January 26 1980 was an unremarkable day in the small town of Jefferson, Arkansas. But it’s one Morris Hayes will remember forever. He was at home watching American Bandstand with his mother when presenter Dick Clark introduced a strange young man named Prince.

“My mom goes ‘oh my gosh – this guy is just the devil’. I found out later that he was just really nervous.”

Prince and Hayes’ paths would intersect in 1992 when pop’s purple icon hired Hayes, then a funk veteran who had toured with George Clinton, to lead his backing band, the New Power Generation. It was a task to which he would fatefully apply himself until 2012, when Prince debuted the all-female 3rdeyegirl, and which Hayes now revisits as leader of the NPG touring ensemble which performs at All Together Now.