I personally rank Mavis's last (or rather latest, as I hope she and the Staple Singers will be recording many more albums to come in the future) as one of her finest and most personal. That sentiment is shared by the lady herself. "'The Voice!' I love that album," Mavis exclaimed over the telephone. "I cried on a lot of those songs. You see, 'the Voice' is my life. This little guy.. Prince wouldn't talk to me when I first met him. He came out to meet me at the L.A. Forum and he stayed in my dressing room for over an hour. I was just running my mouth, he was just rolling his big eyes and smiling, you know? And I said to myself 'this chile is bashful'. He was so shy that it almost hurt my heart. I wanted to talk for him. When I got back to the hotel I thought 'now, how is he gonna write for me if we can't communicate?' Then a light bulb went off in my head and I said 'OK, I'll write to him'. So I started writing him letters. I would write on these looong legal pads and I would write twelve or thirteen pages at a time, to let him into my life. I told him everything that I thought he should know about me, even from my childhood. And in all of these songs, I can hear things that I told him about me. Like 'The Undertaker'. The song is talking about how the kids should be staying away from drugs, but I really was married to a mortician, back in the sixties. I told him that when I was a little girl, I couldn't wait for Sundays when Mama would dress me up for Sunday school and there is a song on there called 'Blood Is Thicker Than Time' and it goes (sings) 'we went to church on Sunday morning-all dressed up- looking mighty fine' and that was me as a little girl. That song he wrote as a tribute to my family because I told him all kinds of things, I just let him into my life. Each one of those songs is me. That album is about the life of Mavis. I let him know what I felt about the kids, about the drugs and the crime and that's 'The Voice'. A lot of people think 'The Voice' was written around Rodney King, because there's a verse in there, saying 'the night sticks are still singing four-part harmony on brothers back', but I had 'The Voice'. Prince had sent me that song before the Rodney King situation, so he was way ahead of them. But people thought that, because of that line 'night sticks are still singing'. They figured he got that from these police men beating Rodney King. The other song 'You Will Be Moved', I think, he did write about Rodney King. I would tell Prince about the babies and the children, 'we gotta find a way to save the children'. He wrote 'la-da-da-da-da-see-the-video'. They showed this video of Rodney King so much, so 'la-da-da-da-da-see-the-video' is just telling you to 'look at this video and see what's happening. We've got to do better, we as parents, we got to do better. Listen to the children, hug the children, ask them how was their day'. A lot of the problems we're having in America, I totally blame on the parents, because they have these babies, they spoil 'em. They buy them these 200-dollar gym shoes... They don' t wanna be bothered. The parents today are not like our parents were."

"The Voice" was first issued in 1993 during the much publicized dispute between Prince and Warner Brothers. Despite its obvious quality, it sunk without a trace. About a year later, the album was re-released (at least in Europe), when Paisley Park set up distribution via the German Edel label. The title track came out as a single, but sadly, by then the momentum was lost. "Nah, that album didn't do as well as I had hoped," Mavis admitted. "None of my solo albums have done what I expected. I cried like a baby over 'The Voice'. I got so sick over that album. The family had to lift me back up, I was so depressed! I knew that that album was a hit, not to mention, it was so important. It was so positive and it needed to be heard. This album was right on time for the world. And Warner Brothers wouldn't let it be heard! Little Prince, I felt more sorry for him because he almost cried. 'Mavis, I am so sorry' he would cry over the telephone. He knew what we had. In interviews, people would not believe that this little guy actually wrote those songs, they didn't think he could write songs like that. Even my father! In 'Blood Is Thicker Than Time', Prince wrote ''as sure as Moses' staff parted the water, sure as Cain had to pay for his crime', and when Pops heard that, he asked me ''what does he know about Cain and Abel'. I said 'Pops, one of his favorite books is the Bible. Prince is very spiritual person'. And when I first went to his concert, his opening of the 'Lovesexy' tour in Paris.. This was the first time I saw him onstage and this little guy did the song 'The Cross' and his whole show made me feel like I was in church, really! I had to hold Yvonne, she was about to shout (laughs). I looked at these kids in the audience and they were rejoicing, it was like this kid was having service. After he finished 'The Cross', all the lights went out and you heard (hums 'Amazing Grace') and this was when Yvonne started shaking and I thought 'uh-oh, if she's gonna shout then I can't hold her' (laughs).

Like Mavis noted before, "The Voice" was musically much warmer than the rather stiff and synthesized "Time Waits For No One". "The Voice" featured a host of talented people, such as the Levi Seacer, Jr., Michael B, Sonny T., and Tommy Barbarella of the New Power Generation, Nat Adderley Junior, Sheila E, Rosie Gaines, Candy Dulfer, Ricky Peterson, the Steeles and of course Pops. The elder of the Staple Singers played guitar, supplied background vocals and ad-libs on two of the strongest tracks; "You Will Be Moved" and "The Undertaker". Another highlight is the dance friendly "Kain't Turn Back" which was written and produced by Bernard Belle. "That's Regina Belle's brother, he wrote several of Michael Jackson's hits," Mavis kindly informed me. "See, Prince didn't try to hog the CD, he wanted other writers on there. He wanted variety and Bernard is singing on there with me too. Bernard wanted Charlie Wilson from the Gap Band to sing 'Kain't Turn Back' with me but when Prince heard the demo, he said 'Mavis, why can't that guy sing with you?' Bernard liked that idea, so he's singing with me."

As you can see, Mavis still calls him Prince, but she can obviously get away with calling him anything she wants. "Oh, yeah I call him 'little boy' or 'Muntana' or whatever. And he answers!" Mavis laughed. "Muntana's just a word, it doesn't mean anything. I've been using it forever. Prince even put that word in 'House In Order'. Speaking of calling people things, Prince asked me 'do you think your father will sing on your record?' and I said 'yeah, Pops will sing and play his guitar too.' Pops came and as he was sitting there on a stool playing, Prince said 'Levi's stealing your licks over there'. So Pops asked 'Levi? You stealing my licks over there?' and Levi replied 'nah, Pops I'm not stealing your licks'. Then Prince walked passed Pops one day and said 'are you gonna sing, junior?' Dad said 'what did you just call me, boy?' and Prince said 'junior!' and then he broke out running because Pops was coming after him (laughs).

Mavis doesn't rule out further collaborations with Prince, or The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince as he prefers to be called today. "Oh, Prince and I still talk on the phone and everything. In fact, he wanted me to go on tour with him, to New York and Detroit, but I couldn't go because we were coming to Sweden. It was just that reason! We had to leave on the day that he wanted me in New York with him. After he got released from Warner Brothers he called me and said 'I'm free, Mavis! I'm finally free! Now we gotta make some more music!' He's getting all of his own stuff straightened right now. He's made his 'Emancipation' album and he's doing a U.S. tour with that right now. But in the meantime, he's been doing something on the back-side that he's gonna be presenting to me. I don't know if I will sign to his label or if we'll just do some music, just putting down some stuff for his record or if he will want me to sign again. But I'm not particular about signing any more seven-year contracts. If I sign with him it might be for two years or somn'. It probably doesn't matter, I'm pretty well up in age now and for me to be hanging on to somebody for seven years again, which would be cool with Prince, I mean, he would be about the only person I would sign with. But even so, I'd prefer, like, three years with an option and leave it at that. I might want to do something else with my life in seven years, you know? I might wanna start preaching or anything (laughs). No, I'm just kidding you! But I just don't wanna be tied into anything for that many years again."