© 2025 Juergen A. Riedelsheimer. All rights reserved.
It was a beautiful Thursday morning when I woke up on April 21st, 2016. On a sunny day, with a fair air breeze, I wandered through the house, ready to put my best foot forward and seize the day. I was eager and motivated to attend a business meeting with donors who were supposed to secure funding for the Kind-Hearted Compassion in Action non-profit organization. It is a project to provide resources for talented artists who have been facing adverse circumstances, helping them with resources to pursue their dreams and goals. I was enjoying my espresso while scanning my social media feed when I first saw it: “Iconic rock musician Prince has died, his publicist confirmed.” He was 57. Who died? It's impossible! I'm still mourning Bowie’s recent passing, and now you decided to leave me?
For music fans, 2016 started with the ever-before-seen mass exodus of some of our time's prolific and innovative musicians. You, Prince, were the unrivaled one, the superlative musician, showman, fashionista, music business entrepreneur, and entertainer. You were never supposed to exit your physical body. Your design was flawless and angelic and suggested inspiring us continuously. Your first album dropped in 1978, and "For You" was the first time we started recognizing a change in the current musical landscape.
I didn't understand something mysterious and refreshing then, but I was drawn to you like a fly to the porch light at night. I couldn't stop paying attention to you from this moment on forward. The ‘80s coined the beginning of many androgynous performers; musicians were still untouchable; they were like the superheroes all of us aspired to be. But you, Prince, you were the epitomic one. You were more significant than life. There is a reason God wanted you not to exceed 5.3 inches in height. Otherwise, we would have been too intimidated to seek validation and purpose. All we can do is learn by imitation - a slow approximation and endless uphill journey always superseding us. We tried to follow a blueprint, a template you've provided, hoping to gain insight into your guarded continuation of perfection.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a pattern is “a reliable sample of traits, acts, tendencies, or other observable characteristics of a person, group, or institution.” It is a disposition, a theme, and a recognizable trait that has the potential for someone to replicate and reproduce something we’ve learned or done before. It’s an insight into recurrent thoughts or actions' details and intrinsic understanding. Questlove splendidly summed it up when he published his essay about you in Rolling Stone Magazine: "I patterned everything in my life after Prince."
Psychology teaches us about observational learning theories and their benefits. How we learn and how it can help us by imitating others and understanding the world around us. We were always learning and mostly everything you showed us, but we couldn't keep up most of the time. When I thought I understood what you were doing, you danced to a different tune. The Purple Rain Tour never made it to Europe. It was said you prematurely quit the potentially most significant music spectacle to focus on your next album, “Sign o' the Times,” which you already recorded during the Purple Rain area.
I've always wondered why the Grammys or the Oscars are getting everyone so excited and starstruck. Sure, those pseudo-fortunetellers honor and recognize outstanding performances in the Arts of Music and Film. However, I have always been more interested in the creative and production process. The sacrifices and genius it took for those who contributed to creating artistic history. Nobody in this industry seemed to be working more diligently, obdurate, and committed than you, Prince. You practiced for hours on the same song to get it right - to perfection. Prince, this is how you shared your artistry with us. I hope everyone has seen your guitar performance at George Harrison's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." You shared the stage with some of the most significant living music legends like Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, and many more, and all bowed to you after the last note of your guitar kept echoing in the room without ever wanting to become silent again. Afterward, I talked to many musicians, and everyone thought your performance was out of this world. In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Elton John, who performed on stage twice with you throughout his career, ostensibly tearfully and significantly impacted by the news of your passing, called you: "the greatest performer I have ever seen" and "a true genius."
It's easy to succumb to generalization when trying to express our opinions. Still, everything I've learned about you and others' autobiographical statements is known to be true. The attention to detail you've put into everything from the design to your wardrobe, promotional material to pretty much everything surrounding your brand was the least, to say, flawless and superbly executed. Your rigorous and meticulous preparations to leave nothing up to a chance set new industry standards, but with so much heart and soul in everything you have given us. You influenced them all - the music tycoons in music and fashion alike. Donatella Versace paid tribute to you and released a line of skintight suits and ruffled blouses shortly after your death exclusively expired by you. Your fearless attitude and, more importantly, your inspiration for the different gender talks have pushed the boundaries of taste and acceptability. In an interview with The Guardian, Frank Ocean shares an emotional tribute: “He made me feel comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for the archaic idea of gender conformity.” You wouldn’t allow us to pin you down into the gender box. You knew the only way you could rise above all of us; you needed to be not one of us. You held the mirror towards us, engaging accountability for our lives as artists and human beings. You set the bar beyond high for some of us and, indeed, inspire us to pursue our highest truth.
The creative genius of releasing your music under different pseudonyms from The Times or Apollonia 6 and letting them on the chart lists competing with you and each other; who does something like that? You, Prince. You embodied the equivalents of so many artists who came before you. You continued the legacy of James Brown, Jimmy Hendrix, and Sly while creating your unique style. It's almost inconceivable how masterfully you've executed all of this, from the minor details to the endless supply of music, regardless of the epithet you've released or the people you've empowered and launched their careers with the piece you wrote for them. Why didn't you care for your health the same way with all this meticulous attitude for details and perfection? Your euphoria stopped there where you needed it the most. According to people in your close circle, you suffered from incredible pain in your hips. I can respect your religious beliefs, but you, Prince, were our mentor, and we needed you much longer with us. To be different, you guarded our collective consciousness and taught us to embrace and love ourselves for it.
I still remember how the first note of your solo on Purple Rain pinched my soul and filled my eyes with tears. Until today, I cannot listen to your rendition of life without fighting back my youth's tears and sorrows. What a compelling experience. Is this the voice of God? How else can I explain that? It's like a lifeline, the pulse, the intricacy of our existence fused in one sound, one frequency, one simple mechanical action, and simultaneously changing lives. I didn't get to see you in concert until 1992. The "Diamonds and Pearls Tour" was my "Get-Off” of my mundane existence and my realignment with purpose. It was my chance to walk away from the life I had once imagined after graduating from business college - before Michael B took to the drums and hypnotized me. With every beat, every stroke, every note, he reached into my soul and rewrote it from within. There was no return. I left the concert and enrolled in Music College the next day, anxiously awaiting to start.
You changed my life in ways I would never have imagined. I wouldn't be writing this letter to you from where I'm striking the keys on my computer at this very moment. Allowing myself to escape from our society's norms and parental expectations turned me fearless towards these never-ending obstacles on our path in life. Through this transformation, I’ve learned to embrace uncertainty and use it as a corresponding creative vehicle rather than getting trapped in the sensations of anxiety that often precede it. Why didn’t you warn us of what was going to happen? Any sign that could have prepared us for this? I guess your master plan of yours didn’t call for it. You weren’t supposed to leave us behind, alone, and without any coping mechanisms; additionally, nobody else can provide for us what you have shared and given so intensely to us. Our development is not sufficient, however, to be on our own. We needed you to mirror our souls and dreams - relentlessly, tenderly - so we could dare to live them vicariously through you, especially when so many of us fell short of our obligations and the unique Divine purpose etched into each of us. Yet even now, and long after your passing, your spirit remains sharp, resonant, and ever-present. It is - your spirit unfading and urgent - that calls us to rise: to live into the responsibility entrusted to us through our talents and to bring forth our highest, most authentic work, not only for ourselves but as a gift to others and to a world that deeply needs it.
It's been seven hours and three thousand and two hundred sixty-one days.
Nothing compares to you!
With Purple Love!
References
“Questlove Remembers Prince: In This Life, You're on Your Own” - Rolling Stone Magazine. By Questlove - April 25th, 2016.
“Elton John Remembers Prince: A true genius. Musically way ahead of any of us" – Rolling Stone Magazine. By Sarah Grant – April 21st, 2016
“Prince: how his androgynous style influenced fashion” by Pria Elan - The Guardian - April 26th, 2016.
Juergen Anthony Riedelsheimer
© 2025 Juergen A. Riedelsheimer / MusicCognition.Science. All rights reserved.