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The Guitar Hero video game franchise was big business back in the ‘00s, which meant that countless legendary bands were more than happy to allow their music to be used in it.
The likes of Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Queen and Black Sabbath all enjoyed a payday. The Beatles, meanwhile, had their own Rock Band game, which adhered to similar rhythm game principles.
One notable absentee from the Guitar Hero universe, though, was Prince, and in a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley that’s been clipped up and is doing the rounds again, he explained why.
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His first objection was financial. “I hear it made like two billion dollars and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that,” he explained.
It seems that the biggest issue, though, was that Prince just couldn’t get on board with the concept.
“I just think it’s more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar,” he said. “It’s a tough instrument. It’s not easy. It took me a long time and it’s frustrating at first, and you just have to stick with it.”
Prince went on to explain that, although he had no issue with Guitar Hero existing and could see the attraction, he thought that it was a pale imitation of learning to play for real.
“It’s cool for people who don’t have time to learn the chords or ain’t interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things,” he argued. “To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings and I wish it upon everybody. It’s heaven.”
There is a counter-argument to this – that playing Guitar Hero actually inspired many kids to pick up the guitar. Steve Lacy, for example, has credited the game with igniting his interest.
It’s also worth noting that Guitar Hero did help to break new artists. It was the inclusion of their 2006 song, Through the Fire and Flames, in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, that helped to shine a light on British power metal band DragonForce
However, as if to illustrate Prince’s point, interest in Guitar Hero and rhythm games in general waned in the 2010s. It never completely went away, though, and the arrival of Epic Games’ Fortnite Festival – developed by original Guitar Hero creator Harmonix and released in 2023 – put them back in the spotlight.
Accessible via the Fortnite launcher, this is a new rhythm game that features music from some of the biggest pop stars of the moment – The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Bruno Mars and Chappell Roan, for example – as well as Guitar Hero veterans Metallica.
This isn’t the end of the revival, either, as RedOctane Games, the new name for original Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane, recently announced that it’s developing an all-new rhythm game called Stage Tour, which will come with a guitar controller that’s set to bear the name of Gibson-owned brand Kramer.
Whether Prince’s estate will allow his music to be used in it remains to be seen…
