The fresh Prince: What's influenced his shift to a more engaging public persona?

He hosted a dance for the National Association of Black Journalists at Paisley Park, staged a three-day bash there to celebrate the release of his new album and last week played a three-hour show at the suburban complex for the Minnesota Lynx hours after they won the WNBA championship.

He walks through fans at Paisley without a bodyguard. He invites journalists to talk and listen to his new music and solicits their opinions. He even lets fans tour his private workplace.

Meet the re-freshed Prince of Chanhassen.

Gone is the intensely aloof, mysterious and don't-come-near-me rock star of old. He's the mature Prince. He acts his age, like the 57-year-old adult he is, not like a petulant, privacy-craving celeb. He champions the works of collaborators, treating them like equals, not puppets or playthings.

If you encounter him on or off stage at Paisley these days, Prince seems happier and friendlier. There's less attitude and swagger. The sunglasses have become less commonplace.

"He's definitely more mellow," observed Heidi Vader, an avid fan since 1980 and a regular at Prince's late-night Paisley parties. "But he still plays like crazy."

The musicians he plays with — chiefly the female backup band 3rdEyeGirl — seem to be a key to the change in attitude.

His new outlook was apparent in May 2013 in Denver, when I interviewed 3rdEyeGirl and Prince shortly before their official Twin Cities debut at Myth nightclub in Maplewood.

Prince talked about how it was time to work with a new generation because they give him new ideas. Plus, it was clear that he felt he could pay it forward and serve as a mentor, whether for new, less experienced players, including drummer Hannah Ford Welton, then 22, or his then-manager Julia Ramadan, 24.

"He surrounds himself with young people and they give him energy and help him stay relevant," Vader said. "There's some kind of paternal thing going on 'cause he didn't have kids. He seems to approve of what everyone else is doing in the band. He's more playful and teasing. It's a joyful experience to be out there at Paisley."

As the relationship between Prince and 3rdEyeGirl grew, the circle expanded to include 3rdEyeGirl guitarist Donna Grantis' husband, Trevor Guy, a former Toronto label executive who now handles business chores for Prince's NPG Records, and Welton's husband, Joshua Welton, who sometimes plays keyboards onstage with Prince and coproduced Prince's September release, "HitNRun Phase One."

In fact, that album almost seemed more about Welton, who is credited with producing, arranging, composing and performing the project with Prince. And it's obvious from the EDM-leaning sounds what Welton brought to the party.

"HitNRun," which was launched as an exclusive on the Tidal streaming site, is now available on CD and vinyl. It sold 6,000 copies in its first week, ranking No. 8 on Billboard's R&B album chart. Prince's previous four albums — including 2014's "Art Official Age" and 2006's "3121" — all reached No. 1 on that list. But he seems nonplused about the sales. He seems more excited that Judith Hill's "Back in Time," for which he served as co-producer, will be released Friday on his NPG Records.

In fact, last Thursday night, less than 24 hours after saluting the Lynx with three hours of music, he celebrated Hill's appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" by throwing a last-minute $50-a-person party at Paisley, where he conducted a 100-minute band rehearsal in front of an audience of 35, including Vader.

It was a rare peek behind the Purple curtain. Prince and his bandmates ran through songs and worked out arrangements. At one point, he even went over to guitarist Grantis and showed her how to play a specific part on her instrument.

Prince remains a performer nonpareil — even when he's just jamming at Paisley. He holds himself to a high standard and demands the same of his bandmates. But he seems like a kinder, gentler bandleader — as long as his musicians are available 24/7 because he may summon them at any moment.

Plugged in to the community

There was a different Prince, a more calculated one, who met with about 10 folks attending the National Association of Black Journalists convention here in August. He invited them into a Paisley Park conference room to talk and hear his views on the state of the music business. (He hasn't changed his tune about how major labels and radio stations aren't fair to artists, but his protest was less strident.)

Always something of a reclusive workaholic, Prince seems more plugged into the community, whether local or national. He was at the Lynx's decisive playoff game and attended Minneapolis concerts by faves new (Lianne La Havas) and old (Jeffrey Osborne). In May, he released the topical single "Baltimore," about Freddie Gray dying in the custody of Baltimore police, and then performed a Rally 4 Peace concert in that Maryland city. While in the area, Prince also managed to squeeze in a very private performance at the White House, about which neither President Obama's staff nor Prince's people has ever uttered a thing.

Prince, who presented the album of the year in 2015 to Beck at the Grammy Awards, isn't above playing the superstar card even though he hasn't had a hit single since the long-forgotten "I Hate U" in 1995.

He invited his old pal Madonna to Paisley Park after her Xcel Energy Center concert on Oct. 8. At her show, she talked about how she used to come to Minneapolis in the 1980s to work with Prince (only one collaboration, "Love Song" on her "Like a Prayer" album was released) and then dedicated the classic French song "La Vie en Rose" to him.

Madonna and her entourage of 20 dancers eventually made it to Chanhassen, where Prince and his band turned it out. But Madge and her minions had to leave after five or six songs to head to their next tour stop. That didn't deter Prince. He and his band played on into the night for a handful of hard-core fans with an unmistakable joie de vivre.

Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719