Prince!

One of the things that you talked about a little bit when we were emailing was also the nature of this sort of fandom.

And in a lot of ways, just loving something or somebody's work can be great.

And then you brought up the term parasocial.

The idea that one can be a fan to the extent that maybe it's not healthy.

And obviously you're trying to stay on the right side of that.

You're yourself a psychologist in your day job.

Right.

Yeah, I think one of the challenges is that, you know, and I noticed this in myself growing up.

You could tell me something about Prince, and if it wasn't positive, I was going to shout you down, and we weren't going to be friends for a long time.

There was going to be a lot of negativity.

But as you grow and mature, you realize that you have to kind of have a more balanced perspective about those folks.

Because the truth is that they're never who you think they are.

We put them on pedestals, and they're going to be knocked down eventually.

But for me, I was wanting to find that balance of, for myself, really enjoying this and seeing how it benefited me.

At any kind of cocktail party, I could tell you all kinds of stuff about Prince, and that's great, that's wonderful.

And the amount of money I spent on Prince albums and stuff, that's not too much of an investment.

I think there's a point, and I think we all have to determine for ourselves when it goes too far.

When, example is, when someone told me that Prince's child had passed away, I was like, no, Prince said, The baby is surviving.

It's alive and well.

That's a lie.

And so I got upset about it.

And I remember reflecting after the fact.

I said, man, I really was kind of, I was drinking the Kool-Aid.

That whatever Prince said, I was willing to go with.

Instead of saying, you know, if that's true, what does that mean? And what's going on with Prince that he feels like he can't share that information with the world for whatever reason.

One of the things that you talked about a little bit when we were emailing was also the nature of this sort of fandom.

And in a lot of ways, just loving something or somebody's work can be great.

And then you brought up the term parasocial.

The idea that one can be a fan to the extent that maybe it's not healthy.

And obviously you're trying to stay on the right side of that.

You're yourself a psychologist in your day job.

Right.

Yeah, I think one of the challenges is that, you know, and I noticed this in myself growing up.

You could tell me something about Prince, and if it wasn't positive, I was going to shout you down, and we weren't going to be friends for a long time.

There was going to be a lot of negativity.

But as you grow and mature, you realize that you have to kind of have a more balanced perspective about those folks.

Because the truth is that they're never who you think they are.

We put them on pedestals, and they're going to be knocked down eventually.

But for me, I was wanting to find that balance of, for myself, really enjoying this and seeing how it benefited me.

At any kind of cocktail party, I could tell you all kinds of stuff about Prince, and that's great, that's wonderful.

And the amount of money I spent on Prince albums and stuff, that's not too much of an investment.

I think there's a point, and I think we all have to determine for ourselves when it goes too far.

When, example is, when someone told me that Prince's child had passed away, I was like, no, Prince said, The baby is surviving.

It's alive and well.

That's a lie.

And so I got upset about it.

And I remember reflecting after the fact.

I said, man, I really was kind of, I was drinking the Kool-Aid.

That whatever Prince said, I was willing to go with.

Instead of saying, you know, if that's true, what does that mean? And what's going on with Prince that he feels like he can't share that information with the world for whatever reason.