The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Revolution members reflect on Prince
Musician’s ’80s crew talks about his death, upcoming reunion tour.
MINNEAPOLIS — Throughout his genre-bending career, Prince worked with a dazzling array of musicians.
His New Power Generation rolled with him through the ‘90s, and the female trio 3rdEyeGirl shared Prince’s space in the most recent years of his musical creations.
But his 1980s-era crew the Revolution, their star cemented in 1984’s “Purple Rain,” remain the definitive Prince backing band.
Shortly after Prince’s death last year from an accidental opioid overdose, original band members Bobby Z (drums), “Doctor” Matt Fink (keyboards), Mark “BrownMark” Brown (bass), Lisa Coleman (keyboards) and Wendy Melvoin (guitar) convened in a Minneapolis hotel to share their grief with fans via a heartfelt video.
In September, the Revolution reunited for a trifecta of sold-out shows at the fabled First Avenue club in Minneapolis, and after their planned performance at this weekend’s Celebration 2017 at Prince’s Paisley Park compound, will embark on a tour of about two dozen dates through July.
Atlanta — the new residence of bassist Brown — isn’t on the itinerary yet, but fans will likely be sated during a second run of shows this fall.
Earlier this week, Brown and Fink — clad in his trademark scrubs — sat inside the band’s rehearsal space near downtown Minneapolis to discuss the loss of their leader, as well as what can be expected on this Revolution return. Their feelings about the oneyear anniversary of Prince’s death.
Matt Fink: The sting of that happening has not really left any of us. We still think about it a lot. Almost every day I’ve thought about it. The mourning process for him is still there. Who knows
how long that will take before you really start to not think about it as much? But now that we’re doing this (tour), it’s there in your face no matter what you do. We’re just going to do our best to help the fans heal. … I thought by now I’d be doing better, but it’s still very emotional. It’s like losing a family member, a parent, even.
Mark Brown: We hit this jam the other night, and it was like, he’s not there. Emotionally, when we were finished, I was like, (that was just) like the old days. Then you start reminiscing and a sadness comes over you. … He lives inside of us now. He was our mentor, our leader, our purple funky Yoda. The Force was with him.
Fink: He was such a spiritual person to begin with and believed in the afterlife. In our hearts, we know that he’s watching over all of this.
On the Revolution playing Atlanta at some point on the tour.
Brown: They’ll see us, that’s all I can say. This first leg, it’s set, but the second one is being worked on. We can’t say anything until it’s contracted, but we’re on the move.
Why Brown recently relocated to the Atlanta area.
Brown: I got tired of the city life. San Francisco is a beautiful, lovely city, but I’ve always been a country boy. Always lived in the suburbs, I always liked the quietness. Atlanta always seemed like a spot that I’d like to check out. The music scene, it’s like a second Hollywood. I plan to tap big-time into the scene once things start to settle. I know a few musicians down there already, but would love to tap into that scene and really be a part of it, like I was in the Minnesota scene.
On what fans can expect from the Revolution’s live shows.
Fink: There are songs from the catalog starting from “Dirty Mind” through “Parade” and a few numbers that they’ve never heard, things that have been sitting in the vault. Brown (laughs): We’ve got some junk up in there!
For more of the interview with the Revolution, visit The Music Scene blog at AJC.com.