Credit: Shankbone

André 3000 reunited with Big Boi in 2014 to bring back Outkast in the form of a reunion tour. However, not all of their shows quite went to plan, with the legendary Prince feeling the need to step in and give some advice.

During an interview with GQ, 3000 recalled having a “horrible” experience headlining Coachella in 2014 due to technological issues in his ears. Not only that, but he also had the pressure of a Beatle and The Purple One watching on from either side of him.

“I ain’t been on stage in damn near 15, 20 years! So it was odd for me,” he said. “And right before the show, you see Paul McCartney walk and go to the left side of the stage. And then Prince walks to the right side of the stage. I’m like, ‘Ahhh! What the fuck, man?!’”

He added, “You know, there’s new technology like ear buds and shit. I’d never used ear buds in my life! We were always just in front of the monitors or listening to the speakers, so if you were watching the Coachella show, I got people in my ear talking and shit. It’s like ‘What the hell is going on?!’”

3000 continued to perform but mentally gave up in the middle of the show. “Halfway through the show, I was already checked out, so I was just trying to get through it,” he said. “Yeah, the show happens and it was a bomb night. It was horrible — in my eyes.”

The following day, he received a call from an unknown number, which just so happened to be Prince on the other end of the phone. It was an important moment for 3000, receiving the motivation he needed to keep going.

“The very next morning I get a call from Prince,” he said. “I don’t know him like that, I don’t know how he got my number — I do not know. And the first thing he says is, ‘You know what your problem is? You don’t realise how big y’all are.’“Then he was like, ‘You gotta remind people who you are.’ And from that point on, I was like, ‘OK.’”

The advice would have been welcoming for 3000, given the fact that Prince in responsible for one of his favourite albums of all time. Speaking to The Guardian, Three Stacks once revealed that Prince’s Sign o’ the Times, released in 1987, is up there with what he considers the best projects ever recorded.

“An older cousin was my role model as a teenager,” he said. “He was always dressed in fresh, preppy clothes, he had a cool way of talking, and he turned me on to Prince. I would go round to his house and he would play me ‘Kiss’ and ‘Dirty Mind’ and tell me what the words meant, and I knew that he had it going on.”

He continued, “Then he played me Sign o’ the Times, and the way it was all over the place reminded me of Funkadelic. It’s one of the best albums ever made, and my cousin was on it from the beginning.”