Ep. 16 - Baby, I'm a Star (Prince Part 2 of 3)

Prince sits in the audience ahead of a show during his 1981 Controversy tour.

In 1977, an 18-year-old Prince arrived in New York city with a demo tape and dreams of becoming a star, determined to leave Minnesota behind forever. As fate would have it, Prince would indeed become a star, but only once he returned to his hometown, and the road to fame and fortune would include many bumps and hurdles to overcome.

In this second part of our three-part series on the life and career of Prince, we follow his trajectory from his first attempts to break into the music business up until he emerges as one of the biggest stars of the 1980s.

Along the way, we'll visit the quietest room in the world, follow Prince through some disastrous early performances, find out how the coat room of a former bus depot fostered a thriving punk scene, and learn why the 1980 disco hit "Funkytown" filled Prince with a white hot rage that ended up fueling his rise to stardom. *** (Content Warning: brief strong language, sexual content and innuendo, discussions of racism and homophobia.) You can find part one of this series here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so that you won't miss the third and final part of this series, coming soon.

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Sources Cited

Karlen, Neal. This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey On and Off the Record. (New York, St. Martin's Press, 2020)

"Nelson Finds It 'Hard To Become Known'," The Central High School Centralian, February 16th, 1976. Accessed at: https://www.thatericalper.com/2016/04/22/read-princes-first-interview-in-his-high-school-newspaper/#google_vignette

"Prince's Early Years," Prince.com, https://becoming.prince.com/

Shabazz, Rashad. Prince's Minneapolis: A Biography of Sound and Place. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2026

Swensson, Andrea. Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017)

Podcast Credits

Minnesota Unknown is produced, hosted, written, and researched by Alex Weston, Hannah Norton, and Josie Bergmann. This episode was edited by Alex Weston. Our theme song is by Union Shakedown. This episode is copyright 2026 by Minnesota Unknown, LLC. All rights reserved.

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