This Performance By A 21-Year-Old Prince Proves He Was Never Not Sexy

If you're like me, and you trusted your happiness yesterday evening to the decision-making of a man famous in part for wondering aloud if jet fuels burns hot enough to melt steel beams, you probably woke up a little glum, and you probably got glummer when you looked outside and saw a thick layer of ice coating the very ground you'd have to traverse to get to the transportation that gets you to work. You might ponder if your current life is one worth loving or even living.

The answer is yes, because just inches below this very sentence lies a video of a golden-pantsed, open-shirted, perfectly-permed Prince performing two songs on the television show American Bandstand.

The appearance came after the release of his sophomore album, Prince, and he starts by performing "I Wanna Be Your Lover." It is an incredible performance that will leave you wanting to have all of the sex with this little hip-thrusting, tight-butted, Minneapolitan dream, but it gets better when the music stops and Dick Clark joins Prince's band on stage.

Clark opens by asking how old Prince is. Even though he's 21 at the time, he says he's just 19 years old, presumably to play on the underage fantasies we all entertain in private. Then Clark asks how long Prince held out for a record deal, and then Prince replies with this:

And it's so cute and unexpected and hot. "They wouldn't let me produce myself," Prince answers to explain why he refused to sign for so long.

"Do you think they didn't know what you were doing?" Clark asks him.

"Don't know," Prince says dismissively, and I promise you, it is the sexiest sentence you will ever hear.

Later, Clark asked how many instruments Prince could play.

"Hm," Prince started before pausing and looking down at his feet, with a smirk. And then: "Thousands."

At this point, you won't be all that glum anymore. You might, like me, be sopping wet, and your knees might be jelly. You might be crying. But continue on, because next, Clark leaves the stage, and Prince breaks into "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" You'll feel things. You'll smile again.

h/t Chole