Talking To The Creator Of Prince's 'Purple Rain' Guitar
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Prince could play several instruments but was well-known for playing the guitar.
One guitar in particular, from the movie Purple Rain, was made by a man right here in Minnesota.
"They call it the cloud guitar," Dave Rusan, who lives in Bloomington, said.
Rusan, who owns Rusan Guitarworks, was working at a music store as a guitar maker and repairman in Uptown in the 1970s and early 1980s when Prince came to the store asking for a guitar for a movie he was making. Of course that movie would turn out to be Purple Rain.
"When something you made is so big on the screen...it was pretty surreal," Rusan said.
Rusan says he spent over 200 hours designing and building the signature white and gold guitar seen in the movie.
Rusan would go on to make guitars for major artists including the Rolling Stones, The Who and Sheryl Crow. He credits Prince for making Minneapolis a hub for music.
"All the sudden, he almost singlehandedly, with his talent and drive, he turned this into the center of the music business," he said.
Rusan says he made three guitars for Prince but ultimately those would go on to be replicated for many of Prince's performances. One of those is now at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
