| Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis. He was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor. Prince was renowned as an innovator and was widely known for his eclectic work, flamboyant stage presence and vocal range. He was the pioneer of Minneapolis sound and his music integrates a wide variety of styles, including funk, rock, R&B, soul,psychedelia, and pop. Prince is the son of Mattie Della (née Shaw; 1933–2002) and John Lewis Nelson (1916–2001). His parents were both African American, and his family ancestry is centered in Louisiana. Prince's father was a pianist and songwriter and his mother was a jazz-singer. Prince was named after his father, whose stage name was Prince Rogers, and who performed with a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio. In a 1991 interview with A Current Affair, Prince's father said, "I named my son Prince because I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do". Prince's childhood nickname was Skipper. He changed his stage name in 1993 to an unpronounceable symbol , also known as the Love Symbol. Prince's sister Tika Evene was born in 1960. Both siblings developed a keen interest in music, and this was encouraged by their father. Prince wrote his first tune, "Funk Machine", on his father's piano when he was seven. When Prince was ten years old, his parents separated. Prince kept switching homes beacuse of the separation. He then moved into the home of neighbors named Anderson and befriended their son Andre Anderson, who later became known as André Cymone. Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central when they were attending Minneapolis's Central High School. In 1973 he met Jimmy Jamin junior high, and impressed him during musical class with his musical talent, his early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and his work ethic. Grand Central later changed its name to Champagne and started playing original music influenced by Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Todd Rundgren. Prince also played basketball in high school, and continued the sport recreationally as an adult. Prince was engaged to Susannah Melvoin in 1985. When he was 37, he married his 22-year-old backup singer and dancer Mayte Garcia on Valentine's Day 1996. They had a son named Boy Gregory on October 16, 1996, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died a week later. Prince and Mayte divorced in 1999. In 2001, Prince married Manuela Testolini in a private ceremony. She filed for divorce in May 2006. Prince had needed double hip-replacement surgery since 2005 but would not undergo the operation unless it was a bloodless surgery because Jehovah's Witnesses typically do not accept blood products. The condition was caused by repeated onstage dancing in high-heeled boots. Towards the end of his life Prince regularly walked with a cane in public, beauxe he didn't had his hip replaced. He had however been using canes as part of his outfit from the early 1990s. On April 7, 2016, Prince postponed two performances from his Piano & A Microphone Tour, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta; the venue released a statement saying he had influenza. He rescheduled and performed the show on April 14, even though he still was not feeling well. While flying back to Minneapolis early the next morning, he became unresponsive, and his private jet made an emergency landing so that he could seek medical treatment. Representatives stated that he suffered from "bad dehydration" and had had influenza for several weeks. Prince was seen in public the following evenin saying that he was feeling fine. On April 21, 2016, at 9:43 a.m., the Carver County Sheriff's Office received a 9-1-1 phone call requesting that an ambulance be sent to Prince's home at Paisley Park. The caller initially told the dispatcher that Prince was unconscious, then moments later said he was dead. Emergency responders found Prince unresponsive in an elevator and performed CPR, but were unable to revive him; he was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. He was 57 years old. Following an autopsy, his remains were cremated. Numerous musicians and cultural figures reacted to Prince's death. Cities across the U.S. held tributes and vigils, and lit buildings, bridges, and other venues in purple. In the first five hours after the media began reporting his death, "Prince" was the top trending term on Twitter, and Facebook had 61 million Prince-related interactions. |