Susan Rogers On Prince's Greatest Instrument!

Friends, myself and our good friend The Solitary Adventurer had the pleasure of talking with renowned Prince engineer Susan Rogers. Susan was gracious with her time, knowledge and stories.
Here is our first segment from the interview!

#susanrogersprince #prince #princeguitar

[YesYouCANPlayGuitar]

Friends, the full (and it was a big one Susan was very generous with her time) will be posted later this week!

[CainaanDC]

From what I remember Prince wasn't on any guitar player or bass player magazines until the early 2000's . I think there are a number of reasons why. Maybe his stage presence overshafdowed how talented he was. Maybe racism at the time. It could be a number of things. But I'm glad he is finally getting the credit that he deserved.

[frankmarasco]

One of the things that hindered appreciation of Prince's guitar prowess is he really avoided overuse on albums. He felt too often guitar overwhelmed the songs. So he would leave the virtuoso guitar perfornaces for live playing. And then he went territorial on social media sharing his performances..which was a mistake. Now that he has passed we are able to see his brilliance on guitar that was often muted on studio albums. Prince fans knew his genius there but the casual fan had no exposure. Dude was a killer on guitar.

[Chihome]

So happy to see this brother! I love Susan!

[shiny_dreamer]

I love listening to Susan Rogers...she has such an intuitive sense of music/sound/energy that I truly appreciate. Her stories are always so descriptive in all the best ways. Thank you Susan for all you do and share 💜
I somehow knew she was going to be on this channel at some point. Hi5 Bryan 🙋‍♀

[shawnbrisbon]

I was a pre-teen when he was a big star on urban radio. When 1999 and Purple Rain hit to a wider audience, talk about guitar skills picked up a bit. He and Eddie Van Hal’sn were hot, but he got no magazine covers. I think it was a combination of things. The world was a different place. There may have been a backlash to race and gender blurring lines with his image. Another consideration was a backlash to disco/funk guitar in the late 70’s. A lot of the guys on guitar mags were rock and blues. It was kind of hard at times to define his genre. Beyond just playing and singing I think his huge stage presence maybe overshadowed his playing. Overly sexualized lyrics could also be a factor. Another huge thing was constantly being compared and linked to Michael Jackson although Mike didn’t play an instrument on stage. The good thing is that older players and younger ones are discovering his guitar talent thru YouTube. I’m in one Facebook group for guitarists. Anytime someone posts a video from the 2000-2010 era people are blown away. The common comment is I never saw him growing up and had no idea he was that good. It seems like he is just being discovered in a way. This is a great topic and way for even people like me who are fans to learn more. Great point about his mind and making everything look easy. That could also overshadow his playing. Congrats Bryan on landing this interview. I’m gonna be going nuts until you post the follow up.

[Chris_Blackstock_Music]

Great interview...so far. I'm looking forward to the rest.

[tonydeltablues]

Wow! Great to see Susan Rogers; and, not to diminish my love of you two, Y!YCPG and The Solitary Adventurer too!
Looking forward to more of the interview?
Best
Tony

[funkaholicsanonymous]

OK folks lets not be naive here. The reason he was not on "Those wack ass" guitar lists is because he was prolific and black and handsome and super talented and someone has to say it but the music industry was still very racist back then.( STILL IS). Lets not forget MTVD barely played any black artists back then and when they did it was Michael and Prince and no one in between. No curtis mayfield no stevie wonder no marvin gaye no richie valens. Everything had to be super white and Prince was the exception 2 the rule. Lets stop acting like color does not matter because it still does!!!! I dare you to look up an mtv interview with David Bowie where he specifically asked the interviewer why they did not play more black music as if we did not exist. Black Musicians created Rock and Roll and then we moved on and created funk. GOOGLE That is why he was not on any of those lists and that is why he ALWAYS strived for perfection!

[scottclark]

Great guest. I have a lot of time for listening to Susan.

A later sound engineer, Scottie Baldwin said he thought Prince’s best instrument was his voice. I’m with him on that with guitar being a close second.

I think the Clapton quote is an excellent urban myth but he certainly does rate him very very highly from multiple interviews.

Finally, His genius went beyond his gift for melody. With a singer songwriter like say George Michael, the best part of the song he’s written would be for his voice with very few interesting instrumental breaks, usually created by session musicians to serve the song.

With a guitar band like Pink Floyd, often the best parts of a song were the guitar solos.

Prince could write equally well for both

[cheboy]

💜🐾
great 1!
Prince himself said that He was a piano player first.
i agree

[jochemjonker]

For sure, you can state, that Prince his best instrument was guitar, allthough his level/skills in other instruments were at a same hight.But with his guitars, he ceated more sounds and moods, than on any other instrument he played.

[jasontate]

This is really quite something. Thank you 🙂

[MrTaurrean]

Lovely to have someone on ur wonderful show that actually knew and worked with the mighty Prince, There are people out there that read everything written and become experts, But nothing better than it coming from the mouth of someone that was there in his creative journey and can speak from experience and not the take of someone whom think they know him or write about him from their perspective.Susan is an amazing woman and someone whom I could listen to for days.Awesome work my brother
Peace and b wild

[Grumpywolf]

This is very, very cool and I’m so excited you guys got to do this with Susan! I think her point about Prince’s best instrument being his mind is poignant as hell, honestly, but as far as physical instruments I’d give it to guitar and his voice tied for first, and then keys and bass. Can’t wait to see the whole thing!

[similartracks]

amazing how you were able to interview her

[wandamanning]

Wow! Can't wait for the full interview. Susan is so knowledgeable about Prince and his music.

[jollygreen]

Is this part of a longer interview that I can watch?

[PhantomVids]

Susan Rogers is awesome! She has a great appreciation for the music and just as importantly fans of the music. In every interview I've heard Susan Rogers is thoughtful, full of first hand insights, and generous.

[ROCKNROLLFAN]

It's CRAZY but I read an article from Kerrang magazine where this critic went one of the Purple Tour shows and ripped it apart by discrediting him as a showman and musician. As a musician, Prince got compared a lot to jimi hendrix in the 80s and as a showman, he got compared a lot to michael jackson and Prince reinvented himself too much during his career to be ever be compared to them and that's why I agreed with james corden when he referred to Prince as completely ORIGINAL during his tribute to him after he passed.