Funkatopia Live

We sit down with 15 year old guitar phenom Taj Farrant to discuss his journey from his viral worldwide appearance on Australia's Got Talent performing rock melodies and Prince's Purple Rain to sharing the stage with Kingfish, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Orianthe, Kiss, and so many more. Here's his travels so far and what we can expect in the future with an upcoming new album on the way.

Mr. Christopher sits down with Mark Cardenas from the Ice Cream Castle era of Morris Day and The Time. Mark was brought in with Paul Peterson, and Rocky Harris (who would be replaced by Jerry Hubbard) to take the place of Monte Moir, and also Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who got trapped in an Atlanta snow storm and missed a show. The new members found themselves at the center of the Purple Rain movie...

Mr. Christopher and Jeff Paige discuss the 2024 Prince Celebration at Paisley Park in Minnesota. A coverage of each day, the events, the music, the challenges, and more.

We celebrate 40 years of Purple Rain on the day it was officially released. We're joined by Andrea Swensson (Prince and Purple Rain: 40 Years) and Duane Tudahl (Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions, 1983-1984) to discuss all things Purple Rain including talking about each track on Prince's masterpiece.

We welcome a TREASURE TROVE of purple professionals for the ultimate Purple Rain Round Table with Jerome Benton, Craig Rice, Gilbert Davison, Hucky Austin, Damon Dickson, and surprise guest Alan Leeds. It's a wealth of purple stories on Purple Rain including deleted rape scenes, insanity at the Purple Rain premiere, money splurging, and tons of laughs and memories.

We discuss Prince birthday events in Texas and Minnesota welcoming guests Gilbert Davison, Damon Dickson, Craig Alexander, and a video from BrownMark. PLUS, we welcome DuJuan Elliott of the Blackshires to share his brand new single No Grease and reminisce a bit with Mr. Christopher.

We discuss more purple news including new Celebration details, and a visit from Mayte. PLUS we unbox Andrea Swensson's new book (which doesn't make for great audio, but we did it!).

Your latest dose of purple news. Construction near Paisley Park, the demolition of Chanhassen Cinema, Prince's birthday weekend, bowling with Mayte, and more!

We sit down with a beautiful vocalist and muse, Marva King. Her voice has supported renowned artists including Prince, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, George Howard, Phil Collins, Chaka Khan, Prince, Whitney Houston, Yolanda Adams, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Gap Band, Anita Baker, Ronald Isley, Mavis Staples, Jesse Johnson, and tons...

We discuss all of the details we have for the Prince Celebration in June 20-24, 2024 including events, hotels, flights, and more. PLUS we welcome Mayte Garcia (1:20:25) to chat about the Live4Love Charities Bowling event on June 6, and also Michael Bland (1:52:30) with a post 2gether concert review and feedback on their historic concert where he joined forces with Sonny T, Tommy Barbarella, Levi S...

We interview the legendary Jill Jones to not only discuss her times with Prince, but also visit stories of Teena Marie, being a member of the Gordy family, her new album The London Sessions, the memories it stirred up, and so much more. We've waited forever for this special guest. Enjoy.

We sit down with sound engineer Scottie Baldwin that has run sound for Prince, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and so many more. Listen to the stories and challenges of working with some of the greatest artists of our time

We sit down with Lawrence L*A*W Worrell (Amy Winehouse, Rick James, Chaka Khan) and Martin Kember (AZ-1, Color Me Badd) to talk about their Prince-centric performances and their undeniable music resumes.

The early bird sale was released for Celebration 2024 at Prince's Paisley Park and the date and talent was also announced which include The Revolution, New Power Generation, and Morris Day with special guests. We talk about the pricing, the acts playing, and all that we know so far.

On the iconic date of 3/19, we get the blessing of a 2nd visit from Michael Bland and Sonny T to answer more deep probing questions. And we also welcome special guest BrownMark as he checks in to let us know about his special Houston event with Prince Day Houston and Craig Alexander.

We sit down with Rick James' Stone City Band including Levi Ruffin, Tom McDermott, Nathaniel Hughes, and Lanise Hughes. We debunk the rumors about Prince and Rick James working together including stolen keyboards, forced drinking, and so much more. It's a funk filled fiesta. Note: There were some audio issues with Levi's connection that caused echoes and we worked with it as best as possible.

We sit down with two music legends Sonny Thompson and Michael Bland. Both of them have shared the stage with Prince's New Power Generation, but they have plenty of stories of their own becoming legends in their own right. We talk about musical history in Minneapolis before Prince became a household name, Michael's work with Soul Asylum, dispelling vault myths, and so much more.

We dish about great funk events happening around the world and entertainment news covering Sinead O'Connor's Estate vs. Trump, P Diddy vs. Everyone, Rihanna's $6 million show, purple news, and so much more.

We interview Timex Social Club's Marcus Thompson as we discuss the rise and fall of their success, the Club Noveau controversy, the identities of the characters named in Rumors, touring with Run DMC, and much more.

We interview artist, photographer Steve Parke as we dive into his incredible work with Prince from album covers, photo shoots, wall murals, t-shirts and the stories behind them. Note: This was a very visual show, but there were dozens of stories to warrant the audio. Watch the video on youtube.com/funkatopia.

Mr. Christopher discusses public feedback (and Jill Jones) about the Purple Rain Broadway and how it's being altered to be more "woke". Then he goes into deep detail about the court case filed by Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer against Prince's heirs as they hire attorneys in an attempt to oust the duo and take control of the Prince Estate.

We interview Danny A Thomas of Con Funk Shun to discuss the beginnings of legendary funk band Con Funk Shun, its roots as Project Soul, playing to 100,000 people at Wattstax with Rufus Thomas and so much more. We also welcome special guest Mark Anthony of the Upscale Band who is playing the backing band for Danny's Con Funk Shun Revue.

We sit down with The Wooten Brothers (Victor, Roy, Joseph, and Regi) to discuss their work with Steve Miller Band, Dave Matthews Band, Prince, Chick Corea, and many others. While Rgi was not there for the majority of the interview, stay tuned at the end when Regi drops in to answer questions about his career, share more Prince stories, and how it was teaching his brothers how to play earning him t...

We celebrate the upcoming release of Prince's Diamonds & Pearls Super Deluxe with Tony M (NPG), Robia Scott (Pearl), Scott McCullough Director of many Diamonds and Pearl videos), and Damon D (New Power Generation). It's nothing but wall to wall stories of the days of the creation of this epic album.

We sit down with Mayte Garcia to discuss the new movie, more Prince questions, and the Live 4 Love charity where we also welcome Gilbert Davison (Prince and Paisley Park Management), and Kirk Johnson (Prince and NPG drummer, producer, choreographer, and dancer) into the mix.