The Real Reason Why Damon Albarn turned down Prince

Rumour has it, Damon Albarn turned down a meeting with Prince because of his love of cigarettes and drinking. In an interview from 2018, Damon told the interviewer that he was invited to go an play with Prince at the Purple One’s studio at Paisley Park, but he turned down the invitation after being informed that Prince didn’t want people smoking in his studio. 

Damon said: “I was having a drink and a fag—I don’t actually smoke anymore, knocked that one on the head—but if you can’t be who you... If I’ve invited someone to my studio, they’re my guest, and there aren’t any conditions like that.”

“Anyway, it’s like, I can have a cigarette outside if I needed it—I’d be fucking excited, right? Why the fuck would I not want to fucking go mad if I’m with Prince? I’d rather not do it and not get pissed off with the whole thing. It’s just one of those ‘could have been’... I’ve got a few of those.”

Damon is set to perform on stage in Glastonbury Festival in England on the 22nd May, as well as in the O2 London for his Gorillaz concert in August of the same year. 

Listen to Damon talk about his experience below! 

David Bowie- tribute from Blur and Damon Albarn

David Bowie has passed away at age 69 today. David Bowie was one of Damon Albarn's idols throughout his musical career. Influencing both Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn once said that he thought about recording an album with David Bowie and Ray Davies.

Asked how much he enjoyed collaborating with other musicians, Albarn said: "I do genuinely like working with people but at the same time I don’t expect it to work, and there have been a lot of people who a lot of things don't happen. I mean, for about 24 hours, many years ago, I was making a record with David Bowie and Ray Davies. But that only lasted 24 hours."

Blur's song M.O.R was also borrowed from David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Fantastic Voyage". On the album Lodger Bowie and collaborator Brian Eno carried out a musical experiment in which multiple songs were written with the same chord progression, of which "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Fantastic Voyage" were the two that surfaced. M.O.R is both a continuation of, and tribute to that experiment, as its chorus also lifts the melody and call-and-response vocals from Boys Keep Swinging.

There were also rumours that the Gorillaz albums would feature David Bowie. It seems that this is not going to happen anymore. Farewell David Bowie.