Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making Of “Purple Rain”

The Father

Originally, Prince’s on-screen father was supposed to die from a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head but later producers decided to let the character live. This is quite interesting considering the film is supposedly, as Prince put it, “an emotional autobiography.” Well, that’s pretty indicative about the relationship he must have shared with his real life dad. Once in an interview Prince said that his father, who was also a musician, wouldn’t allow him to play his piano because he claimed Prince wasn’t as good as him. In 1984, the same year Purple Rain was released, Prince curtly told People Magazine about one of his father’s flaws, “He found it hard to show emotion. I find that true of most men.” At the time of the interview, Prince described he and his sisters as “mistakes.” Whether that was in the eyes of his parents, or how he felt about he and his sister was unclear.