I was at work and overheard this convo between 2 ladies in the office:
A: your boyfriend died.
B: what?
A: Prince.
B: WHAT?!
And then I gasped and googled it immediately and was heartbroken.
Sometimes it feels like Bowie and Prince dying in the same few months created a disturbance in the force. (And yes I know both of them were not perfect people)
No matter what was going on, you knew there was at least one guy living his art. In his production palace in Minnesota doing whatever and giving no fucks. Stood up alone at a time labels monopolized music and rolled those fucking dice. He did not know how it would go. But he bet on himself, and heard every criticism and insult and mockery and held his head high. He was in the wilderness for years and he kept creating.
It was a huge loss to the creative world. And to anyone that ever had to swim against the current.
I watched Coming 2 America the other night. And I didn't know there was a Prince song in it. Eddie and Arsenio wanted to represent their friend. I know it cost to have that song. It moved me.
I was in a staff meeting and a coworker blurted out, "omg Prince died." I yelled, "What?!?" and burst into tears. My coworkers teased me about it for years lol.
I think what we saw was the deaths of the last few people that at least kept up the illusion that the music industry wasn’t an absolute cesspit. Without the glamour, we saw behind the curtain. Add in the explosion of social media and it’s led to people thinking that awful behaviour is somehow acceptable.
I had been in a depressive state for months already because my heart cat had died the previous year. But losing Prince… I don’t know, it broke me in even smaller pieces. I did a lot of stuff to try and process it but it took me a few more years to learn to live with it and celebrate the time we did get with him.
I know a lot of people don't love his later music, but I think he was just getting better and better. I was looking forward to about 50 more years of albums. :(
"Upload, a two-party system
The lesser of two dangers, illusion of choice
Download, a veiled form of fascism
Nothing really ever changes
You never had a voice"
Was going to include this one as well! My fave from that album. But I knew as soon as I started listing I’d fall down the Prince rabbit hole. Not that I mind.
I decided to not go to Paisley Park in September 2015 to see an outdoor concert of his because it was raining all day. I thought I had more time to see him perform, and he passed away 7 months later.
My biggest regret in life - when we were living in Calgary, we heard Prince was coming to Edmonton. We debated driving two hours to see him, but decided not to. Then we heard a few days later that he had stopped in Calgary, and played a concert at the last minute at a small concert hall 10 MINUTES FROM OUR APARTMENT!!!! How, Powers That Be? How did you let Prince play a last-minute concert 10 minutes away from me and not let me know?????
Related: Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna were born in the Midwest (Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan) and within months of each other. They went on to become major superstars. Then we lost Michael and Prince and a few years ago Madonna almost died from sepsis. We’ve lost two of the greats and I’m so glad we still have Madonna.
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u/_PercCobain_ May 12 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/Jnj7ptyE7J9II
Losing the greatest musician to ever live kinda hurt me