“Purple Rain pertains to letting your faith guide you through ” Prince explained.
Two years ago today the world lost a creative genius.
Channeling adversity into extraordinary, pure magic was born.
Prince Rogers Nelson played all 27 instruments on his debut album, For You, released when he was just 20.
No private tuition or scholarships, his lack of a privileged life meant focus, obsessional practice and unwavering faith paved his path to gargantuan success. He openly spoke of harvesting the power of the universe, at a time when Third Eyes and Raised Consciousness was considered the language of crazies!
He refused to conform, compromise or to play small!
Born into poverty, suffering with Epilepsy and growing to full adult height of just five feet two, weighing under eight stones. In a world of muscle and machismo, how did this diminutive guy become one fo the biggest sex symbols of the eighties?
Surrounded by a fractious and fractured family system, he witnessed arguments and violence as commonplace. His parents divorced when he was in his early teens. Prince was often heard to recall himself as ‘an angry young man’. Standing outside MacDonalds, breathing in the food smells, too poor to be able to buy a meal, he festered with fury.
Like so many geniuses, Prince was an unapologetic perfectionist, obsessive about his craft and his passion. He broke the rules over and over, he defied the odds and had a well documented faith in the Law of Attraction.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Prince live over 15 times, visited his home, his studios, his nightclub and got up close…. Each and every time he’s blown me away with his dedication and courage to being wholly him. Purple Rain will be playing at my funeral, a celebration of a life that inspired so many to be the real them!
RIP Prince Rogers Nelson
7th June 1958 – 21st April 2016
