I. At 14 years old I thought about dying. Life was so bleak. I felt lifeless. I felt so ugly with my crooked buckteeth, huge mouth and small eyes. My studies were going badly. Mum and dad were disappointed and angry, but I could not make sense of anything. I didn’t know then that I was dyslexic. Then, bang – Prince!
As I listened and watched, I felt every cell of my body pulse with life as he straddled the drum with his legs singing “Little Red Corvette” on Solid Gold. I started to teach myself to dance in the mirror, and a smile came to my face – I was happy. From then on, I raced home from school and danced in front of the mirror everyday for two hours before mum and dad came home.
I searched for all clothes that were purple, wore my hair to one side and lived and breathed dance. I lived and breathed Prince. A boy at my school had won a ticket to the Purple Rain premiere at the Capitol Theatre, and he kindly gave his ticket to me. I dressed in a combination of Prince and Vanity. I won a dance competition at the Year Ten school dance, set to Let’s Go Crazy. I used my prize- a record store voucher- to buy the double cassette of Controversy and Dirty Mind.
II. In May 11, 2012, Prince performed at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. At the show, I threw six long stemmed roses with my phone number and “Marry Me” written on each one.
Prince picked up one of the roses and smiled.
I was wearing an electric blue and silver sequined jacket and was asked to get on stage. I threw off my jacket and danced on stage with Prince in a see-thru black leopard skin lace cat suit for the entire duration of Hot Thing. Dancing side-by-side with Prince – he looked me up and down. I was oblivious to 12,000 people watching.
The last time I saw Prince was on Feb 16, 2016 at the State Theatre in Melbourne, Australia for the Piano & a Microphone tour. I came home and cried. Although Prince’s energy was full and bright, I saw his sadness and thought it had to do with Vanity passing away a few days earlier.
I was so sad for some time after that a sort of blanket covered me.
On April 18, 2016, my sister was admitted into hospital for a heart attack.
Prince died on my birthday – April 21.
My sister died 5 days later.
Born Nadja Mott in California, Bon Mott is a performance artist based in Melbourne, Australia.
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