“Well, I had an almost dream come true, which was with Prince,” she recounts. Following his show at London’s Earl’s Court in the early ‘90s, Minogue met the Purple One and summoned the courage to mention her album plans.
“We just kind of hung out. I don’t even know what that means, but we hung out and he kind of put me on the spot a bit. He was like, ‘So where are your lyrics?'”
After some back and forth, Prince sent his driver to Kylie’s apartment with a tape. “There’s a cassette in my hand with Prince singing, a song called ‘Baby Doll,’ that I kind of was involved with, but he who slept four hours a night or something and just created stuff the rest of the other 20 hours. That was my almost, we didn’t record it.”
How close did their joint effort get to a full studio treatment? “I suggested it to my label and I think he would want it to do it all and they weren’t into that. That was that. I might’ve been kind of gutsy, but I wasn’t… I don’t know. I wasn’t sure enough of myself to say, ‘No.’”
Minogue can have few other regrets in her career. The former Neighbors star has seven U.K. No. 1 singles and 51 Top 40 hits. And her albums have ruled the U.K. chart on seven occasions, with 25 titles impacting the Top 40.
She will add to that tally with her 15th studio album Disco, due out Friday (Nov. 6). It’s the followup to 2018’s Golden, which ruled the charts in the U.K. and Australia (a career retrospective, Step Back In Time, also went to No. 1 in the U.K. last year, around the time of her headline performance at Glastonbury Festival).
The inspiration for Disco was mined from the dancefloors of Studio 54’s glory days. “Some of the best disco as we know, is really sad. And it’s dressed in sequins, and it’s lit with colored lights,” she explained. “And of course, disco’s history is rooted in the need and desire to have a place to express yourself and be yourself without judgment or not be yourself, whichever way you’re inclined. And I think Studio 54, it will forever be a source of inspiration for so many people. Creating their own worlds.”
Also, Apple Music has dropped the At Home with Kylie Minogue session featuring a cover of Troy Sivan’s “Cool,” alongside “Say Something” and “Magic.” Stream it below.