Jack White has clarified the previous comments he made about his plans to “re-edit” Prince‘s unreleased album ‘Camille’.
As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, the musician’s label Third Man Records secured the rights to the late icon’s scrapped 1986 record in March.
- READ MORE: Jack White live at Glastonbury 2022: guitar hero literally smashes his secret set out of The Park
Although ‘Camille’ was never shared as a complete body of work, all eight tracks that were initially intended to feature on the record have been released in some form (as B-sides or on other reissues etc).
For the project, Prince used a pitch-shifting studio technique in order to make his vocals sound more feminine and planned to share the finished product under a mystery pseudonym, Camille.
This week, White appeared to share his plans for the lost album during an interview with the Daily Star newspaper’s ‘Wired’ column.
“We are able to re-edit it as it was originally planned,” he reportedly explained (via Music-News.COM). “So that is great news. It’s very difficult to confirm because Prince himself changed his mind about ‘Camille’ when he was about to release it.
“[But] I don’t think [releasing] it goes against his will, because he ended up issuing many of the songs on different recordings over the years. It’s not like he didn’t want them to see the light of day.”
Taking to Instagram today (July 1), the former White Stripes frontman shared a statement in an attempt to “clear up any misunderstanding” about the project.
“This headline [‘Jack White confirms plans to ‘re edit’ and release lost Prince album ‘Camille”] is misleading and I want to make sure the message is clear, neither I nor third man records, have any intention of ‘editing’ or ‘remixing’ Prince’s music,” White began.
“I was referring to simply putting the songs in the original order that the album ‘Camille’ was in, as those songs have been put out in multiple releases since ‘Camille’ was first taken off the presses.”
He continued: “I would never mess with Prince’s music. Hopefully that clears up any misunderstanding, and this album can see the light of day in its original form. Thank you. -Jack White III.”
You can see the post below.
It is reported that White acquired a test pressing of Prince’s ‘Camille’ for $50,000 (£41,500).
“I already owned a copy of Prince’s ‘The Black Album’ on vinyl as well as on cassette and so I was trying to get this copy of ‘Camille’ for the Third Man archives,” he explained previously.
“After losing out to other bidders a long time ago, we were lucky to win one this time around. I spoke about it publicly to help secure the reissue with the Prince estate and Warner Bros.”
Earlier this year, Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell confirmed the music legend’s estate had given them the go-ahead to release the eight-track ‘Camille’ in full for the first time.
Back in April, White recalled the guitar advice Prince once gave him after he bumped into the late music legend.
Jack White is set to release his fifth solo album ‘Entering Heaven Alive’ on July 22. He played a pair of London headline shows this week following a secret set at Glastonbury 2022 last Sunday (June 26).
In a five-star review of the latter performance, NME wrote: “The bangers and fan favourites seem relentless – with White’s showmanship and craving to entertain channelling the spirit of that all-too-often rumoured Prince secret set that never was.”
Jack White will return to London for an intimate gig at the Union Chapel.
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