Damon Albarn is a talented musician, producer and set in his ways. 

In an interview with Radio X’s Gordon Smart , Albarn was expected to talk about Gorillaz’s upcoming album The Now Now, but instead he told the story of a Prince collaboration that never came to fruition. Apparently Prince was a fan of Albarn’s and invited him to his studio to record. Albarn turned down the offer cause he couldn’t smoke in the studio.

“Yeah I didn’t go. I’d done a gig in Minneapolis and I was invited to go and play with Prince so to speak,” Albarn recounted to Smart. “And you know, I was having a drink and a fag — I don’t actually smoke anymore as I knocked that one on the head — and I was just like… If you can’t be who you are…”

Albarn wasn’t feeling the legend’s rules. “If I’ve invited someone, they’re my guest and there aren’t any conditions like that,” said Albarn. “And anyway, it’s like I could go and have a cigarette outside if I needed it. You know, I’d be fucking excited and how could I not fucking go mad if I’m with Prince?”

Gorillaz’s new album The Now Now arrives June 29.