Kate Bush Discusses Stage Fright And Friendship With Prince In First Interview In Years

David M. Benett/Getty

Kate Bush Discusses Stage Fright And Friendship With Prince In First Interview In Years

David M. Benett/Getty

Eccentric pop goddess Kate Bush recently sat down for her first interview in five years to discuss Before The Dawn, her upcoming triple-CD live album recorded at her 22-date 2014 residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo — her first live shows in 35 years. The full hour-long interview aired on BBC Radio 6 today — you can find the whole thing here — and in it, she discusses her return to live performance, her friendship with Prince, and more. She says she dealt with a lot of stage fright at the 2014 shows:

I was really nervous every night. The most difficult thing was to be continually in the now. Because I naturally tend to race ahead in my mind. I’m always thinking about situations and running them through. Maybe it’s that primeval thing, where you’re trying to think, ‘Can I get to that tree before the tiger gets me? Will I be able to get up high enough?’ So my head is always moving ahead to try to get to the conclusion of whatever this journey is. And once we started running the show, I had to be absolutely in that moment. And I was so terrified that if my mind wandered off, that when I came back, I wouldn’t remember where I was in the song.

And this is what she has to say about Prince:

He was adorable. He was really playful and really sweet. What a talented man, what an artist. I think it’s a terrible loss that he should go at such a young age, its incredibly sad. He was so prolific. He used to make me laugh because whilst I was working on an album, he would have done two world tours, a couple of albums, a film…

She also says that although the shows were filmed, there is no plan to release the footage, and she hasn’t been writing new material recently. The live version of “And Dream Of Sheep” is available on iTunes now.

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