fresh start
TERENCE Trent D’Arby was the man of the moment in 1987 – with critics branding him the next Prince.
These days the singer, now 61, looks very different and goes by a completely alternative name – Sananda Maitreya.
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His singles Sign Your Name, If You Let Me Stay, and Wishing Well all stormed up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
His debut album Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent D’Arby went five times platinum, selling 1.5 million copies and earning him a Grammy.
And he had no bigger fan than himself.
In typically humble style he declared the work “the most important album since Sgt Pepper".
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But his follow up album, Neither Fish Nor Flesh, failed to hit the high notes and he fell out with his record company, blaming their “wholesale rejection of it” for its commercial failure.
He became Sananda Maitreya, a moniker which came to him in a series of dreams in 1995, and officially changed his name in 2001.
Claiming his second album had killed his stage persona, he said: “Terence Trent D'Arby was dead... he watched his suffering as he died a noble death.
“After intense pain I meditated for a new spirit, a new will, a new identity."
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Speaking on another occasion about his name change, he said his alter-ego had joined the 27 Club, referring to the tragic artists who died at that age, including Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.
He said: “It felt like I was going to join the 27 Club, and psychologically I did, because that is exactly the age I was when I was killed.”
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