Before Purple Rain and The Revolution, the fancy suits and hairdos, a young Prince Rogers Nelson - donning anything from gold spandex to a trench coat with leg warmers - could be seen on several music programs like Don Kirschner's Rock Concert and Midnight Special. On his left was a sometimes spiky-haired guitarist Dez Dickerson, whose attire was a mashup of New Wave/thrift store chic, playing his. When you saw bassist Andre Cymone to his right, you knew the string solo would rival that of Ernie Isley and the late Jimi Hendrix.
In the song "1999", Dickerson sang the most memorable line - "Life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last". Also, his guitar solo on Little Red Corvette (1983) was named in Guitar World's Top 100 that same year. That would be one of his last recordings with The Purple One. Yup, how time flies.
Shortly after, he was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, who would go on to write movie and TV scores with former keyboardist Lisa Coleman. While Dickerson made a brief musical appearance in Purple Rain, he's been mostly behind the music scenes. At one point, he found his musical home in the Christian genre, where he was an A&R person for Starsong Communications. He also ran his own Christian rock label, Absolute Records.
He also wrote a book which was a personal account of his time with Prince, which officially ended in 1983. Since his departure, he's remained active in the music scene and kept a fairly low profile. When asked by journalists about his last conversation with Prince before his untimely passing, Dickerson wasn't about that life.
Today, he's suffering from a few ailments but has not yet publicly disclosed what or his reason for a Go Fund Me campaign. Reddit posters had some interesting takes on the subject, including money Dickerson rightfully deserved during Prince's peak musical period. Before his health took a turn, he also worked as a host for a Tennessee radio station.
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