Prince at 11, Rare Childhood Footage Discovered in Minnesota News Archives

Here's Prince at age 11 doing his very first interview, but not about music -- just a kid sharing his opinion on a Minnesota teachers' strike ... an incredible piece of lost TV footage!

The clip is from way back in April 1970, and it shows a reporter from local TV outlet WCCO asking young Prince what he thinks of the picket lines outside schools. The kid was rocking a winter hat and that same sly smile the world would come to know 13 years later.

11-year-old Prince told the reporter, "I think they should get a better education too cause, um, and I think they should get some more money cause they work, they be working extra hours for us and all that stuff."

At first glance, the kid looks a lot like Prince, but the reporter never asked the kid's name ... so there was no proof on camera that it really was Prince Rogers Nelson.

WCCO did some digging, tracking down other kids from the archival footage who did share their names, but ran into some dead ends. That's when they turned to Prince historian Kristen Zschomler, who gasped when she first saw the clip.

Zschomler says it's definitely Prince in the video, standing outside his old Lincoln Junior High School stomping grounds ... and she says footage of Prince as a child is super rare.

The TV station got further confirmation it was Prince, getting in touch with an old classmate who recognized Prince and some of their other peers on tape.