SXSW 2013: Prince Closes Festival With Epic Concert

Prince performs at Samsung Galaxy presents Prince and A Tribe Called Quest in Austin, Texas on March 16th, 2013. John Sciulli/Getty Images for Samsung

Prince gave fair warning last night somewhere between his second and third encores. "Don't make me hurt you – you know how many hits I have?" he asked the crowd packed into La Zona Rosa in Austin as SXSW drew to a close.

Enough that he didn't get to them all. Not even close, in fact, though he performed for two hours and 40 minutes, returning to the stage time and again for six or seven encores in all. At a festival where special guests and counterintuitive collaborations are the currency of much-coveted buzz, Prince relied on himself – and on a band that was tighter than a Marine Corps top sheet.

Dave Grohl's SXSW Keynote Speech: 'The Musician Comes First'

As much jam session for the NPG as it was a concert, Prince sang, danced, played a little piano and was generous in spotlighting his backing musicians, who included 11 horn players, two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, a percussionist and a host of vocalists. The only thing Prince didn't do was play guitar, but then "Purple Rain" didn't include the outro guitar solo, either.

He was probably just too busy directing the show, as if sampling and savoring each ingredient and adjusting to taste. The songs rarely seemed to start or stop, only to shift and flow in new directions as "Shhh" became "Musicology," which transformed into "Extra Lovable," with a bursts of brass tumbling over Prince's vocals. The band did the same thing without him during instrumental sections, sliding from tight, funky soul laced with horns into an impressionistic jazz-tinted section that featured a horn solo, followed by a ripping guitar break.

They stretched out on "Purple Rain," and Prince urged the crowd to sing wordless vocals in place of the guitar solo, and reflected on his career choice. "I love being a musician," he said. "It feels like a servant. A servant for you."

That song ended a 50-minute main set that began with the horn players taking the stage by parading through the crowd like a New Orleans second line, and also included a ringing burst of synths and horns on "1999." For the string of encores, Prince pulled out covers of songs by Curtis Mayfield, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, and soul and funk workouts "like we do in Minneapolis." He dipped into Morris Day and the Time's catalog with "Jungle Love," played Sheila E.'s hit "The Glamorous Life" (which Prince wrote) and unearthed his own rarity, "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)," singing anguished lyrics accompanied by piano on a darkened stage.

Finally, as the clock ticked toward 3 a.m., Prince wrapped up, even as diehards called for one more song. 

A Tribe Called Quest opened the show with a set of songs that included "Can I Kick It," "Bonita Applebum" and "Award Tour." The show, dubbed "The Next Big Thing," was presented by Samsung, which gave away 200 tickets to people who used the company's tablet-like Galaxy cell phone to complete an 11-item scavenger hunt around Austin. 

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Prince Has Torrid 'Rock & Roll Love Affair' on 'Kimmel'

Prince Has Torrid 'Rock & Roll Love Affair' on 'Kimmel'Guitar great performs funky new single on outdoor stage $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

The Jimmy Kimmel Live studio couldn't hope to contain Prince, so when the rock great stopped by the show last night, he performed to a large, enthusiastic crowd on the outside stage. Dressed in orange-yellow pants and a wildly patterned shirt with impressive dangling tassels, Prince played his new single "Rock & Roll Love Affair" with absolute joy, sneaking in a few grins as he stomped through the funky, horn-blaring track. He calls it an affair, but almost 35 years after his first album, it might be a little more serious than that.

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Prince, R. Kelly, Will Smith Ex-Wives Get Reality Show

Nicole Murphy and Eddie Murphy together in 2004

The ex-wives of Prince, R. Kelly, Will Smith, Eddie Murphy and Jose Canseco will star in a new VH1 reality series called Hollywood Exes, the Los Angeles Times reports. The women – Mayte Garcia, Andrea Kelly, Sheree Fletcher, Nicole Murphy and Jessica Canseco – have apparently been friends for years, but hope to further their respective careers and businesses with the new show.

The program, which is slated to premiere sometime this summer, will run for 10 episodes. None of the men – all of whom are notoriously private save for baseball star Canseco – are expected to make an appearance on the show.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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The Prince of Dragons: Christopher Paolini and the Rise of 'Inheritance'

Christopher Paolini promotes 'Inheritance' at Barnes and Noble in Union Square in New York City.

Christopher Paolini, the 28-year-old author of the bestselling Inheritance series, still lives at home with his parents and his younger sister. The family residence, a swanky cabin, is located in a remote corner of southwestern Montana known as Paradise Valley. It's an enormous, austere home, with plenty of private space for everyone – especially Christopher, who has his own wing.

"This is the lair," Paolini announces proudly, as we enter the two-room suite where he sleeps and works. "Nice place to write, huh?" he says, with a sweep of his hand, palm open, like a game-show host highlighting prizes.

The rooms are scrupulously neat and filled with dragons: There is a dragon coffee table, a dragon side table, a dragon sconce, a dragon shelf, a dragon clock, a dragon mirror, a dragon lamp, a dragon letter holder, a dragon bench and a dragon head mounted outside the door – a fitting design scheme for an author who made his name writing books about a boy named Eragon, who seals his fate as a "Dragon Rider" when he finds a bright-blue egg that hatches a dragon. "I could have gotten more," Paolini says, "but I decided that was enough dragons for one place."

There are also swords, lots of swords. "I want to show you this," he says, lifting up an impressive three-and-a-half-foot broadsword in a black leather sheath. "I bought this as a treat for finishing the book," he says, referring to Inheritance, the fourth and final installment in his epic cycle. The novels recount the adventures of Eragon and his dragon companion, Saphira, with whom he shares a telepathic connection, as they zoom around consorting with elves and dwarves and battling various dark forces dispatched by the evil King Galbatorix. ("I write schmaltz with dragons," says Paolini about his work.) Inheritance, which was published in November, sold 489,500 copies its first day out – more than any other release in 2011.

Impressive as that statistic sounds, it's akin to just another billion burgers on a McDonald's sign. Eragon, Paolini's first work of fantasy, published when he was only 19 years old, debuted at number three on the New York Times bestseller list, then spent 21 weeks at number one. His four books have collectively sold more than 33 million copies worldwide. Given Paolini's geographic isolation, the rudimentary nature of his plots and, of course, his startling youth, this is a powerfully bizarre achievement. But it is not his alone. About a decade ago, the Paolinis made the rather unconventional decision to make their teenage son's fantasy novel the family business. Paolini repeatedly emphasizes that he's spearheading a team effort, with Mom fielding fan mail, Dad turning "the financial wheels," sister acting as girl Friday, and all four editing. Together they have forged a prodigious empire: the Inheritance series is a multimillion-dollar mom and pop – and brother and sister – business run by a clan of introverts living on the prairie. "If it weren't for the support of my parents and sister," Paolini says, "none of this would've been possible for me."

Paolini wears small, round, wire-rimmed spectacles that have earned him endless comparisons to Harry Potter. His dark-brown hair, meticulously combed into place, appears never to move. He has his own tidy uniform of sorts: an ironed button-down shirt securely tucked into belted dark-wash jeans. He's endearingly nerdy – not in the affected, pretentious, nouveau-hipster sense, à la Wes Anderson, but rather in the traditional, unintentional, pale-as-your-inner-thigh sense, à la the kid who plays Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering.

"Every fantasy author deserves a good sword, and this is mine," Paolini says. Slowly, dramatically, he removes the weapon from its scabbard. It makes a loud scraping noise on its way out. "This is the real deal," he says, waving the blade, made of high-carbon Damascus steel and etched with an elaborate calligraphic design, in front of him. "I found the only custom sword store in all of New York City," he continues, slicing the air. "It fits me and my body perfectly. I hope never to have a duel, but if I do, I would trust my life to this sword."

"Please remove your shoes," says Paolini's 26-year-old sister, Angela, with dramatic singsong inflection, as she meets me in a foyer that doubles as a home gym. Paolini's mother, Talita, a birdlike woman with a girlish voice and a sweet manner, makes a fluttery motion with her hand to indicate, "Oh, forget it, she can leave them on." But Angela, who is tough and no-nonsense, and acts as her brother's protector, insists: "We don't wear them in the house."

According to Paolini, he and Angela, a petite woman with intelligent dark eyes and a fantastic nest of dark, springy curls, have their own near-telepathic bond, not unlike Eragon and his dragon. Angela is the inspiration for one of Paolini's fictional characters, the quirky, feisty Angela the Herbalist, who plays a pivotal narrative role by telling Eragon his fortune, and is the most captivating character in the books. In one passage from Inheritance, Paolini writes that Angela the Herbalist's expression is "languid and insolent"; the description applies to the real Angela as well. She gives the discomfiting impression that she's mocking you, teasing you, flirting with you and sizing you up all at once.

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Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Selling Organic Coffee Blend

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy performs at Casino De L'Alianca in Barcelona, Spain.

Singer-songwriter Will Oldham – also known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy – is now selling his own blend of organic coffee through Drag City, his longtime record label. According to a press release issued by the label, Oldham's Bonny Billy Blend Kona Rose Coffee came about after the musician met up with the Kona people while traveling in Hawaii.

The coffee, which has been certified organic by HOFA, is being sold in half-pound bags of whole beans in a resealable black bag, and can only be purchased through Drag City mail order. The site describes the flavor of the roast as having "overtones of chocolate, leather and non-wacky tobacco," so if that sounds appetizing to you, you should order soon: it is a limited-edition item, and as of yet, Oldham has no plans to open his own coffee house.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Selling Organic Coffee Blend

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy performs at Casino De L'Alianca in Barcelona, Spain.

Singer-songwriter Will Oldham – also known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy – is now selling his own blend of organic coffee through Drag City, his longtime record label. According to a press release issued by the label, Oldham's Bonny Billy Blend Kona Rose Coffee came about after the musician met up with the Kona people while traveling in Hawaii.

The coffee, which has been certified organic by HOFA, is being sold in half-pound bags of whole beans in a resealable black bag, and can only be purchased through Drag City mail order. The site describes the flavor of the roast as having "overtones of chocolate, leather and non-wacky tobacco," so if that sounds appetizing to you, you should order soon: it is a limited-edition item, and as of yet, Oldham has no plans to open his own coffee house.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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