“It wasn’t like a normal bass gig where you have 30 songs: I had to learn 300!” Ida Nielsen talks touring with Prince, and how she tackled her Paisley Park audition

Prince and bassist Ida Nielsen.

Ask Ida Nielsen how she got started on the bass guitar and it’s the usual story – up to a point, anyway. “I grew up in the countryside in Denmark,” she told BP. “I played with a bunch of bands and in 2008 I released my first solo album, Marmalade: a funk album with a lot of bass guitar on it. That brought me a lot of attention, so I started doing a lot of clinics and I started working with TC Electronic. I recorded a lot of videos for them, which went on YouTube around 2010 – and that was how Prince found me.”

Prince, eh? Fans of the great man, and there are millions, will not be surprised to hear that on receiving a phone call from Minneapolis, Nielsen thought it was a prank. “I got a call from his manager, but I couldn’t really hear what she was saying. I did hear her say the name Prince, but I thought it was a joke! She invited me to Paisley Park for a jam and I said ‘Sure!’ I didn’t hear anything for two weeks, so I thought that was it until I finally got another call – and three months later I was on tour with Prince.”