Prince hired, fired '80s R&B star Alexander O'Neal

In 1981, music icon Prince hired Mississippi native Alexander O'Neal to be the lead singer of The Time.

Then, before the band could play a show or record a note, Prince fired him.

O'Neal, born and raised in Natchez, believes it was because he asked too many questions about the band's finances.

Still, because of Prince and O'Neal's former band mates in The Time, O'Neal went on to record some of the best, most lush R&B dance albums of the 1980s.

O'Neal, 62, learned of Prince's death last week from the TV news while at his home in London.

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"My first reaction was, 'What?' I was devastated. It floored me. But when it sunk in, I wished him a good journey. His work must have been done at age 57. It was his time," O'Neal told The Clarion-Ledger this week.

Even though Prince fired O'Neal as the lead singer of The Time, O'Neal said he never harbored any ill feelings.

"He is responsible for my career and a lot of the careers of folks that were in Minneapolis at the time," O'Neal said.

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Way before O'Neal was singing in Minnesota, girls in Mississippi were giving him dimes when he was 9 to sing songs.

O'Neal said he refused to sing in the choir as a child because of shyness.

O'Neal really wanted to be become a pro football player. A linebacker, O'Neal played football at North Natchez High School and then went to Alcorn State University from 1972 to 1973.

His football dreams died after he dropped out.

"Academics were not my thing. I didn't really know how to study," O'Neal said. Following a short stint at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, O'Neal moved to Chicago, where he worked at a factory. Later, O' Neal moved to Minneapolis to be near a cousin.

That's when O'Neal, then about 24, started singing in local cover bands such as The Black Market Band and The Mystics.

O'Neal met Prince for the first time when Prince was still in a band called Champagne, later to become Grand Central. Before long, Prince got a record deal and became a solo star with the song "I Wanna Be Your Lover" in 1979.

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Just before 1980, O'Neal became the lead singer in Minneapolis band Flyte Tyme, which featured Jimmy Jam on keyboards, Terry Lewis on bass, Monte Moir on keyboards, Jellybean Johnson on drums and Jesse Johnson on guitar.

Prince, now famous and signed to Warner Brothers Records, told childhood friend and former Grand Central bandmate Morris Day that he could get a new band with Day a record deal. Day and Prince decided the band would be Flyte Tyme and they would kick out Jellybean Johnson and Day could play drums.

That changed after a fateful dinner with O'Neal, the new band's singer.

Jam told Blues and Soul magazine in 1992 that Prince got angry with O'Neal when he started asking questions about money.

"Alex wanted a bunch of money and a new car and new clothes. He was outrageous, and we're all sitting there telling him to shut up," Jam told the magazine.

So Prince kicked out O'Neal and made Day the singer. The rest is history.

"It was hard to be back home in Minneapolis and watch all these guys, your friends and bandmates, on national television becoming so famous," O'Neal said.

But O'Neal's career took off a few years later after Prince fired Jam and Lewis from The Time because the duo missed a concert. They missed The Time show because they were in Atlanta producing the S.O.S. Band.

Now successful songwriters and producers in their own right, Jam and Lewis wanted to work with O'Neal again.

"The thing about Alex is that he can do both uptempo and ballad songs really well. A lot of singers can't do both. Another thing about Alex which is so cool is that he has this voice that sounds like he's been through a lot," Jam told Blues and Soul.

For about 10 years beginning in 1985, Jam and Lewis wrote and produced a group of solo records by O'Neal that yielded R&B hits such as "What's Missing," If You Were Here Tonight," "Fake," Criticize" and "Never Knew Love Like This" with singer Cherrelle.

"We knew Alex from way back, and he was there struggling with us in Flyte Tyme. We knew he'd been promised a lot in his life and when things didn't work out, when The Time thing didn't happen for him, we told him that if we ever had the opportunity to get him a deal, we would," Jam told Blues and Soul.

Today, O'Neal still records and performs all over the world and spends a lot of time in England, where his brand of smooth and silky dance music still has an audience.

He also still visits Mississippi every year.

"My mother is there and three sisters. I love Mississippi.  When I go, it's hard to get me to leave. I will never forget my Southern roots," O'Neal said.

Still, he doesn't perform live in the American South much anymore.

"My music is a little too uptown for folks in the South these days. Doesn't have that gut bucket soul sound. My music never got the respect there like other places. In England, people still go out to see live music. When people in America get older, they stop going out. They opt for a six pack and remote control instead. But here (In England), my audience still wants to see me," O'Neal said.

Contact Steven Ward at 601-961-7075 or sward2@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter.