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‘Purple Rain’ Singer Prince Dead At Age 57: A Brief Snapshot Of His Life

By Gail Delaney
Published on: 10:05 PST, Apr 22, 2016

When news came out that Prince passed away, fans across the world mourned his death. Prince Rogers Nelson was found unresponsive in an elevator leading to his studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Even though paramedics tried to revive him with CPR, they were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m., April 21, 2016.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Midwest Medical Examiner’s office are investigating why Prince Rogers Nelson died. An autopsy is being conducted on him today, April 22, 2016. His publicist Yvette Noel-Schure confirmed his death in a statement.

“It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer Prince Rogers Nelson has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning at the age of 57.”

Prince Rogers was born June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to John Nelson and Mattie Shaw. It seemed natural for Prince to make music his career because both his parents were heavy in the music industry. John and Mattie had their own band called Prince Rogers Band, with John playing the music while Mattie sang jazz.

When Prince was 10 years old, John and Mattie went their separate ways leaving Prince and his sister to spend divided time between the two parents. Prince was not happy at home, so he ran away and lived with his neighbors, the Anderson family. Still, he did not have a happy childhood growing up and in 2009, he confessed that the kids used to tease him because he suffered from epileptic seizures. I

“Early in my career, I tried to compensate by being as flashy and as noisy as I could.”

Prince taught himself how to play a variety of musical instruments at a very early age. He learned to play the piano when he was 7 years old, the guitar when he was 13 years old, and then at the age of 14, he learned to play the drums. While he was in high school, he formed his own band, Grand Central, who later changed their name to Champagne. Apparently, Prince knew the direction he wanted to go in his life and he pursued it with everything he had.

The year 1978 was a pivotal year in Prince Rogers’ life when he signed on with Warner Brothers Records. His first record For You was released that same year, and in 1979, he released his self-titled album, Prince. This album contained his first hit song to peak on the charts. I Wanna be Your Lover reached Number 11 on the Pop charts and it made it to Number One on the R&B Charts. Prince played most of the musical instruments on his albums.

In 1980, Prince’s music changed to censored lyrics. His album Dirty Mind contained songs that could not be played over the air because of the filthy language. However, he did manage to have two songs on that album that could be played on the radio. The song “Uptown” hit Number 5 on R&B, and “When You Were Mine,” according to Rolling Stone, became “Prince’s most widely covered song and a minor comeback hit for Mitch Ryder in 1983? as well as many other artists. Prince’s next album, Controversy, had two hits as well, with the title song “Controversy” peaking at Number 3 on the R&B and “Let’s Work” hitting Number 9.

Prince’s time for stardom came in 1984 with the song “Purple Rain,” when he made and acted in a movie — bearing the same title — that portrayed his life. The movie’s soundtrack drew fans in by the thousands and it stayed at the top of the charts for 24 weeks and sold over 13 million copies. The soundtrack contained the hits “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Purple Rain,” “I Would Die 4 U,” and “Take Me With U.” It was with these hits that Prince changed the group’s name to Prince and the Revolution.

The next album, Around the World in a Day, was not as successful and for some reason, Prince did not want to release any singles from it. Thankfully, he changed his mind and released “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life,” which hit the charts in 1985.

Although Prince did a few albums after that, turmoil seemed to follow the group and it underwent some changes. In 1987, Prince fired the Revolution which set him back in the music world, until 1989 when he started to hit the charts again with the soundtrack “Batdance,” done for the movie Batman.

In January 1991, Prince formed a new group called New Power Generation, and in 1992, he made another album whose title was an unpronounceable sign of the male and female gender symbols. It seems he liked the symbols so much that in 1993, he made a dramatic change to his name. He was no longer Prince. He decided to use the symbol of his previous album, and it left people wondering what to call him. So, he had a number of nicknames such as “Symbol Man,” “Glyph,” and “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince,” but after a while, they simply called him “The Artist.”

This bold move, to use a symbol for his name, cost Prince. People made fun of him and in 1994, he lost the deal made with Warner Brothers. They dropped his distribution contract with his company, Paisley Park Records, and put him out of business.

In 1996, Prince married Mayte Garcia, one of the vocalists in his band. Prince and Mayte stayed married for two years but they had their marriage annulled. What should have been a happy time in Prince’s life is marked with tragedy when he and Mayte had a son in November. Sadly, their son, Boy Gregory, died within a week of his birth from a rare skull defect, Pfeiffer Syndrome. In 2001, Prince married Manuela Testolini, only to divorce her in 2006.

However, these setbacks didn’t stop “The Artist,” as he continued to do music and make a name for himself. He changed his music style from the highly offensive lyrical to songs that had real meaning. In 2001, Prince changed his religion from being a Seventh Day Adventist to a Jehovah’s Witness. USA Today said he actually knocked on people’s doors to talk about Jesus, surprising or, in many cases, shocking fans who opened their door to find him standing outside.

In 2015, a young black man, Freddie Gray, died in police custody and Prince recorded “Baltimore” as a tribute to his death.

Just last week, Prince had taken ill while traveling in his plane and it was forced to make an emergency landing at Illinois’ Quad City International Airport. They rushed him to the nearest hospital because he had problems with flu.

Prince accomplished many things in his life and he will always be remembered for being different from all the other artists in the industry. Prince took crazy chances, like changing his name to a symbol, but his music, artistry, and personality won millions of fans who remained loyal to him through the years.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends, and fans of Prince Rogers Nelson. He will truly be missed, and the music industry will never be the same.

[Photo by Liu Heung Shing/AP Images]

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