Alicia Keys opened up about getting Prince's permision to cover “How Come You Don't Call Me” for her debut album Songs In A Minor, which turned 20 last week. In a radio interview, Keys said that she actually had to fly to Minnesota to convince Prince to let her use the song.
Alicia said, “He takes me to Paisley Park. And this place is like a dream. And he’s walking me through Paisley Park, 18 years old. He has like 900 pianos. ‘This is the piano from Purple Rain. This is the piano when I wrote ‘When Doves Cry.’ This is the room that we sit on the floor with the purple things and we write songs.’ I could not believe it.”
She continued, “Then he says, ‘This is the stage. We want you to perform a little set for my closest people.’ He would invite them to Paisley Park whatever he did. He had his own universe going. And he was like, ‘One thing. You can’t curse.’ And I was like, ‘Well, he must not know me, because I curse.'”
Prince ended up giving Alicia his blessing for the song.