INTERVIEW: New Power Generation remember their leader, Prince, at NYC concert
Photo: Morris Hayes is the music director and keyboardist for The New Power Generation. Photo courtesy of Peter Lodder / Provided by Cindy Byram PR with permission.
Prince, the highly influential musician who died a few years ago, will be remembered at a special tribute event Monday, Nov. 18 at the Town Hall in New York City. Prince: The Beautiful Ones is expected to be a celebration of the singer’s recently released memoir, life and art.
At the special concert and book event, audience members will have the chance to hear from The New Power Generation, Prince’s backing band led by music director and keyboardist Morris Hayes. Ticket sales will benefit Harlem Children’s Zone, and each attendee will receive a copy of the memoir. Speakers at the tribute evening include Spike Lee, Prince’s editor Chris Jackson and co-author of the memoir Dan Piepenbring.
“They can expect the same type of energy that they expected from Prince,” Hayes said in a recent phone interview. “We were always very energetic when it comes to shows, and I think that was one of the things that we learned to do, is to keep that energy. Also, they can expect to hear a lot of the songs that made Prince famous.”
Hayes began his association with Prince in 1992 when he joined the singer’s Diamonds and Pearls tour. After those shows, Prince invited Hayes to join The New Power Generation on a permanent basis, and the keyboardist stayed with the band through 2012.
Touring, Hayes said, was a mixed bag.
“Sometimes it was amazing and exciting, and sometimes it was really difficult,” he admitted. “It was always a really tough tour schedule. Sometimes we could make life pretty rough, but a lot of times it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the touring. … It was just a lot of fun different types of emotions and a lot of different types of things going on. It was a massive roller-coaster ride is what I liken it to.”
Growing up, Hayes had a piano in the house, but his younger brother was actually the one who gravitated toward the instrument. For Hayes, sports was his first love, but the piano eventually grew on him.
“I started messing with it and played at church a bit,” he said. “It really took off when I got in college and met these guys and saw how cool it was for them as they were doing their music. I had an art scholarship, and I was going to class and passing by the music department. It was just really cool what I would see them doing in the different rooms. I was like, wow, man, this is really dope. … So that was really what kind of set it off for me was the college days, and then it just picked up. As I went on, I joined this church … and there was a pack of these amazing musicians there. I was learning a lot there, and it just budded from there.”
For The New Power Generation, Hayes is billed as the music director, but he respects the longevity of the band members and includes them on decision-making. At its core, according to its official website, the band consists of Hayes, MacKenzie, Tony Mosley, Sonny Thompson, Damon Dickson and Levi Seacer Jr.
“Sonny had played with Prince forever,” Hayes said. “So it’s like for me I don’t have to do a whole lot of work with these guys. They’re professionals. I’ll put together a set list. I’ll call the guys and say, ‘Hey, man, what do we feel like?’ The hard thing about doing a set list is we have so much music to pick from. That’s the thing. We have so little time and so much music, so we have to just say what’s the stuff that’s going to make the show the hottest that we could. Hit the hits, do some obscure stuff that maybe the people have never seen Prince play or just some things like that, and try to comprise a list that will hit everybody — hit the fans who want to hear ‘Purple Rain,’ the people who want to hear the songs that everybody loves, and then just every now and again hit them with something that they go, oh, wow, I haven’t heard that in ages. Then we play that, so we just have a very large repertoire that we can pull from.”
When Prince died in 2016, Hayes was distraught. He had lost someone he knew for 25 years. Although he wasn’t in The New Power Generation at the time, he still cared about the singer and checked in a few days before his tragic death.
“It was one of the hardest times I could remember, man,” he said. “Prince was like family. I had been around him for over 25 years, and it was very difficult, man. I kind of knew things were going downhill probably a few days before he passed. I actually called one of his handlers and was like, ‘This is getting out of hand. I’m looking at the news.'”
When he heard the tragic news a few days later, his fears had become a reality. “I remember,” he said, “crying like a baby when I heard it.”
But the music lives on, and Hayes continues to pay tribute to his friend. Now audience members can join in honoring The Beautiful Ones.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Prince: The Beautiful Ones will be presented Monday, Nov. 18 at the Town Hall in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
