When Mavis teamed up with Prince, a lot of people wondered if she had lost her mind. Mavis and one of the music industry's most notorious "bad boys"? In every interview, Mavis defended their liaison and Prince's work. "When they asked about that, Mavis said, "I told them well, they had sex in the bible days. Prince is not doing it in a derogative way. It's unique how he does it". Interview after interview, it must have been a tiresome task to explain that his royal badness was a highly spiritual person as well. "He really is a God fearing child. The Bible is his favorite book. But I tell you, the first time I saw this child's show, 'oh my', I'm thinking, 'this boy is nasty,'" Mavis said to a reporter. There's one important difference between "Time Waits For No One" and Mavis's previous solo records. This time, she didn't go solo by choice. In 1991, she revealed to reporter Ami Linden "I had to do something because no one would sign my family. They said we were too old. This was back in the eighties." "...I was just sitting around looking sad and mopey, and that's not me. Finally my father said, 'Mavis, you try and get someone to record you, because the Lord gifted you with your voice and if you don't use it he'll take it back.'"

Mavis and Prince (or Muntana, as Mavis calls him) first met in August 1987, after a Staple Singers concert at the Los Angeles Forum. Backstage, the painfully shy Purple One explained his love for Mavis and the Staple Singers and asked Mavis to perform with him as his guest star on the "Lovesexy" tour. On her birthday, Prince flew Mavis to Paris, where she received standing ovations for her performance of "I'll Take You There". The Paris concert was followed by four shows in London and a concert in her hometown Chicago came next. Mavis then signed with Paisley Park. But this odd couple, as many saw it, didn't spend any time in the studio together during the recording of "Time Waits For No One".

The album was cut in Memphis for sentimental reasons, as Mavis felt comfortable working with people she had known since the Stax days, like engineer William Brown, songwriters and producers Homer Banks, Al Bell and Lester Snell. Whatever you think of Prince's, shall we say, sometimes risqué lyrics, he did respect Mavis's legacy, as he had promised when she signed the deal. Prince sent Mavis quality material, songs with substance, which were cut only after Mavis's approval of them. "I enjoyed doing this album," Mavis told me. "I chose the songs. Like with my very first record, I wanted to let the world know that I have had some heartaches, I had a love life. I've been heartbroken and I'm human, just like any other lady. See, when you're singing the Gospel, people will have a tendency to think that you're just a holy-roller and you don't have another life but that. My mistake for that album was that I didn't come up with any songs myself. I was just singing songs that Prince was sending me. If he sent me something that I didn't think was cool, I'd let him know that and then he'd send me something different and I would like it. Like 'I Guess I'm Crazy', I love that song. Well, I wrote 'Time Waits For No One', I wrote that back in the sixties. Prince didn't want me to put his name on it, but I put his name on it anyhow because he came up with a couple more lines that were better than mine. I just couldn't take credit for all of it, but Prince was pissed off that I put his name on it (laughs). I said 'well, that's just the way I am'. I did write that, but the most of the other songs I chose from what he sent me. 'Jaguar' was the first song Prince sent me and I was crazy about that and that was also the first song I put down. 'Interesting', I like that one too. 'That was interesting to me', that song period, because I was real slick and (sings) 'lookie-lookie' (laughs). I had fun doing that. But the music is very stiff and mechanical, like a lot of music was during that period in time. 'Love Gone Bad' is more free and it's more for real, you know, the situations and the stories in the songs."

Two singles were picked from critically acclaimed album, the title track "Time Waits For No One" and "Melody Cool". Both entered Billboard's R&B Chart in 1990 (#63 and #36 respectively). Mavis also appeared in Prince's movie "Graffiti Bridge".