Nile Rodgers Scrapped New Chic Song About Prince: “After He Passed Away, It Felt Wrong”

Nile Rodgers has a new Chic album, It’s About Time, coming sometime later this year. When Rodgers revealed that he was releasing the album in 2017 to line up with Chic’s 40-year anniversary, he also noted that the album’s release was impacted by the death of Prince. “When Prince suddenly died, it was like I'd been struck by lighting twice,” he said in a statement at the time. Rodgers sat down with Pitchfork today prior to Chic’s performance at Glastonbury. He revealed that at one point, the Chic album was set to include a song about his friendship with Prince.

From the time that I started to work on this album, a lot of heavy things have happened. I mean, David Bowie died. Prince died. People who were really, really close to me passed away, and that wasn’t supposed to be part of the narrative. The narrative was about working with these people—about having good times with them, you know?

The last two times I saw Prince was playing on stage with him and then him coming to my show. So the album was talking about that. As a matter of fact, there is a song on the album that the working title is “Prince Said It,” and it was about my conversations with Prince. But after he passed away, it felt wrong. It felt uncomfortable.

Rodgers also revealed that he’s got too much material for the new album and is in the process of paring back. “I have so many songs,” he said. “I have too many songs. I don’t believe in putting out a double album of new stuff, because to me, an album is like a film.”

In addition to appearing on the recent all-star Grenfell Tower benefit single, Rodgers lent a hand at the Grenfell volunteer center the day after the fire. “It was maybe one of the most inspirational days I’ve ever had [in London],” he said. “It was amazing. I was able to come in and just become a worker. It was sort of like a variation on what my life really is, because as a producer, I just think of myself as a worker bee anyway.”

Listen to Rodgers’ “In Sight Out” talk with Pitchfork, and revisit the time Prince showed up to help Nile Rodgers and Chic perform David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”: