The Unspoken Rule Prince's Staff Was Forced To Follow

Prince certainly was a unique person, to say the least. Eccentric, completely over-the-top, a heckuva guitar shredder, Prince — or that symbol thing he used for a bit — is often considered one of the greatest musicians and performers of the entire 20th century. He sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, recorded a bonkers 39 albums over four decades, won loads of awards including seven Grammys over 38 nominations, and is often rhapsodized in nigh-godlike terms by certain superfans. Plus, he was really into purple — almost as much as he disliked eye contact. 

It should come as no surprise that such an irrepressible person came equipped with some extreme personality quirks. As Vulture outlines in an aggregated article, he owned a hair salon on his property that no one but him was allowed to use — not even his wife. His wife also wasn't allowed to call him on the phone. Additionally, he liked spaghetti with orange juice, was a Jehovah's Witness, kept a super-special pair of roller skates in a briefcase, kept a garden gnome in his bedroom, and lots more. Basically, he was like one of the more bananas, purple-robed Roman emperors but without all the murder.

The eye contact tale has resurfaced time and again over the years. It's been repeated, denounced as false, hyperbolized then lambasted for being hyperbolic, and everything in between. But by all accounts, it's completely true. Prince was notoriously hard on staff and fellow musicians, not the easiest person to get along with, and had one long-lasting rule: Don't look him in the eyes.  

The story about Prince's "no eye contact" rule has circulated so much at this point that it's practically impossible to nail down an original source. One good source is Lizz Frey, a graphic designer who worked with Prince in 1992 and who spoke up about her experience with him after his death in 2016. As the Mirror quotes, Prince's rule was simple: "never to look into his eyes directly." Also, folks had to call him "boss."

Despite such prescriptive, domineering dictates, Frey said that it was a "joy" to work with Prince. "He was so alive. I'm trying to remember him that way," she said. Frey, for the record, is the one who drafted Prince's "love symbol" that he used from 1993 to 2000, plus a circle and cross on top drawn by Prince. "'You have to understand, this symbol is very important," Prince said. "The pronunciation exists on a different level of existence."

Similarly, Prince's hairstylist Kim Berry cited the same rule plus a couple others like, "Don't touch his ears," per ABC News. Berry heard such rules from other members of Prince's entourage, not Prince himself. When she asked Prince about the no eye contact thing he said, "I've never told anyone anything like that. So I think it's hilarious that people make up stuff." However, it makes sense that the people who gave Berry that advice might have been speaking from experience rather than citing an explicit rule.

Lest the reader think that only two of Prince's assistants mentioned his "no eye contact" rule, Ultimate Classic Rock describes Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar encountering the same rule. At the 27th Grammys in 1985 Hagar wanted to say "hi" to Prince through Prince's guitar tech, Zeke Clark. Hagar said to Clark, "Hey man, introduce me to Prince!," and Clark replied, "No, man. I can't ... I'm not allowed to talk to him." When Hagar pressed for more information Clark revealed that he had to communicate with Prince through handwritten notes. "You can't look at him [Prince]," Clark said. Hagar concluded by saying what many of us may be thinking: "I thought that was pretty f*****' weird."

Prince, in fact, was notoriously tough on musicians and techs he worked with. Ultimate Guitar sound engineer David Rivkin described Prince unleashing his "wrath" from time to time. "He liked to keep people under his thumb ... It was a control thing. 'Don't tell 'em things — let 'em guess.' He used to treat his band that way." Mojo 4 Music quotes Prince saying that same thing, but in Prince's own idiosyncratic, pseudo-spiritual way, "I test people in many ways so that the time we share is quality time." To Prince fans this is all par for the course. A thread on the Prince.org community forum describes several other anecdotes from those who met Prince, all featuring the same "no eye contact" rule.