Prince Estate Responds To Morris Day’s Post About The Time Name Dispute
Morris Day shared a post on Instagram saying that the Prince Estate told him he can no longer use the name Morris Day & The Time.
Morris Day, the man who created Morris Day & The Time alongside the late Prince, took to Instagram Thursday to share that can no longer use the name.
In his post, Day claimed that the Prince Estate has forbid him from using the name “Morris Day & The Time,” a problem he said he never had while Prince was alive.
“However, now that Prince is no longer with us — suddenly, the people who control his multi million dollar estate, want to rewrite history by taking my name away from me, thus impacting how I feed my family,” he wrote. “So as of now, per the Prince Estate, I can no longer use Morris Day & The Time in any capacity.”
The post in its entirety can be read below.
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The Prince Estate sent the following statement to Okayplayer addressing Day’s post, saying: “Given Prince’s longstanding history with Morris Day and what the Estate thought were amicable discussions, The Prince Estate was surprised and disappointed to see his recent post. The Estate is open to working proactively with Morris to resolve this matter. However, the information that he shared is not entirely accurate.”
Although Day claimed in the post that Prince never told him he couldn’t use the name, that may not have always been the case. The Time ended up having to change their name to the The Original 7ven after the group attempted to put out their album Condensate under their original name in 2011, because Prince owned the rights to the name.
“The rumblings were out that we were making a record, and he reached out to us and sent a cease-and-desist letter,” Day said in a 2011 interview with the Star Tribune.
That interview also included Terry Lewis, who spoke about the cease-and-desist letter, too (according to the report he also handled negotiations).
“He has his viewpoint; we have ours. We’ve been the Time since 1981. I don’t understand why there would be any issue with that,” he said at the time. “I’m not trying to challenge someone for something that they believe they created or owned. I don’t understand why it has to get to this point and be this serious. So we’ll take the high road.”