first demo's with The Artist back in the early 70's that got him signed to Warner Brothers.) We rehearsed for about 6 months, not unlike the time, and did one gig, at First Avenue. Then we all went to different parts of the world. The Artist went to France to film "Under the Cherry Moon" with Jerome. Susannah and Eric went back to their home towns, and The Artist shipped me off to LA to get ready for an undisclosed project. The "Screams of Passion" went top 15 in the R&B charts.

It was at this time, I decided to go for a solo career. I began work on my self entitled album 'St. Paul'.


	1. High Fashion 2. Mutiny 3. The Screams of Passion 4. Yes 5. River Run Dry 6. Nothing Compares 2 U 7. Susannah’s Pajamas 8. Desire