Anderson Cooper, the star primetime anchor for CNN, is no stranger to rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest showbiz stars in the world.
On Tuesday, he recalled how he met Prince — and how he later had to blow off The Prince of Funk.
Cooper, in an appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show, said he had long wanted to see Prince play a small gathering after the legendary rocker had issued the journalist an open invitation to any of the parties he used to throw.
“Prince I met in a really weird way in Los Angeles,” Anderson told Stern on his SiriusXM show, a clip of which you can watch above.
“He came over to talk to me. He sat down next to me. It was at a dinner, and he sat down next to me, and he goes, ‘Uh, I moved to L.A. to be around people who are in it—and you’re in it,’” Anderson recalled. “I was so nervous. I was like, ‘Yeah, I know totally what you mean,’ … And then I could not stop talking. Every little piece of knowledge I knew about Prince just started pouring out of my mouth.”
Anderson said he told Prince he had recently watched a documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses and the fact they could be thanked for “innovations in bloodless surgeries.”
Prince, of course, was wholly familiar with the history Anderson was imparting.
Anderson said after the dinner party, Prince’s reps would reach out occasionally for follow-up invites.
“I felt like such a nerd saying, ‘I actually have a show at night. I can’t miss it for a party.’ And then finally … I went and it was incredible,” Anderson said, explaining how he finally got the chance in 2008 at New York City’s Gansevoort Hotel.
“One of his people came over to me and said, ‘Prince would like you to stay afterward because he’d like to talk to you about the financial crisis … and I know nothing about the financial crisis,” Anderson recalled. “I was like ‘Uh, OK. Yeah, sure.’”
But a few songs turned into a full set, and a full set turned into an extended show.
“He kept playing and playing,” Cooper said. “I finally went to one of his people and was like, ‘I have to work at like 6 a.m. tomorrow. I can’t stay to talk about the financial crisis.’”