For those who are die-hard prince fans, you may remember Prince’s childhood best friend and former band member, Andre Cymone. Andre and Prince started out together in music, and Prince even lived with Andre and his family for years as a teenager. That was way back before the fame…and they remained friends ’til Prince’s last day. In fact, Andre talked to Prince soon after Prince made that emergency medical landing just five days before his untimely death.

Shortly after Prince passed away, Andre spoke with Billboard to give Prince’s fans a detailed glimpse into the interesting things they never knew about the Purple One. Check out Andre Cymone’s interview excerpts below…

HOW PRINCE ENDED UP LIVING WITH ANDRE & HIS FAMILY AFTER GETTING KICKED OUT

A.C.: I think what happened is eventually he ran away. He came to our house and asked, “Can I stay here?” I said I’ll have to talk to my mom. I asked her and she was like, “Yeah, but I have to call his mom and let her know that he’s here.” So she called his mom to let her know and they worked it out. So his mom said, “He can stay there if he wants to.” So a day turned into a week, week turned into a month, month turned into a year and a year turned into about five or six years, something like that.

ANDRE CYMONE ON HOW PRINCE’S MOTHER CAME TO DISLIKE HIM

A.C.: “We started the band together right around the same time. Maybe within the week or month, we said we should put a band together. It eventually became Grand Central; we had a few names going on there before. …

I was a very wild kid. I was from the projects. I was a hustler. … I was always talking about we gotta do this, do that, we gotta make some money. He was more laid back. When we put the band together, I was still hustling. I’d be stealing cars, bikes … I was into a lot of crazy stuff. We had moved into a really nice sort of upper middle-class neighborhood and parents didn’t want their kids hanging around me because I was a little rough around the edges.

I think the final straw for [Prince’s] mom was when I pulled up in a brand new Cadillac trying to get Prince to come out and go for a joyride. She forbid Prince to hang out. So every time I’d try to come by and ask can Prince come out and jam, she’d say no. She made him do all kinds of other stuff, anything other than to play with me.”

HOW MORRIS DAY’S MOTHER ALMOST GOT THEM SIGNED TO ISAAC HAYES

A.C.:Our first brush with fame was kind of a false start. Morris [Day’s] mom was beautiful, a gorgeous woman who reminded me of Pam Grier. I was completely and utterly in love. She could say, “We’re doing a gig on the moon” and I’d be early, which was rare for me. But she somehow knew people like Redd Foxx and Isaac Hayes.

She got in touch with Hayes and said she was managing this group with her son and would he be interested in getting involved. I think she must have sent him one of our demos. He said yes and was going to help us become superstars. She told me that and I quit school, telling everyone we’re going to have tutors and all that kind of stuff. Prince was smart. He kept going to school. So all this stuff was supposed to happen [through Isaac Hayes] and then somebody showed me a copy of Jet magazine with a story about Isaac Hayes filing for bankruptcy. I thought, ‘OK, guess I have to go back to school.’ … After that, Prince got his record deal and that became what that became.

ANDRE & PRINCE REMAINED FRIENDS, ANDRE REVEALS LAST TIME THEY PLAYED MUSIC TOGETHER

A.C.: The last time we played together was at this place called The Sayers Club. He had reached out and said, “Listen, I’m playing at The Sayers Club, love for you to come down.” So I went there and he asked if I wanted to come up and do “The Dance Electric.” I was like, “I haven’t played that song in a long time; I don’t know the words.” He’s like, “Don’t worry, I have a teleprompter.” Ok, fair enough, so I did that.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE WENT TO ONE OF PRINCE’S LAST SHOWS

A.C.: So we go to the show. Maya Rudolph and all kinds of people were there. I’m given a cool spot to hang out in. Prince was always super cool when I came to his shows. … Then as Prince would do…he had a guy come get me and take me to the other side of the stage. Prince is like, “Come on the stage.” I think he was doing “Housequake” and playing the piano. I go out on stage thinking he’s going to give me a guitar, bass or something. Instead I go onstage and I’m just standing next to him while he’s playing. He’s talking me, telling me about the next chord he’s going to hit. Like, “Check out this one.”

…It was the last song. Right after that, he says, “I want you to meet my band.” So I wind up meeting the band. He tells everybody, “Hey, this is my first bass player.” I’m like, “Yeah and this is my first guitar player” [laughs]. Anyway, that was the last time I saw him perform. … I think that’s the last time I actually saw him. We had a great time. We drank a bottle of Cristal and he introduced me to all the people around. We hung out for awhile.

WHAT PRINCE TOLD ANDRE SOON AFTER HIS EMERGENCY LANDING 5 DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH

The last time we corresponded was when I heard about the plane [which had an emergency landing because of Prince getting ill mid-flight on April 15]. I reached out to get a hold of him. I called a bunch of different people. I called his sister and she said she’d try to give him the message. I called Bobby Z and he said he’d try to get him the message. Finally, Bobby got a hold of him and he sent a text to me. Bobby pasted it and sent it to me. Prince said, “I’m OK. When I get to L.A., we’ll hook up.” That was it. And I guess maybe five days later he was gone.

His legacy? I think his music is his immortality. That sums it up. It’s hard to say; he did so much. He recorded so much music. What I remember most is just his personality. There was just a lot more to him than what people saw. I’ve heard people say it; everybody who really knew him knows he was a funny dude. Very funny. He had a very interesting sense of humor. As kids we had a lot of fun. To be able to do what we loved and be able to actually be successful at it, especially at the age we were at, it was like a dream come true I’m sure for him and definitely for me. We always threatened to get together and do some stuff. The last time I saw Prince, he said, “Man, we’ve got to get together. We’ve got do something, we gotta play, we gotta jam.” The one regret I have is that I never really took him up on that. -Andre Cymone

Source: Billboard Magazine