Prince 1958-2016
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PRINCE 1958-2016 HE WAS A GENIUS WHO INSPIRED MILLIONS— AND A MAN OF MYSTERY OFFSTAGE. INSIDE THE COMPLICATED, COLORFUL LIFE OF A MUSIC ICON AND THE TRAGEDY THAT ENDED HIS REIGN By ALYNDA WHEAT 42 May 9, 2016 PEOPLE PEOPLE May 9, 2016 43 HIS FINAL 1 for concern,” sources confirm to People that the APPEARANCES 1. The star attended seemingly clean-living singer, who eschewed a Golden State recreational drugs, once had a history of using Warriors game in the prescription painkiller Percocet. Still, the Oakland, Calif., on star batted away any rumors that he was seri- March 3, arriving fashionably late ously ill. “Wait a few days before you waste any with model Damaris prayers,” he said at a party at Paisley Park on Sat- Lewis, his muse. urday, April 16. Yet it was just a few days later, on 2. “It was a crazy April 21, that the news came from the singer’s show. He sounded sogood,”saysa 55,000-sq.-ft. complex: Prince, the Oscar winner source of Prince’s with seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, final concert date, millions of record sales and just as many fiercely in Atlanta on April loyal fans, had been found dead in an elevator 14. “He seemed physically fine.” within the complex. 3. He was found As a performer, Prince is nearly impossible to dead in an elevator define. The late jazz great Miles Davis likened on April 21 at his Paisley Park him to a combination of Jimi Hendrix, Mar- compound, where he vin Gaye, James Brown and Charlie Chaplin. lived, recorded and He mixed musical genres like a mad scientist, performed. “You see dressed like a lascivious his personal touches everywhere,” says dandy and fused androg- friend Jimmy Jam. yny and masculinity “There was not an into a celebration of raw inch of that facility carnality. To borrow his ‘He was a that he didn’t touch.” own lyrics, he was, in a musician who word, sex. But the 5'2" spoke my dynamo who writhed language, 2 around onstage in chaps so it’s hard and high-heeled boots to take’ could back up his raun- —STEVEN TYLER chy image with musical virtuosity. A master of some two dozen instru- Prince’s death on April 21 at age 57 forced the world once ments, he gave kinetic live shows with multiple again to face the somber reality that while genius never dies, encores, then jammed for hours more at after- parties. His solo on “While My Guitar Gently geniuses do—and often much too soon. This loss, though, Weeps” at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony is the stuff of legend. His halftime hit especially hard for fans of the revolutionary artist who FROM CLOCKWISE (THIS SPREAD) KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGE; WHITMAN; ROBERT LEFT: FROM SREAD) (OPENING performance of “Purple Rain” at the 2007 defied genre and gender, blending lyrical poetry with BOTO COURTESY AKM-GSI; IMAGES; GRAHAM/NBAE/GETTY NOAH IMAGES; OLSON/GETTY SCOTT LEFT: Super Bowl—in actual rain he must have had rock-infused funk. Impromptu gatherings The artist seems to have been far sicker than delivered—stands as one of the best of all time. sprung up in New York City, in Los Angeles he had let on. Sources close to Prince said he may Performers who came after Prince took notice, and at the gates of his recording studio and have fought an “ongoing illness” leading up to with stars like Lenny Kravitz, Janelle Monae, residence Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minn. his death. “The people close to him were very Justin Timberlake and Adam Levine picking up Tributes poured in from President Obama, concerned for his health and indicated he’d been style and musical cues from the master. “I was PMadonna, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and undergoing treatments that made his immune 3 lucky to call him a friend,” Levine told People of THANK YOU FOR A FUNKY TIME more. Bruce Springsteen opened his concert system weak,” one source said. There were also the star, with whom he spent nights jamming. In the days following two nights later with a rendition of Prince’s public hints that Prince was not a well man. “[I’ll remember] just the great times that we had Prince’s death, signature ballad “Purple Rain.” Prince himself Returning from Atlanta, his private plane made and just constantly being inspired by how he did fans flocked to had closed his show with the song the week an emergency landing in Moline, Ill.—less than things his way.” Paisley Park, leaving balloons, flowers before at an electrifying stop in Atlanta on his an hour short of his intended stop of Minneap- That determination was evident in Prince from and messages Piano and a Microphone tour—his last major olis—so that he could be rushed to the hospital his youth. Born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958 to outside the concert, as it turns out. He’d postponed it from to receive what several reports called a “save singer and social worker Mattie Shaw and jazz compound. the prior week for what he said was the flu. shot” after he was found unresponsive on the performer John L. Nelson, the future star was “Once again, I would like to apologize for the flight. Though his longtime lawyer L. Londell forced to make his own way in the world. John cancellation,” he told the audience. “I was a lit- McMillan told the Associated Press the singer Nelson “found it hard to show emotion,” Prince tle under the weather.” was “not on any drugs that would be any cause confessed of his father in a 1984 interview with 44 May 9, 2016 PEOPLE May 9, 2016 PEOPLE 45 1 2 1 2 GUITAR HERO “He’s just a genius,” says former manager Bob Cavallo. “He’s one of the greatest guitarists. I don’t know anyone who could match him.” 3 3 People. When the boy was 7, his parents split, THE MAKING OF both of which quickly went platinum, but it was lyn Fenn, Sheena Easton and many more. That A STAR ON- AND congregation, to which Prince belonged. “This beginning a years-long odyssey in which Prince AN ICON the seminal Purple Rain that sent Prince into the changed when he married backup dancer Mayte OFFSTAGE was a safe place for him; it was a haven.” By all was passed around among family members and 1. “As a keyboard stratosphere. He owned the summer of 1984 with Garcia on Valentine’s Day in 1996. After suffer- 1. Prince (in accounts Prince embraced his new faith whole- friends. The only constant in his life was music. player he was the album, which included “Let’s Go Crazy,” “I ing the painful loss of their infant son later that 1986) was known heartedly, arriving to service in a conservative unparalleled,” for his electric Largely self-taught, he wrote his first song on his says Jimmy Jam Would Die 4 U,” “When Doves Cry” and the soar- year, and a subsequent miscarriage, the couple performances. suit and tie and going out to knock on doors, try- father’s piano at 7, played guitar at 13 and by 14 of Prince (in 1977), ing title track, along with a semiautobiographical never recovered. Their marriage ended in 2000. 2. “Prince and ing to recruit new members. “He was a believer,” had picked up the drums. “He was a quiet musi- who excelled film that scored with legions of fans if not critics. (See sidebar on page 50.) I had a magical adds James Lundstrom, another congregant, who cal genius,” says high school classmate Robert musically starting Prince was also turning himself into an impresa- That same year, Prince turned his attention journey, and I loved adds that Prince became so devout, he installed a in middle school. him immensely,” Vernon Plant. “He could pick up rhythms and Later he “enjoyed rio, fronting his band the Revolution, introducing toward business matters. In a dispute with says his second “cuss bucket” in the studio. “If you swore at Pais- chords and make up beautiful little riffs on the sitting at the piano the world to acts like Morris Day and grooming his record label, he changed his name into an wife, Manuela ley Park, he would charge you between $3 and spot, but he was really shy.” With an instrument and writing.” 2. “He up-and-comers like Sheila E. “I knew the person unpronounceable symbol and wrote “slave” on Testolini (with $10 per swear word. And he wasn’t joking. You in his hand, though, “he was a different person was always very I don’t think everyone else knew, someone they his cheek. “He was a visionary, and he fought for him at the 2005 had to pay in cash in the bucket.” Along with not fashionable—and Oscars). “I knew altogether,” says his junior high music teacher always looked like didn’t get to see,” says the “Glamorous Life” sing- artists’ rights,” says his former publicist Mitch him as a husband, celebrating birthdays and avoiding self-aggran- Jimmy Hamilton. “His eyes would light up.” a rock star,” adds er and percussionist. “He loved people. He was Schneider. “He never let anybody deter him from friend and fierce dizement, Jehovah’s Witnesses also abstain from In his late teens, Prince the star began to Jimmy Jam of his funny. He loved throwing parties . and having what he wanted to accomplish creatively and philanthropist.” drugs and limit alcohol use. Prince would “drink a pal (ca.