Prince's greatest talent? Self-confidence, says the manager who landed 'Purple Rain'

Bob Cavallo was starting to panic.

Three weeks behind schedule, the movie producer had only one week to shoot all of the concert scenes for "Purple Rain." If he didn't meet the deadline, his insurance company would bring in a new producer and director to finish the movie.

The first-time producer was working with a first-time director and, of course, a first-time star. Needless to say, he was beyond anxious.

Cavallo arranged for no fewer than five cameras to shoot the performances by Prince and the Revolution, the Time and Vanity 6.

"You know how perfect Prince was," he recalled. "If there was a spot he had to land on with a body spin, it was exactly the same every time."

The deadline was met. An international superstar was born.

Cavallo, leader of a three-man team that managed Prince from 1979 to '89, has countless tales about the Minnesota icon who died three years ago this Sunday. He'll discuss "Purple Rain" on a panel next weekend as part of the third annual Celebration at Prince's Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen. (Read about other highlights of the week here.)

Cavallo retired in 2011. But he isn't reticent as he approaches his 80th birthday in May. In a rare interview, he had a lot to say about Prince's flaws as well as his talents.

When Prince started touring in 1979 after the release of his second album, he became enamored of Earth, Wind & Fire's live show with its magical special effects. He asked to meet the group's manager.

Enter L.A.-based Cavallo, who also had worked with Weather Report, Little Feat, Lovin' Spoonful and others.

He encountered Prince at an uncommon moment of insecurity. "Prince said, 'When I saw that [Earth, Wind & Fire] show, I didn't think I could do something that great.' I said, 'I'm sure you can.' "

He went to see Prince in concert. The wannabe rock star was performing in a trench coat, leg warmers and a G-string. Cavallo gave Prince a favorable post-show review backstage but opined: "I don't think you should go out onstage in your underwear."

Cavallo remained based in California, but Prince would occasionally invite him to the Twin Cities to hear some music. "He was respectful to me," the manager said.

At the same time, Prince had his own ideas. In 1982, he wanted to do a double record. The managers were against it. Of course Prince prevailed, but not before Cavallo sent him back to work to come up with a potential first single. It became the title track: "1999."

Prince wanted to offer one song that wound up on the album to another artist to record. Cavallo countered: "Are you crazy? What songwriter would write a first line like 'The way you parked your car sideways, I knew it wouldn't last'? Who writes something that good?"

"Little Red Corvette" became Prince's first Top 10 hit.

After the release of "1999," Prince's contract with the L.A.-based firm of Cavallo, Ruffalo & Fargnoli was due to expire. CRF offered a new five-year deal but he wouldn't sign it unless they got him a movie.

Cavallo enlisted the writer of "Brian's Song," a successful 1971 TV movie. That initial version of the screenplay "was 'Purple Rain' but very TV and not very cool. Every director in town turned me down."

So did possible financiers including David Geffen. Cavallo got a bite from Richard Pryor's film company, which was run by Jim Brown, the football great turned actor. But Brown wanted to wait until Prince went on tour again and "got more famous." Said Cavallo: "Prince is not a guy who waits."

"I wasn't sure how his dialogue — his acting — was going to go. But I had a perhaps naive belief that the kid could do anything. I watched him rehearse for years. No one had the attention to detail he had. I thought, 'He'll figure a way to do it.'

"Of all the talents he had — and they were huge — the one that blew me away the most was his confidence."

The 1984 film wound up grossing $70 million. "On a $2 ticket or whatever it was," he boasted. "That's the equivalent of $250 million today."

Cavallo tried to reassure him: "You're nervous. I've done a million of these. … Four days before you leave, everything looks like it can't possibly come together. But that's the way it is. I know we're on time."

Prince had a three-picture deal. For the second movie, Cavallo wanted to make a "Purple Rain" sequel with Morris Day and the Time. He said the superstar felt "insulted" and got "angry with me."

Prince had his own ideas for what became "Under the Cherry Moon," and they didn't include music. Madonna was interested in the part Kristin Scott Thomas wound up playing, but Cavallo thought the black-and-white film's story line — with Prince playing a 1930s-era gigolo — was "reactionary" and didn't think the star should die at the end.

Prince told him: "That's a nice story for somebody else. I'm gonna make my movie."

In retrospect, Cavallo sees the 1986 film as a turning point in his relationship with Prince. "He started to not believe in anyone but himself."

"When you said 'Write a hit,' he wrote a hit. This time it was 'Kiss.' "

The 1988 album "Lovesexy" — a commercial disappointment — was Prince's last with Cavallo. On that tour, the singer made his entrance in a Ford Thunderbird, but when he looked at a video playback during rehearsals, he decided the car made him look too small.

"So I was told to get a three-quarters version of the car. Only Prince could do that," Cavallo said.

"He totally, totally did not care a whit about budgets, money, etc. Before we finally parted ways, he was spending, I'd say, over $100,000 a week making videos at Paisley Park that meant nothing. [For] girls he met. He'd fly cameramen in. He was unstoppable."

Prince canceled a concert at London's Wembley Stadium simply because rain was forecast and scrapped the rest of his European tour.

At a meeting with Prince and their respective lawyers, Cavallo said he told the star he had to be more realistic. Then Prince gave him a handwritten, 20-page treatment for a movie. "Get me the money to make this," he commanded.

Cavallo read it and proposed getting a hip young writer.

Prince responded: "I don't want any writers. This is the screenplay. The movie's in my head. I can do it."

Cavallo said he told Prince: "Goodbye and good luck." Prince got Rod Stewart's managers to help him make "Graffiti Bridge," which wound up earning less than half of the underwhelming $10 million that "Cherry Moon" had grossed.

"When I was at Disney, he'd call me," Cavallo said. "He paid me a hundred grand for a couple of years just to answer questions whenever he had questions. He didn't recognize he wasn't writing stuff that was as immediate as he had done in the past."

"He was a control freak. Vanity? We can't bust him with that. He once said to me just after 'Purple Rain': 'How do you rank me?' I said, 'Oh, top 10 for sure. Some days top five, depending on my mood.' He laughed."

Cavallo was shocked to learn of the opioid addiction that led to Prince's death: "I never thought he'd be somebody to take a drug.

"He obviously didn't understand how dangerous his condition was. It still shocks me. He was such a self-reliant guy, maybe to his detriment."

Cavallo wishes now that he had given Prince more philosophical guidance about life.