Obituaries Detail

Prince Rogers Nelson, One of the best-selling musicians of all time, a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Prince won seven Grammy Awards as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Songs including "When Doves Cry," "Raspberry Beret,' and "Kiss" soared to popularity and became pop-culture staples, widely known by fans of all genres of music. His broad appeal was due in part to the eclectic combinations of styles he created as he made his music, bringing together rock and R&B, jazz and funk, hip hop and disco in a highly listenable and danceable mélange.

Born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince was the son of musicians and was writing and performing music from his earliest years. By the time he was in high school, he and friends had formed the band Grand Central. His first recordings were with another band, 94 East, but by 1976, Prince had his own representation and was soon recording as a solo artist.

Prince's rise to stardom began with his debut album, "For You," with the lead single, "Soft and Wet," making a moderately strong debut on R&B radio and cracking the Billboard Hot 100 at 92. A second, self-titled album went platinum and yielded two more popular singles, "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover." Prince’s crossover potential was rising, as he made it to the Top 20 of the Hot 100 and performed on "American Bandstand" in 1980.

1982 and '83 saw a lead-up to Prince's greatest fame, as he cracked the Top 10 with popular singles from his "1999" double album: the title track, "Delirious," and "Little Red Corvette" were widely played on pop and soul radio, and the video for the latter single was one of the first by an African-American artist to reach heavy rotation on MTV.

As the late 1980s waned and the 1990s began, Prince continued to released popular albums and singles, including "Sign o’ the Times" and "Batdance." He also continued developing a persona that would become as well-known as his music. Beginning with his early 1980s recordings, Prince offered a flamboyant yet reserved face to the world. Dressing wildly and spelling song and album titles in his own unique shorthand, he kept fans equally intrigued and confused as he both courted and shunned the spotlight, a superstar who was an extrovert on stage but shy in person.

Prince met fanned the flames around his persona when, in 1993, he announced that he would no longer be called Prince, changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in a reaction to what he called slave-like treatment by his record label, Warner Bros. His statement on the matter included the explanation, "The first step I have taken toward the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to the Love Symbol. Prince is the name that my mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros."

Prince's death came as a great shock to fans and colleagues, coming at a young age and with little warning. A week before his death, news broke that a plane on which he was traveling landed briefly in Illinois, where he received medical treatment at a local ho