Scott Morin will never forget the night he saw a velvet painting of music legend Prince naked and spooning a cheetah, “or a leopard or some other cat animal.”
The artwork had a caption: “Satisfied?”
“I remember seeing that as I walked out and thinking, ‘That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.’
“It was so surreal, and so typically Prince. Odd but brilliant.”
The memory still feels surreal to Morin a decade later, now that Prince is dead.
READ MORE: Timeline of Prince’s life and career
His night in the artist’s home was courtesy of his job at Universal Canada in the spring of 2006.
The record label threw a “Willy Wonka”-style contest for Prince’s 3121 album release. Whoever found a lucky purple ticket in a CD got to be flown out to his Beverly Hills home for a private Grammy party.
Knowing how much Morin idolized Prince, his boss let him accompany the two winners and rub elbows with Prince’s celebrity friends and industry insiders.
Morin stuck around as long as he could, eager to chat with Prince, who’d gone up to his room after the three-hour show.
When he finally came down the winding staircase wearing a green silk tunic, the musician had one question for Morin: “Who you?”
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Morin was the only guest left in the home. And as he nervously professed his admiration for the star, he let some profanity slip.
“Oh no, are you swearing in Prince’s house?” the reformed Jehova’s Witness asked him.
Morin tried to apologize, but Prince and his security guards apparently broke out into an improvised song about how he was digging himself into a hole.
The group laughed it off and Morin left.
“I could die right now and it wouldn’t matter,” he remembered thinking on his way back to the hotel.
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He’s been a fan of Prince since 1984, when he bought the Purple Rain cassette at the age of 10. After hearing about Prince’s death, he played the iconic song on the saxophone in his apartment that’s packed with Prince memorabilia.
“I mean, he changed everything, He is the reason I am in music. There is no hyperbole large enough to describe his influence on me as a person.”
“He’s kind of everything to me.”
READ MORE: Prince had special connection to Toronto, site of one of his final shows
His biggest regret about the star’s passing is that his wife won’t get to ever see him play live. It’s something he’s done over a dozen times, attending concerts everywhere from Montreal to New York.
It’ll be a while before he’s able to listen to his songs again, though.
“I’m just so, right now the tears haven’t come, but they will. Right now I’m just shocked.”
“I think he will always be at the very front of everyone’s mind when they think of the greatest geniuses of modern music.”
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