Throughout "On Time: A Princely Life in Funk," Prince appears via a dialogue in Morris Day's head — in italics. Here's an excerpt:

Prince ain't gonna like what I'm about to write.

Try me.

You felt threatened by how good the Time became.

If I was threatened, y would I have u open 4 me?

The Time was definitely your creation, but until you heard us live night after night, you didn't realize how good we were. You'd created a monster that suddenly had a chance of being bigger than you.

Not buying it. Makes no sense. 'Cause if that were the case, I'd never have put u & the Time in the movies.

You keep jumping ahead. We'll get to that later.

Deal with it now. U don't wanna deal with it 'cause it blows up your case.

Hey, man, it only strengthens my case. Right now I ain't making no case. Just making an observation. Just trying to keep this story moving.

From "On Time: A Princely Life in Funk" by Morris Day with David Ritz (Da Capo Press). Copyright © 2019 Morris Day. Used with permission.