Prince's sax player, an NCCU grad, recalls friend, mentor
DURHAM (WTVD) -- New Power Generation was Prince's backup band, and the man on the saxophone is a North Carolina Central University graduate.
Marcus Anderson started working for Prince several years ago. He calls the legendary artist a mentor and a friend.
Anderson said Prince was cool and kind from the moment they met at his Paisley Park estate in 2012.
"He was very polite, very courteous, very generous, asked if we needed anything very hospitable," Anderson said. "He was a great, great human being when we met him. No egos. The amount of stuff that he'd done, there was no ego. He showed us so much respect."
Anderson said Prince was mysterious but loving to those in his circle.
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"He was very involved in our lives, he knew what was going on," Anderson said. "It wasn't like it was Prince and it was us.
Watch Marcus Anderson address rumors of a drug overdose in Prince's death:
Anderson described touring with Prince like being in grad school, business classes and etiquette school all at once. And says he taught him how to be an amazing musician performing on stage like he did with NPG and even at Prince's final show, in Atlanta just one week ago.
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"It's hard for me to be sad all the way because I've cried about it, I probably will cry about it again. I just have too many great memories to where I don't remember the negative of him passing," Anderson said. "I remember the positives of him being here because there was just so much goodness around him."
And if he could say just one more thing to the man that left this world so suddenly?
"Thank you. Thank you. I was always grateful," Anderson replied. "Any moment I had. I always told him thank you, it's been a pleasure being here. I've always learned so much from you."
