The Purple Rain Tour was the Eras Tour of the 80s, the hottest concert ticket in the world. Between 1984 and 1985, Prince played sold-out shows for 1.7 million people in 34 cities across North America. Then just 26 years old, the Purple One had not only a Top 10 album with Purple Rain but also one of 1984’s highest-grossing films—his semi-autobiographical musical of the same name, which would win him an Academy Award for best original song score.
It came as a surprise to some, in a year dominated by mainstream blockbusters such as Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, that a musical about a defiantly androgynous, hypersexual young Black man who dressed like an 18th-century nobleman—with his kohl-rimmed eyes, tight patterned suits, and ruffly shirts—could achieve such resounding success. Studio executives at Warner Bros., doubtful of its chances, had asked if Prince would agree to being replaced by John Travolta in the lead role, but Prince rejected that idea.
