“I presented myself as the protector of creativity,” Husney recalled. He gave the singer a rehearsal space in his offices, rented him a one-room apartment, and took over from where Chris Moon had left off. with the sole purpose of managing Prince. Husney raised $50,000 and founded American Artists, Inc. Husney was stunned, and so enthused that he offered to manage Prince, gearing the $8 million per year that The Ad Company made from its existing clients toward promoting his new charge’s interests. Moon explained that it was just one kid, writing, playing, and singing everything. “I thought this group was phenomenal,” Husney recalled, “and I said to Chris: ’Who’s the group?” Returning to Minneapolis, he was introduced by Moon to Owen Husney, the head of The Ad Company, an advertising agency that also marketed local musicians. While staying in New York, Prince received an offer from Tiffany Entertainment to buy the publishing rights to the four songs, but declined it, aware that Tiffany would subsequently make all the money from his work. In the autumn of 1976, he traveled to New York with a demo tape of four of the 14 songs he had completed at Moonsound. Moon wasn’t interested in taking on the extra load, but did make one important suggestion: that Prince drop his surname and perform simply as Prince. It was around this time that Prince asked Moonsound’s owner, Chris Moon, to manage him. Reprinted with permission.ĭespite his precocious talents and free reign to write and record his own music around the clock at Moonsound Studios, Prince was stuck in Minneapolis without access to major studios and record labels.

An inside look at the artist formerly known as Prince before the Revolution and before he was pop royalty and had delivered the albums that brought him to worldwide acclaim.Įxcerpted from Jason Draper’s book, Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution, published by Backbeat Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard.

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