“Mick Jagger called Prince and asked him to come back, but he said no”: What really happened at Prince’s infamous show supporting the Stones in 1981? Guitarist Dez Dickerson sets the record straight

The former Revolution guitarist insists the shows weren't as disastrous as some say, and reveals he persuaded Prince to return to the stage

By Jenna Scaramanga
March 19, 2025


Prince performs with Dez Dickerson (right) and André Cymone (left) in 1981 (Image credit: Richard E. Aaron/Getty Images)

Dez Dickerson, guitarist with Prince and the Revolution from 1979 to 1983, has reflected on Prince’s disastrous stint opening for the Rolling Stones in 1981.

Those shows are some of the most notorious in rock history, with Prince facing such an onslaught of abuse (and bottles) that he abandoned the stage after 25 minutes.

Dickerson, however, tells Guitar World, “those shows have gotten twisted out of context.”

On the opening night at LA’s Memorial Coliseum, Prince was greeted by a barrage of fried chicken, cans, and bottles, not to mention racist and homophobic abuse.

Revolution bassist Brown Mark recalled, “Next thing I noticed was food starting to fly through the air like a dark thundercloud. Imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other; it was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken; then my bass guitar got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys.”

“It was mostly Hell’s Angels,” Dickerson remarks now. “They didn’t like Prince’s bikini underwear.”

He insists, though, that the majority of the crowd was on Prince’s side.

“I found out later that the Stones’ audience threw things back at them – that was their way of showing their love. Prince got freaked and cut the set short. The rock stations reported that we got booed off the stage, but that wasn’t true.

“Statistically,” Dickerson argues, “they say 5 percent of any audience isn’t going to like what you do.”

Prince, however, was unimpressed and insisted he would not play another show. “We went to the dressing room and found out that Prince had gone straight to the airport,” Dickerson remembers. “He went home and wasn’t coming back. Mick Jagger called Prince and asked him to come back, but he said, ‘No, I’m not doing it.’”

Jagger’s failure might have been related to his dismissive attitude. In a 1983 interview, he said dismissively, “I talked to Prince on the phone once after he got two cans thrown at him in LA. He said he didn’t want to do any more shows.”

After Prince’s management also tried unsuccessfully to coax Prince back, Dickerson tried himself.

“Finally, management came to me and said, ‘Look, Prince listens to you. Will you call him?’” says Dickerson. “I appealed to our manhood as a band and said, ‘We can’t let them run us off like this. We’ll never live it down.’ He came back and we did the second show.”

That second show was met with a similar response, and Prince never again shared a stage with the Stones.

[www.guitarworld.com]

Fried chicken an grapefruit .... thats a well-balanced diet



ROCKMAN

You can tuna bass..why didn't someone throw tuna...?

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Munichhilton
You can tuna bass..why didn't someone throw tuna...?

too many scales.

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treaclefingers

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Munichhilton
You can tuna bass..why didn't someone throw tuna...?

too many scales.

…who the hell brings grapefruits to a concert on the off chance you need to heave it at an underperforming opener…I know the Angels weren’t packing citrus fruit. The 80s were just the best

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Munichhilton

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treaclefingers

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Munichhilton
You can tuna bass..why didn't someone throw tuna...?

too many scales.

…who the hell brings grapefruits to a concert on the off chance you need to heave it at an underperforming opener…I know the Angels weren’t packing citrus fruit. The 80s were just the best

It feels very Jane Fonda

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Rockman
Fried chicken an grapefruit .... thats a well-balanced diet

That's a good one Rocky. Excellent!

A "large grapefruit".

Someone threw a pomelo.

Grapefruit, a ridiculous name for a citrus, doesn't exist in nature: it was invented in Barbados by crossbreeding a pomelo (aka shaddock) and a mandarin, two of the three original citrus (third being the citron, which is where the lemon comes from).

It remains unclear which citrus is the preferred projectile for unfulfilling opening acts...clearly the grapefruit was the leader in the clubhouse back then

pictures or it didn't happen

Fans were throwing chicken cooked in oil and pomelos .....


mmmmmmm it just dont sound right .....



ROCKMAN

I was actually at the concert, and I remember stuff getting tossed on stage, but I don't remember grapefruits or fried chicken.

What I can remember flying over our heads were cans some opened and some still full.

Regardless, I was never a big Prince fan but I was glad I got to see him early in his career. Like it or not, he had some hits and sold tons of albums.

I actually bought a Purple Rain album when it came out that has a black light poster inside which is really hard to find.

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Munichhilton
It remains unclear which citrus is the preferred projectile for unfulfilling opening acts...clearly the grapefruit was the leader in the clubhouse back then

pictures or it didn't happen

No.

"Large" grapefruit.

There's no such thing except for the ignorant about fruit.

It was a pomelo.

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GasLightStreet

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Munichhilton
It remains unclear which citrus is the preferred projectile for unfulfilling opening acts...clearly the grapefruit was the leader in the clubhouse back then

pictures or it didn't happen

No.

"Large" grapefruit.

There's no such thing except for the ignorant about fruit.

It was a pomelo.

It sounds like you are examining Brown Mark's ability to identify flying fruit. While I'll step away from that debate I will compliment the industriousness of the fan who brought the large citrus to the show...unless he was aiming for Prince