Prince was one cool cat during his “Tavis Smiley” interview and even revealed much from his private life - that is, when Smiley and Prince weren’t stroking each other’s backs. Smiley can be a bit ingratiating, but it’s a style that works for him - and when it results in a lucid interview with such a tough subject, well, one can’t be too critical.

Among the tidbits: Prince loves PBS! He talked at length about the excellent documentary, “Unforgivable Blackness,” which tells the tale of boxer Jack Johnson, and on more than one occasion compared himself to the legendary figure.

Perhaps the most newsworthy segment had Prince claiming that he was born with epilepsy.  Here’s an excerpt:

“I’ve never spoken about this before but I was born epileptic. I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had. And my mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, ‘Mom, I’m not going to be sick anymore,’ and she said ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Because an angel told me so.’ Now, I don’t remember saying it, that’s just what she told me. From that point on, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased a lot in school. And early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could.”

 Prince also lashed out at the media (”Most journalists are lazy”), admitted that he never votes (”I’m a Jehovah Witness. We’ve never voted”) and talked about what he learned from Miles Davis (”He was a wonderful mentor. He critiqued out of humor and out of love”). Part II airs locally at 4:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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