http://blogs.suntimes.com/ourtown/2009/03/
Know him from: He's Prince!!!!!!! I'll say this though, Little Red Corvette, Kiss, I Wanna Be Your Lover, 1999, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Purple Rain (song, album, and Academy Award-winning movie!), I Feel for You, Cinnamon Girl, etc etc. 7 Grammy awards
Why he's vegan: The facts are just slightly cloudy here, but I'll give it a go. Prince was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist, a Protestant Christian denomination. However, it is particularly common for Adventists to be vegetarian because they believe it glorifies God to preserve the integrity of the body, and a vegetarian diet is thought to be the most healthful. Alcohol and caffeine, while not prohibited, are not advised either. Now, to the best of my knowledge, Prince was not actually raised to be a strict vegetarian, but, given his upbringing, it probably would not have been much of a leap. Reportedly though, Prince has been vegetarian since about 1987. In an article in Vegetarian Times published in 1997, Prince described he and his wife Mayte as "complete vegans," noting that they were so for both spiritual and health reasons. Prince also served the crew of the magazine Esquire a 4 course vegan meal at his Minneapolis estate back in 2010.
The often outrageous performer is notably very private when he is not on stage, especially in recent years, but there are murmurs about his vegetarianism all over the web. PETA notes that the performer won't "eat anything with parents," because he takes the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" very seriously. Coincidentally, PETA fans think that that stance is pretty awesome and voted Prince Sexiest Vegetarian Alive in 2006. It seems that His Royal Purpleness does not wear leather or wool either. In 1999, he actually published notes on the cruelty of wool production in the liner notes of album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. Check out those notes here. The absence of animal-based clothing has certainly not slowed Prince down style-wise. Just Google him. Seriously.
Why he's awesome: Instead of just writing "He's Prince!!!!!" again, I will actually form longer sentences, though please note that the above would suffice. Besides being a sexy @#$%!^% (please note, this video is not appropriate for younger audiences and is NSFW!), Prince is a talented and iconic musician, and he's a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. More importantly, there is no one else in the world that is quite like him. Wouldn't we all want that said about us? He's just cool, and unusual, and talented - and a vegan! And, additionally, I also get really excited when someone just about my height is successful in entertainment. Is that weird? If it is, I don't care. Lots of people have said that Prince is weird, and he's been laughing all the way to the bank for decades ;-) And don't even try to beat him at basketball (try watching from 1:45 to avoid lead-up)...
Also, I've been avoiding the obvious here, but Prince was one of the most ostentatious sex symbols of the 80s, and it didn't really stop there. His explicit subject matter and lyrics, not to mention videos and dance moves, were anything but subtle, and even kind of legendary. Many of his songs could have arguably started with "Dear Penthouse..." In fact, there was a national committee formed to deal with explicit songs like his; a committee which supposedly started when a shocked Tipper Gore heard her daughter listening to Prince's Darling Nikki. Songs composed by Prince actually landed themselves on the very top 1 and 2 spots on the above committee's "Filthy Fifteen" list of particularly distasteful songs. So you see, before Prince actually became a symbol (in a brilliant move that got him out of a contract with Warner Brothers, who had trademarked the name "Prince";see "stage names"), he already was one.
So, I'm thinking, Prince, that maybe you can plan all of the Hot Vegan Army's strategic moves from now on. Besides the fact that you are kind of known for your impressive moves, your detractors have never stopped you from being you, or from being a compassionate human being. I know you're a non-violent kind of guy, but don't worry, that's what the Hot Vegan Army is all about. Besides, you're ridiculously ahead of your time. You wrote your first song at the age of 7, and you were planning for 1999 back in 1982. We could use that sort of forward thinking around here...
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