Former future dirty old man/cross-singer Prince granted a "rare and far-ranging, two-hour-plus interview late, late on Monday night" with his hometown paper The Star Tribune. One thing he wouldn't discuss? Minnesota's recent passage of marriage equality. Says the paper:

He dodged questions about the state’s new marriage-equality law...

Nice, thanks Prince. Not even a phoned-in, vague talk-around. Not even one of those piercing squeals used in the edited version of the "Sexy MF" chorus.

Prince became a Jehovah's Witness in 2001 and has been very vocal about it since. He's also expressed a shift toward conservative views about sex and cursing in pop culture. This is very convenient for someone who might not have the opportunity to voice such views today had he not built a career on being lascivious in the first place, but whatever. Prince does as Prince wants. Oh motherfucker, he's a motherfucker, can't you understand?

That said, the article reveals that he eats pizza with a fork, so at least he's kind of queer.

Elsewhere, he discusses his new band, 3rdEyeGirl. "It’s time for their legacy," he promises. (Prince also helped usher in the legacy of Carmen Electra.)

He's been touring with 3rdEyeGirl for about a month now, but it seems like as good of a time as ever to point out that he lied about this band when asked about them during a January interview for Billboard, during which Prince made Gail Mitchell refrain from recording and note-taking as she chased him around his Paisley Park estate while he rose from a series bathtubs, threw doves at her and sneered. Here's Mitchell's account of the 3rdEye stuff:

And then it's back to the conference room, where we talk about the recent leak of unreleased Prince material. A mysterious person with the Twitter handle 3rdEyeGirl (whose Twitter bio describes her as an "International Art Thief") was posting links—since removed—to new material. Was this a publicity stunt or Prince himself? He counters that it was indeed a bootlegger. But why then is 3rdEyeGirl's Twitter avatar pasted on the face of the drum kit on the soundstage I've seen him rehearsing on? Prince says it's just the girls (his backing trio and [his manager] Ramadan) poking fun at the situation. "As a band, they don't even have a name. They're not 3rdEye."

And now they are. Animals strike poses that are as curious as ever.

Ramadan, by the way, is 22 and 3rdEyeGirl's drummer is 24. "I don’t have time for old people," says Prince. Why, though? They are so weird and fun!

Prince turns 55 next month.

[Image via Getty]