Prince: A Sign o' the Times

by John McKie

There are pop stars, and then there is Prince. In this kaleidoscopic, freewheeling biography, John McKie examines the remarkable life and career of one of the most mysterious figures in music through the prism of the record most widely considered his masterpiece, 1987's Sign o' the Times.

Drawing on more than 200 interviews with friends, ex-girlfriends, bandmates, recording engineers, bodyguards, personal assistants, wardrobe designers and hairdressers, accomplished music writer John McKie examines the life of this musical polymath with the help of many of the people who knew him best.

Family members and friends discuss his childhood when he learned to master several instruments, there is new information on how he made the soundtrack to Purple Rain, the full story about why he decided to stop using his name, the now legendary Super Bowl half-time show and that guitar solo at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame which has been viewed on YouTube 100 million times.

McKie also dives into the personality of the what made him laugh, the way he hired and fired colleagues, what he was like to live with, how his relentless drive to make music led to him recording for hours without sleep, how he changed his car stereo to road test his new hits and even booked his guitar and album sleeves their own seats on flights.

A Sign o' the Times is the most comprehensive book ever written about one of the most enigmatic and talented pop stars of all time.

560 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 18, 2025

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

had mixed feelings about this book felt it was too long could of been shorter

[made_for_reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for anyone who is a Prince fan. John has done a great job in going through the life of Prince. There’s great memorabilia in here, literally everything from his wives, the relationships between him, Micheal Jackson and Madonna, his guitars, his ‘vault’, the details of the shows and working in the studios. He’s painted a great picture of Prince and his work ethic and the costs of some of the bold and flamboyant choices he’d made. I really enjoyed going back to when music really was a way of life and it truly being led by himself and his rivals. Well worth the read if you’re wanting to feel a bit of nostalgia about simpler times and follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest and creative musicians we’ve ever had.

[David Allwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regarding, ‘Prince: A Sign O’ the Times’ by John McKie, it’s easier to state what it’s not. It’s not an autobiography, biography, memoir, life story, or personal account. And yet it admirably traces the life of musical genius, Prince. This 500+ page tome is an intensive sketch of an artist, as told by friends, colleagues, and journalists - an oral history parlayed into anecdotes based around Prince’s 1987 ‘Sign o’ the Times’ album. The writing is dense, sometimes repetitive, but always enthusiastic. The focus is exclusively on Prince as a dedicated musician and comes with the realisation that Prince was only a musician, in that, he was obsessive and his life was his work and his work was his life - his relationships, interests, and foibles were all part of his work, because work was his entire identity. Regardless of definition, if the goal of the author is to provide a detailed sense of a musician (mostly) named Prince, then this book actually succeeds.