Damon Albarn turned down a Prince collaboration because he couldn’t smoke in the studio

Damon Albarn recently revealed in an interview that he once turned down the opportunity to collaborate with Prince because he wouldn’t be allowed smoke in the studio.

In conversation with Gordon Smart of Radio X, the Gorillaz/Blur frontman said that he had been invited to visit Prince’s studio Paisley Park for a recording session but had turn down the offer as Prince did not allow smoking in the space.

“I was having a drink and a fag,” he said in the interview. “I don’t actually smoke anymore, knocked that one on the head—but if you can’t be who you... If I’ve invited someone to my studio, they’re my guest, and there aren’t any conditions like that.”

“Anyway, it’s like, I can have a cigarette outside if I needed it—I’d be fucking excited, right?” he added. “Why the fuck would I not want to fucking go mad if I’m with Prince? I’d rather not do it and not get pissed off with the whole thing. It’s just one of those ‘could have been’... I’ve got a few of those.”

Oh well. Anyway, Gorillaz this week announced that they would be releasing their sixth album ‘The Now Now’ on 29th June and just yesterday unveiled two new tracks from the album.