By Henry Walsh
On Thursday evening, I went on the internet. I had slept in that day, and hadn’t seen the news of the day yet. I opened up ew.com, just to see what I had missed.
Nearly every headline had the same topic, and it wasn’t surprising once I saw the subject: Prince was dead.
According to the many websites I looked at in a panic to confirm this, he had died of as-yet-unknown causes in an elevator, and had been found that morning. Obviously, this was a surprise to me. Even though the height of his fame occurred before my time, he was still a legend.
For all his successes, even throughout his transition into legend status, Prince remained a pretty cool guy. In recent years, he poked major fun at himself on the TV show New Girl, and he has been known to donate to important causes, giving money to the family of Trayvon Martin and to Louisville’s Western Branch Library, the first library operated by and serving African-Americans. He continued to give to charity throughout his life, and he did not let any of the fame go to his head.
It would do no good to go into the whys and hows of his death, since nothing is confirmed yet. However, we should do everything that we can to honor his memory.
The star was born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a jazz singing mother and a pianist father. From the first moments of his life, it was clear he had music in his blood, a fact he went on to prove for decades. He notched massive hits on the Billboard Hot 100 like “Sign O’ The Times”, “Purple Rain”, “Little Red Corvette” and of course, “When Doves Cry”. He worked hard to get where he got, and never lost touch with the power of just the music.
As more and more celebrities react publicly to his passing, none more poignantly remember him than Sheila E, who sums him and herself with a quick anecdote: “He just wanted to play. What’s to talk about? Nothing. We say what we need to say when we play.”
With the staying power amassed by Prince throughout his career, it’s clear many will be able to recall for years to come where they were when Prince died.
