Prince books four-night Leno gig

Musician Prince (R) attends the NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics at Staples Centre in Los Angeles December 25, 2008.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It's not U2, but "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" will get its own multiple dose of pop royalty this month.

Prince will perform on three consecutive nights on the NBC program as he girds for the release of a pair of new albums. The mini-residency will run March 25-27; he also plans to hit the "Tonight" stage May 28 for Leno's next-to-last night as host of the venerable talk show.

No word on whether the notoriously press-shy musician also will sit down for a chat.

The announcement comes the week after U2 did a five-night run on rival late-nighter "Late Show With David Letterman" in support of its new record. Prince's new albums, "Lotus Flower" and "MPLSound," will be available March 29 exclusively from Target. The $11.98 package will include an album by rookie artist Bria Velente.

Prince's "Tonight Show" performances apparently are part of a larger rollout for the CD package in Los Angeles. An e-mail Prince sent to fans and media this week read -- including the usual wacky spellings, grammar and such: "Purple Electricity. Calling all Purpleheadz: ready 2 get plugged in? From the 24th on, there will b a slew of NPG-related events happening around electric LAlaland. we don't want 2 give away all the details yet, but b prepared 2 get yo groove on, numerous ways 4 numerous days. We know $ is tite but the adventures will b worth ur while! Stay 2ned 2 this outtaspacestation."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)