Bruno Mars and band The Time ripped up the stage to pay tribute to late music icon Prince at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. Morris Day gave the singer credit for rocking with the band and it took months of planning.
According to Los Angeles Times, Mars and The Time collaborated on a high-energy reprise of "Purple Rain." Day mentioned that he did not think that there was another artist who could have rocked it off as impressive as Mars did.
Day and the band applauded Mars' performance. He added that if the "Versace on the Floor" singer would ask them to go on tour, they will automatically consider it. Day cracked jokingly that the bid should have the right amount of money.
Star Tribune reported that the tribute took months of planning. The team was carefully organized on how to salute Prince on the biggest event. The tribute was a three-minute medley with The Time and followed with Mars and his band. It took three rehearsals and a four-hour session on Thursday night just to make the tribute perfect.
Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich told that Mars settled on a funky electric guitar to perform a rendition of "Let's Go Crazy" from Prince's movie "Purple Rain." Before the electric guitar screen, Prince's voice was taking the intro on fire and his symbol was flashed on the screen.
The host James Corden mentioned that the audience lifted and imagined a purple sky over First Avenue, which the movie "Purple Rain" musical scenes were shot. The Time fluffed up through "Jungle Love" and "The Bird." The audience was dancing, similar to the steps that Day was moving onstage.
Prince was the multi-instrumentalist who has sold over 100 million records worldwide. He was the best-selling artists of all time and won seven Grammy Awards. He died on April 21.