Recently I was listening to my pal Andrea Swensson, one of my favorite music journalists, hosting the official Prince podcast, spotlighting the Prince estate’s release of the Diamonds and Pearls Super Deluxe Edition with remastered tracks and tons of bonus material from the vault. I’ve loved every second of the box set and I loved every second of that podcast. And as I was listening to her talk to Prince’s drummer at the time, Michael Bland (who is, I’m just gonna say it, the life and the star of that podcast), I thought, “Hey Caissie, you know Michael Bland. You’ve had dinner at his house. Why don’t you email him and ask if he’d want to talk to you too???”
I’m not usually the kind of person who would so blatantly ask someone to do something just because it would personally thrill me to pieces, but life is short and this time I did. Michael said yes.
This guy? I could talk to him all day, any day, and we practically did! About Prince. He tells some fun stories, of course, but also a thought that he has never shared since Prince’s passing. We also talked about a million other things, including how hard it has always been to just be a person.
Every time we started to wind the conversation down, we just got going on another subject. Very on brand for this space, no? If you ever wanted to watch my face smiling so hard for almost 3 hours, I have the best news for you. The time has arrived! Truth told, I think anyone who ever gets to know Michael will fall in love with him pretty quickly, as I have, and I’d be honored to have anyone watch any part of our conversation.
Have an amazing weekend everyone. Don’t forget to paint with all the colors!
Who Wants to Watch Caissie Smile So Hard for Almost 3 Hours?