Prince Would’ve Been 60 Last Week
Still hard to believe, still hard to say the words, “the late Prince.” The legendary artist would’ve turned 60 on June 7. His death of an apparent drug overdose reminds us of how little we actually know about our favorite celebrities. Prince never had a reputaion for being a drug taker, even though we found out later in his life that he did take prescription pain meds due to surgeries on his hips. Prince was someone who we thought would be around a long, long time. We were shocked to lose Michael Jackson and then Whitney Houston at relatively young ages. But Prince? At least we have his incredible catalog of music to console us. His estate announced a few weeks ago that an album of previously unreleased material is forthcoming. His Paisley Park estate in suburban Minneapolis is now a museum and shrine where fans can go and pay their respects. We still watch “Purple Rain” whenever it comes on TV. And we still say, “can’t believe he’s gone.” It’s especially hard for those of us old school heads who are baby boomers to realize that we outlived three of our musical icons. We’ll continue to salute Prince every time we play one of his songs and we’ll continue to wish that things could’ve been different, not only for us, but for him.
Syd Gaddy