As the world mourns the loss of Prince, who died Thursday at age 57, Carlos Boozer can tell a story about the pop music icon that’s unlike any other.
The two-time NBA All-Star once rented a Beverly Hills house to Prince, according to an ESPN.com article published in 2011, when Boozer was a member of the Chicago Bulls. And Prince apparently did some crazy redecorating, which makes sense given the musician’s trademark flamboyance.
“Supposedly, Prince changed the front gate to the Prince sign, he changed the master bedroom to a hair salon, he changed the streaming blue waters that led to the front door to purple water, he knocked out walls, he changed the molding on top of the ceiling,” Boozer’s former Duke teammate, Jay Williams, said during a March 2011 radio interview, according to ESPN.com. “Booz was livid. So pissed off, so angry.
“He put his Purple Rain stamp on it … Booz was like, ‘I was getting ready to go over there and beat this little man down,’ ” Williams added. “And dude was just like ‘Here, Boozer, here is a little check for about a million, it’ll take care of everything, get it back the way you want it.’ And Booz was like, ‘This little man is cool as hell.’ ”
Multiple media outlets reported in 2011 that Prince paid $70,000 per month for Boozer’s 10-bedroom, 11-bath home. Those reports also said that Boozer filed a suit against Prince/MPG Music for violating the terms of the eight-month lease, but the sides eventually buried the hatchet. According to Boozer, Prince was very accommodating on his way out the door.
“He made it purple,” Boozer said in 2011, according to the Chicago Tribune. “He wanted to put his personal touch on it because he wanted to make it feel like home. I was kind of worried about that when I saw the house. But Prince was great. I had a conversation with him. He changed everything back the way it was before he moved out.
“He did some very specific things that were built for him and his lifestyle, which is very different than mine.”
It appears Boozer never has gone into much detail on the record, as there reportedly was an agreement for him not to elaborate on the specifics of Prince’s time renting his home. The ex-NBA power forward/center had good things to say about Prince back in 2011, though. And his words still resonate today even in the wake of Prince’s shocking death.
“He knows how to live,” Boozer said, per the Chicago Tribune. “I’ll put it that way.”
Thumbnail photo via Ed Szczepanski/USA TODAY Sports Images
