For decades, the legacies of Prince and his fellow Minneapolis funk pioneers Morris Day & The Time have been intertwined. Day and Prince were high school classmates and, eventually, bandmates in the group Grand Central. Prince was closely involved when the Time was founded by his associates in 1981. Day, the Time’s lead singer, appears in the Purple Rain movie as Prince’s adversary. Day appeared on stage with Prince at Coachella in 2008 and has participated in numerous tributes to Prince since the Purple One’s death in 2016. But now he appears to be locked in a conflict with Prince’s estate.

In a post on Facebook, Day writes, “According To The Prince Estate Handlers… I can Now Longer Use The Name Morris Day & The Time.” The message continues as follows:

I’ve given 40 years of my life building up a name and legacy that Prince and I came up with. A name that while he was alive, he had no problem with me using. I Literally put my blood, sweat, and tears into bringing value to that name. In fact, he booked me on several tours, and many jam packed nights at paisley park, under the name Morris Day & The Time. Not once ever saying to me that I couldn’t use that name configuration.. However, now that Prince is no longer with us – suddenly, the people who control his multi million dollar estate, want to rewrite history by taking my name away from me, thus impacting how I feed my family. So as of now, per the Prince Estate, I can no longer use Morris Day & The Time in any capacity.

In an email to Stereogum, the Prince Estate said: “Given Prince’s longstanding history with Morris Day and what the Estate thought were amicable discussions, The Prince Estate was surprised and disappointed to see his recent post. The Estate is open to working proactively with Morris to resolve this matter. However, the information that he shared is not entirely accurate.”

I guess if things don’t work out, there’s always Morris Day And The Haim…