Facts about Prince, guitar hero and showman

Prince's return to the Madison Square Garden stage takes place Saturday, when his Welcome 2 America Tour arrives in midtown. The tour is Prince's first East Coast jaunt since 2004, but he's kept a high profile with extended residencies in London and Las Vegas. Saturday's show is chock-full of guests and might have a couple of surprises; at the October news conference announcing the tour, he suggested concertgoers "bring foot spray, because it's going to be funky."

Here are a few things to know about Prince.

He can still put on a show. If you were one of the millions of people who caught his Super Bowl halftime performance in 2007, you know that Prince can electrify a crowd - his rain-soaked show, which appropriately featured "Purple Rain" as well as covers of the Foo Fighters' "Best of You" and Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," brought quite a jolt to the stage.

He remains a guitar hero. Prince is one of the greatest guitarists to grace pop's stage over the past 30 years, as his playing on such tracks as "Purple Rain" - not to mention that Super Bowl performance - proves. During the Welcome 2 America shows, Prince will play a gold-plated Fender Stratocaster; at the end of the tour, the guitar will be auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting the Harlem Empowerment Zone.

He's off the Internet . . . for now. "The Internet's completely over," he told a UK paper that distributed his 2010 full-length "20Ten" as a cover-mounted CD in July when asked why he wasn't releasing the record online. ("20Ten" has not yet been distributed in the States.) In 2009, he released two records - "LotusFlow3r" and "MPLSound" - through his now-darkened website; they also were sold through Target as a three-disc package that included the debut album by his protégé Bria Valente as well.

He's keeping everyone on their toes. Prince doesn't do much press, which is why many eyebrows were raised last week when he stopped by ABC's "The View" unannounced; during his brief visit, he noted that he had a band "like a jackhammer" and caused Sherri Shepherd to go into a teen-idol-worthy tizzy. "You don't understand: I have wanted to make love to you for my whole life!" Shepherd exclaimed - and that was Prince's cue to exit.

WHEN | WHERE 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Madison Square Garden (returns Dec. 29 and Jan. 18); Find available tickets

Crowning achievements

Prince is curating the lineup for each stop of the Welcome 2 America Tour. Here's a look at who's performing with him during Saturday's show.

* Sinbad. The Michigan-born comedian and former TV star hit the comeback trail earlier this year with "Sinbad: Where U Been?," a Comedy Central special, and a short stint on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

* Larry Graham and Graham Central Station. The former bassist for Sly and the Family Stone, who's credited with creating the now-common slap bass sound, formed his own band in 1973.

* Sheila E. The drum virtuoso scored funk-pop hits with the Prince-penned "The Glamorous Life" in 1984 and her 1985 duet with Prince "A Love Bizarre." She proved her genre-spanning credentials when she won the third season of CMT's fish-out-of-water reality show, "Gone Country."