Tokyo Nights
Life In Tokyo - Neil Stalnaker
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Berklee Today
Volume 17
Issue No. 3

John Blackwell '95: Putting it in the Pocket:

Did he invite you up there that time so you could rehearse for a tour with him?

Yes. We rehearsed for three months and then went out on tour. Prince rehearses really hard. He feels like the songs are his children and he asks us to respect the music. You have to play his music right. He would get on the drum set and demonstrate exactly what he wanted me to play. It might not be what a really technical drummer would play, but it's what he wanted. There are certain things about Prince's style, certain signature drum licks, and you just have to play them that way. I grew up listening to his music, so I already knew what he wanted and could do it.



Click here to view a great interview of drummer John Blackwell



I was very interested to read that Prince rehearsed his band for 3 months before they went out on tour. Recently, I read about someone in Santana's band. He said they rehearsed 8 hours a day for a month before the Santana tour.