Nile Rodgers has revealed Chic’s forthcoming album will no longer feature a Prince-inspired track after it left him feeling uncomfortable.
The Chic co-founder has opened up about the real reason why the song will be a part of Chic’s album It’s About Time.
The album which will be the band’s first release since 1992’s Chic-ism, was due to include a track entitled Prince Said It but following the death of the singer, the Grammy-winning composer shared that it didn’t feel right.
“The last two times I saw Prince was playing on stage with him and then him coming to my show,” he confessed to Pitchfork ahead of Chic’s Glastonbury set this weekend (25-26Jun17).”So the album was talking about that. As a matter of fact, there is a song on the album that the working title is Prince Said It, and it was about my conversations with Prince. But after he passed away, it felt wrong. It felt uncomfortable.
“From the time that I started to work on this album, a lot of heavy things have happened,” the Le Freak composer added. “I mean, David Bowie died. Prince died. People who were really, really close to me passed away, and that wasn’t supposed to be part of the narrative.” Rodgers also revealed the tracks on the new album were upbeat.
“We write happy songs and it’s nice to tell people that we’re happy, even if there’s double entendre going on to reflect the times that we’re living in,” he smiled. “So on the surface, it’s joyous. Underneath, when you listen to the lyrics, you may go, ‘Oh, that’s what they’re really saying.'”
In December 2016, Rodgers revealed he wanted to release the new Chic album in 2017 because it marked the band’s 40th anniversary. He also admitted he didn’t want the album to arrive in the year that Bowie and Prince died.
