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The Kiss hitmaker played at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on 21 April (13) and he pledged the proceeds to the American Music Program, which is made up of young musicians from local schools, to fund their trip to the big Apple, according to New York Post gossip column Page Six.

The group will now be able to take part in Essentially Ellington, a contest and educational festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center, which runs from 10-12 May (13).

Source: Contact Music -- May 5, 2013

The enigmatic Purple Rain hit maker asked to borrow Douglas' 1961 Epiphone Crestwood ax for his two-song performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and threw the instrument to the ground before walking off the set.

Douglas, the guitarist in Fallon's house band The Roots, has since posted a photo of the broken guitar on Twitter.com, writing, "Maybe it's because I'm a dad but I think framing the guitar is a little like rewarding bad behavior."

However, he assured fans that Prince is making amends for smashing the guitar. He writes, "His people reached out and made arrangements to take care of damages. Guitar's in the shop."

Ironically, Douglas will be performing as part of a Prince tribute concert, which is scheduled to take place at Carnegie Hall in New York on Thursday night (07Mar13).

Source: Contact Music -- March 7, 2013

Bettye LaVette, The Waterboys and comedienne Maya Rudolph's Prince covers band, Princess, also took to the stage as part of the all-star line-up at the Carnegie Hall show, which benefited a number of music-based organizations.

During the evening, Rudolph, who is reportedly pregnant with her fourth child, showed off her moves as she belted out Darling Nikki, Booker T. Jones was joined by Diane Birch and members of a local choir for Raspberry Beret and LaVette rocked out to Kiss.

Soul star Bilal thrilled the crowd with a lively rendition of Sister, comedienne Sandra Bernhard sang Little Red Corvette and singer-songwriter Kat Edmonson captivated the audience with The Beautiful Ones, performing with only a pianist onstage.

Comedian Chris Rock thanked the crowd for coming to the concert and impersonated Prince by reciting the lyrics to If I Was Your Girlfriend, while funnyman Fred Armisen also took to the stage throughout the night - even offering backing vocals to D'angelo during It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night.

All of the performers appeared onstage to sing Prince's hit track 1999 to close the show, which raised $100,000 (£62,500) for charity groups including the American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes and Little Kids Rock.

Source: Contact Music -- March 8, 2013