Watch Prince’s first ever television interview from 1985

On what would have been his 59th birthday.

Prince was six albums deep into his extraordinary career before he gave his first television interview, questioned at his own request by manager Steve Fargnoli for MTV.

Across almost 15 minutes of questioning, Prince remembers how he was influenced by James Brown after dancing on stage with him aged just 10 years old, touches on comparisons to musicians like Jimi Hendrix and answers provocative questions about “selling out to a white audience” with Purple Rain.

“I strive for originality in my music”, he says with idiosyncratic charm. That was, and will always be the case.

Watch the interview in full above.