Vanity 6
Vanity 6 were the first Prince protégées .The band was assembled by Prince from the summer of 1981 to January 1982. The original concept was to be called The Hookers, and would feature Jamie Shoop, his personal assistant, and his friend from high school Susan Moonsie. For a time, Susan Moonsie's sister was considered to be the 3rd member, but that never materialized since Prince shelved the project to fully commit to his forthcoming Controversy Tour in November 1981.
Denise Matthews met Prince at a backstage party at the American Music Awards, where she was working as a model for the night. Prince re-named her Vanity, stating he saw his female reflection when he looked at her. Later that same year, she became the lead singer of the group.During the Controversy Tour, Prince found in Brenda Bennett, his set and lighting designer's wife, a third band member for the project. The group opened up on the Triple Threat Tour, between 1982 and 1983, which also featured The Time and Prince, as the headliner. Onstage the group wore lingerie—which was considered a daring professional move at the time. Their single "Nasty Girl" went to #1 on Billboard's U.S. dance-singles chart in 1982 and made the trio instantly famous.
In 1983, Vanity recorded a demo for a new song, "Sex Shooter", and started reading for her lead role in Purple Rain opposite Prince. Prior to the shooting of the movie, later in 1983, Vanity abruptly decided to leave the Prince camp and relinquish her role in the film.
Vanity was replaced in Purple Rain by Patricia Kotero , who would later use the stage name Apollonia. She also inherited the lead role in Vanity 6, which was renamed Apollonia 6, alongside Bennett and Moonsie. The new trio also recorded their album, Apollonia 6 in 1984 and had a hit with "Sex Shooter," which was featured in Prince's film Purple Rain
Vanity pursued a career as an actress and recorded 2 albums on the Motown Records label. As Vanity she starred in a number of movies, including The Last Dragon and Action Jackson.From the mid–1980s to the early–1990s, Vanity guest–starred on numerous TV shows including Miami Vice's and Highlander.
After various health struggles Denise became a born-again Christian. In 1995, she said, "When I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, I threw out about 1,000 tapes of mine—interview, every tape, every video. Everything." She stated that she had chosen not to receive any further revenue from her work as Vanity, and cut off all ties with Hollywood and her former life in show business.
When she passed away on February 15, 2016, Prince took the news of her death hard. At a concert in Melbourne concert, he dedicated "Little Red Corvette" in her honor. "Can I tell you a story about Vanity? Or should I tell you a story about Denise?" he said at one point. "Her and I used to love each other deeply. She loved me for the artist I was, I loved her for the artist she was trying to be. She and I would fight. She was very headstrong 'cause she knew she was the finest woman in the world. She never missed an opportunity to tell you that."
It was not long after it was announced that Prince had also passed away.Both were 57, and they passed over to the other realm a little more than two months apart.
