(Photo credit: WireImage)
Man…it’s still hard to believe that Prince has passed away! I think when I heard the news about his passing, I wasn’t quite processing what had happened. Then, after hearing and remember all of his amazing songs, the feelings started to come. He was an amazing musician and was very inspirational for most of the artists that come out of the speakers today! We have truly lost one of the greats! He will be missed dearly.
I know that Prince had a “mystery” about him…but we found 27 things you might not have known about Prince.
1. Prince was a huge fan of the show New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel, and once wrote to her to tell her he only watched two things on TV – New Girl and the news.
Following this, he made a special guest appearance in the show in February 2014.
2. He was a devout Jehovah’s Witness, baptised in 2001 – and he even went door-to-door. In 2003 a woman in Minnesota opened her door to discover the legend standing in front of her home.
3. In 1989 Prince’s half-sister sued him, claiming that the lyrics to U Got the Look were written by her. The judge finally sided with the music star after a long court battle.
4. He lost a child, a boy, in November 1996. The baby died at just one week old from a rare genetic condition, Pfeiffer Syndrome.
5. He told Rolling Stone magazine in 1985 that he was once so poor, he would stand outside McDonalds and smell food because he couldn’t afford to eat it.
6. In 2010 he said: “The Internet’s completely over.” He refused to stream songs on Spotify and sell them on iTunes.
7. Prince was just blocks away from John Lennon’s murder in December 1980.
8. He recorded an entire album’s worth of songs after meeting actress Kim Basinger and falling head over heels, even cancelling a tour to work on it so he could impress her.
9. In 1995 he changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol 0{+> (also known and copyrighted as Love Symbol #2) as a way of striking back against his label, Warner Bros, who he blamed for low sales.
10. Staff at Paisley Park reportedly called him ‘the dude’ during this time.
11. He thought playing guitar gave him his full head of hair, telling the Daily Mirror: “I’m convinced all that electricity racing through my body made me keep my hair.”
12. Prince wrote the song Nothing Compares 2 U, which was made famous by Sinead O’Connor. It was about the sister of his bandmate, Wendy.
13. He also wrote Manic Monday for The Bangles.
14. He had a space set aside which he called The Knowledge Room – a library of religious books.
15. Prince is actually his real name. He was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958.
16. In 1984 he became the second artist to have a number 1 album, movie and song in the USA at the same time – after the Beatles.
17. Prince was just 5’2″ tall.
18. He developed an alter ego, who was known as Camille. The vocals on the track If I Was Your Girlfriend from Sign O The Times are said to be that of Camille.
19. Prince played guitar on Madonna’s Like a Prayer – but you wouldn’t know, because he wasn’t credited.
20. After he wrote the song Kiss, he gave it away – but soon took it back after he heard the backing track the other band had added to the song.
21. He wrote his first song, Funk Machine, at the age of 7 – a whole half a century ago.
22. During his early years with the Revolution, his favorite meal was said to be spaghetti and orange juice.
23. There is an urban legend that he had ribs removed so he could perform oral sex on himself.
24. He’s had many names – Skipper, as a boy – then Jamie Starr, Christopher Alexander Nevermind, The Purple One. Joey, O(+> and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince /TAFKAP.
25. He admitted he had a ‘wild side’ and that his mum, Mattie Shaw, was responsible for it.
26. Prince had a Willy Wonka moment – in 2006, Universal hid 14 purple tickets inside his album. Fans who found it were invited to attend a private performance at his home.
27. When he performed on Saturday Night Live, he swore during a song – and nobody noticed. It became the only show where ‘the F bomb’ was dropped twice.
(Read more HERE)
