Ghost Rider is shaky as hell. The Cyclone replica that was out in the back of Magic Mountain was kind of like that, but GR has the somewhat dubious benefit of being out front so every can watch the thing falling apart from Beach Boulevard.
You can never take Prince's own words at face value. He was first and foremost a showman, so, naturally, what he was saying always served a greater purpose than what he was literally conveying.
See, I don't know if a lot of people even know that. I guess if you really followed his career, you would figure it out, but I think a lot of misconceptions happened because people were too busy studying the image instead of the man himself.