"Doctor!" - Interview with Matt Fink

"He was constantly struggling with what was right and wrong, what was moral or immoral."

Photo courtesy of facebook.com/matt.fink.969

A lot has been written about the cultural makeup of Prince's bands over the years, with journalists often highlighting the Jewish members of the Revolution, Matt "Doctor" Fink and Bobby Z. Rivkin. While those conversations were mostly centered on Prince's approach to image and sound, I've always wondered how the musicians engaged Prince's Christian ideology.

Fink spoke briefly on this at the Prince Lovesexy Symposium last year. I decided to follow up with a phone interview for my book.

"Jews have always been a minority everywhere they go or live," Fink said. "Because we had a lot of Christian friends living in the neighborhood, [my parents] wanted to give the whole Christmas tradition to my brother and I. So when we were growing up, we would celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at the same time."

But as a child attending synagogue, Fink wasn't taught the concept of Jesus as the Savior of mankind. And he wouldn't have learned that in school. So being exposed to Prince's beliefs was a new experience.

"He, from day one, was very Christian-oriented," Fink said. "He wanted us to do prayer circles before every show, and each prayer was in Jesus's name. ... That felt uncomfortable to me. I didn't know what to think about it."

Prior to becoming a Jehovah's Witness, Prince didn't make a habit of speaking to a lot of people in his inner-circle about religion. "He didn't really talk about his belief system," Fink said. "He just acted on it and just sent that message out there, so all I can do is observe it and try to draw some opinions on it."

Fink shared his thoughts on topics like Prince's conversations with God onstage on the Purple Rain tour and on songs like "Temptation" on the 1985 Around the World in a Day album. He also talked about Prince's spiritual concept albums, 1988's Lovesexy, and 2001's The Rainbow Children.

Prince supported both projects by touring and preaching from the stage. Fink was present for the Lovesexy tour.

"He was talking to the audience for a pretty good amount of time [for] an arena show," he said. "It was pretty controversial in a lot of ways."

Following Lovesexy, Prince made the highly spiritual Graffiti Bridge movie, which flopped. "I don't like being critical of Prince," Fink said. "This is the only time I've ever been critical--when he did that film."

After leaving Prince's employ in 1990, Fink saw the superstar on a few more occasions. The last time was in 2014.

"He was considering a reunion with the Revolution," Fink said. "He was also disappointed with Prince tribute bands that were out there."

Prince's bodyguard Harlan Austin told me, "If you really want to know about Prince, who he is, listen to his music." I can write all day about my interpretations of Prince's art (and I do), but it's also important to collect the perspectives of those who knew him and created the art with him. So I am grateful to have spoken with Fink, who was part of Prince's career during the 1980s, when his pre-Jehovah's Witness Christian messaging was at its height.

And it's always interesting to get into Biblical discussion with folks who are open to it (regardless of their beliefs). So it was cool to touch on that with Fink, who talked about how Prince may have referenced Biblical prophecy in his work.

"For all we know, maybe we'll see Bible prophecy come true," Fink said.


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