Damon Albarn has had a pretty outstanding influence on modern music – from Blur to the Gorillaz, he’s captured the hearts of music fans universally.

Whilst chatting with Radio X’s Gordon Smart recently to promote the recently announced upcoming Gorillaz album The Now Now, Albarn revealed he was once offered up the opportunity to work with none other than Prince. Although it would’ve resulted in what we could only imagine to be an incredible collaboration, the former Blur frontman turned down the offer because of Prince’s strict working conditions.

Albarn revealed that Prince wouldn’t allow him to smoke in the studio, describing it as a “could have been” moment.

“I was having a drink and a fag. I don’t actually smoke anymore, knocked that one on the head, but if you can’t be who you are… If I’ve invited someone to my studio, they’re my guest, and there aren’t any conditions like that,”

“It’s like, I can have a cigarette outside if I needed it. I’d be fucking excited, right? Why the fuck would I not want to fucking go mad if I’m with Prince? I’d rather not do it and not get pissed off with the whole thing. It’s just one of those ‘could have been’… I’ve got a few of those.”

Watch the interview below:

The Gorillaz new album The Now Now is set for a release on June 29th. While little has been given away about what we could expect from the album, it was revealed that the band were working in the studio with Australia’s Flume.

The Now Now will be the follow up to 2017’s Humanz, released in April last year to that featured collaborations from Noel Gallagher, Grace Jones, Vince Staples and more. 

The article was originally published on Tone Deaf