The night Prince made me cry

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Prince at Coachella in 2008 (Photo by Timothy Norris)
Prince at Coachella in 2008 (Photo by Timothy Norris)

“Kevin Bronson is a communist and a nazi and a terrorist.”

— User Iamjoeswastdlife on “The OFFICIAL FUCK KEVIN BRONSON Thread”
on the Coachella forum

In March of 2008, while working as a low-level editor at the Los Angeles Times and contributing to its Soundboard music blog, I received a tip that Prince would be added to lineup for Coachella the next month. After confirming the news with two sources who insisted that I not name them, we published an item saying the Purple One would perform in the desert.

All hell broke loose.

From what I later gleaned, there had been a deal in the works, but the ink was not dry, as they say in the business. Prince backed down after the news was announced prematurely.

The Times backpedaled, posting this correction:

Correction: Coachella co-producers AEG Live have responded to this post. Brandon K. Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, writes in an email: “Paul Tollett, the head of our Goldenvoice division and our partner in the festival, just called to tell me that the LA Times put on their blog that Prince was playing Coachella. This is absolutely not true… Regardless of what the Times was told, there is no commitment from Prince to play Coachella.”

And I looked like a schmuck, getting called a puppy rapist on the Coachella forums and, even worse, irresponsible by editors and colleagues who mistrusted my reporting.

But a few weeks later, it became official: Prince was playing Coachella. I genuflected a bit to whoever got the deal done. And on Saturday, April 26, 2008, Prince delivered the most rapturous set I have seen in my now 11 years of covering the festival.

Joined by Morris Day, Jerome Benton and Sheila E, he ripped through a career-spanning, shivers-inducing performance before, late in the set, reducing me to a puddle of tears with this now-legendary cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.”

I headed toward the exit during “Purple Rain.” Prince was playing Coachella and all was good.

It turned out to be the final Coachella I would cover as a Times staffer. That July, I was laid off.