The world mourns the loss of Prince: Latest news and reactions

When Sheila E. picked up the phone Friday evening, she didn’t need to be asked how it felt to lose her friend, Prince. The breathy, reassuring voice of this singer and percussionist — a familiar presence in the mid-1980s thanks to tunes like “The Glamorous Life” and “Erotic City” — had grown small and measured, a clear indication that the news of Prince’s death Thursday at age 57 had taken a toll.

Yet Sheila E. — who first made a name for herself in the Bay Area playing with her father, percussionist Pete Escovedo, and other jazz musicians — seemed to brighten as she began telling me about her experiences with the legendary musician. After meeting in 1978, the two started working together around the time of “Purple Rain,” then spent much of the next half-decade side by side, both on the road and in the studio; they remained close, she said, even after they drifted apart musically. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

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So, let’s just get this out of the way: My favorite Prince album is the “Batman” soundtrack.

It’s criminally underrated. It’s dark, it’s frantic and it’s headlined by “Batdance,” a wild track that flips Bruce Wayne, Vicki Vale and Joker samples into a sexually charged future funk opera.

I just wish the world could’ve heard the remix of “Batdance,” which features a guest rap verse from Big Daddy Kane. It’s wildly different -- stripped-down percussion, vocals from Prince that weren’t in the original, riffs on the old “Batman” TV theme, and a furious, wailing synth solo.

Prince apparently loved it, but Warner Brothers wouldn’t release it. But why?

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Hundreds of students, participating in the 27th annual High School Choir Festival at Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, honor Prince with a rendition of “Purple Rain.”

Students participating in the 27th annual High School Choir Festival at Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles honored Prince with a rendition of “Purple Rain.”

During Prince’s second-to-last concert, the early show in Atlanta on April 14, “his voice was perfection” -- said a photographer who was seeing him for the seventh time and found herself in the right place at the right time to snap a photo she knew she shouldn’t be taking.

“I wasn’t going to share it,” said Nashville photographer Amiee Stubbs, 42, who had a third-row seat but found herself standing pressed up against center stage as the show was coming to a close. “Then this happened. He was so perfect that night.”

He played “Linus and Lucy” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and David Bowie’s “Heroes,” she said by phone from Nashville on Friday, “and he took his songs and made them like I’ve never heard them.”

As for his health, “there were no indications that he wasn’t feeling well,” said Stubbs, who made the drive to Atlanta twice after Prince got sick and at the last minute pushed his Feb. 7 shows to the next Thursday. “He had the flu before ... but I was thinking he couldn’t be here if he couldn’t give his all.”

Because he was performing sans guitar, with only a piano and a microphone, he didn’t move around as much, she said, but looked as sexy as ever strutting out to the keyboard.

“Everything we love about him, it was there, even though the style was so different,” she said.

With no-photography rules strictly enforced at Prince shows -- she said she’s seen three people get booted just for pulling out their phones -- Stubbs wasn’t about to broadcast what she was doing. But with the best seat in the house, after the musician high-fived her and others up against the stage, she decided she had to get the shot.

“I was thinking, ‘I may never get this chance again,’” to be so close to Prince, she said. “I assumed there would be another time I saw him, though. I didn’t think I would be putting an iPhone photo in my portfolio.”

But, she said, “now I have that moment,” and maybe it could transport some people there.

“I’m just so glad I took that photo I shouldn’t have taken.”

— Christie D’Zurilla

Prince’s 1984 movie, “Purple Rain,” is coming back to the big screen in the L.A. area and elsewhere for a limited run starting this weekend. The film will screen Saturday through Thursday in select AMC theaters.

The screenings are designed to “pay tribute” to the musician, the theater chain said.

“Purple Rain” will be shown at the AMC Atlantic Times Square 14 in Monterey Park, AMC Broadway 4 in Santa Monica, AMC Covina 17 in Covina, AMC Norwalk 20 in Norwalk, AMC Ontario Mills 30 in Ontario, AMC Orange 30 with IMAX in Orange, AMC Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills and the AMC Rolling Hills 20 in Rolling Hills.

Carmike Theaters also will show the film in about 80 theaters in 28 states during the same period. None of those theaters is in California.

— Christie D’Zurilla

Much has already been written about Prince the composer, Prince the performer and band leader, Prince the musical pioneer. His skills at crafting a pop song and making it just weird enough to jump out amid lesser specimens was unparalleled.

Criminally less celebrated are his lyrics. Where aged, respected songwriters like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello are praised for their language, few Prince appreciations have focused on his skills as a wordsmith. But Prince was as eloquent with the pen as those bards. Could it be that by wrapping his talent beneath spangled pantsuits and a high-heeled facade rather than in blue jeans or well-tailored suits, Prince has been given short shrift as a lyricist?

Prince’s primo opening lines, for example, are some of the best scene-setters in pop: “I guess I should have known by the way you parked your car sideways that it wouldn’t last,” from “Little Red Corvette,” contains a novel’s worth of information about a relationship, a rendezvous and its futility.

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Often regarded as Prince’s crowning achievement, his album and film “Purple Rain” is -- through the hazy lens of 2016 -- ridiculous, overwrought and full of enough leaden dialogue to sink the film into the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

But taken as a document of the artist at the peak of his powers, it’s essential, even astonishing in moments, most visibly in its performances from Prince and his band. Whether you were there in the ‘80s as the movie captivated pop culture or somehow missed seeing the movie the first time around, L.A.’s Cinefamily has you covered with a series of screenings going into this weekend that serve as a fitting tribute.

And if you don’t get chills leading into Prince performing the film’s title track, check to make sure you’re still with us too.

We’re still processing that we’re now living in a world without Prince.

With a loss of this magnitude comes the inevitable, well-meaning tributes (keep your eye on the next Grammys, Oscars, the AMAs -- basically anywhere there’s more than five musicians in the same room). Included in that is this weekend’s Coachella, which just went from absorbing idle speculation about which famous guest will turn up to which of the acts will pay tribute to one of music’s true indelible icons.

In a sense, the Empire Polo Club remains Prince’s house since his unforgettable Coachella set in 2008. Following is a list of a few acts that could deliver fitting and goose-bump-raising Prince covers this weekend if they desired, along with a few other artists who, while their hearts may be in the right place, may want to think twice.

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President Obama started his day of diplomacy in London on Friday with an important moment of meditation — with the U.S. ambassador, listening to Prince hits “Purple Rain” and “Delirious” on vinyl.

It was a fitting start for Obama and Ambassador Matthew Barzun as their generation mourned the death of the multi-genre superstar whose work was often political. Prince’s 1980s-era music mourned nuclear proliferation and exhorted President Reagan to talk to Russia before it was too late.

But Obama cited simpler reasons for his kinship with the performer, who last summer put on a show at the White House for the Obamas and a few of their closest friends.

“I love Prince because he put out great music,” Obama said.

He didn’t know the artist well, he said, but was struck by his power as a performer.

“He was extraordinary and creative and original and full of energy,” Obama said.

The ambassador has a turntable at Winfield House, his residence in London, Obama said, and put on the two songs from two different albums, both vintage ’80s.

“Just to get warmed up before we left the house for important bilateral meetings like this,” Obama joked.

Prime Minister David Cameron took no offense.

“In the name of great music,” he said.

Dozens of fans gathered in South Los Angeles on Thursday to pay homage to pop icon Prince with a musical celebration that united generations of listeners.

Toddlers and seniors grooved to the tune of “The Purple One” and swapped stories about how his music had affected their lives.

The festive tone turned somber when the slow, melodic chords of Prince’s hit “Purple Rain” blared from the speakers.

Dancing ceased. Fans thrusted candles and cellphones into the darkening sky and swayed their arms to the beat. Tears rolled down the cheeks of some people’s faces.

Depress Bady’s voice choked with emotion as he recalled the lyrics to the first song on Prince’s debut album titled “For You.” The one-minute, eight-second song with one verse was an ode to his fans.

“Through his music, he touched my life,” said the 44-year-old Leimert Park resident. “He didn’t conform and always challenged himself. I try to do that in my daily life. . . .

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“Hamilton” creator and lead actor Lin-Manuel Miranda shared how he and the cast of Broadway’s “Hamilton” paid their respects to the recently departed Prince, with a dance off.

“We lost a giant today,” Miranda said to the crowd before breaking into the introduction of Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy.” Moments later the cast would burst into dance.

Thankfully Miranda tweeted the whole moment so everyone could partake:

The cast of the Broadway version of “The Color Purple” took to song Thursday night to pay tribute to Prince.

Jennifer Hudson (who plays Shug Avery in the play) addressed the crowd, “Tonight, with you guys in mind, we would like you all to join us in honoring Prince. He said his music will live on and he will live through his music, and we want to keep him alive today with his song.”

The impromptu performance was led by Hudson and Cynthia Erivo. Try not to lose it when Hudson asks to cut the music and the whole room sings a cappella.

The comedy team of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, best known from their sketch TV show “Key & Peele,” frequently explores ideas of identity, masculinity and race. Which are, of course, things that Prince frequently grappled with throughout his career as well.

The duo are busy promoting their upcoming film “Keanu,” directed by Peter Atencio, in which a pair of meek, nerdy cousins have to pretend to be drug-dealing gangster henchmen to retrieve a lost cat. The movie’s unexpected intersection of the hard attitudes of an action movie with the soft cuddliness of a kitten in itself is something of a product of a joyful, jaunty post-Prince worldview.

Key and Peele were previously scheduled to get on the phone for separate interviews well before the startling news of Prince’s death shocked the world on Thursday. Each of them had individual connections to and insights on the musician, but their shared language and perspective came shining through.

Keegan-Michael Key:

“The first time I ever head ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ and I heard the guitar solo, it just meant a lot to me. I was like, ‘Oh, that guy’s black and he’s playing guitar like that.’ And it was because of him that I really, really started getting into Jimi Hendrix. I was like, ‘Is there anybody else in the world, in this sphere of music, who is like this?’ And I had to go backwards in time to find it. It was Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic and Jimi Hendrix, and Prince was from that tradition.

“He was such a consummate, consummate professional. He was otherworldly in the best possible way. Absolutely one of the greatest. He defined so many different parts of my life, what I thought was cool, what I thought music should sound like. I’ve never seen anybody musically be so elegant and so raunchy and so adult and so playful all at the same time. He’s one of those guys. He’s like Bowie to me. Losing him is like losing Bowie.”

Jordan Peele:

“It’s such a profound loss. Just really, really sad. He was really inspiring to artists everywhere, just because of his originality and his intense ability. I’m with everyone else processing this. And it does seem a linked tragedy that we lost Bowie and Prince in the same year. They had such an otherworldly spirit.”

(Lorena Elebee / Los Angeles Times)

Prince was much more than a prolific musician. Besides giving rise to the “Minneapolis Sound,” he also had an exceptional eye for spotting talent.

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CNN commentator Van Jones shared an emotional story on the Dr. Drew Show about his relationship with Prince and how the two started working together on the #YesWeCode initiative.

Jones elaborated on Prince’s involvement at the 20th Anniversary Essence Festival in 2014 where the initiative was launched. On stage Jones shared the story of how Prince was inspired not just to bring awareness to a cause, but create an project that would bring an opportunity for men and women to find success in the tech industry.

“After the Trayvon Martin verdict I was talking to Prince and he said, ‘You know, every time people see a young black man wearing a hoodie, they think, he’s a thug. But if they see a young white guy wearing a hoodie they think, oh that might be Mark Zuckerberg. That might be a dot-com billionaire.’”

“I said, ‘Well, yeah, Prince that’s true but that’s because of racism.’ And he said, ‘No, it’s because we have not produced enough black Mark Zuckerbergs. That’s on us. That’s on us. To deal with what we’re not doing to get our young people prepared to be a part of this new information economy.’”

In the wake of his death, those within the company have expressed their grief but also gratitude. There’s a page on their website that simply says, “Thank You, Prince.” And delivers the following message:

“#YesWeCode would like to honor Prince and thank him for his inspired vision for #YesWeCode. Prince’s commitment to ensuring young people of color have a voice in the tech sector continues to impact the lives of future visionaries creating the tech of tomorrow.”

Brooklyn is celebrating the life of Prince in the most princely way possible -- with an impromptu dance party in the street.

Spike Lee organized the event in honor of his late friend. Judging from the videos, photos and this live stream, everyone is partying like it’s 1999.

Prince made it easy to ignore his later work.

For starters, there was simply a lot of it, more perhaps than even his most devoted were looking to consume. At a point in his career when many artists’ creative metabolism slows — whether by necessity or because fans just want to hear the hits — Prince was churning out new music at a remarkable pace, including two studio albums last year and another two before that in 2014.

He could also make the records relatively difficult to hear, holding them back from many streaming services and issuing 2009’s “Lotusflower,” for instance, as a Target exclusive.

But anyone attempting to understand Prince, needs to experience this stuff. Not unlike David Bowie and Merle Haggard, to name two other music legends we’ve lost in this annus horribilis, Prince kept revealing parts of himself until the very end.

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Music in the 1980s was often a segregated experience. In an almost reflexive response to the dominance of funk and disco in the ‘70s — which culminated in mass record burnings — radio was bifurcated between black and white, R&B and rock. MTV was the voice of a generation and, Michael Jackson notwithstanding, almost entirely white.

And then came Prince, who looked like Little Richard after a weeklong stand in a harem. High heels and blousy shirts and a pompadour that wouldn’t quit, always covered in sweat, his mascaraed lashes concealing his doe eyes like boudoir drapes. His music came from the well of funk, but he infused it with a synth-shimmy and Hendrix-ian guitar thunder.

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A rainbow appears over Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minn., where Prince was found dead Friday morning and where fans have started gathering to mourn the artist’s death.

Proving he was down for just about anything, Prince surprised TV anchor Bryant Gumbel (his biggest fan) on his last day on the “Today” show.

Showing up in what can only be described as Gumbel cosplay, Prince dressed as Gumbel and copied his mannerisms before performing on the morning show’s stage.

More Prince videos here.

Wearing a ruffled shirt and shiny purple jacket, Prince performs at the Forum on Feb. 19, 1985, in Inglewood.

(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

Much like his adventurous, over-the-top life, music icon Prince Rogers Nelson, simply known as Prince, had an adventurous sense of fashion. By being himself, Prince pushed gender boundaries, caused wonder and awe among observers and fans, became a sex symbol, and, particularly during the 1980s and ’90s, helped liberate teenagers and young adults considered to be outsiders – artists, misfits, members of the LGBTQ community and others – who often had to repress their identities, sexuality and behavior.

Despite his Midwest upbringing, Prince’s fashion tastes weren’t conservative. His style was more in line with the looks of David Bowie, Little Richard and Liberace than they were with more traditional pop, rock and R&B acts of the 1970s and ’80s. Prince didn’t stick to the confines of a masculine versus feminine wardrobe. Instead he blended the two as he did with musical genres such as rock, soul and pop, creating a sartorial spectacle by wearing high heels, ruffles and colorful suits and often having permed hair – all while sporting facial hair such as a goatee, beard or mustache.

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Read more celebrity reactions here.

The Grammys pulled together a tribute video containing some of Prince’s finest moments, including his presentation of album of the year at the 57th Grammy Awards in February of last year, in which he delivered a simple but profound message to the crowd.

More Prince videos here.

It was no secret that Prince was a huge fan of funk musician and founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic George Clinton, who released the 1989 album “The Cinderella Theory” on Prince’s Paisley Park label. This tweet shares a look at a few handwritten lines Prince hand-penned for Clinton.

Also included below is footage of Prince inducting Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are popular places for outpourings of appreciation when celebrities die. Tributes in recent months have sprung up for David Bowie and Leonard Nimoy. But according to the Los Angeles Times’ Hollywood Star Walk database (and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce), Prince does not have his own star.

To receive a star, someone must be nominated and must also agree to to be considered.

Angelenos, where will you pay your respects to Prince?

-- Matt Ballinger

Read Ocean’s full, very touching statement over on his personal TUMBLR account.

Prince and Zooey Deschanel had a thing going on in 2014, when the purple one featured the adorkable girl on his song “Fall in Love Tonight” and she had him do a cameo on her Fox sitcom.

Apparently, Prince was a huge fan of the show and asked if he could make an appearance. The story line revolved around Deschanel’s Jess getting invited to a fancy party hosted by Prince, and of course her loft-mates joined the mix, but the rock star was the one who had all the OMG moments.

Hannah Simone, who plays Jess’ best friend Cece, posted that episode’s closing sequence on Thursday and captioned it, “Prince is Magic.”

“Prince was a true gentleman, a king among men,” Deschanel tweeted. “He was as sharp and as talented as they come. I’m so glad I was lucky enough to work with him.” You can hear their collaboration below.

— Christie D’Zurilla

Madonna referenced her “Love Song” collaboration with Prince from her 1988 album, “Like a Prayer.”

Don Snowden covered Prince’s 1979 debut performance at the Roxy, which was also the musician’s Los Angeles Times paper debut.

“Prince, 19 [sic] is something of a wunderkind who produced, arranged, and composed all the material and played all the instruments on his two Warner Bros. albums.”

Read the full concert review >

Read the full Los Angeles Times story from Robert Hilburn’s 1982 Prince profile here. It’s full of amazing Prince gems such as: “I always compare songwriting to a girl walking in the door. You don’t know what she’s going to look like, but all of a sudden she’s there.”

For decades, Prince has been a key part of Minnesota culture. Among those paying respects to the legend today on social media are the Twin Cities venues he frequented.

The 35W bridge outside of downtown Minneapolis will be bathed in purple light tonight.

The downtown Minneapolis club First Avenue is a critical piece of Prince’s story. He played countless gigs there, and it was practically the co-star his 1984 film, “Purple Rain.” Fans are gathering outside the club to pay their respects today, and tonight, First Ave is offering a free all-night, all-Prince dance party starting at 11 p.m.

Minnesota’s sports teams, including the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers have also paid respect on Twitter.

— Dave Lewis

In a 1999 interview with Bass Player Magazine, Prince, then known as “The Artist,” explained his latest name change, saying, “I was just getting tired of seeing my name.”

Judging by how many monikers Prince Rogers Nelson was known by during his lifetime, it was likely a fatigue he felt often.

Here are just a few of the pseudonyms and nicknames the late legend was known by:

• Skipper (childhood nickname)
• Jamie Starr (songs written for artists 1981-1984)
• The Starr Company (songs written for artists 1981-1984)
• Joey Coco (songs written for Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers)
• Paisley Park (production credits in early 1990s)
• Alexander Nevermind (“Sugar Walls” by Sheena Easton)
• Christopher (“Manic Monday” by The Bangles)
• Prince
• The Purple One
• Love Symbol (unpronounceable)
• The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (in lieu of unpronounceable symbol)
• TAFKAP
• The Artist
• Prince (again)
• The Artist Formerly Known as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince”

Pick a sub-genre and Prince not only was fluent in it, but at his best could surpass that style’s top creators.

Whether the hardened protest soul of “Sign o’ the Times,” the catchy new wave of “When U Were Mine,” the psychedelic pop of “Raspberry Beret” or the bawdy bathroom ballad “Darling Nikki,” Prince explored the breadth of American music, in the process uniting generations and connecting disparate fans who otherwise didn’t agree on much.

During the decades in which he made music, Prince lorded over a pop landscape that was increasingly fractured, and he alone seemed to understand how to unite it all under the same house-quake roof.

Balladry? Nothing compares to “Nothing Compares 2 U,” his heartbreaking song about a lost love that Sinead O’Connor turned into a hit. Prince’s version is more minimal than hers, but the impact of its kicker line — “All the flowers that you planted, sugar, in the backyard/All died when you went away” — is as devastating as they come. Not only a human heart but nature itself has been destroyed by a lover’s departure.

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Prince in concert was a sight to behold. But “Purple Rain,” as a film, offered something different: a cult of personality. On a movie (and, especially, a television) screen, the music could be more intimate, but the star was larger than life. It seems contradictory, but Prince managed to be both.

MTV, which has been airing Prince music videos nonstop all day, will air “Purple Rain” at 4:19 and 9:30 p.m., Pacific (sandwiched between more Prince videos).

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In this animated video from January, Questlove recounts the night he was enlisted to throw Prince a party.

But his song selections just weren’t cutting it. While DJing, Questlove was told to cut the music and play “Finding Nemo” instead.

“Wait, did I just get fired and replaced with a cartoon fish? Yea. I did,” he recalls.

The Roots drummer was one of many artists to weigh in on Prince’s death Thursday.

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President Obama praised Prince as a “creative icon” on Thursday, marking the death of the legendary pop singer who just last summer rocked the White House in a secret show for Obama and his wife, two of his biggest fans.

Obama said he and First Lady Michelle Obama joined millions of fans in mourning the sudden death of the artist, announced as the president prepared to leave Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for London on a three-nation trip.

“Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent,” Obama said in a statement released while he was in flight.

“As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer,” Obama said.

He was in a position to know. Last June, while in Washington for another show, Prince performed in the East Room of the White House for about 500 Obama friends and supporters, including James Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi and Ciara.

If attendee Al Sharpton hadn’t tweeted about it, it might have been the biggest White House music event that nobody ever heard of. Alerted to the party by follow-up news reports, Rolling Stone interviewed Taylor, who revealed details of the two-hour performance.

The highlight was a Prince duet with Stevie Wonder. They shared keyboards to perform “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” a prominent favorite on the Obama campaign rally soundtrack.

Prince infused the rendition with his own brand of funk, taking the tried-and-true Wonder hit “to a new level,” according to one person who was there.

Obama’s statement Thursday was typically sober, but with a nod to the iconoclastic music and persona that marked the man’s career.

“A strong spirit transcends rules,” Obama wrote, quoting Prince. “And nobody’s spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative.”

Prince performs onstage on the Hit N Run-Parade Tour at Wembley Arena in London in August 1986.

(Michael Putland / Getty Images)

Prince performs outside Paris in 2011.

(Bertrand Guay / AFP / Getty Images)

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As mentioned in the closing lines of this piece on the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee ceremony, Prince delivered one of the most iconic moments in the ceremony’s history with a fiery guitar solo during a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” This article by Geoff Boucher was originally published in The Times on March 16, 2004. Prince really gets going at the 3 minutes and 30 seconds mark.

The 2004 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame make for one of the most eclectic class portraits in the shrine’s 19-year history, with room for the pop meditations of the late George Harrison, the soulful sound and politics of Jackson Browne and the dynamic funk enigma that is Prince.

Those three were joined in induction Monday night with the 1960s jam band Traffic, Detroit blue-collar rock hero Bob Seger, 1950s Chicago doo-wop group the Dells and ZZ Top, a bearded and unpretentious boogie band from Texas. Jann S. Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine, was inducted into the Hall’s nonperformer wing.

More Prince videos here

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“Can you make it rain harder?” -- Prince

Watch: Video gallery of Prince’s greatest performances

From former staff writer Elysa Gardner, in a New York interview with Prince in 1996:

In the past, the few reporters who have gained access to Prince Rogers Nelson had to submit to measures more befitting the secrecy of a covert military operation.

He insisted that interviewers not use tape recorders or take notes. Lots of topics were declared off limits, and the location of the encounter was always subject to a last-minute change.

Now, though, the elusive star has at least relaxed the rules enough to allow a little scribbling. And as he enters a plush hotel suite in midtown Manhattan -- after a security guard has inspected the joint -- his poker face slowly cracks into a gentle, disarming smile.

“Nice to meet you,” says the singer, his doe eyes warming. He sits on a sofa, looking a bit stiff in his impeccably tailored black suit as he waits to begin what he says will be his only U.S. interview in connection with his new “Chaos and Disorder” album.

“So, um, how much time we got?” he asks.

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A special to the Times report from Chuck Philips, this article was originally published on Sept. 5, 1992:

Hold that champagne.

Prince and his advisers may be toasting their new multimillion-dollar contract with Warner Bros. Records, but some executives at the record label are not exactly ecstatic.

Not only were key officers at Warner Bros. surprised when Prince’s publicists issued a news release Thursday announcing the pact, but they were “dismayed” — in the words of one Warner Bros. official — by the claim that it was the biggest deal in record industry history.

Without denying the Prince deal is one of the “four or five biggest” in the record industry, insiders claim the total figure is based largely on projected revenue — not guaranteed income.

“Can you believe what Madonna, who just finished negotiating a $60-million contract with Warners, is going to say when she hears about the Prince deal?” asked one industry observer.

While company executives declined to discuss the new pact, other industry insiders were quick to challenge the accuracy of the deal’s reported $100-million figure.

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From Robert Hilburn, the Times pop music critic, in 1985 during that year’s Grammy Awards:

Prince must have relished the drama backstage at the Shrine Auditorium as the 27th annual Grammy Awards ceremony began.

Here’s a pop-rock maverick who was booed off the stage four years ago when he opened for the Rolling Stones in a concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is just across the USC campus from the Shrine.

Though rock’s roots are in black music, rock radio programmers resisted playing black music in the ‘70s, leaving most young fans to assume that anyone black must be part of what was to them the dreaded disco movement. So, fans near the front of the Coliseum stage hurled paper cups and shouted insults at Prince, who was largely unknown to rock fans at the time.

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“We are investigating the circumstances of his death,” the Carver County Sheriff’s Office told The Times. Prince was found dead on Thursday at Paisley Park Studios at his home in Chanhassen, Minn.

Prince joined Times pop music critic Ann Powers for a rare in-person interview in 2009 to talk about music, technology, religion and more. This story originally ran in The Los Angeles Times on Jan. 11, 2009.

MY NIGHT WITH PRINCE

Rockin’ the limo, boudoir ballads, Prop. 8, Barry White, sex, faith, Pro Tools. Was it a dream?

It was 11 p.m. on the night before New Year’s Eve, and I was doing something I hadn’t expected would crown my 2008: sitting in Prince’s limousine as the legend lounged beside me, playing unreleased tracks on the stereo. “This is my car for Minneapolis,” he said before excusing himself to let me judge a few songs in private. “It’s great for listening to music.” He laughed. “I don’t do drugs or I’d give you a joint. That’s what this record is.”

Read More— Ann Powers

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Minnesota’s U.S. senators were quick to react to Prince’s death, mourning the sudden death of a state icon.

“I grew up with Prince’s music,” the state’s senior senator, Amy Klobuchar, said in a statement. “He made ‘Purple Rain’ a household name, First Avenue a landmark and brought international fame to Minnesota’s music scene. I was always so proud to say, ‘Prince, he is from Minnesota.’”

Sen. Al Franken, a fellow entertainer in his life before turning to politics, recalled that Prince got his start in a Minneapolis jazz band.

“His artistry, innovation, and unparalleled presence inspired — and will continue to inspire — millions of people,” said Franken. “To say he’ll be missed is an understatement.”