Fame got you nowhere with Prince…not even a peek inside his dressing room.
As the decade mark nears since the music icon’s death, his longtime drummer is sharing stories that reveal just how guarded and unconventional the superstar truly was. Robert “Bobby Z” Rivkin, who spent more than 40 years at Prince’s side as a founding member of the Revolution, sat down to reflect on a friendship unlike any other.
The 70-year-old percussionist revealed the reason Bruce Springsteen and Madonna were banned from entering the music icon’s dressing room. This comes after the Born to Run singer issued a blistering takedown of Donald Trump.
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None more so than the night two of the planet’s most recognizable performers found themselves on the wrong side of a closed door. “Once there was a hilarious moment when Bruce Springsteen and Madonna came backstage, but Prince’s dressing room was off limits to them, so they had to use the band’s toilet,” Rivkin said.
For anyone else, rubbing elbows with The Boss and Madonna might be cause for celebration. For Prince, it was just another evening, and the door stayed shut.
Rivkin described a man who could be visibly uneasy around fellow celebrities, his discomfort having little to do with ego and everything to do with temperament. Star power alone simply didn’t impress him.
“He found meeting other celebrities very uncomfortable unless he was a fan,” Rivkin told The Guardian. “There could be huge stars and he just wouldn’t give them the time of day. So besides shaking Elizabeth Taylor’s hand I don’t know if he’d be interested in chatting.”
He would even, Rivkin noted, get “bashful or embarrassed” in those moments, a striking image for someone who commanded sold-out arenas worldwide. A genuine connection with a peer was rare, but it happened.
A visit from David Bowie to Paisley Park, Prince’s sprawling Minneapolis-area estate and studio, stood out as something different entirely.
“When he met David Bowie at Paisley Park it was a warm moment, because he felt that they were equals,” Rivkin said. Prince was found dead at Paisley Park on April 21, 2016. He was 57.
Authorities determined he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose, ruling that he had self-administered the drug. Cities across the country lit up in purple as fans grieved.
Springsteen and Madonna, despite the dressing room ban, each honored him publicly. Springsteen opened a Brooklyn concert days later with a purple-lit rendition of “Purple Rain,” closing simply with, “Prince forever. God bless.”
Madonna, who had collaborated with Prince on Love Song from her 1989 album Like a Prayer, mourned him on social media.
“He changed the world! A true visionary! What a loss. I’m devastated. This is not a love song,” she wrote. She later performed his composition “Nothing Compares 2 U” at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, a song O’Connor made timeless.
Rivkin summed up decades alongside one of music’s most demanding and dazzling figures with characteristic awe.
“Playing with Prince was like being in the purple marines: he might toughen you up or break you down, but he’d bring you to a place you didn’t think you had,” he said. “For a moment you might even turn into a superhuman like him.”
