“To me, that’s the biggest compliment you can get”: Cory Wong on the praise he received from Prince that he’ll “never forget”
Imagine what it would feel like to be complimented by one of your biggest musical heroes – that dream became a reality for Cory Wong, who was once given shining praise by none other than Prince.
Wong has just released a new album, Lost In The Wonder. The modern funk artist has a rather large discography, but while he was still finding his feet and playing local gigs in Minneapolis, Wong found himself playing for Prince. The megastar had stopped by to watch Dr. Mambo’s Combo, the band of which Wong was a member at the time, whose experienced members had been mentoring him.
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He tells MusicRadar, “There’s this club in downtown Minneapolis called Bunkers. It was the hang for musicians and to some extent still is. All kinds of people would come to hang and sit in, from Slash and John Mayer to Roy Hargrove and Jonny Lang.
“Prince would come in all the time to watch the band,” he shares. “Anytime he was hiring new musicians to play with him, he would bring them to Bunkers and make them listen to how the musicians would approach the music, as well as the repertoire itself…
“Prince sent one of his people to bring me over. He’d always sit in the back corner with his entourage and security around because he’s Prince – obviously everyone would want to go and say hi, which is to be expected,” he says.
“When I saw him, I said ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ And he replied ‘Oh, you sound so great, man… I love what you do because you’ve got such a sound, it’s such a thing, keep doing your thing because when I hear it, it’s such a sound!’”
Wong says that it was the biggest compliment one could possibly get as a guitarist: “It wasn’t just about playing a great solo, which would have been nice enough. But from artist to artist and guitar player to guitar player, Prince telling me I had an identifiable sound was by far the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten.”
He adds: “I knew he meant it when he said it. Sometimes, when I’m feeling down about myself, I can go back and hear his voice in my head. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Cory Wong’s new album Lost In The Wonder is out now.
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