The song Prince worried he had ripped off from Journey (2024)

Prince was an original. Always moving down his singular path, he didn’t have time for copycats or replicas. Instead, he was zoned in on his own creative world, demanding full and total control over everything from the performance to the production of his music. So when there was one moment when he sat back and worried for a split second that he’d accidentally plagiarised, he called up Journey immediately to come clean.

The energy of Prince’s career was set way back in 1978 when the musician, then only 19 years old, released his debut album, For You. The year before, when he was barely an adult, Prince walked into Warner Bros Records and not only convinced them to sign him but convinced them to let him make the album totally and completely alone. There were no other musicians as he played every note. He did all the production, only handing the album over to other hands when it came to the final technical stages of mastering and mixing. In that one record, Prince made it clear that it would only ever be his way or the highway; no one else would ever get a look in, and he would trust no one else to take any kind of control over his vision.

That was proven time and time again across all of his albums. Prince was a perfectionist who demanded the best out of himself and his band. For the majority of the time in the studio, he played as many instruments and did as much of the work himself as he physically could, only asking for help when he really needed it. When it came to songwriting, it was all completely and utterly his own, with his songs coming out of his own unique field of references and his own singular mind.

However, there was one day when he made a track and suddenly got the fear that maybe he’d heard it before. He listened back and realised that the chords he’d used felt familiar, similar to a song by the classic rock back Journey, who had already had their huge hit ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, making them one of the biggest acts of the early 1980s.

Some artists would feel that fear and bury it. They’d deny it or act as if they’d never worried about it, hoping the similarity never reared its head or already prepping the court case for the coming plagiarism trial. If they weren’t willing to change the songs, a lot of acts would simply hope that the artist they maybe copied never noticed. But Prince proved himself to be an honest man and a stand-up example of a considerate artist.

In early 1984, Journey’s singer Jonathan Cain got a call that Prince wanted to talk to the band, so the group met with him at their label offices, curious what the star had to say. Cain recalled to Billboard that Prince said, “I want to play something for you, and I want you to check it out. The chord changes are close to ‘Faithfully’”, the band’s 1983 chart-topping single, “and I don’t want you to sue me.”

He hit play, and the song they heard was‘Purple Rain’,the track that would become Prince’s most defining hit and a true opus of his talent. The second they heard it, Journey knew they weren’t going to stand in the way of that song being released. Cain remembered, “I thought it was an amazing tune, and I told him, ‘Man, I’m just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you’re that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it’s gonna be a hit.’”

The band’s guitarist, Neal Schon, had the same reaction. He said, “We all talked about it, and everybody said, ‘Nah, it’s the highest form of flattery. Let it go.’” To them, to even be thought of in connection to the track, or the mere fact that Prince had been considerate enough to seek their blessing for it, was a beautiful display of honesty and kindness.

They were all for the song, and in the end, it was a benefit to them, too, as Cain told Billboard, “He got me these amazing seats at the Purple Rain [Tour] show when he played the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and I thought it was ridiculous how cool it was.”

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