Nile Rodgers Pulls Prince-Inspired Song From Upcoming Chic LP
Nile Rodgers revealed that he pulled a Prince-inspired song from Chic‘s upcoming new song because “it felt wrong.”
“The last two times I saw Prince was playing on stage with him and then him coming to my show,” Rodgers told Pitchfork before Chic‘s Glastonbury set.
“So the album was talking about that. As a matter of fact, there is a song on the album that the working title is ‘Prince Said It,’ and it was about my conversations with Prince. But after he passed away, it felt wrong. It felt uncomfortable.”
Rodgers continued, “From the time that I started to work on this album, a lot of heavy things have happened. I mean, David Bowie died. Prince died. People who were really, really close to me passed away, and that wasn’t supposed to be part of the narrative.”
In December 2016, Rodgers revealed that he wanted to release the new Chic album in 2017 because it marked the band’s 40th anniversary. He also admitted he didn’t want the album to arrive the same year that Bowie and Prince – “We were really buddies,” Rodgers said of Prince – died.
“I purposely didn’t finish stuff off because there are a lot of artists who wanted to do features with us that we just didn’t get to.” Rodgers said, adding the LP will have a joyful vibe. “We write happy songs and it’s nice to tell people that we’re happy, even if there’s double entendre going on to reflect the times that we’re living in,” he says. “So on the surface, it’s joyous. Underneath, when you listen to the lyrics, you may go, ‘Oh, that’s what they’re really saying.'”
Rodgers also promised that new Chic album would come with a ” big surprise”; it’s unclear if that was referring to the Prince-inspired song or something else.