Extremely rare ‘Warner Bros. VIP’ backstage pass for Prince and the Revolution’s Purple Rain World Tour of 1984-1985, 4.25 x 2.5, featuring bold black text, “Purple Rain World Tour” over purple text, “Prince and the Revolution - Sheila E,” and two flowers. In fine condition.
From the collection of Marylou Badeaux, a former executive at Warner Bros. Records who worked closely with Prince on a variety of projects, which included distributing these VIP cards to Warner Bros. representatives.
Badeaux recalls: ‘At the height of his popularity, everyone wanted some sort of access backstage (green room or whatever). Prince had a total of 400 of these passes printed up. He gave them to me with the instructions that I was to allocate only 10 per market (U.S. market). I was to send them to the Warner Bros. promotion reps in each of the cities where the tour would be, and that person would dole them out to key radio/retail people and provide a list back to me of who got them. Prince wanted very strict control. Of course, 10 was never enough, but he would not bend. I had them laminated, and a total of 340 of these were sent out.’
From the collection of Marylou Badeaux, a former Warner Bros. Records executive who spent 25 years in the label's R&B and jazz departments and served as Vice President of Special Projects. During her tenure, Badaeux developed a close working relationship with Prince, with whom she closely collaborated for nearly two decades.
