Dr. Fink will auction off an unreleased album by Prince’s band

The keyboard player Dr. Finka Grammy winner, has announced the auction of an unreleased album by Prince and said he didn’t feel guilty about parting ways.

Matt Fink worked with Prince from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, mostly as a member of Revolutionand was part of Prince’s brief side project, i Rebelswho recorded the unreleased album currently up for auction by Fink in 1979. The Rebels also included Dez Dickerson, André Cymon, Gayle Chapman And Bobby Z.

The album was never released because the label didn’t want to dilute Prince’s image after he had already released two albums under his own name.

“Prince did it secretly,” Fink told the Star Tribune in an interview, “and then he went to Warners after the fact and said, ‘Look what I did. Can you do something with this?’ And he added: “That Rebels tape was released as a bootleg but I’ve never bootlegged anything.”

The auction will take place on November 15 via UK-based Popstore. Among the lots offered by Fink are a 1980s Oberheim OB-8 synthesizer used on tour with Prince, a mixer used on tour, 39 cassettes recorded during rehearsals with Prince, a draft screenplay for Purple Rain, a set of gold and platinum records and an array of stage costumes and tour T-shirts.

The 66-year-old said he kept some of his most prized possessions, including the Grammy for the “Purple Rain” album, but that his children were not interested in his collection and that his music career had forced him to draw on his own pension plan.

“Income is very inconsistent in this industry,” he said. “Prince took care of us. But there were difficult times between then and now.”

He reportedly feels “not guilty about the sale, nor sentimental about the items,” which total 54 lots and are expected to sell for a total of between $150,000 and $300,000.

It’s unlikely that whoever wins the unreleased album will even have the rights needed to legally release it.