Three stories from my morning Internet crawl just came full circle: After listening to a dozen or so tracks from Buzzfeed’s “Songs Of The Summer: 1940-2010” countdown, I happened upon a post celebrating the birthdays of Tom Jones, 70, and Prince, 52, today with a rather appropriate video. Now lo and behold, Antiquiet reports that Prince dropped a brand new “summer” song this morning while celebrating his birthday on a Minneapolis radio station.

Though “Hot Summer” won’t be owning the summer jam competition anytime soon, it is a relief to hear Prince working with non-NFL-related themes once again. Stream the Purple One’s new tune below:

The case of MCD, a Dublin-based promoter, versus Prince Rogers Nelson and William Morris Endeavour Entertainment LLC will play out in an Irish court this week, with the Purple One himself listed as a witness.

As Times Online and Independent.ie are reporting, Prince allegedly refused to fly to Dublin and perform at the city’s Croke Park stadium in 2008 “on a whim,” costing MCD €1.66m (about $2.2 million) in losses after being forced to refund 55,126 ticket holders. Though Prince, who would have made “an artists’ guaranteed fee of $3m (€2.2m)” for the gig, has already provided an affidavit and made the official witness list, it is unclear whether the artist will appear to defend himself in person.

He probably won’t show, of course, but who knows? We certainly didn’t see this one coming either.

In a move that is sure to make even die-hard Prince fans cringe, the Purple One has penned a new “fight song” for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, which was inspired by last weekend’s game in which quarterback Brett Favre led Prince’s hometown team to a massive upset against the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC divisional matchup. (I’ve learned so much about football tonight!)

Fox 9 reports that Prince, who definitely attended that game, wrote the song “Purple and Gold” after the event because he—I kid you not—”saw the future.”

Care for a couple lyrics from “Purple and Gold”?

the veil of the sky draws open
the roar of the chariots touch down
we r the ones who have now come again
and walk upon water like solid ground
as we approach the throne we won’t bow down
this time we won’t b denied

raise every voice and let it b known
in the name of the purple and gold

Wow, Prince, just… wow. Okay, is everybody now ready to hear it? Stream the song, which the Vikings “love” and “plan to put on their site,” below:

In case you didn’t hear, the Purple One descended on Paris last week for Fashion Week events, which included appearances at the Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel runway shows, a Fendi party, two surprise concerts in one day at the Grand Palais, and appearing in this surreal photo with Katy Perry and Russell Brand.

Prince also made time for a very rare hour-long press conference with the French media. The whole video and/or transcription isn’t available online yet, but here are some interesting bits we pieced together so far (emphasis ours).

On French Audiences (transcribed by Yahoo! News):

They were very respectful. We asked that no one used camera phones and they honored that request, unlike Americans who are so obsessed with technology. We don’t like to have our concert filmed that way because it sounds so bad and then you give all the footage to somebody like YouTube who is run by Universal Publishing, and some of those same lawyers.

On the Internet & New Media:

It’s a tool. It’s not a means to an end. My concerts have always been dear to me and it’s almost a shame I got so good at making records because the media is dying now, so until something new happens and we get some laws and restrictions to how the media is used and the revenue is shared, then I’ll just stick with the live stuff and every once in a while I’ll do records.

On Will.i.am (via partial video @ MenStyle.fr):

Will.i.am is a friend of mine and we talk a lot about what the future will look like and how people will actually get music and it has nothing to do with lawyers and accountants that have nothing to say in regards to the creative process.

On “My Humps”:

I like Will.i.am., his business sense and how he sees the world is very interesting. He’s very technology driven, but let’s remember he did write “My Humps.” [laughter]

I’m not sure how Prince could go from not even casting a vote in the presidential election, saying “I got no dog in that race,” to wanting to work for President Obama months later, but if the White House’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Van Jones, is to be believed, that’s exactly what happened. Check out this excerpt from Jet magazine (not yet available online):

Van Jones, Obama’s special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told JET that celebrities including Russell Simmons and Prince have contacted him looking for ways to join Obama’s team.

Celebrities vying for jobs at the White House is certainly not news to me (actor Kal Penn left hit show House to be an associate director in the Office of Public Engagement), but look at what Prince told Tavis Smiley in April on his reasons for not voting (via Jezebel’s Tracie Egan):

Well, the reason why is because I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and we’ve never voted. That’s not to say that I don’t think Barack Obama—President Obama—is a very smart individual and he seems like he means well. Prophecy is what we all have to go by now.

Perhaps he simply wants to bring said prophecy to the leader of the free world. And far be it from Prince to leave his Crystal Ball at home.

*Update* I hope it didn’t hurt Prince’s chances at a White House gig, but Van Jones, our source for this story, has resigned. Looks like there’s an opening in the Obama administration, Prince…

Prince may have spent some time shooting hoops with Michael Jackson at Paisley Park and the pair did “share” the stage once, but there’s no doubt they had more than a bit of a rivalry in the 1980s and beyond. As MTV’s Kyle Anderson noted, the similarities between the King of Pop and the Purple One—reclusiveness, similar combination of genres, peaking on the charts around the same time, etc.—made their competition for the pop music crown kind of inevitable.

In the wake of Michael Jackson’s tragic passing, a response from his former foe appears to have finally arrived in the form of a musical tribute. MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett reports that organizers of the World Music Awards have booked Janet Jackson to accept an award on her brother’s behalf (he was set to receive it before he died) and… drum roll… Prince is in talks to do a tribute performance.

Interestingly, the World Music Awards is taking place this fall in Monaco where Prince is scheduled to perform next week at the Monaco Opera House. Warm-up show, n’est-ce pas?

I wouldn’t put it past Prince to be a “let them eat cake” kind of guy, but when I first heard about his $2100 “Opus,” a gaudy limited edition book and loaded iPod touch, I thought even the Purple One was losing touch. Have no fear though, Princologists, Prince wants to know exactly how he can get you into his “intimate world” today.

Not only will the lucky 950 purchasers of the Opus be entered to win $21,000, but UK fans can also choose from two payment plans: “Option 1: Interest-free over 12 months” or “Option 2: 24 Months at 9.7% APR.” Oh, and there’s also free shipping.

Sure, the iPod includes a definitely awesome “40-minute movie made by Prince of his 21 Nights at the O2 Arena plus a compilation of raw, live and after-show songs,” and it’s cute how he added that extra zero to the sweepstakes perk, but I can’t help wondering if Prince should also take a zero off that asking price.

By the way, if he sells out of these things, that adds up to about $2 million. Not to mention interest.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor did a lengthy interview with Digg’s Kevin Rose recently, answering the top questions submitted by users. The talk was interesting, but many NIN fans felt misrepresented, so they took to the message boards with their complaints. Reznor responded by offering NIN.com and Echoingthesound.org users their own Digg-style interview and this time around he wasn’t holding back:

“I’m not Prince or Rivers Cuomo who brags about having hundreds of great songs,” Reznor said. “And to that I would say, Prince, if you have a hundred great songs or a thousand, how about picking a few and putting them on your record that you’ve put out because your last several have sucked. Same for you, Rivers. I say that constructively, you know.”

Wow. Between his active Twitter, post-engagement red carpet appearance, and these revealing interviews, it looks like the once-reclusive Reznor isn’t shying away from public life anymore. You can download the complete one hour webcast here (Thanks for the tip, Jarrett!).

Formerly shy, evasive artists Prince and Bob Dylan have been unusually public of late, giving longer, more revealing interviews to promote their latest albums. The first part of Prince’s two-night interview with PBS’ Tavis Smiley aired last night and the Purple One was very forthcoming, due in part to his close friendship with Smiley.

At one point, Prince even revealed his past medical problems. “I’ve never spoken about this before but I was born epileptic,” he said. “I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had.”

Prince also tackles issues about music critics, saying that he appreciates constructive criticism, but is hurt by reviews from critics that he feels have a malicious intent. At one point, he namedrops Miles Davis as a former friend whose criticism he appreciated. Well, I think anyone would rather hear what Miles has to say than someone like Jim DeRogatis.

The second part of Tavis Smiley’s interview with Prince airs tonight on PBS. Watch last night’s full interview here.