Prince spent time in Hawaii since the mid-1990s, performing six concerts here and regularly chilling out at a home he owned on Maui, where he sometimes showed up unannounced at Valley Isle nightclubs to watch and even perform with local musicians.

He once told a Honolulu Advertiser reporter that he liked the islands because “nobody’s frontin’” in Hawaii. But he was an eccentric and set unusual rules for that 15-minute interview in 2003: no tape recorder, no video equipment, no pen and paper allowed.

Prince first performed in Hawaii in February 1996, selling out three concerts at the Blaisdell Arena. But even legends have off nights, wrote a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reviewer, who felt Prince made little attempt to connect with his audience.

He was back exactly 12 months later for a single show at the Blaisdell and received a better review.

In 2003 Prince returned in December to perform again at the Blaisdell Arena and two nights later at the Maui Arts &Cultural Center’s 5,000-seat A&B Amphitheater.

Nikki Robinson, who worked for the promoter that brought Prince here in 2003, Goldenvoice, said fans were hesitant to buy tickets because Prince had not played any of his hits when he last performed here.

Slow ticket sales prompted Prince’s unusual interview scenario, which Robinson helped arrange. When the interview was over, Prince pointed out that Robinson’s first name was featured in a controversial song he wrote, “Darling Nikki,” the story of a sex fiend.

Then Prince sang it to her as she blushed, Robinson said.

“I told him, ‘You pretty much made my whole night and pretty much my whole life,’” she said.

On Maui Prince put on a show that many people still talk about, said Art Vento, president and chief executive officer of the MACC. Prince was already familiar with the center, having regularly arranged to sneak into movie screenings when he was in town.

“When he got on stage it was a complete, utter explosion,” Vento said. “He played all his hits with energy and kept going and going with nonstop fervor. People walked out amazed.”

But Prince wasn’t done when the concert was over.

“He wanted to play some more, so he popped up at a local club and played until curfew,” he said.