From 1990 to 2013, Prince's backing band was the New Power Generation, a sprawling and oft-changing ensemble. NPG rejoined Prince in 2015 for the final studio album of his lifetime, Hit n Run Phase Two, and the band has toured multiple times doing Prince material in the years following his death. But they've recently had trouble renewing their license to use the NPG band name, so going forward, they'll be touring under a new name: the Minneapolis Sound All Star Band.
"This allows us to evolve and expand," NPG’s keyboardist and former Prince musical director Morris Hayes told Billboard. "It feels like the floodgates opened and there are endless possibilities in front of us. The name change was definitely overdue. It feels very liberating."
The band licensed the name New Power Generation from Bremer Bank the Prince estate in 2017, but when the time came to renew the license in 2022, the estate had changed hands. Comerica Bank, which now handles the estate's business, informed the band that the current administrators would not be renewing the license. Since then, NPG has performed as "The Music of Prince, featuring former members of the New Power Generation." They've also continued to use the NPG name with permission when performing at events with the involvement of the estate.
The estate is controlled by two companies: Prince Legacy LLC, owned by three of Prince’s half-siblings plus advisors L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer; and Prince Oat Holdings LLC, owned by music publishing firm Primary Wave, which acquired the interests of Prince’s other three half-siblings.
Since this regime took over control of Prince's estate in 2022, numerous Prince associates have alleged that they've been denied use of their stage names, including Morris Day & The Time and Apollonia. In both cases, the estate denied they were blocking the artists from using those names. The estate has not commented on the NPG's situation. Last year the estate also blocked the release of director Ezra Edelman's in-depth Prince docuseries for Netflix and announced plans to produce their own Prince documentary instead.
