Nothing compares 2 Prince: A look at his life and legacy 10 years after his death
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April 21, 2016 is seared into Andrea Swensson’s memory. At the time, a music journalist for MPR News sister station The Current, she remembers rushing to Paisley Park in Chanhassen as soon as there was a tip that Prince had died.
“We were all trying to disprove the rumor,” Swensson told MPR News host Nina Moini. Prince died of a fentanyl overdose at 57 years old.
Swensson had made countless visits to Prince’s studio and home to cover his dance parties or spontaneous collaborations with artists like Madonna and Kendrick Lamar. Now, she was suddenly shifting from sharing stories of his career to sharing his legacy.
Swensson’s relationship with Prince shifted the trajectory of her own career. Ten years after his death, Swensson is determined to carry on the icon’s profound legacy.
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‘A global moment of heartache’
Swensson was one of the first people at Paisley Park when news broke of Prince’s death. She watched the first flowers set on the fence line. It soon grew to hundreds of fans and press, mourning and grieving.
When Swensson broke the news on air, she got emotional, sharing a sense of mourning all of Minnesota was feeling.
“This news truly was a global moment of heartache and grief,” she said.
Where Paisley Park was for grieving, First Avenue was for celebrating. Swensson describes it as a “gravitational pull” to the music venue. The Current knew it had to be part of remembrance.
The music station borrowed equipment from the University of Minnesota’s annual spring music festival “Spring Jam.” A house band was pulled together to learn Prince’s repertoire on the fly. Musicians including Lizzo and Chastity Brown sang tributes, as thousands flooded to the makeshift all-night block party.
Two weeks after his death, his star on the wall of First Avenue was painted gold. Prince’s rock musical movie “Purple Rain” was filmed there. And the venue has become somewhat of a pilgrimage. Musicians who play at the venue often pay homage to Prince by covering “Purple Rain.”
The doodle that started it all
Swensson’s first story for The Current covering Prince was in 2012. Then in 2013, Prince performed what ended up being a historic three-night show at The Dakota Jazz Club. The shows were rehearsals with different bands he was working with at the time, NPG and 3RDEYEGIRL.
No phones or cameras were allowed, so Swensson got creative. She drew a doodle in her notebook and published it with her review.
The next morning, Swensson got an email from Prince’s manager, who she later learned was Prince himself, “and it said, ‘Prince likes your drawing and he would like to own it.’”
Swensson emailed it to him and asked to come back for night three of The Dakota residency. She got to see the debut of his band 3RDEYEGIRL and met folks from Prince’s world. Shortly after, Prince sent the band to be interviewed by Swensson at The Current studios. Then she got more invites to Paisley Park. And eventually, Prince asked to her to meet him. They spoke for two hours, and Prince played her new music.
“That was a whole surreal evening that I'm still processing,” Swensson said. “But I found him to be so warm and sweet and tender with me.”
Swensson would also learn that Prince was a prankster.
“He reached out his hand and he said, ‘would you like to dance?’ And I am sure that I turned beet red, and before I could do anything, he whipped his hand away, and he was like, ‘just kidding!’”
Then he asked her to dance again. It was still a prank.
It turns out, Prince orchestrated jokes like these for everyone in his life, “and now we're left with hundreds of really funny, quirky Prince stories,” Swensson said.
After that meeting, Swensson was invited to concerts and events at Paisley Park, a validating sign to Swensson that he wanted her to cover his work.
“And I think for me, it was that I could speak authoritatively about someone as important as him.”
Unfinished business
Prince is often credited with creating the Minneapolis sound. He grew up in north Minneapolis and played with young Black musicians. He would play for white audiences, leading him to learn all the pop hits. But it was the mix of Black influence and current hits that made him different.
“At a time when the industry really wanted to categorize artists based on their race and based on their background, at 17 years old, he said, ‘I make music for all people, don't box me in.’ That is what made him so groundbreaking,” she said.
Even toward the end of his life, Swensson believed he was just starting a new chapter of his career. He had started touring “Piano & A Microphone,” where he shared personal stories from his upbringing on the stage. He also had begun writing a memoir. The pages he had written have been released.
Then of course there is Prince’s vault, where the singer would let things marinate before they were released. Swensson said that Prince never dictated how everything would be released from the vault, likely assuming he’d have more time.
“That kind of long-term planning of his legacy and how it was going to be solidified, unfortunately, did not happen, and that is a huge loss.”
This week, the vault released Prince’s recording of “With This Tear,” a song he wrote for Celine Dion, which she recorded in 1992.
Swensson has been one of the forefront voices in maintaining Prince’s legacy. The day of his death, she was called upon for interviews with news outlets around the world to share his global impact. Swensson went on to be the host of the official Prince podcast for six seasons. And she wrote an in-depth book to commemorate 40 years of “Purple Rain.”
Swensson doesn’t take Prince’s trust in her lightly. She strives to share every facet of his career, from his fashion and flawless hair to the way he spoke in an interview.
“There aren't that many other artists that you can compare him to that are so accomplished on so many different levels,” Swensson said. “I find it all just so important to document.”
