Jimmy Fallon Pays Tribute to Prince

Jimmy celebrates the life and music of Prince by sharing a memorable story of when the Purple One randomly challenged him to a game of ping-pong.

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Jimmy Fallon Pays Tribute to Prince

[robertriley]

"I gotta go, prince challenged me to ping pong." is a legitimate excuse from literally any life event.

[elijahtalmud]

"Ask yo boy." -Prince Rogers Nelson, The man, The myth, The undefeated ping-pong champion.

[michaelmccarn]

I had the privilege of meeting Prince many years ago in Hampton, Va when I worked security for a Time/Vanity 6 autograph session at a record store in the mall. My buddy Dion and I worked the line of fans and had the opportunity to hang out in the back room with Morris Day, Jerome and Vanity. All very nice people, very bright and energetic and excited to be on tour with Prince.

I had been told that one of his hobbies was playing electric football, and for those who remember, that was the game back in the 1970's way before Madden games. Anyway, I was listening to Morris Day talk about the Vikings as he was a huge fan and I was a Cowboys fan so we were jawing with one another about the 1975 championship game where Staubach throws the late TD pass to win it for the boys. He mentions that he and Prince were huge Vikings fans (maybe that's why Prince liked the color purple??) and somehow we got onto electric football. I told him my Cowboys team had never been beat since 1970 and had 316 wins in a row. He said that he and Prince used to play all the time as kids and even to that day, Prince still had his game.

This is before cell phones, and after the autograph session ended, I went home and later that evening around 7pm, just as we were getting ready to leave for the Prince/Time?V6 concert, I get a call from the manager of the record store. She gives me a number to call and said it would be Morris Day. I call the hotel number, and a guy answers the phone and a few seconds later Morris is on the phone INVITING me to the show. I told him I had tickets but he says he wants Dion and I plus two to come backstage and meet Prince.

After the concert, we went backstage and there are very few people other than band and stage people so it was not like a Motley Crue backstage party by no means. Morris walks us over to where Prince is standing with his body guard Chick. Prince is very small as we all know and he says to me "So, your Cowboys have never been beaten?" And I answered "Never, not one game!" So he says I want to play your team against my Vikings team. He was a trash talker but in a very quiet way. He had one of his managers talk to me and we swapped numbers.

Fast forward to April 1982, I get a call from a guy named Steve who says that Prince wanted me to fly out to Los Angeles (that is where he lived back then) and he wants you to bring your Cowboys team with you. A few days later I get tickets in the mail for LAX and the following week I am flying out to hang with Prince.

A limo picks me and my fiancee Amy up at LAX and we are driven out to where Prince lived. We go inside and are escorted to a room which was probably a dining room at one time and there is a small table with two chairs and an electric football game on the table. We are offered drinks and some sandwiches and after about 45 minutes Prince comes into the room. He was wearing a Vikings t-shirt and after some small talk we got down to the rules of the game because we both played it a bit different. So after we agreed in the rules, we started the game.

At halftime, my boys were up 14 to 0 and Prince was aggravated by how well my defense was playing. Back then, we had bases that could be adjusted to make the players turn and I was shutting down his sweeps. In the second half I pretty much stomped him scoring four more TDs and winning the game 42-0. He was impressed and said that we would play again very soon now that he saw how good my team was he knew his team needed some work. Prince was very flamboyant in those days before Purple Rain but it was all show business. He was as normal as anyone. He did talk softly and was shy to some point, but I got to see him being competitive complete with yelling and cussing at his players. It was awesome.

Over the next 35 years, Prince and I would meet for a game between his Vikings and my Cowboys in February after the real Super Bowl. In fact, I have been to only one Super Bowl game in my life and that was when he preformed at halftime in 2007 compliments of Prince. He was a very nice man, very giving and charitable and he looked out for his friends and that included me for many years. He knew my children as on several occasions we all were together over the years. Although, we only got together for one weekend out of the year to play that game I felt like we were friends. We are the same age and had many things in common, music, sports, and how we grew up in the 70;s with all the different influences.

We last played our game on February 20th 2016. Prince was in great health, no-indications whatsoever that he was ill in any way shape of form. My Cowboys won that game 35-17 and over the course of our games, using the same teams/players/bases and the same game field all those years, the record was Cowboys 22 Vikings 13 in games one. At one time, Prince had won four years straight. And for the first 8 years, I had won each game. It was a fun but very competitive match between us.

Some of you will question the story, and I would not blame you for doing so. Its an incredible story but true. Prince was a regular guy once off the stage and out of the limelight. He was very smart. One of the smartest people I have ever met.

RIP my friend.

[Metallute]

Jimmy Fallon is actually a good story teller when he's just being himself. Not to mention... It's a fucking Prince story.

[wudaddy]

"Ask your boy."  It was so worth hearing this story just for the ending.

[alittlebitoffilming]

This story was great. I love that Fallon can have a long ass story on his show.

[ryanmeans]

This is the best story Jimmy Fallon has ever had on his show.

[lindaedwards]

A great tribute to focus not on the fact that Prince died, but that he lived!

[berniceanaya]

I loved how Jimmy and his drummer were wearing purple, Jimmy was wearing a purple tie and his drummer was wearing a purple handkerchief/heart to pay tribute to Prince's death.

[carbonking]

Prince had the art of the "EXIT" perfected!!

[OurFantasyLife]

6:55 "If you ever meet him, he's got...if you ever *met* him..."
Ah man, that got me a little bit...

[MissMusicForYou]

Their purple accessories (Jimmy's tie, Quest's heart pin etc.) are all nice touches.

[Karamelkissiz]

This had me in tears! Prince, the King of Shade, will be missed.

[AmTheBestDamnChick]

prince was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma i could listen to celebrities tell there prince stories for hours :)

[SoapPyjamas]

The saddest moment is when JF says 'If you ever meet him' and quickly repeats 'If you ever met him.' Too much.

[maggiealelew]

When he said: "If you ever meet him, uhh if you ever met him", it made it real. But you know what, we will still have him alive through his music. Lets go crazy!

[supercrossjunkie]

This segment is an instant classic period. RIP Prince.

[sshellhorn]

It's one of those things where I listen to this and I think, Prince thought to himself, "Bucketlist, play pingpong with Jimmy Fallon"

[KenSherman]

Prince is one of those beings where his private life is as legendary as his public life.

[christianjohnsjohns]

Michael Jackson and Prince are some of the only artists that could make the world stop when they die they are both musical genius geniuses and both the greatest of all time rest in peace to the both of them P.S. I wish Jimmy had a totally separate show where him and his famous friends just told Prince stories that would be hilarious.