Hard to believe, but when Prince visited the Springfield Civic Center on April 13, 1980, he did not top the bill.
Prince and Vaughn Mason & Crew opened for "Super Freak" Rick James that night as part of James' "Fire It Up" tour.
Prince opened for James on 42 nights during the winter-spring tour of the U.S. and the two stars did not hit it off.
In his autobiography "Glow," James claimed Prince copied his moves: "Prince was emulating my mic moves like a [expletive]. He was calling out my funk chants and even flashing my funk sign."
James slammed Prince in an interview with Rolling Stone: "I can't believe people are gullible enough to buy Prince's jive records... (Prince is a) a mentally disturbed young man. He's out to lunch. You can't take his music seriously."
Regardless of James' take, Prince went on to have an extraordinary career.
At the Springfield Civic Center, Prince performed just seven numbers, including "Soft and Wet," "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" and "Sexy Dancer." He closed his brief set with "I Wanna Be Your Lover."
Two numbers that night came from his 1978 debut album "For You" and the remainder from his multiplatinum album "Prince," which had hit stores a year before the Springfield Civic Center show.
A pre-"Purple Rain" Prince was backed by guitarist Dez Dickerson, bassist AndrA(c) Cymone, drummer Bobby Z. and keyboardists Matt Fink and Gayle Chapman.