Nothing Compares 2 U: An Oral History of Prince

by Touré

The real Prince in the words of those who knew him best—from award-winning author Touré.

“...one of the rare oral histories I’d recommend as an introduction to its subject. The author’s interview skills and his trusted status in the Prince orbit mean that his book—based on decades of interviews—is full of revealing insights into Prince’s life and work.”—Jay Gabler, The Current

Nothing Compares 2 U is an oral history built from years of interviews with dozens of people who were in Prince’s inner circle—from childhood friends to band members to girlfriends to managers to engineers to photographers, and more—all providing unique insights into the man and the musician.

This revelatory book is a deeply personal and candid discussion of who Prince really was emotionally, professionally, and romantically. It tackles subjects never-before-discussed, including Prince’s multiple personalities, his romantic relationships, his traumatic childhood and how it propelled him into his music career, and how he found the inspiration for some of his most important songs, including “Purple Rain,” “Starfish and Coffee,” and the unheard “Wally.”

Nothing Compares 2 U paints the most complete picture yet written of the most important and most mysterious artist of his time.

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook

272 pages, Hardcover

Published August 24, 2021

About the author

Touré Neblett is an American novelist, essayist, music journalist, cultural critic, and television personality.

Reviews

[Emily Lilja Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great to hear all the first-person accounts from the folks who were there. Touré does an excellent job of weaving it all together. Outstanding.!

[Chuck · Rating 1 out of 5]

I closed the book feeling utterly sad.
- Why write this book? What was the author hoping to achieve? What was the goal? What was covered here that was not already covered in other books, interviews, and podcasts?
- For a book with "20 years of research," why no bibliography?
- Why include interviews with all The Revolution members except Lisa Coleman? The absence of quotes from her is conspicuous and suspicious.
- Why include so little input from NPG members and those who worked with Prince after 1986? Morris Hayes and Eric Leeds are included, but very few others from the later years.
- Did Toure conduct the interviews in the book, or did he compile them from other sources? Again, no bibliography.
- Toure claims a "decades-long" history of drug use by Prince. Where are the receipts for that? Again, there is not even a bibliography included. We all know how Prince died, but "decades-long" is a bold statement to make without having ample receipts.
- Of the book's 239 pages and 16 chapters, the first 14 chapters cover Prince's teenage years through 1988. Chapter 15 very briefly covers 1996-2006. Chapter 16 covers his 2016 death.
- I haven't seen any interviews with Toure about this book, but I'd love to hear answers to these questions. I would also be curious how those whose interviews were included in this book feel about it. Time will tell, but I don't recommend this book. I'm going to focus on books about Prince's music, such as Duane Tudahl's superb volumes about Prince's studio recordings.

[Pat Neblett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toure's research for "Nothing Compares 2 U" enabled me get to "know" Prince, through people who truly knew him, beyond his stage persona. It is a must read for anyone who enjoyed his music, yet didn't have an opportunity to know the real Prince. Thanks, Toure.

[Gigifris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most Prince fans have heard 90%, or more, of what rests between these 2 covers. Most of it is a copy and paste job, which analyzes next 2 nothing about Prince after he fired the Revolution. in 1986.To be specific: that would mean close 2 nothing about the man in the last 30 years of his career. Toure needs to STOP. It is obvious he does not want to accept the fact that human beings evolve, and to stubbornly allow the non-therapists, the resolute twin Karens of the Prince world, the Melvoins, to blather on about a man who kicked them both to the curb, 35 years ago. I wonder why they are never called out on their endless micro-aggressions. They did not introduce Prince to the Beatles, or Joni Mitchell, or Arabic music. I cringe knowing a black male writer allowed delusional white women to emphasize how much they contributed to rescuing Prince from his musical ignorance.
Toure is such a sycophant of anybody in the Prince world, he ignores the overwhelming stench of sour grapes emitting from their bitter mouths. He lets the plantation mistress run amok in their never ending fairytale.

One would think the Melvoin's own brother dying of a recreational od would give them pause ( how would they like somebody writing an ersatz pychologival evaluation of him and publishing it?) , but that doesn't stop their lonely/fragile/unbalanced portrait of the man who dumped them when they were 22, even when it was obvious to the rest of us Prince was in PHYSICAL pain. Toure does not asser

balance out their negativity with positive, amd inspirational, commentary by Third Eye Girl, or Shelby J and Elise F. , etc., who were with Prince the last 5 years of his life. Why not add their voices? Why is Lisa Coleman missing? Because their input would toppleToure's pathetic thesis. He did the same thing with his last book on Prince: tried to jam a square plug into a round hole. It didn't add up the 1st time, and it doesn't add up here, either. Toure is a very, VERY lazy writer, unlike the genius writer/ muscian/ performer he is so envious of: Prince Rogers Nelson. PS: Try fact checking, Toure.

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many people, I’m a massive Prince fan and have been for my entire life. As a recovering prescription drug addict, it’s always terrible to see an icon pass away from these types of substances. But throughout his career, I didn’t know much about him, and there was a sort of mystery around who he was as a person. In this book, Touré takes interviews from throughout his years of music journalism to put together this oral history of Prince. With interviews from the people closest to Prince, Touré puts together the chronological story of Prince with a ton of behind-the-scenes information that only the people in his life could tell. I always knew Prince was a musical genius, but this really highlighted Prince’s motivation, passion, and insane work ethic. We also learn about how it was difficult for the people in his life to be around him because Prince was an extremely difficult person to have a professional or personal relationship with. But we also see how kind and caring Prince was.

If you’re a fan of Prince, you won’t be disappointed with this book. Touré is an incredible journalist and storyteller. Typically, any type of non-fiction book that’s biographical bores the hell out of me, but this book from Touré makes me want to read more books like this because now I can see what I’m potentially missing.

[Deirdre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prince was a jerk (I’d rather use a different word but I’ll refrain). He was manipulative, abusive, disrespectful, mean and violent. I don’t deny he was a musical genius that was probably somewhere on the spectrum but I hate when society overlooks the incredibly bad behaviors of someone they deem talented. That talent should never be a pass.

That being said, this book was amazing! At first I was a bit thrown by how it is written (it’s written as a collection of interview responses from those that knew Prince the best), but I quickly came to love this style. As a fan of his music, hearing all of the behind the scene stories directly from those that lived it was captivating.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read for any Prince fan, told as an oral history in interview format. Many of the members of the Revolution have a voice, including Wendy (of Wendy and Lisa), as well as Morris Day and a few of Prince’s exes. There will be times you will feel heartbroken and times you will feel angry with him while reading this book. You will also leave with some very fun tidbits. Who knew Prince was so skilled on the basketball court, or that one of his hit songs was in part stolen from a band member?
He remains one of my absolute favorite artists, and I can imagine just a bit now what it might have been like to know him. 💜

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really get the point of this after Toure’s first book on Prince? This book states verbatim quotes he got from people for his first book so really just feels like a remixed and expanded edition of I Would Die 4 U + a chapter on Prince’s death. Not bad and a quick read/listen but nothing that brings anything new to the table for Prince fans and also yada-yadas a lot of information that would make people trying to learn about Prince feel left out.

[Damien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Salacious, bitter, and Toure's still a hack. Some great stories if you cut thru all the guesswork and hypothesizing.

[Will · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just as with his first book, Touré tells a story made up of 2nd hand information and interviews with people in Prince’s circle that have been know to bend and even make up the “truth”. There is information that is completely wrong in this book such as dates, names of people Prince was around at the time, etc. Touré at times comes by as very biased and hopeful that he will be told negative things so it can fit his narrative of the book. Such as the section that speaks of Prince falling out of a bathtub during a rehearsal for the Purple Rain tour. Allan has told it differently in 2017 than he does in this book. With conflicting information it’s hard to believe what’s in the book is true.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure exactly what to think here. On one hand I really enjoyed the thoughts and recollections of everyone here. I was very surprised by some of their revelations but it went to prove that Prince was human like all of us with both good and bad tendencies.

I didn’t care for the formatting or the way the author used his voice in this. It didn’t read like true interviews but more like he inserted dialog into other interviews.

Overall I am glad I read it.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly intimate guide to Prince's life and work, based on extended conversations with many of those who knew him best. I reviewed Nothing Compares 2 U for The Current.

[Miranda Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a peculiar book. On the one hand it has some fascinating stories, and on the other it's what I refer to as a 'money grab' book.

I had never heard of the author Toure, despite being a devout fan of Prince's since When Doves Cry became No.1 in the UK. And when I look him up, I see that he has been making a lot of money off Prince since his death - like many of the people who took part in this book - but then again I couldn't be sure they did actively take part in this book - except for Susannah Melvoin, who wrote the foreward. I'll get to her later.

I can't decide if this is a compilation of stories found on the internet by a lot of the people who spoke about Prince after and before his death, because some of them spoke of him as though he was still present and some were clearly after his death. Some clearly were and other pieces weren't. And Toure interjects himself between these stories with his own third party observations, and sorted them into categories. And he uses quotes and pieces out of Mayte's book.

But what I really didn't like about this is the pop-psychology that Toure does of Prince, which was very critical and judgemental - he even had a whole chapter of hearsay quotes from people who had slept with Prince, about how he was in bed. I found it very disrespectful and a little perverse, especially from someone who purports to admire Prince. He continually refers to Prince's childhood trauma and claims he had an inability to connect to anyone. And then later in the book you realise where his bitterness comes from: an interview with Prince he did where Prince didn't give him any of the personal details he was looking for. If Prince were alive he'd sue his arse off.

And then to Susannah Melvoin, someone who had an off and on relationship with Prince in the 1980s. On the one hand she gushes about Prince and how special their relationship was and how important he was to her, and on the other she makes Prince out to be the bad guy. Clearly she had no boundaries and kept going back for more. She talks as though she was significant to him his entire life, but it seems the last twenty to thirty years of his life she had no contact with him - except for a funeral of mutual friends here and there. Much like her twin sister Wendy, and Lisa who left the band in the 1980s.

I don't disbelieve anything they shared, but the majority of it included people who didn't actively engage with him in the last twenty plus years of his life, which made the final chapter so sickening. They all lament the events of Prince's death, blaming it on the people who were in his life at the time. They claim to know something was wrong with him from the moment they'd heard his plane had an emergency landing two weeks before, and that his death wouldn't have happened if they had been there. But not one of them did get on a plane and go to him when it happened. And then they were all upset that they weren't invited to his funeral - a small religious affair - though they all flew in and had their own get together to celebrate him. But again they continually go on about how lonely he must have been and how awful his life must have been at that time - yet none of them knew.

So on the one side I enjoyed the stories of Prince and his genius musicianship and how he was a workaholic. The rest was like reading people sharing their grieviances and making observations and judgements on someone who had suffered a really awful childhood trauma, as though any of them had a clue what that had been like (none of them had), and claimed they knew what addicts were like and what you had to do, but did none of did, because they weren't actively in his life for the last couple of decades of it. I'd have loved to have heard from people who had been, but it seems this book was only really about the revolution - or maybe those were the only quotes that Toure could find, or people who would speak to him. Maybe those that had been actively in his life had more respect for him than to share their dirty laundry in this book. He would have hated this book.

The only books worth reading about Prince are Mayte Garcia's book, The Most Beautiful; Morris Day's book, On Time, and Prince's own book, (even if it is just the beginning), The Beautiful Ones.

[Terrance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for oral histories. There is just something intimate and real about them that make them like the "talking head" documentaries of books. I've read several books on Prince who, alongside David Bowie, is one of my favorite artists ever. So how does this one measure up?

Touré is a fantastic writer / editor. He knows just how to organize the many voices he has compiled and just when to insert needed information or his own perspective. Since he had already written one other Prince bio, I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon, which was written three years before Prince's death, it is understandable that he may not want to retread ground already traversed with that book.

As a result, the book concentrates on his early years, his most popular, bestselling albums period, and then his later years up until his passing. The interviewees are all people intimately associated with Prince - his friends from childhood, band members, managers and associates, and even girlfriends. They all paint a portrait of a still enigmatic figure, a person with as many sides to his personality as genres of music he played or instruments he mastered. It is a portrait of an isolated genius who ultimately did not know how to interact with people on a normal level, because Prince was anything but normal.

It is a fascinating book, but I can't help but feel it was as hampered by a publisher's budget as Prince was often hampered by the limited vision of his record label, nixing triple albums, big picture ideas, and a limitless imagination. This book likely could have been easily twice as long, perhaps a section with reactions from other musicians about his rise, or a section of MTV VJs and personalities, as well as radio DJs, discussing their take on his meaning to the business, or a chapter from film critics and professors on his film output (I remember at UCLA there was a class on the musical genre of film and it featured Purple Rain). There are so many possibilities for crafting a vast mosaic picture of this larger-than-life superstar.

That said, it works on an intimate level, so I can't fault it for its limited scope. It gives the reader a bit of a "backstage pass" kind of feeling, to sit in with a sort of therapy group trying to understand who this man was and what his passing meant for so many, even if so many of them were cut out of his life at some point and not allowed at the funeral. Well, we weren't either, but it feels good to be able to share in the experiences of those who inhabited his orbit.

I was lucky enough to see Prince perform once and only once at the Tower Theater just outside of Philly. It was during the Emancipation Tour, and it was an experience of love and awe and unity that I will never forget.

[LexIconDevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really want to give this book three and a half stars. There’s a ton of great first-hand accounts, and lots of new information about the man. But there are several issues that I feel kept this from being a really excellent read.

First, the good stuff. Touré has assembled a huge gaggle of people who lived in Prince’s orbit - old friends, bandmates, managers, girlfriends. And these people have a lot of revealing stories and insights to share. The author does a good job using these quotes to tell the story he wants to tell. The overall picture, like most human beings, is complicated. Genius co-exists with deep flaws. Genuine feeling butts up against utter contempt. I’ll never really know Prince, but reading this book is probably the closest I’ll come to ever doing so.

Now, onto the issues I had. Some are rather minor. In the brief chapter about “how was Prince in bed?” (and I won’t lie - I was interested!), each quote is attributed only to “a girlfriend”. I’m fine with that, actually. However, by not differentiating between them, it was a strange chapter to read. Were any of the quotes from the same woman, or were they all from different ones? Giving the women pseudonyms, or even numbers, would’ve helped a bit here.

The book leans very heavy on the period before the Revolution broke up. Not surprising, I guess, but he had a huge stable of Revolution (and pre-Revolution!) band members giving quotes… and I think only one that joined afterwards. Certainly members of the New Power Generation and 3rd Eye had stories to tell, too?

My main issue was this - Touré quotes himself a lot in this book. (His quotes are listed as “Me”.) He often used his own quotes to function as segues between topics, or to simply give more factual information that wasn’t supplied by other direct quotes. This sort of leads to a vague impression that the author has a specific path he wants to follow, and he’s simply using the quotes of others to back it up. Admittedly, this may be the truth behind most oral histories, but it feels a bit more obvious here. If he had changed his “fact quotes” to simple explanatory text, this may have helped soften that feeling.

All that said, I’ll give this the full four stars. My little problems with the book are greatly overshadowed by the frank and revealing discussions contained within.

[Judy Tarver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most exceptional books I have ever read about Prince and the first book I have ever read that makes me feel like I finally know more about him than I ever knew since I first became a fan forty years ago. A book well worth reading that I highly recommend for any Prince fan. Some of the information might surprise people, however. Prince, as we fans learned over the years was quite the unique person with a lot of quirks. This book really elaborates on some of that and is surprising but believable.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The interesting anecdotes have been told before elsewhere. Much too emphasis on the Revolution. The chapter about Prince in bed served no purpose. The sections on his drug use and death were mean and unnecessary.

If this would have been a better oral history, if it would have been three times as long and three times more meaningful. This was a hack job of a beautiful story and beautiful life.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a review but I must note that, as many biographies of Prince as I've written, I've never heard most of the information in this book. So eye-opening. I have new insight on how tortured this man seemingly felt and how incapable he felt of reining that in.

[Christopherch · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening view of Prince from a variety of contemporary witnesses. Touré has done an excellent job of pulling them all together. The audiobook is very well narrated.

… he struggles with how to deal with people, they hurt him, he isolates himself from the world and goes deeper into his music and becomes even less able to deal with people. He was able to use music as a refuge to protect himself, but could it save him forever? Wouldn’t there be some time when he would need to connect with people, share feelings, and communicate?

It’s tragic in parts, Prince was a maniac, superhuman, almost impossible to be around, his bullying, controlling nature pushed people away, but to have a chance to be so close to the crucible was clearly worth it.
I’m not sure whether I think any differently about him. The music not the man is all, and the music was so great, so brilliant…

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and revealing.

This book is an eye opening view of who Prince was as a person told by some people who knew him well. I finished it in a day. Good stuff.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really good, but would’ve been much better with more sources and not centered around the controversial and more tabloid parts of Prince’s life.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is good for the person who wants to know a little about Prince from the people who knew him best in his earlier years. It felt like those close to the end of his life didn't have much to say.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still so sad he's gone. A fun listen.

[Michael Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before Prince became my favorite musician/singer/artist, I'd been exposed to his music, but didn't really like it. I was pretty young, and had not really started on my musical journey. It wasn't until Purple Rain that I went down the purple rabbit hole, and have been locked in ever since. That being said, I've know the basics about Prince's life for a long time. I hesitated in picking this up, thinking I knew everything. Boy was I wrong. I learned a lot in this, specifically early parental decisions that affected Prince all of his life. The best way I can describe this book is . . . very informative . . . very poignant . . . very intimate . . . and very sad. The author did a fantastic job in presenting Prince's life through the people who knew him the most.