St. Louis artist Cbabi Bayoc remembers his unique brush with Prince

Not many artists in St. Louis or elsewhere have bragging rights like Cbabi Bayoc.

An original painting by Bayoc famously appeared on the cover of Prince’s 2001 album “The Rainbow Children.”

Bayoc didn’t even have to paint anything especially for Prince — an existing piece was used for the cover.

“It was crazy,” Bayoc says of his major brush with Prince, who died April 21.

Bayoc’s story began with Prince’s 1998 “New Power Soul” concert at the Gateway Center in Collinsville.

In conjunction with his performance, Prince donated food to Dignity House food pantry in St. Louis. Bayoc and another artist, Daniel Hodges, were asked by Dignity House to loan some artwork to hang there for Prince’s arrival.

“We hung it, but he didn’t come through. Why would he? But we were hanging out, waiting and watching. The people working for him came through,” Bayoc says.

Prince’s representatives videotaped the artwork to show Prince later. The singer liked what he saw and purchased three of Bayoc’s original pieces: “Blues Man,” “With Love” and “Late Night Studies.”

Blues Man

With Love

Late Night Studies

“I didn’t expect that,” Bayoc says. “I thought it was one of those things again where you tell an artist it’s good exposure and nobody shows up. Then he calls and it was like, whoa.”

In 2000, Bayoc got another call from Prince’s reps, on the same day his daughter Jurni was born. Prince wanted to see more of Bayoc’s work, and he snail-mailed Prince a number of photos to choose from.

Bayoc’s “Reine Keis Quintet,” named for his wife, stood out for Prince for the cover of “The Rainbow Children.” Bayoc painted the piece in the late ’90s.

“I did the painting because Reine told me I was painting too many men,” he says. “So I decided to do a whole band of women. It worked out that he had a whole band of women behind him, and he wanted to use that piece, and it worked out perfectly.”

All Bayoc had to change for Prince was the name of the painting, which happened after Prince purchased the rights to the painting and bought all the prints. This was a first for Bayoc.

After the CD was released, he saw inquiries regarding his work take off around the world. Many people wanted copies of the cover, though there was nothing Bayoc could do since he’d sold the rights.

“I knew he was famous, but I didn’t know the fanbase was as deep and strong as it was,” says Bayoc, who at the time was into neo-soul and hip-hop like Digable Planets. “I think I may have owned a ‘Purple Rain’ album at some point. I liked his music, but I wasn’t a fanatic.”

Bayoc says he was in talks to paint a Prince mural in Minneapolis, but those discussions ended after he and Prince didn’t see eye to eye.

Prince had bought a caricature of himself drawn by Bayoc and wanted to use it on a T-shirt. The two, who by this time had an actual phone conversation, disagreed over payment.

“Nothing happened after that,” he says. “That would have been great. But I’m glad I didn’t back down from that. It’s cool. I’m not a grudge holder.”

He has been asked about doing tribute paintings, but he’s not interested.