7 Things We’ve Learned About Prince Since His Death

In the year since Prince’s untimely passing from an overdose of prescription drugs, the world has mourned the iconic singer.

While fans relished in his exceptional talent —the man could play 27 instruments, produce and sing— he was dealing with years of pain from highly-physical stage performances. In addition to the dark side of his alleged addiction, we also learned some great things about The Purple One, who will be forever missed.

Unreleased Music

Soon after the legend’s passing, it was revealed that there was a locked vault at Paisley Park filled with Prince’s unreleased music, which the Minnesota-based Bremer Trust company opened. In October 2016 is was reported by Billboard that from the vault would come Prince 4Ever, filled with new music.

Apollonia

Prince’s love interest from the classic film Purple Rain, Apollonia Kotero, was still very much in love with him. In an intimate Facebook post, the 57-year-old reveals that she was on the way to see him around the time of his death and was carrying unfathomable pain from the news. 

Last Will and Testament 

Soon after his passing, we found out that Prince did not have a will, leaving more than 45 people claiming access to his enormous fortune. In May 2017 a judge ruled that Prince’s six siblings will be the heirs to his $200 million estate— with the majority going to taxes. 

Yara Shahidi

The Black-ish actress knew Prince since childhood, as her father was one of his personal photographers. In an interview on The Real, she revealed that a photo of her was found in his office. “I mean honestly, he has given my family the ability to do what we want and embrace the fact that we are all a family of creatives… so, we owe a lot to him,” she said.

Netflix

Before Prince died, he was in talks with Netflix for a reality show based on his beloved Paisley Park in Minnesota. His family is said to now be looking into a reality show based around dealing with his passing. 

Emergency Plane Landing

Singer and protege, Judith Hill was one of two people with Prince on the emergency plane landing six days before he passed. The singer recalled that he suddenly went unconscious and medical personnel gave him a shot of Narcan, used to treat opioid overdoses. “I only know what everyone knows about his pain —I read about it. He was quick on his feet. Never said anything, that this is hurting, never a sign of struggle. That’s why it’s all very shocking,” Hill told The New York Times.

Why So Many Loved Him

In an interview with Meli’sa Morgan, the singer reveals that Prince treated everyone with care and an intimacy that made you feel like “you were the only one in the room.” Grief stricken after his sudden death, she told ESSENCE, “The thing I loved about him is that he wasn’t selfish with his gifts. He always had someone that he was mentoring or developing or nurturing. And that’s a great gift. So many people are selfish with their gifts because they want all the accolades and success. The music industry is so selfish. But he was giving.” 

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Prince has died at the age of 57 and today we remember his life, his music and incredible legacy. This is Erica and I'm the former [UNKNOWN] director at Essence. I'm so glad To be able to participate in this conversation. He was just excited about being in Essence and black women supporting black women, being able to be a part of that and Janelle Monet was part there saying he was Speaking about the war field and how she was the next to come up under his umbrella so it was really, really magical and I'm thankful to have that moment and to be able to be in his presence. My name is Denise Manning, nd what I would like to say about Prince He was so like unapologetically himself that you couldn't look away. You know you wanted to be as free as he was. I just feel like Prince transcended what it was to be human and I mean I'm really grateful that we got to experience him in our lifetime. Thank you so very, very much for calling in. Well said. That is very well said. It's that freedom. What are your final thoughts? Yeah you know, I mean I'm hoping obviously He's gonna live on and so many of us and so many artists. His music, there's so much of it that probably more than people even realize because he was crazy prolific. Like, even put out a three disk album, Emancipation, that kind of got overlooked. But you're like, how can a Prince album get overlooked? Mm-hm. Maybe we even took a little for granted because we expected him to be a genius. It's funny one of my former colleagues had, Sharon Boone tweeted today, she never, Prince is so timeless, she never would have thought he died. Right. So I replied and said right and I said I hope that when it came, he just went poof. And there was a cloud of purple sparkly dust. Mm-hm. You know what I mean, that he didn't you know, he just went in the air. I, yeah. Yeah. [BLANK_AUDIO]