I have been a Prince fan my whole life as a beige kid in St Paul. My father was an avid music fan that embraced all genres. I remember as a kid being in Glam Slam during the day after he brought us down in hopes of seeing the Prince. Any time we saw a purple car around town, we assumed it was Prince. My fandom grew as I became a DJ and saw how his music brought so much joy to so many people from so many different backgrounds. The biggest shift in my purple life happened when the world lost Prince. Later that year my family and I went to the tribute concert at Xcel. The week before, as I was the DJ at a wedding, I thought about what it would be like to dress up as Prince at the concert. Would it be weird, would people be offended? I ended up doing it and wore an off the rack Purple Rain outfit with a less than stellar wig. It was the only time in my life that I fully shaved my beard to this day. The experience was life changing. I lost count of how many people asked for pictures. It was nothing but love. I started telling people that I was St Paul Prince if they wanted to tag me in any photos. That name stuck when I began cosplaying. This led to many Prince themed cosplay tributes. It started with a Purple Prince Jedi from the Star Wars universe. Then came Bat Dance Prince from the music video of the 1989 Batman movie. My most recent cosplay was the outfit he wore during Beautiful Ones in Purple Rain.
