Prince is considered to be one of the greatest musicians of our time. Honestly, even if for some reason you can’t stand him, it’s hard to argue his greatness, just look at his achievements. The artist has won seven Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe and even an Academy Award for his work on Purple Rain.

Even with his legendary work, comes controversy. Without me getting to much into it, just go to his Wikipedia page and look under ‘controversy.’ With that said, PBS asked Prince on his thoughts about Guitar Hero. Although he didn’t necessarily criticizes the rhythm game, he just doesn’t think it should be a substitute for playing an actual guitar.

“Well, I ain’t mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that. But I just think it’s more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It’s a tough instrument — it’s not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it’s cool for people who don’t have time to learn the chords or ain’t interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things. To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings, and I would — I don’t know, I wish it upon everybody. It’s heaven.”

Now, I agree with Prince about playing music. Actually, creating music, or anything else for that matter, is far better than just copying something. But one thing I don’t think he seems to understand, along with this older generation, is that Guitar Hero is NOT going to stir people away from playing a real guitar. I believe that if anything, kids are more inclined to pick up an instrument and learn how to play, and with that could lean how to become a musician. The game is more of a stepping stone rather than a replacement.

I also want to note that I find it interesting that Prince turned down an offer from Activision, to have his music featured in the game. I do have a hard time believing that he walked away from the deal because of his personal disagreements with the title. Let me remind you what he said. “I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that.” To me anyway, it sounds more like the the company didn’t offer him enough cash.

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