Prince (1958 to 2016)

In 1976 the band changed their name again, this time to Champagne. In the spring, they recorded their songs at Chris Moon's MoonSound Studio. Chris Moon wrote lyrics and poems and built the studio to record them. Prince helped him and in return he was allowed to record his songs with the band for free. This time taught him sound engineering, which he later used mostly very independently.

During this time, the band Champagne disbanded and Chris Moon advised Prince to continue as a solo artist. He gave the idea that he should adopt Prince as his stage name. Prince then asked Moon to take over his management, which Moon declined. Moon, however, contacted Owen Husney, who owned an advertising agency in Minneapolis, and convinced him with Prince's songs. So it happened that Husney signed the contract as Prince's manager in December 1976. In April 1977, the two flew to California to meet with various record company representatives to try to land a music contract. Then, on June 25, 1977, Prince signed with Warner Bros. Records. He secured with this first record contract a sum of 180,000 US dollars, which he wanted to use for his first three albums. In April 1978, his first album "For You" was released. However, it was not a commercial success and the production costs took up almost the entire sum of 180,000 US dollars.

Prince hired Bob Cavallo and Joe Ruffalo as consultants in the spring of 1979. The two had their own management agency and were often jokingly called Spaghetti Inc. They were joined by Steve Fargnoli, who worked with the two Italians as consultants alongside the artist until December 31, 1988.

That year Prince released his second album "Prince", which was much more successful than his first. However, Prince noted that although the music direction pleased the audience, he would much rather try many more new things and go in a different direction. In 1980 his third album "Dirty Mind" was released. This clearly expressed that Prince was not going to be a typical African-American artist, but was cultivating his own look. He cut his hair short and often appeared in a thong, over-the-knee stockings and a trench coat. In addition, he wore high heels. He also experimented musically and developed sounds that he didn't need in his previous releases. He played many genres of music and through that also appealed to a wider audience. With his provocative nature in music as well as his appearance, he was soon considered an eccentric. He left a mysterious effect everywhere with his manner. Nevertheless, he was very shy towards people. This is shown, for example, by the fact that he gave only five interviews within eight years.

In October 1982, Prince released the double album "1999". At first, this did not have great success. When in December 1982 the television station MTV included the music video of the single "1999" in its rotation, this changed abruptly. The entire album, as well as "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious," became Prince's first top ten U.S. placements in 1983. With this success, he celebrated his national breakthrough.

At the same time, Prince changed his entire band. Apparently, there were always tensions, so Prince always let himself be shielded from his colleagues by a bodyguard except on stage. He then called his new band line-up "The Revolution".

Prince continued to develop in his style of dress. He increasingly wore his purple trench coat, tight pants, high heels, frilly shirts and lace cuffs. His new and better staged new choreos also caught the audience's eye.

In 1984, the album "Purple Rain" was released and brought Prince the international breakthrough. The album was for 24 weeks continuously number one in the U.S. charts. The previous single "When Doves Cry", was also in the single charts for five weeks. Prince then launched the "Purple Rain Tour", which became the most successful tour of his career. For the film music Purple Rain Prince won an Oscar and for the album, two Grammys. "Purple Rain" is Prince's most sold album, with 25 million records. The song played in the charts in many countries for weeks after its release.

On January 28, 1985, Prince won an American Music Award in three categories. Shortly after, numerous musicians met to write together the song "We are the World" for the project "USA for Africa". They reserved a studio space for him next to Michael Jackson and planned a line for him personally. However, Prince did not show up that day and did not report to the people in charge. A short time later, however, he contributed his own song to the album, thus cementing his reputation as an egocentric.

A short time later, Prince founded the music label Paisley Park Records. This with the financial participation of Warner Bros. Records. Shortly after, his album "Around the World in a Day" was released under this label. This was also very successful, spending three weeks in the US album charts. Also in 1985, more precisely from August to the end of April 1986, Prince was engaged to the singer Susannah Melvoin. Together they lived in Chanhassen in Minnesota.

In March 1986 Prince and his then band "The Revolution" released the album "Parade", from which, for example, also comes the single "Kiss". This album was later featured in Prince's second film "Under the Cherry Moon". On October 17, the band and Prince then announced the official separation.

In March 1987, the double album "Sign "☮" the Times" was released. Critics said that this musical work was Prince's greatest achievement. Warner Bros. Records suggested Prince to go on tour immediately afterwards, but he refused.

In September, the Paisley Park Studio, Prince's main private residence and music studio, was completed in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The whole building cost ten million US dollars. It consisted of Prince's private living quarters, various recording studios and rooms for video and film recording, as well as concerts. Today you can visit the Paisley Park Studio for a fee. According to his sister Sharon Nelson, Prince had already furnished it at that time like a museum and planned exactly where what is put. He made his vision come true.

Prince got engaged again in 1987. This time with the percussionist Sheila E. The engagement remained secret, however, until Sheila published it in September 2014 in her autobiography. At that time, she ended the relationship after only one year.

In December, the album "Black Album" should have been released. Prince canceled the appearance, however, a week before publication again. He later justified it by saying that you could die at any moment and then be judged by what you leave behind. The album was released in 1994 by Warner Bros. Records and became one of the best-selling bootlegs in music history, selling over 250,000 copies. Prince had very good reviews during those years. Nevertheless, his number of fans in the USA dwindled. The album "Lovesexy", released in 1988, suddenly sold better in Europe than in the USA.

In 1989, the movie "Batman" was shown in theaters with a soundtrack by Prince. He released the album under the same name at that time. The single "Batdance" from this album soon became number one in the US charts and commercial success therefore returned for Prince. A year later in 1990, a film with a soundtrack by Prince was again released. However, the film Graffiti Bridge was not a great success and was hardly attended in theaters. After this failure, Prince fired his entire management and took care of his business personally.

In 1991, Prince released his 13th album "Diamonds and Pearls", which became his second best-selling album. At the end of 1990, Prince formed a new backing band called "The New Power Generation" or "The NPG" for short. This was from now on constantly on the road with him, whether it was for studio recordings or concerts. The crew of it was changed in the coming years by Prince again and again. One reason for this was the increasing tension between Prince and his musicians in 1992. Similar to him in 1983, Prince was effectively kept away from his bandmates. For example, he rode in a limousine with his bodyguards and dancers, and his band rode in a tour bus.

On August 31, 1992, Prince renewed his artist contract with Warner Bros. Records. This included six more albums until December 31, 1999. There were never any official documents about financial arrangements, only speculations from various sides. Also in 1992, differences began between Prince and Warner Bros. Records. For example, Prince blamed them for the moderate sales of the album "Love Symbol". According to him, this and already previous albums were not promoted enough, let alone used a wrong sales strategy. Warner Bros. Records urged Prince several times in the past not to release his albums too quickly one after the other, so as not to overload the audience. After Prince's death, Alan Leeds, the former general manager of Paisley Park Studio, said, "But when something didn't go his way, he decided it was the management's and the record company's fault, and ignored decisions he had made himself.

The conflict between Prince and Warner Bros. Records, was carried out publicly at the beginning of 1993. Prince wanted to develop and release new albums, but the record company wanted him to take a break. Instead, they wanted to release a greatest-hits record. Because of this, Prince decided to change his name and distance himself from Warner Bros. Records despite the existing contract. He wore an unpronounceable symbol as his new name from June 7, 1993, his 35th birthday. This he had copyrighted as "Love Symbol #2". From then on, he was no longer called Prince in the media but, among others, as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince", or "TAFKAP" for short. Sometimes they simply wrote "The Artist" Among family and friends he continued to be called Prince.

Prince began to write the word "Slave" on his cheek, especially during his performances. With this he wanted to express his independence through Warner Bros. Records. The record company owned all the copyrights of his songs at the time and Prince felt "hobbled and restricted" by that. He once said, "If you don't own your masters, you own the master".

Prince distanced himself more and more from Warner Bros. Records and also no longer promoted the records under this contract. Increasingly, he gave old material or even worse work to the record company to fulfill the contract. The lawyers of Warner Bros. Records, however, refrained from suing Prince to protect the company from damage to its image. In 1994 Warner Bros. Records then ended the cooperation with Paisley Park Records, whereupon Prince founded a label called "NPG Records" in the same year. In 1995, Prince then brusquely slammed Warner Bros. Records with the info that he had been working for a long time on a new album called Emancipation, which he would be the first to release as soon as he was free. In the booklet of the album you can find a text that confirms this once again. The official contract with Warner Bros. Records ended on December 31, 1999. In 2000, on May 16, Prince, still named under the unpronounceable sign, announced at a press conference that from now on he would return to his original stage name, Prince.

From 1994 to 2000, Prince signed several contracts with record companies other than Warner Bros. Records. With these, however, he always made sure that the copyright of his songs lay with him. He marketed the albums under the companies such as Arista Records or EMI very well and thus came back more into focus. In 1996, for example, he was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" or on German television on "Die Harald Schmidt Show" as a musical guest.

On August 8, 1990, Prince met the dancer Mayte Garcia at a concert in Mannheim. Despite the fact that she was 15 years younger than him, they got along well and had regular contact. Prince engaged Mayte Garcia, who was still a minor at the time, as a background singer and dancer in his backing band "The New Power Generation". Six years after they met, on February 14, 1996, Prince married her in Minneapolis. On October 16, 1996, Garcia gave birth to a son, but he died again a week later, on October 23. He was premature and suffered from Pfeiffer syndrome type 2 with mental and physical disabilities. Garcia became pregnant again in the summer of 1997, but lost the child three months later. Again a year later, the couple separated. Mayte Garcia lived from then on in a mansion in Marbella that Prince had bought for her. The marriage was divorced in May 2000.

On August 23, 1997, Prince met bassist Larry Graham. They met at an after-show party in Nashville, Tennessee. The two developed a close friendship the years that followed, and Graham was a regular guest musician at Prince's concerts. They also worked together more often in the studio. Through Graham, Prince joined Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001, where he was a member until his death.

Prince released his album "Crystal Ball" in 1998, the first time it was not under any other record label. He sold the limited 5-CD set over the Internet under his own label, NPG Records.

Prince distanced himself from any record labels after his contract with Warner Bros. Records ended. Instead, he began working in 2001 with what was then a completely new way of marketing and music business. He used the Internet. As the first artist in the music business, he created a website for his music label NPG Records called "NPG Music Club.com" in February 2001. Through this website, he was able to sell his music more self-determined and faster. He also started offering his albums as downloads. Likewise, one could register as a lifelong member for a fee, thus also supporting his financial independence. Also new was the possibility to reserve seats online for the One-Nite-Alone-Tour in 2002 or to be present live at a soundcheck before the concerts. Prince was awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for this work. The first time, a musical artist has sold an album exclusively on the Internet or created a platform with download, chat and information possibilities. So what is normal in the music industry today, Prince had created at that time because of his striving for independence.

Also in 2001 Prince married for the second time. On December 31, he married the Canadian Manuela Testolini in Hawaii. The two met in 1997 on his "Love-4-One-Another-Charities-Tour", where she was a consultant. The divorce followed five years later, on May 24, 2006. No children resulted from the marriage.

Despite the new possibility of the Internet, Prince's fame decreased in recent years. In February 2004, at the Grammy Awards, Prince performed his hit Purple Rain, accompanied by Beyoncé. The two sang the song as a duet and were broadcast on television in many countries. After this performance, Prince was again the topic of conversation internationally.

Shortly after in April, Prince released "Musicology." The new album was supported by a major label again after a long time, namely Columbia Records. "Musicology" was marketed worldwide and was so successful that a tour was launched on it. This tour became the most successful music tour of 2004 worldwide, and Prince also won two Grammys and double platinum status for the album. In 2006, the album 3121 followed. This was again very successful. It was one of his four number one hits in the U.S. charts.

In February 2007, Prince performed during the halftime break of Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida. The live performance at that time was watched by about 140 million Americans on television. His popularity was also evident in ticket sales at the 2007 Montreux Festival. The tickets were sold out after only 10 minutes. Despite all this, Prince still did not want to subordinate himself to any record company. He released more albums in the next years like "Planet Earth", "Lotusflow3r", "MPL Sound" and "20ten". However, these could only be purchased either through his website, in individual retail chains or with magazines, or were delivered to you as a free copy with "The Mail on Sunday" newspaper.

In 2008, Prince published a book of photographs taken during his stay in London. Back in 2007, he played there for two months at various concerts. In addition to the 256 pages, the book was accompanied by the CD "Indigo Nights", which contained exclusive music recordings of after-show parties. However, the CD was not available in normal CD sales.

In October 2011 Prince signed a new contract with the Swiss independent label "Purple Music". Nevertheless, he did not write a new album, because he believed that at the time it was better to release singles and they are more desired than whole albums.

In December 2012, Prince formed a new backing band called "3rdEyeGirl." He composed it of three female musicians. An electric guitarist named Donna Grantis, a drummer named Hannah Ford and electric bassist Ida Kristine Nielsen.

On March 31, 2014, Prince signed a new contract of 12 months with Warner Bros. Records. This time he retained all rights to his self-written songs. The financial terms are not public. Prince released the albums "Art Official Age" and "PlectrumElectrum" under the Warner Bros. Records label that year.

Apparently, Prince was in a relationship with singer Judith Hill from the fall of 2014 until his death. This announced the relationship two months after Prince's death.

In November 2014, Prince deleted all his social media channels such as Youtube, Facebook and Instagram without explanation. This caused confusion among fans. A year later in December of 2015, Prince released his last album released during his lifetime, "HITnRUN Phase Two." He released it under his own music label NPG Records.

On April 14, 2016, Prince played two concerts at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. When they finished at about 23:30, he and his crew boarded the rented private jet and headed for the flight home. During the flight, Prince lost consciousness, which is why the plane made an emergency landing in Moline (Illinois) at 01:00 at night. The reason for the unconsciousness, was an overdose of the painkiller Percocet. While still at the airfield in Moline, rescue personnel administered the antidote to keep him stable. According to his former fiancée Sheila E., Prince had been experiencing severe pain in his hip and knee joints for years. This came from years of dancing in high heels. Because of this, he had already been heavily addicted to medication for a long time. Prince spent the night in the hospital in Moline and flew on to his hometown Minneaplois in the morning of April 15.

On the evening of April 16, Prince performed two songs on the piano at a "dance party" at his Paisley Park studio and announced a new album called "Piano & A Microphone." This was his last public appearance.

Five days later on April 20, 2016, an emergency call was received by physician Howard Kornfeld, who specializes in addictions such as drug dependency. Prince management contacted the California-based doctor due to a serious medical emergency. Howard himself was indisposed at the time, so he sent his son, Andrew Kornfeld, who was a medical student and staff member. The latter arrived at Prince's home the following day.

On that day, April 21, 2016, personal assistant and staff member Kirk Johnson found Prince lifeless in the elevator at his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen. Andrew Kornfeld immediately alerted emergency services at 9:43 a.m. thereafter. An attempt was made to resuscitate Prince, but was unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 10:07. At only 57 years old, Prince died. His body was cremated the next day and poured into an urn designed as a miniature model of his Paisley Park studio. The urn bears the purple symbol he wore from 1993 to 2000 instead of a stage name. Although the urn is still in the studio, it is no longer open to the public.

On June 2 in 2016, the autopsy report became public. The Minnesota coroners stated that the cause of death was an overdose of the painkiller fentanyl. Prince had administered this to himself. A short time later, investigators released material from the investigation. They found tablets labeled "hydrocodone" during a search of the Paisley Park studio. But it later turned out that they were really the painkiller fentanyl, which was far more potent and for which Prince did not have a prescription. The doctors prescribed Prince the drugs under an alias in each case, that he remained anonymous in the pharmacies. It is not known to this day where Prince got these pills from or if he knew they were not hydrocodone.

During the investigation, evidence of a crime or malicious motive was found, but it was not enough to support any charges. Therefore, the investigation was closed on April 19, 2018. Following this outcome, Prince's family filed lawsuits against the musician's treating physicians. However, all of them were dismissed by the US court a year later.