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Purple Reign

Everyone loves a success story – but few have heard of one on a tribute artist making waves and “headlining” his own show. Vegas is home to dozens of these impersonators – more popularly, Elvis, “The King,” and a handful of others – several “queens” and well, now, a “Prince” in the form of Jason Tenner and his group, Purple Reign.

Those who grew up in the eighties will immediately associate it with legendary musician Prince and the hit cult movie, Purple Rain. And those who didn’t, well, you probably would have still heard of him, though you’re more than likely to ask, “Who?” 

But no matter, it’s the fans of Prince’s music and stage personality (and quirkiness) that has kept Jason Tenner in business for almost 15 years. Yep, that’s a long time and in this industry, quite a feat. Tenner’s story goes way back, circa 1996 when he went to a Halloween party dressed as Prince and as he puts it, “People were kinda following me around, saying “Oh My God! It’s Prince!” and asking for autographs.” He figured he was on to something and being in Vegas (and already in a band called Uncle Skully) he thought, “You know, this is the town to get it started,” and so he did. What followed was another band called The Mothership Connection which did covers of disco music and somehow, some of Prince’s songs were incorporated in the mix, eventually overshadowing all other music, and Purple Reign was born. 

The group played mostly off-Strip – in such venues as Tom & Jerry’s and The Boardwalk Hotel – most of which have long ceased to exist from the Vegas landscape. “We got to touch all of Las Vegas for a while,” confirmed Tenner. “Home” though for the past three years has been Hooters Hotel. More significantly, it was where the show became “legitimized” – or simply put, where it became a “paid” show, or in Vegas parlance, a ticketed show, as opposed to a property’s lounge act. 

Mind you, this was not an “overnight sensation,” the road to finally producing a show took many twists and turns, and a whole lot of luck – in the form of national TV appearances – on the David Letterman Show, as well as numerous hours “on the road,” doing gigs in California, Arizona and Utah.  

Today, Purple Reign plays four nights a week at the property, which is sweet vindication for Tenner who shared that for years, “No one thought it would be something that someone would pay for, when someone’s seen it for five times already.” 

While a lot has changed since 1997, there’s also a lot that has remained the same. For instance, the show’s format has, for the most part, kept to its original style of playing the more popular, “pedestrian” Prince music (call it a “greatest hits collection”) for the first hour of the show, and reserving the more “hard-core” music and songs for the latter half, after which “‘The Time’ would come out at the last bit.” Tenner adds, “We do stuff that’s as far back as ’81 and stuff that’s as recent as ’93 or ’94.” He has, however, tweaked a few things – whether it’s changing out the lights, working on special effects, or even giving the entire cast all-new costumes; Tenner is still very invested in the Vegas production. 

In the works for early next year, is an “after-party” event, which he hopes to incorporate with his show, saying, “We’re going to do a ‘meet-and-greet,’ we’ll have a deejay, and I’ll probably showcase some of my original music and the rest of the guys can also feature their own projects.” 

Add to this a new internet broadcast show – direct from his studio, as well producing more videos on their own YouTube channel. 

His fans from other states need not worry, though, because they’re still take their show on the road – most recently, they sold out concerts in Scottsdale, AZ; in Orange County; as far away as Shreveport, Louisiana; as well as the 1,200-seat Gothic Theater in Denver – which they’re also playing at for New Year’s Eve. 

Tenner is still amazed at how far they’ve gone, “Every time we go out of town, I always ask the audience, “How many of you have seen our show in Vegas?” and there are a lot of them who have,” says Tenner, adding, That just freaks me out.” 

-Rachel M. Sugay