1st news live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying a key witness in the house's impeachment inquiry is a no show on Capitol Hill despite a congressional subpoena Charles Copperman was a deputy to national security adviser John Bolton who was ousted N.P.R.'s most parks reports Democrats say his decision not to appear could lead to contempt for seedings government as the 1st witness named Pietschmann Korea to try and get the courts involved he filed a lawsuit Friday described himself as caught between 2 competing orders one from Congress telling him to appear and one from the White House to stay away he wants a court ruling on which branch of government he should obey Adam Schiff the chair of the House Intelligence Committee called it a ploy by Cupper meant to delay the process I think we can infer from the White House opposition to Dr Cupper means testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of the president Schiff says he expects the court to rule quickly in favor of House Democrats miles parks n.p.r. News the Capitol the Democratic led House launched an impeachment inquiry into allegations of president trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden head of the 2020 election and the house reportedly will now vote on Thursday on a resolution formalizing the inquiry California remains under a state of emergency as firefighters race to get a handle on blazes that have caused tens of thousands of people to evacuate Jacob Margolis of member station k.p.c. She is monitoring a fast moving fire in the Los Angeles area there are giant plumes of smoke coming from near the 4 o 5 in the mountain and that is kind of a major thoroughfare through Los Angeles 618 acres have burned so far in the fire has been fast moving though firefighters seem to be any get some control over it homes have burned down at least 8 homes have been lost 5 have been damaged and we heard from firefighters that it all happened very fast in northern California the Kinkaid fire so far burned more than $66000.00 acres and is just 5 percent contained nearly $200.00. That 1000 people remain evacuated N.P.R.'s Eric Westervelt is getting a close up look at one area directly affected walking through foothills Regional Park it's right next to a suburban subdivision there are still sort of hotspots embers smoldering some trees smoldering But incredibly the the houses all around right next to this park are safe their backyards are burned down and is burned to far but it's really the moving here quickly in part because people evacuated a week long hearing is under way in St Louis to decide the fate of abortion services in Missouri N.P.R.'s Arun McCammon reports Missouri could become the only state in the u.s. Without any clinic offering abortions the hearing is meant to resolve a dispute between Republican Gov Mike person's administration and Planned Parenthood over the clinics license person says the clinic is violating health and safety rules Planned Parenthood says the rules are being excessively and arbitrarily and forced and the real goal is to end abortion access in Missouri a decision is expected from a state commissioner in the coming weeks this is n.p.r. . New research finds that most people with Down syndrome will develop some form of dementia by the time they're in their fifty's and sixty's N.P.R.'s Jon Hamilton has more on a study in the journal Jama neurology Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes intellectual disability as well as health problems in the 1980 s. People with Down often died before 30 today the average lifespan is about 60 and has people with Down's Syndrome live longer doctors noticed that many of them developed Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia a study of Medicaid records for nearly 3000 people with Down Syndrome puts numbers behind that observation it found that among those between 40 and 55 about 40 percent had dementia after 55 the figure rose to about 60 percent researchers hope that by studying people with Down's syndrome they can learn why certain brains are so vulnerable to Alzheimer's Jon Hamilton n.p.r. News the u.s. Is extending a year temporary by a year temporary protected status for more than $200000.00 Salvadorans living in the United States both countries signed an agreement that enables eligible Salvadorans to continue working legally in this country in September as Salvador had agreed to help the u.s. To limit the number of people crossing the u.s. Border t.p.s. Was granted to many Salvador nationals following the 2001 earthquakes at the close the Dow was down $132.00 points nearly or up $132.00 points up nearly half a percent to end the day at $27090.00 I'm Lakshmi saying n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from Dana Farber Cancer Institute developing ways to use that p.d.-l one pathway and immunotherapy to treat cancer committed so making contributions and cancer treatments for 72 years Dana Farber dot org slash everywhere. Coming up on the next On Point 2 wildfires prompt a state of emergency in California a 1000000 residents plunged into darkness from power shutoffs are blackouts the best way to prevent wildfires in 2019 plus Kurds in the u.s. Tell us what they think of the president's decision to withdraw troops from Syria and the impact it's had on their families that's coming up on the next on point from n.p.r. Tuesday between 9 and 11 am on. This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross before Prince died he'd started writing a memoir he wanted a writing partner he could open up to after rejecting several high profile names he settled on my guest Dan pipe and bring who was definitely not famous pipe and bring was a 29 year old editor of the literary magazine Paris Review just a few months after their 1st meeting Prince died of an opioid overdose on April 21st 2016 Prince had left behind the pages he'd already written about his childhood in adolescence in Minneapolis unable to complete the memoir pipe and bring plan to write with Prince pipe and bring fashion the book into something else it includes the chapters Prince had already written as well as an essay by pipe and bring about working with Prince princes handwritten lyrics to some of his songs some photos of Prince and images of things pipe and bring found in the vaults at Paisley Park Prince's compound the book which is edited by pipe and bring has the title Prince had planned to give his memoir The Beautiful Ones it's named after the song pipe and bring describes as one of the most naked aching songs in Prince's catalog let's Bringing to. You. Dan pipe and bring welcome to Fresh Air thank you Terry that this book is great I'm real the guy that you were able to put out what you were able to put out past you Miss Lee Prince was always so elliptical about his life why did he want to write a memoir. That is of course the question on everyone's minds and something that I was so curious about myself when I 1st went out there to meet him and I think there were a few things kind of on his mind I do think he was maybe aware of the fact that he was growing older of his mortality of his legacy and I think he was. Bringing renewed attention to the role that his parents and his past had played and in shaping his psychology and in forming his creative identity and I think that he saw a book as a chance to explore those ideas with some depth that maybe would not be available to him in music. And you know that toward the end of his life he was also sort of experiencing a 2nd act as an activist and he was very politically aware where maybe once he had not been he was a huge supporter of the black lives matter movement when Freddie Gray was murdered by police in Baltimore prince went and played a show there and he even wrote a song called Baltimore that was really kind of most straight ahead protest song and his catalog and I think he saw Having lived through so many political crises and having developed such sharp ideas about how to thrive as an African-American creative in America that he saw the memoir as a way to to really address that with more candor than would be possible and his music. In your list of reasons why he wanted to write a memoir One of them was growing awareness of his mortality friends of his were falling ill do you think that was one of the reasons why he was more aware of his mortality. Absolutely and I think he was someone who was always very aware of what his musical peer group was doing and I think Michael Jackson's death had really affected him greatly he and I talked a lot about Michael as he would call him who was only Michael never Michael Jackson and I think the loss of someone who had always been framed as his kind of chief rival and someone with whom Prince certainly kind of sparred on the charts and musically and with whom he had a kind of contentious but very fruitful relationship I think the death of someone like that could only weigh on him in ways conscious and subconscious so I think there was certainly. More thought that he was giving too to what it meant to be leaving this earth what he would leave behind How did you get to even audition for being a princess collaborator on his memoir. Yeah it's a wonderful and exceptionally unlikely story that begins in New York in November of 2015 when I went out for a drink with my literary agent Dan Kirsan of i.c.m. And he let it slip almost haphazardly that he was working on putting together a book by prints and as soon as he saw my face I think he knew he had made a grave mistake because it lit up like a Christmas tree and I practically grabbed him across the table and said You know I need to be a part of this I had been a Prince fan for so many years by then and he made it clear Dan did were to dance. That I was never going to get this job I was 29 years old I was an editor at the Paris Review at the time not something the prince was likely to be familiar with and most glaringly I had never written a book which I think is usually fairly disqualifying in these things looking Yes for a level of expertise so Dan did not mince words he said that I was never going to get this job but that he would as a favor put me on a list of potential collaborators for prints you wrote an essay explaining why you wanted to be that person prince chose to collaborate with him. And to write he read the essay and asked to meet with you so before we get to his critique of your essay set the scene you set the scene for us for your 1st meeting with Prince. Yes it was I believe January 29th 2016 so winter in Minneapolis and it was after dark when I when I finally arrived at Paisley Park I had had only about a day's notice that I would be going there at all so I had submitted this statement I think on a Wednesday night and by Friday morning I knew that I was going to be out there and then sure enough there I was the prince's chauffeur Kevin Pratt was driving me up to Paisley Park which is Chanhassen and about 40 minutes maybe out of out of Minneapolis fairly unremarkable suburb and to see Paisley Park from the outside I think you could drive right past it without ever knowing about the wonders that take place within its walls it really looks very anonymous like an office park or a place where they make some sort of plastic products or something and there were purple sconces lighting it up I remember as we pulled up and because we had been working Dan and I with with Prince a. His aides throughout this process I was under the impression that one of them would be attending the meeting with me and that turned out not to be the case when I got out of the car and approached the front door of Paisley Park Prince was there alone ready to shake my hand and introduce him to self to say Hi Dan I'm Prince so you had written an essay explaining why you wanted to collaborate with Prince and he. Critiqued your essay and it's a really interesting critique like you wrote that when you listened to Prince for the 1st time you felt like you were breaking the law and yet the song you were listening to was if I was your girlfriend so that's right let's hear just a little bit of that and then we'll talk about why you felt like you were breaking . If. You forgot. This may. Want to. Take you. Live this way. That was Prince singing of his song if I was your girlfriend I guess standpipe and bring is the editor of. The new prince memoir So Dan why did that song when you 1st heard it the 1st time you heard Prince Why did it make you feel like you were breaking the law. Yeah I remember this vividly I was think 16 years old I had just gotten my driver's license and this was in rural Baltimore County where I grew up I was driving around alone for one of the 1st times ever and that in itself is kind of an illicit feeling and at the time I was really listening to a lot of classic rock and jazz and things like that and I was a drummer so I really poor drum machines I thought that they were that they had no place in music but then this song came on the radio I think it was on Telson university radio if I was your girlfriend and in the song Prince is singing under the persona that he called Camille so he was speeding his voice up in addition to singing in a falsetto he can spread the tape up so his voice sounded even more feminine and high pitched and then there's all these various theories synthesizers on there and of course the drum machine playing this very eerie spare backbeat and Prince on that song is singing really from the perspective of a woman but as a man who wants to be a woman so that he can be closer to his partner and get the access psychologically to her that he feels he's denied by by virtue of his masculinity I had just never heard anything so psycho sexually frank I don't think it was really a hunting but beautiful song it made me feel just sort of strange I think combined with the fact that I was out there on the road by myself it just seemed like something that was almost too intimate to be hearing when you wrote that you felt like you were breaking the law Prince objected to that he told you he objected to that your 1st meeting what was his objection. He thought that his music was not at all lawbreaking but it was completely harmonious and when he told me this we were sitting across from each other in his conference room and kind of perfect silence and we were surrounded by candles and there was kind of a sense of harmony in the place Paisley Park really felt like a sanctuary or a cocoon I could see that I had offended him or misread him and I worried he'd flown me all the way out there just to say that but to his mind lawbreaking music would be something more like Led Zeppelin or something I guess it's bluesy or more dissonant and he felt that he was always trying to make music that was in accordance with the law that was that was that had a harmony that elevated it to to suit his more religious side you know so he really resisted the idea that he was in any way a law breaker yet he told you he writes in harmony and he always lives in harmony Let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more if you're just joining us my guest is Dan pipe and bring and the new book that he edited and wrote the opening essay is called Prince the beautiful ones We'll be right back this is Fresh Air. Next time on The New Yorker radio hour I'll talk with Jason Blood the producer of get out and a new crop of horror films that reflect the scariest parts of real life we already get out we gave to our Monday meeting we said this is I think we like this I think it's good but it's definitely definitely no one has seen it before that's next time on the New York Radio Hour Monday night between 9 and 10 on k.c.a.l. You. This is Fresh Air Let's get back to my interview with Dan pipe and bring and he was supposed to be collaborating with Prince Prince had actually chosen him to collaborate Prince's memoir prince died shortly after they agreed to do the book so Dan edited a new book called Prince the beautiful ones and it stands personal essay about Prince it's the pages Prince had written before he died that he meant to be included in the memoir and there's also a lot of x. Song lyrics and photos and other things collected from Paisley Park. An objection he raised about a lot of people who had written about him was their use of the word magical or alchemy to describe his music did you use either of those words in your essay Yes I definitely use some variant of magical and maybe alchemy too and also transfigure which was a further word that he resisted because very very particular Festus ideas about which words belong to his orbit and particularly a word like transfigure which of course has a very strong literal religious connotation and he felt that he could not apply that to his kind of secular music it would be wrong it would be a violation of the proper order of things and magic he had the most memorable objection to he said that funk is the opposite of magic funk is about rules and he pointed to all the work that went into his music that there was really no magic in it it was it was a labor a labor of love for the labor nonetheless and that he had to learn to play all of these $27.00 instruments that he played on his 1st album that he had to learn how to mix them how to master them how to program the drum machine and that funk was about rules and I would come to see once I learned about his parents that that kind of discipline side really came a lot from his father he also thought that you know magic or me. Magical those were Michael words not Prince words that's right he said when he was driving me back to the hotel in his car he looked over and said you know really think carefully about which words you would use because magical is not one that I would use to describe me that is Michael's word he thought that Michael Jackson's music had this kind of magic and I think he's right about that if you listen to something on Thriller there is a kind of storybook quality to it a more fairy tale vibe something magical that doesn't quite show up that much in Prince's own catalogue Why do you think prince chose you to be his collaborator for his memoir that's of course something that I'll always wonder about in true prince fashion he he never kind of leveled his gaze at me and said Dan this is why it's you he left me only sort of fragments and clues one I think really goes back to that idea of diction of words he said to me at one point you know you know a lot more words than I do and that's of course very flattering but I don't really think it was true he was very well spoken and he had a talent for Nilo just him he would invent words like normality at n o r m a l a v y that's one that shows up in his book but I think he wanted someone who shared his kind of playful sense of language and his of his desire to experiment with a book he didn't want someone who was going to be all judging him for wanting to break the mold of the memoir or trying to fit him in a template you know I think if there was any advantage to the kind of guilelessness that I brought to our conversations it was that it let me listen to him very openly and without judgment and he writes at one point it's much easier to open up with your pen if someone isn't judging you for what you're doing where was Prince musically when you started working with him on his memoir. He had just launched its solo tour I believe the 1st one. His career called piano and a microphone where he was going to perform at various kind of smaller venues around the world and it was just going to be him and his piano on the stage and he would really sort of reinvent songs from his whole catalogue his whole career on the fly and he was mixing these Also I think for the 1st time ever with stories and anecdotes from his past especially from his childhood and it was always great to see those shows I got to see 2 of them