J-Prince-Bio

"Prince"

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;” several “queens” and well, now, a “Prince” in the form of Jason Tenner and his group, Purple Reign.

Fans of Prince’s music and stage personality has kept Jason Tenner in business for 14 years. His story goes way back, circa 1996 when he went to a Halloween party dressed as Prince and as he puts it, “People were 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 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.

Playing mostly off-Strip, it was only during their gig at The Boardwalk Hotel (what is now CityCenter) in 2001, that things started to fall into place. As Tenner recounts, “We single-handedly kept it alive for five years. The Boardwalk was really just a small place – but we had people like Gladys Knight come to our show, and Michael Bolton and the guys from Smashing Pumpkins.”

Another feather in the group’s cap was their appearance on “The David Letterman Show,” in 2008. They kicked-off what was the show’s “first Tribute Bands Week,” paying homage to other acts such as Johnny Cash, Guns N’ Roses and others. This national exposure has allowed Tenner to realize his other dream – to headline and produce a show in Vegas.

On a personal level, Tenner is also hard at work on his album, in which he appears as J10 (a play on his name), “It’s kinda R&B, but also a little more instrumental and more grown-up.”

But all these extra projects doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about his Vegas show. He’s constantly tweaking the production and says, “I’d like to expand the show, like drive a purple motorcycle on stage, add another dancer – that sort of thing. But for the time being, we’re going to increase the light show – add LED and laser lights to give it more oomph,” adding, “I’ve been very blessed to do nothing but music for lots of years.”