Prince | DevRonn's Blog

In Books

Women According to Prince

April 20, 2018 No Comments

It’s strange but I find myself drawn to him in the month of April more than ever since his untimely passing almost two years ago. I know he is still so missed in the hearts of many, especially by the women who loved him. I know personally because I was one of those women. It often makes me chuckle at how Prince could size you up as a woman and know exactly how to seduce you to fall hopelessly madly in love with him. It became art for him to explore you as a total woman, which meant all of Prince’s romances began with real friendship first. Sheila E, Vanity, Susannah Melvoin, Mayte, Manuela, all started out as friends with Prince before ever progressing to the bedroom. Prince needed to get into your head and mind first. I think that’s why he went out of his way to try and impress you by being such a gentleman. And he was indeed the ultimate charmer and seducer.

Prince’s Father Mr. Nelson and his manager Steve Fargnoli and me

Only Prince could rock his unique style that captured your fashion sense and made you want to dress up with him or borrow his clothes. In my case, he would give me many of this clothes to wear because I think he liked seeing me rock his clothes and he loved that everyone wondered who I was because I was wearing them. He got such a kick out of this. I remember asking why couldn’t I talk to his band “The Revolution,” but he wanted me to remain a mystery to everyone. He knew once my Playboy hit the stands that everyone would know, so he seduced me mind, body and soul up until that moment. I remember him looking at my Playboy data sheet when my June 1985 issue hit the newsstands with a big smile on his face seeing that I wrote Prince as my favorite music artist; and that I liked my dream guy to be honest, which is why he broke things off with me to reveal that he was going to be living with someone. That someone was Susannah, whom he was seeing on again off again before he met me and after Vanity left him.

Prince, according to his first wife Mayte, said that there were always one girl coming to Minneapolis and one girl leaving. She came after Carmen Electra in the early 90s. Since I was the mid 80s and during the “Purple Rain” tour, I can now see Prince always had one girl coming and one girl going. I understood that Vanity had jealousy issues about Susan Moonsie, Prince’s first love who was also a part of Vanity 6. Prince also never left any of this girlfriends, lovers, he sort of floated in and out of your life like air or water and the girls ultimately all left him out of suffocation, or out of lack of communication once he decided to move on to someone new that struck his fancy.

Just when you thought you could get even closer he would push you away. His music during any given time in history is like his own autobiography. He wrote songs that were inspired by the women he hung out with at that period and time. “Little Red Corvette” was most certainly written about Vanity. Having intrigued Vanity away from Rick James when he met her at the “American Music Awards” made Vanity a great seduction for Prince. They were mirror images and wild sex to look at in person. I happen to have spent time with Vanity also and can clearly see the ultimate attraction for both them. Vanity and Prince were both way too career oriented and married to their careers more than to each other. That breakup left him heartbroken and Susannah Melvoin picked up those pieces and inspired him to love more.

I inspired him to be honest because I think he wanted me to only remember him the purest form of that fantasy guy. Susannah ultimately left him and Minneapolis. I think Prince meeting me in Chicago and my moving to LA showed him I would never live in Minneapolis, so the way I stayed around his world was under the management of his managers at that time who were handling my acting career. He even had to ultimately seduce Sheila E and get her in his band as his drummer to make her fall in love with him. Only a woman that hung out with Prince can attest to how much he could stimulate all your senses. If you were on his level regarding music like Sheila or dance like Mayte, you were going to have a lot of fun in his world.

Since I was a Playboy model with no singing or dancing aspirations, Prince didn’t know how to fit me into his world. That’s why I was under the umbrella of his manager for my career as an actress was then taking off with movies like, “Can’t Buy Me Love.” I was indeed his friend and he and I both knew we would always want to be friends. That’s why he entrusted me to hang out with his father, Mr. Nelson when going to events like the premiere of “Under The Cherry Moon.” He taught me the art of being cool since I would be the fantasy of so many, it was a necessary art to learn looking back. He knew my being a Playmate would mean many Hollywood directors and producers would want to know me.

Prince inspired all the women in his life to be their best in every area. He wanted his women to be sexy and beautiful at all times, he wanted perfection in music and required it or he would take penalties out in the form of your pay for mistakes. He wanted many of his women to be virgins and that he be your first and someone you would have a hard time getting over. He was very possessive and jealous even when you were no longer with him. That’s why the music he wrote around his relationships are so very important. It tells you right where he was at that time period in his life. Sex was always a big thread in his music, but so were politics, love and God. He wanted to showcase his life and how he loved women through his music.

In honor of Prince this weekend I am offering the kindle version of my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April” for only .99, so you all have a chance to know my unique story with this amazing iconic musician we all will forever love! It’s so strange that we celebrate his life on the anniversary of his death, but again I don’t feel he’s really gone because his music lives on and his life was indeed so vibrant and full that we should always celebrate him in our hearts. Those of us who had the privilege to know him personally will forever be grateful for these cherished memories.

In Books

Paying Tribute To The Purple One

April 7, 2017 4 Comments

It’s surreal to think that it will be a year since the purple one passed away and it’s hard for me to not think of him daily, especially in the month of April. I anticipated Mayte Garcia’s book like many fans of his royal badness and read it searching for answers to the gaps of questions I had. I found her book was done very well and it gave me great insight to some of the things I wondered and thought during his period as the symbol. I also found a lot of similarities to how he romanced her and other women during this time to how he romanced me. Prince was old school cool and really would use the telephone a lot to romance a girl.

I am now happy I listened to my intuition and wrote my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April.” It was also done out of love and to pay tribute to that romantic beautiful time I shared with him when we both were so young and innocent. I think fans can see Prince was a complicated soul to figure out and part of the mysteriousness was created by him; so that his world would operate the way he wanted it to. As Mayte stated in her book, it was known that a girl was either leaving Minneapolis or staying and those gestures of handshakes he would give a girl was noted to mean he liked her.

Prince always had multiple women in his life and most of them were protégé’s he was grooming, as this was the only way you could fit into his world. I recognized this immediately and he tried to fit me into his world as a protégé, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to be my own person with my own merits and my own career and not be in his shadow or his creation. And there was no way I would want to live in Minneapolis as I could never get use to the winters in Chicago!

Reading Mayte’s book gave me insight to how it would have been for me had I said yes to the “Diamonds and Pearls” video. As much as I wanted to work with Prince the timing was not right and I couldn’t do that video because my marriage was falling apart at that time and as always I put love before career. Prince will always be an enigma to many people and will be studied and talked about for years to come. I’m happy Mayte is at peace with sharing aspects of the pain and sorrow they endured over the loss of their children. And I believe she was indeed the love of his life. I think he pushed her away knowing he was the flawed one and that she still had a chance to be a mother someday. Like most romances he had, the women he wooed loved him dearly because he wanted them to love only him. He was possessive and extremely jealous, but eventually they would all leave him.

I know now he only wanted the best for me and I was actually spared by not working with him because my memories are all so wonderful and beautiful. I came to Hollywood a Playboy Playmate dating the hottest rock star that we have ever seen! There was nothing to top that and for him he knew he could not possess me, so there was no choice but to show me only the good side of him. Many of Prince’s women were in Playboy, Vanity, Carmen Electra, Kim Basinger, Anna Fantastic, but I was introduced to Prince by Playboy and I think he knew that would pose a problem because girls who pose for Playboy end up with may opportunities and options from other powerful men, rock stars, movie stars etc.

I’m sure the fact that Mayte ended up engaged to Tommy Lee of all people only added to his ongoing nightmare that he could not possess her any longer either. As usual, Prince struggled with his own demons and his own values of what was good or bad and he created his world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be. I also created and manifested my world to be the way I felt it should be for me. I think Prince knew when I wrote, “To be loved and in love having a comfortable life and my own family” on my Playmate data sheet that I wanted marriage and family first and foremost. I think that’s why he mentioned he was married to music so often. He knew what the women in his life wanted and most wanted fame and fortune.

When he found his soul mate in Mayte he found his true love, but the tragedy of not having a child with her was something he couldn’t get over and so he had to push her away and I think he did that out of his love for her. I wondered why he married so quickly after the greatest love he ever had and I think it was to make her move on from him. He was being unselfish by pushing her away from him because he knew she could bare children just not his children. I hope many friends, fans and former lovers are now at peace with his death. I’m sure more insightful stories will be shared over time and this is why I wrote out mine in “The Day It Snowed In April.” I didn’t want to forget him and that unique magical time we shared. I am happy, healthy and have a daily reminder of him in my tiny little teacup rescue that I named after him. I am so grateful to have found my soul mate and have a wonderful marriage, so I know the choices I made long ago led me to this moment in time.

I am happy I can now listen to his music and talk about him without crying. I have reconnected with many people from the Revolution and friends who knew him over the past year. I have shared my story for everyone to know him the way I knew him and I look forward to hearing about stories I have yet to learn.

In Books

Purple Love

February 14, 2017 1 Comment

Last week I officially launched my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April” on my life and time with rock star Prince. It was my way of paying tribute to his unique style and music legacy with a purple theme party in Beverly Hills. The event was held at the home of Brad and Tina Hillstrom, who are natives from Minneapolis. I wanted purple carpet instead of red and for everything to be colored purple in honor of Prince. I even dressed little Prince up in a custom outfit so that he could live up to his namesake for photos.

We had so much rain in the days leading up to the event, I wasn’t sure if the weather would clear up? But it seemed like Prince was surely smiling down on us that day as the sun started to shine! Many long time friends enjoyed listening to Stereo Mike Creamer spin some of Prince’s music that he made during my time with him.

Purple love was in the air and even though it was “Fashion Week” and Grammy week, the purple unicorn singer, Justine Skye stopped by looking fabulous, along with America’s favorite letter turner, Vanna White and classic rock singer, Al Stewart.

Guest enjoyed vegan appetizers by Deliteful meals and chef Karen and purple cupcakes from Swirls. We had a purple punch compliments of Purple Haze and Blackhorn imports. A big thank you to publicist Tiffany Ladner and Anolan for all the organization that went into creating such a memorable afternoon. I gave autographed copies of my book in giftbags along with sponsored gifts from ThinEssence, Delightful meals, Parfaire, Green Leaf, and Expert Insight Publishing. My gorgeous purse was compliments of Grace Nowak and my hair and makeup was done by Emily and the Four Season’s Salon in Westlake, compliments of Yamaguchi. My hair had a shade of purple in it compliments of Louise at Urban Dyebar and I was driven in style to the party in a Rolls Royce compliments of Royal Exotic cars. Special thanks to William Kidston for all the lovely photos and to my Playmate sisters, Deborah Driggs, Barbara Moore and Sandra Taylor for all the love and support!

Half of the proceeds from my book will go to benefit Prince’s charity, #YesWeCode. This is my way of paying it forward and keeping his desire for children’s education in the forefront of his legacy. I thought it was fitting to officially launch “The Day It Snowed In April” in February, the month of love because of the pure love that I know we all shared for Prince and all the amazing music he gave us. You can get “The Day It Snowed In April” now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in Hardcover, Paperback and Kindle and the Audio version will be out soon! If you enjoyed the book, share the purple love and give it as gift and please don’t forget to give me a review on Amazon

In Books

Holiday Blues

December 6, 2016 1 Comment

As we approach the end of 2016, I can honestly say I can’t wait to have it over and done with. This has not been a pleasant year for me. We battled an 8 month IRS tax audit that I’m grateful we prevailed in and is finally over, but it took up a lot of tedious hours of my time. We lost a lot of great musical artists such as, David Bowie, Glenn Fry and our beloved Prince. This was especially hard on me given my memories of such a precious innocent time in my life. I felt a strong urge to write them all down before I would be too old to remember the details anymore. If someone had told me that I would write a memoir on the most intimate details of my life this year, I would have told them they were crazy and I didn’t have that kind of time. Given that tax audit was taking up most of it and on top of that I was dealing with other added things like being producer on our Emmy award winning Amazon Prime series, “The Bay.” And then of course we had the never ending saga of the election and the constant battle with friends over those two candidates that it made me want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs at certain times.

In addition to all of this we were trying to sell our houses and consolidate and simplify our lives, given our kids are grown up and not around as much. As a realtor, I had many things to deal with such as repairs, showings and tenants that also took up alot of my time. Time is something that is abstract and goes by so fast and it’s something we can never get back. Sometimes looking back on time spent with beloved people in our lives that are no longer with us can often give you the blues, especially around the holidays. So to say I have the holiday blues this is year is really being honest. I didn’t feel like putting up a tree or entertaining and the holidays seemed to be upon us way too fast for me to catch my breath.

I am grateful this horrible year is ending and am optimistically looking forward to the new year with the completion of my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April.” Although I didn’t set out to write a memoir on my life this year, I’m happy it turned out the way it has and I’m very proud of the book, as I feel it was directly inspired by Prince for me to tell our beautiful story now. Writing the book helped me grieve through the pain of his death and I got to relive those beautiful moments all over again as I laughed and cried reading it back. My life reads like a Jackie Collins novel and it’s hard to believe this was actually my life. People come in and out of our lives teaching us and guiding us through laughter and pain and helping us grow into the person we are at this very moment in time.

Prince was one of those mystical magical moments of my life at a time when we were both young and innocent with lots of zest for life. I’ve always had a spiritual connection with him and he’s been a constant thread throughout my life so I pondered on why that was and had to write it all down. I was amazed at how fast I wrote the book and how much of it poured out of me, cleansing my soul and bathing me with love. When I read it back I cried like a baby and I struggled with whether I even wanted to release it? I let a few close personal friends read it that knew Prince and my time with him to get their opinions. I watched for signs and prayed that Prince would guide me to what he wished me to do.

The signs appeared in white owls screaming outside my front door during a full moon that told me this had to be Prince! They came to my door three nights in a row flying around me while I continued writing. Then I had a gift on my birthday, June 25, which I discovered was also the day “Purple Rain” was released. I never knew this until I started writing the book. That gift turned out to be the tiniest rescue dog that I renamed Prince. Now anyone who knows Ronn and I would have said that they would have never seen me with such a small dog. He’s only two pounds, but has the biggest personality and reminds me everyday of Prince and puts a smile on my face. These signs told me that Prince now wants me to share this time of his life because it was the happiest time in both of our lives. Like the iconic musicians before him, Prince wants his fans to know the person he truly was and the person he became because he was an inspiration to all who encountered his soul. He was so special and mysterious even to those who actually knew him. So I believe many books, movies and documentaries will be yet to come on his life. My story is just part of what was his journey and its a beautiful heartfelt one that I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.

I want to give half of the proceeds from the book to Prince’s charity #yeswecode and I want fans of the book to spread the love and share it because it is meant to be an inspirational tribute to a man like no other. You may preorder the book here before the worldwide release date of Feb 1, 2017. I ask that you give me a review for the website and like ripples in a pond spread the love and share it with someone YOU love! I will autograph preorders for FREE!!!

In Home

Summer Breeze Makes Me Feel……..

August 4, 2016 2 Comments

It been a while since I’ve been able to blog because I had computer issues and had no choice but to learn to be without constant communication with the world here for a few weeks! Yes I have my Ipad and phone, but I’m just not able to do some things that I’m use to doing, such as the blog on them. I think the universe wanted to make me do without such constant instant communication to the entire world for a while, so that I could truly focus on other things that needed my attention fully. One of those things has been my new little love that I adopted from the Shelter Hope Pet Shop, Prince!

Prince is my little tea cup Chorkie who some think it the smallest dog they have ever seen. He is only 2 pounds and is fully grown at two years old. A Chorkie is half Chihuahua, half Yorkie and his owners sadly passed away in a car accident about a month ago, so the family dropped him and his big mutt brother, Chester off to the Shelter Hope Pet Shop for adoption. Many of you know how much I love to do to help save our animals and my girlfriend Kim Sill, who started Shelter Hope Pet Shop is the poster child for saving as many as she can. Kim produced the documentary, “Saved In America” and told me all about this amazing little Prince on my recent birthday. As many of you know, I lost my Shih-tzu, Romeo three years ago and just didn’t want to take on the life-time responsibility of another pet because of the amount of traveling Ronn and I do these days. However, when Kim described the story of how she acquired Prince and his personality, I just had to meet him! Turns out we were a match and he’s been such a joy of love and tranquility that the whole family adores! Ronn, Creason and Calee all love the little guy and I decided to change his name from Spencer to Prince because he reminded me so much of the rock star, Prince. His personality is so quiet, yet he is full of energy and so smart for such a little dog. He also so sweet and lovable and sleeps with Ronn and I, but he’s also quite possessive already of me and barks when Ronn kisses me, which I must Periscope soon because it’s quite funny to watch!

So my summer has been flying by with dog day afternoons, doggie play dates and doggie cuddling as I’ve been bonding with my new little guy. I’ve also had to shift my attention to real estate this summer, as we are trying to consolidate and simplify our lives by selling off homes in order to down size and get rid of things we aren’t using or don’t need. I’m a firm believer in doing this yearly in all areas of life because sometimes having less is actually more. It’s a sense of freedom from too many issues that need to be addressed that take up time you could be spending with family. As we get older, it’s important to spend more quality time with friends and family because each and every day becomes more and more precious.

So this summer hasn’t been as social as we are use to because we have had to shift our priorities to focus on new additions to the family, changes in our lives and more quality time with each other. I guess having the computer problems was good for me because it has forced me to put more energy and intimacy at home. Summer has also brought us two more Emmys to add to our home as producers on “The Bay,” which is launching on Amazon Prime next month! If you have an Amazon Prime account you will be able to catch new digitally remastered season one of fourteen episodes and binge into Bayhem! We couldn’t be more proud and excited for you guys to join in on all the exciting things coming up for “The Bay” this fall when the new season two is launched before Christmas! “The Bay” will also be available in Germany, Austria, Japan, UK/Ireland and China. Unfortunately, we do not have distribution in other areas yet and you will not be able to view episodes on the website anymore. We will be adding more countries as we get distribution in those countries. We will also be shooting more episodes this fall and I will keep you guys posted with behind the scene Periscopes from the set!

In the meantime, I hope your summer breeze is making you feel fine and that life is treating you well with all the love and joy that life has to offer. It’s really the most important thing we can have and the feeling of love and joy will make all things possible even the impossible.

In music

A Royal Disappointment

April 24, 2011 5 Comments

I never thought I’d be saying this about my friend Prince in concert, but last night sucked a big one! Now I’ve seen him many times before during his “Purple Rain” tour and after so I always thought he was more than worth the price of a ticket. But last night was a complete joke. Ronn had never seen him and because of that I wanted the best seats possible. Also thought maybe he’d see me in the first row and I’d get to reconnect with him and say hello. Well the stage was shaped in that symbol he uses and was built so high that even the people that spent $2000 a ticket for the VIP sections had trouble seeing the stage. I mean I”ve never seen anything like this ever. Maybe you’d get a glimpse of him when he came around the stage, but for the most part you had to stand and strain your neck to see any action since he was in the middle of it most of the time. We had what I thought would be primo seats in the first row center that turned into the back of the drummer’s head! None of the floor seats allowed you to really get a good view of the stage. The center upper sections which were much cheaper were way better because not only could you see the stage, you could see the large monitor screens of the performances. Chaka Khan opened the show and Larry Graham was added to the NPG band and a couple solos with Prince and looked like they would be great if only we could hear it? The lighting was also bad throughout the show sometimes there was no light at all on him. The sound wasn’t great either as it had a lot of echo and all you could really hear was bass in our section on the floor. All in all not one of this finer moments. Certainly not worth the money people paid for what they thought they were getting. You left there feeling totally ripped off and royally disappointed. I’ve always known Prince to be a perfectionist, especially in concert! So this was such a surprise to see happen with Ronn of all people. We both were so looking forward to seeing the show and I just couldn’t believe Prince would allow tickets to be sold to die hard fans in this crappy way. I’m speaking out so that you know not to waste your money on floor seats period. Best to get upper center seats and at least see the stage and possibly hear some of the music. Ronn and I were so turned off that I don’t think we will want to see another concert ever again. He thought it was actually the worst concert he’d ever seen and I thought that was ironic because Prince was always the best concert I’d had ever seen, but last night I had to agree with him as I think everyone that had floor seats would also. I think Prince would have been as awesome as usual if only we could have seen and heard him!