THE BAND PLAYED ON...
ANDRÉ CYMONE
Worked with Prince 1979-81.
“The bass that’s on a lot of the original records, like The Time records, I still have it. It’s a Jazz bass. All the early pictures of me with Prince, and I’m wearing the clear pants, I’ve got that bass. I have black nylon strings on now, that’s the only difference. For a while I pasted on some leopard print, but I took that off. We got it a long time ago.
Me and Prince used to go to this guitar shop that they used to kick us out of, at first, because we were kids. We’d go there and they’d say ‘You guys don’t have any money—get out!’ And it’s true that we couldn’t afford anything, but eventually they let us play, because they’d say ‘You guys are good!’ So they let us sort of jam. And when we finally got some money, we went in there, and even though Prince told a different story and I hate to say he’s wrong, he bought that Telecaster that he plays on everything, the Hohner. And I bought the Jazz. If not the same day, then around the same time.
“The greatest bass player that ever lived? I’m gonna say Sonny Thompson. We were in
