Prince
Prince Dead at 57
Prince died at the age of 57 at his compound Paisley Park this morning. He was recently hospitalized with the flu after his plane had been forced to make an emergency landing presumably because of his illness. However he had since performed and tweeted and by all accounts was feeling better.
"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," his publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, wrote in a statement. She did not elaborate on the cause of his death.
He was currently on tour performing solo with just him and a piano. The reviews had been stellar as one would expect from the master musician. The awards and musical accolades accomplished by the prolific singer puts him in the category of The Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson.
In a recent interview with the Guardian, he explains the reasons behind his solo tour.
“So I’m doing it to challenge myself, like tying one hand behind my back, not relying on the craft that I’ve known for 30 years. I won’t know what songs I’m going to do when I go on stage, I really won’t. I won’t have to, because I won’t have a band. Tempo, keys, all those things can dictate what song I’m going to play next, you know, as opposed to, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do my hit single now, I’ve got to play this album all the way through,’ or whatever. There’s so much material, it’s hard to choose. It’s hard. So that’s what I’d like to do.”
His eccentricities were well known and included a name change to a symbol, policing his music online and multiple spelling and speaking mannerisms. Prince’s Top 10 hits included “Little Red Corvette,” “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Kiss,” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”; albums like “Dirty Mind,” “1999” and “Sign O’ the Times.”
