Instead of promoting two singles as per most musical guests, funk rock icon and sex symbol Prince will give an unadulterated eight-minute performance on NBC's flagship late-night program, "Saturday Night Live" on Nov. 1 with an assist by backing band 3rdEyeGirl. 

The announcement of the commercial-free showcase was made after the release of two critically acclaimed records, the solo effort "Art Official Age" and the duet album "Plectrumelectrum," which hit stores Sept. 30. Both went to No. 1 on the R&B and Rock charts, according to Prince.org. 

Billboard reports that this marks The Purple One's first appearance on "SNL" since Feb. 4, 2006, when he performed "Fury" and "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed" (opposite featured artist Támar) from his 28th studio album. That performance occurred exactly one year prior to his iconic performance at Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears.

According to Music Times, during an interview on the recently rebooted Arsenio talk show in March, the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince answered questions from the audience, revealing what has kept him going throughout his near four-decade career.

"When I was 16, I was completely broke and needed to go get a job and I got the Yellow Pages out and I couldn't find one thing that I wanted to do," the international superstar said. "So I decided I was going to push as hard as I could to be a musician and went at it."

The evening will be hosted by Chris Rock. He last hosted "Saturday Night Live" on Nov. 2, 1996, with musical guest The Wallflowers performing "One Headlight," one week after Dr. Dre performed "Been There, Done That." In 2009, the rapper became the subject of Rock's fifth HBO special "Kill the Messenger."

Rock, an acclaimed comedian came to wider prominence as a cast member of "SNL" in 1990. He enjoyed his three-year stint alongside then-cast members Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade, who became known as the "Bad Boys of SNL."

In an interview with Billboard about the international superstar, Rock talked about the importance and greatness of "Purple Rain" 30 years later. 

"There's not a bad record on 'Purple Rain.' 'Thriller' is allegedly the best album of all time, and that has at least two bad songs on it. There's no 'Baby Be Mine' on 'Purple Rain,'" Rock said.