Prince Rogers Nelson passed away from an accidental fentanyl overdose in April of 2016, having been on strong pain medications due to hip problems that typically require a hip replacement. It seems that years of jumping around on stage wearing high-heeled boots wasn't easy on his body, and unfortunately, though his entourage was aware that he was quickly developing a serious addiction to those pain meds, they weren't able to get him help in time - an opioid addiction specialist had been called in but didn't arrive until a couple of hours after Prince had already passed away. He was 57.
For those who don't know, Prince, the son of two jazz musicians, and who was named after his father John L. Nelson's stage name (Prince Rogers), was both a basketball and musical prodigy. At the age of 16, he was already being scouted for college teams as a basketball player despite his tiny 5'3" height - he was that good! But even more then basketball, music was Prince's passion, and he was both incredibly gifted and one of the hardest working people those around him had ever seen.
He made a multi-song demo at the age of 17, and his manager shopped it around to record labels, and they all said "this group has some real talent - who are they?" They were astonished to learn that Prince had written every song, performed every instrument, did all the arrangements, and handled the production duties on the demo - oh, and sang every note. He was signed to Warner Brothers at the age of 19 with an unheard of deal, at his insistence: complete artistic control of all facets of his music. On his first album, Prince wrote, produced, arranged, composed, and played all 27 instruments on the recording, with only one lyric co-writing credit.
Heavily influenced by soul and funk artists (especially Sly & The Family Stone), but also by pop, punk, new wave, and dance music, Prince had a unique style, but it took him a little while to develop. His first album "For You" didn't light up the charts, but his second album "Prince" had a breakthrough radio hit: I Wanna Be Your Lover, which was all over pop radio in the summer of 1979.
Prince continued to develop his unique "Minneapolis Funk" sound, hiring mostly local musicians for his band, and he further started a second band to open for him and as an outlet for his more dance funk-oriented material. Originally called Flyte Time, that name was shortened to The Time. Prince wrote all the music and did all the arrangements, and after 8 hours of recording, then rehearsing his own band for 3 hours, would then rehearse The Time to perfection for another 3 hours every day.
Prince continued to release albums, including Controversy with its title song hit, but he really hit the big time with 3 massive hits off of the next album, including Little Red Corvette, Delirious, the title song 1999.
With this worldwide success, Prince told Warner Brothers that he wanted to make a movie, starring himself, featuring his own music, that would make him a superstar. Things never work out that way, of course... except this time, that's exactly what happened.
His semi-autobiographical, low-budget movie Purple Rain was a huge hit in theaters, and the accompanying album was nothing short of a worldwide smash, spinning off singles for 2 years, and as of this writing just hit 14 x Platinum (14 million copies sold), and is ranked #1 on Billboard's list of the 92 albums that have hit Diamond status (10M or more copies sold). NUMBER ONE, over the Beatles, over Led Zeppelin, over Michael Jackson, etc.
Prince was a prolific songwriter, and he wrote smash hits for a number of other artists, including the Bangles' "Manic Monday", Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You", Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U", and of course, every hit by The Time, Vanity, and lots more. It is said that Prince recorded at least one completed song every day he wasn't on tour, and would work for 3 days straight with a rotation of engineers, in order to capture his ideas. His method was very unusual: he'd complete an entire song, including all parts and overdubs, before moving on to the next one. His unreleased back catalog is massive.
Perhaps more than anything, though, Prince was renown for his live performances, and having seen him live myself, it is impossible to overstate this. He was out of this world live, and James Brown, one of Prince's heros and someone known for demanding perfection from his own band, would have been jealous at how tight Prince's band always was. Perfection was Prince's starting point.
Two of his amazing performances have to include his 2007 Superbowl Halftime show, where, among other songs, he performed Purple Rain in the rain. There have been a few great halftime shows, but I don't think anything compares.
And the other one, that many have probably never seen, was A Tribute To George Harrison at the 2004 Hall of Fame Inductions. The band had been assembled, but only had time for a single run through of the song during rehearsal, and one of the other guitar players misunderstood and kept playing during the part where Prince was to do the solo - so Prince sat out. Concerned he didn't get to rehearse his part, Prince assured them he'd be fine. And when the show came, and it was time for the solo, Prince played what might well be the greatest guitar solo of all time - full of passion and building to face-melting intensity, yet still restrained and respectful. George's son Dhani Harrison, who was on-stage, felt it was the greatest performance he'd ever seen, and Eric Clapton called Prince the best guitar player in the world.
Private and reclusive, Prince was nevertheless generous, constantly inviting musicians - including talented but not yet well-known musicians, to come and record with him at his Paisley Park studios. And when the recording was done, he always made everyone pancakes.
The world of music will never be the same without Prince.
Most Helpful Opinions