WORCESTER — Jason Tenner didn't become a fan of Prince until he was Prince.

The music he was listening to growing up included Bob Marley and Led Zeppelin, but "there wasn't a lot of Prince," Tenner recalled. "I was 19 when 'Purple Rain' (the 1984 rock movie drama and its soundtrack) came out. The only thing I remembered was the scene with Apollonia." 

Then in 1996, Tenner, a member of the 1970s funk tribute band The Mothership Connection, dressed up as Prince for a Halloween party in Las Vegas. People liked the look and suggested he should play some Prince songs.

"Next thing you know it's 22 years," Tenner said of his "reign."

More precisely, the show he developed became "Purple Reign: The Prince Tribute Show!" which Tenner is taking on tour out of Las Vegas to parts east for the first time and comes to The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for a performance at 8 p.m. May 18. 

Tenner, who still leads the way front and center as Prince as well as being the show's producer, promised during a telephone interview earlier this year that the performance will have "raw energy from the '80s era/early '90s era, high-end musicians, high-end choreography."

"Purple Reign" includes tributes to Morris Day and the Time (from "Purple Rain) and Vanity 6, the female trio that Prince formed. 

"We make it as close and authentic and real-feeling as it can be for the people," Tenner said.   

In Las Vegas, "Purple Reign," most recently at the Tropicana, has picked up plenty of accolades and awards over the years, including being crowned "Best Tribute Act" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It apparently caught the attention of Prince, who asked to meet Tenner. In 2008 Purple Reign became the first tribute act to appear as a musical guest on "The Late Show With David Letterman."

Still, "we haven't had much time out of Vegas in the last 20 years. I'm looking forward to it," Tenner said of the current tour.

"Purple Rain," the semiautobiographical story of a Minneapolis rock musician ("The Kid"), his despairs, triumphs and troubled relationship with his girlfriend, Apollonia, was simultaneously the top movie, album and single shortly after its release.

Over the years Prince (1958-2016) explored many different musical styles while maintaining his magnetic and dynamic stage presence and also wrote songs for a number of other performers. An enigmatic figure, he continued to live in Minneapolis (building his estate and production complex Paisley Park) and became a Jehovah's Witness toward the end of his life. He also developed a painful hip condition that likely resulted from his stage act. He tragically died of an accidental overdose of the powerful but dangerous opioid fentanyl.

Tenner's journey has included being in the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and singing in an adaptation of "The Nutcracker" at Butler University in Indianapolis before joining The Mothership Connection.

"Purple Reign" initially focused on Prince's "Purple Rain" period but widened its scope.

For Tenner, familiarity led to fandom.

"I started to appreciate what he did. I became a fan through the process of doing the show," he said.

Tenner ended up meeting with Prince a couple of times under "strange circumstances … He definitely was an interesting man to speak with."

One one occasion, Tenner said, he received a phone call at 3 a.m. from someone who told him, "Prince is at this late-night spot waiting on you."

On the road Prince would often do "after-parties," Tenner said.

"I spoke with him very privately. I keep all that off the record," he said. However, Prince had just become a Jehovah's Witness and had "a spiritual point of view," Tenner said. "He was one of a kind."

Prince was pretty private in his thoughts about "Purple Reign."

"He never approved or disapproved of the show, but people said the fact that he called you, he must have approved of it on some level," Tenner said. "I'm not sure if he ever saw the show. I did 'The Late Show With David Letterman.' I don't know if he did (see that) or not."

Nevertheless, Prince's untimely death on April 21, 2016, affected Tenner emotionally.

"I didn't know him. I would never say I knew Prince. I spent less than an hour (with Prince in total). But learning his music and taking on his character, you felt you knew him on some level or connected with him on some level. I was crying for about a month after. It was something. It's crazy. It's almost three years."

There were other effects.

"There was a surge in business for six months, then it went back to normal," he said of attendance for "Purple Reign."

Did the show change?

"It did," Tenner said. "We always took it seriously. Prince fans are very loyal, very critical. We went back and pulled out the catalog and dug into the music deeply. He was prolific. It's a deep catalog."

Tenner's own reign as Prince might have an abdication at some point.

For one thing, from "years and years of doing the splits" on stage just like Prince did, Tenner now has the same sort of hip problems that Prince suffered from, he said.

"But I don't take painkillers," Tenner said. "One leg is shorter than the other. But I'm not like in constant pain."

Also, "I'd like to pursue other things … I have an EP coming out hopefully this summer. All my own music," he said.

"It'll be 22 years this summer. I still enjoy it every night," he said of being Prince in "Purple Reign."

In a couple more years, however, "I'll be looking to replace myself and keep the show running."

Will the music endure?

"Most definitely," Tenner said.

Contact Richard Duckett at richard.duckett@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @TGRDuckett