Kevin Estrada Purple Rain is one of the most popular music films of all time, but one of its stars admits he hated it when he attended the premiere.
The 1984 semi-autobiographical film about the life of Prince featured The Time, Apollonia, and Prince’s band, The Revolution. The iconic Purple Rain album is one of the best-selling soundtracks ever, with over 25 million copies sold. The album earned two Grammys, and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
Brown Mark, bassist for The Revolution, played on the album and performed in the movie. He remembers he laughed when Prince first revealed his plans for the film.
“I didn’t believe it,” Mark tells ABC Radio. “I didn’t see how it was gonna work.”
Mark remembers after he attended the premiere, he thought the movie was going to flop. “I watched it for the first time, and I hated it, but everybody loved it.” he recalls.
“I started to understand what it was that people were seeing in the movie, and why they loved it so much,” Mark continues. “It’s the music. It’s the energy. It’s this rags-to-riches rock story.”
The Revolution is a multi-racial band, and one of the keyboard players, Dr. Fink, says Prince wanted the movie to help create racial harmony.
“One of the main points of Purple Rain, in Prince’s vision, was to create this all-inclusive environment for all races, creeds, colors, men and women together, gay, whatever,” he tells ABC Radio.
“At that time, there was still some segregation happening on the airwaves,” he continues. “That’s where Michael Jackson kinda broke through with Thriller first. That paved the way for Purple Rain.”
The Revolution is currently on tour, playing songs from Purple Rain and other Prince albums.
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