SOPHIA ARNDT: Hi everyone. My name is Sophia Arndt. 

CECI HEINEN: And I’m Ceci Heinen. 

ARNDT: From the Minnesota Daily and you’re listening to The Daily Beat, our podcast dedicated to the arts and entertainment scene of the Twin Cities. 

Today we have a bit of a special episode for you, we’re commemorating the passing of a Minnesota legend, the one and only, Prince. So, today marks the 10th anniversary of Prince’s passing. He was found on April 21, 2016 at his home in Chanhassen, Minnesota where he died of an apparent fentanyl overdose. 

HEINEN: Prince’s death brought forth a massive, and global outpouring of grief for a music genius that changed the landscape of the music industry for years to come. His presence is still really strong in his home state and his home city of Minneapolis. 

Today, we are bringing you accounts from two people: one who knew Prince on a personal and professional level and one who has studied him for almost all of his career. We want to find out how he continues to impact our city and what his life and death meant to Minneapolis. 

To understand his legacy, we have to go back in time, to when Prince was living here in Chanhassen and frequenting the music venues of Minneapolis. One of those being the Dakota Jazz Club. 

ARNDT: I spoke with Lowell Pickett, the owner and founder of the Dakota Jazz Club, about what it was like to have Prince as a regular guest and musician at his club and how he felt when he saw Prince perform for the very first time. 

LOWELL PICKETT: First time I ever heard Prince, I was involved in a little restaurant in the warehouse district called Faegre’s. And one of our servers was dating the guy that ran First Avenue at the time, talked me into going to see Prince at First Avenue and I’d been aware of him, I just never had a chance to see him. So I went over there with her to see this guy that a lot of people were talking about, and I was just blown away. 

Here was somebody who wrote incredible pop hooks, who played the guitar like Jimi Hendrix and who danced like Michael Jackson and maybe at a higher level on, on all of those things. Well, not higher than Hendricks, but, but at that, at a comparable level. And I’d never seen anybody before who incorporated all of those elements at such a high degree of virtuosity. And, uh, he was stunning. 

HEINEN: Arun Saldanha, a geography professor at the U who has been researching Prince for most of his academic career, had a bit of a different first-experience with Prince. He grew up in the Netherlands and said that Minnesotans don’t realize just how huge Prince was overseas. 

ARUN SALDANHA: I was nine when “Purple Rain” came out. And one thing that Minnesotans should know is that Prince is way bigger in Europe, especially Northwestern Europe than he is in Minnesota or the U.S., and this is something that actually has a long history.

So, you know, going back to Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, there’s a lot of black musicians and artists who weren’t really appreciated as artists in the U.S., they were seen as very good entertainers. You know, they were successful and appreciated, but a lot of these were just way more, you know, appreciated as, as geniuses in, in Europe.

ARNDT: Growing up in Europe, Saldanha was not in Minneapolis until the years before Prince’s death. Pickett however, not only got to see Prince perform at First Ave., but hosted him multiple times in his own club. 

PICKETT: He played at the Dakota once. He played the Dakota for three nights, once did two shows a night, with a different band every night. Used the last night as the first public performance for his last band Third Eye Girl. And he, he set everything up. 

The first night he didn’t sing, he just played guitar along with a six-piece horn section and a full band, sort of a Tower of Power styled horn section, a band that he revered. And he loved the horn sound that got in the recording sessions, but, and then the second night he added three backup singers to that band. And then the third night premiered or debuted Third Eye Girl. 

No phones were allowed. He didn’t want any photographs at all that night. So we actually set up a cell phone check and everybody had to, you know, just like a coat check. You had to check your phones and if you had a phone out in your hand during the show you were, you were rejected. You were, uh, it didn’t matter. No refunds.

HEINEN: From both interviews I kinda got the impression that Prince had like an unbeatable aura. Like he was only 5 foot 2 inches tall but he could just totally command a stage and a space. 

ARNDT: Yes, he had this complete and total presence to him, from the high heels to the eccentric outfits, to even the guitar that was shaped exactly like the Prince symbol. I mean it was iconic. 

Pickett told me about how Prince would get into the Dakota on nights that he wanted to enjoy the music, and it was quite the ordeal to keep it private.

PICKETT: And he came to the Dakota a lot too, which, we always, we had a special way of letting him in. They would drive up onto the Nicolette Mall and we had a, a door that was normally just an exit door. And we would know when they were coming. 

And he’d come in that door and go right up a stairway right next to the door, to the mezzanine. And we had a, a place set aside for him that he always sat at. And there was happened to be a curtain anyway in the mezzanine that we could pull across and, and close that off. It was already part of the architecture of the place. 

So it made it much more private and made it feel like sort of a, a box and it was, people really couldn’t see up there. People in Paisley came, we had another area that’s adjacent to it. They had a sliding wooden door and we could open that up and they could have more Paisley people there. 

HEINEN: Saldanha also spoke about how Prince was a pioneer in early music streaming in the 90s and how he continually experimented with different ways to get his music to fans. And how his infamous symbol came to be. 

SALDANHA: And so what many people don’t know is that in the 90s, he was experimenting with a lot of things like streaming, like many years before these things became mainstream. Also to make money, but also because he wanted to be in control of how he reaches fans.

And, and he was, you know, very vocal about the longer history of black artists having been exploited in the music industry. And then I’m sure you know that he actually went so far as to stop using his name. And so he became, you know, the symbol. There’s no other artist that has ever done that.

ARNDT: Another unique thing about Prince was how he stuck around in Minneapolis. Most big artists like Prince will move to one of the musical hubs like LA or New York City when they launched into fame. But not Prince, he chose to stay in Chanhassen. 

PICKETT: Prince had a national and then an international impact, but he chose to stay in the Twin Cities during, you know, throughout that career. Prince was really the person that made it possible for the world to look at Minneapolis and think this is a major center of music in this country, and it’s because he chose to stay here. 

HEINEN: Prince gave so much to this city when he was alive and after he died. Saldanha, however, explained how he believes that Minnesotans did not appreciate Prince enough when he was living. Some of that has to do with race. This underappreciation was Saldanha’s inspiration for organizing a symposium for Prince that took place in 2018 called, “Prince from Minneapolis.” 

SALDANHA: There’s a lot of people who don’t know Prince, who, who, who could barely name, you know, five songs, let alone sort of, have really listened to his albums. Let alone know that he played 21 consecutive nights in London once you know that was sold out in a matter of, I dunno, hours. 

Let alone the people from Japan and from like South Africa and Brazil come to Minneapolis on a, on a pilgrimage. So I was, it came out of slightly, out of frustration as well, that I was like, “Come on, Minnesotans, like this, this, you know, why aren’t you celebrating him? Why isn’t there like a tribute to it? Why aren’t there things purple, you know, on certain days?”

But in the book we do link it to race, you know, and that also has to do with, you know, like it’s a small minority of African Americans in, in the Twin Cities. And so with all that’s been going on around race in Minneapolis — Black Lives Matter, the George Floyd’s uprising and now with ICE — a lot of people have been linking the specificities of Minneapolis to Prince, you know? 

And so that is very interesting. So it’s not only like, you know, wake up around the genius that is Prince, that he’s a global superstar and he’s the Mozart of the late 20th century, but also he decided to stick around in Minneapolis. He stayed here and he was super generous to the city. And that is unique. There’s no other superstar that does it, and it says something about the coolness and ethics or the morality of Minneapolis.

ARNDT: Saldanha’s book is coming out next year with the University of Minnesota press and will discuss the relationship between Prince and Minneapolis. 

Now that we have heard a bit about Prince in his life, I wanna talk about the reactions to his death. Ceci, do you remember where you were when Prince died? 

HEINEN: Yes actually. I grew up right by Paisley Park, I was in Minnetonka which is just a city over, and I remember, in 2016 when I was 11, driving past the building and just seeing like bunches and bunches of flowers and banners and pictures everywhere. And just people who had come from all over to pay respects to Prince. 

I was pretty young so I don’t think I really understood how big Prince was and how big of a deal his death was but I think it has sunk in after tons of my out-of-town family have come to visit us in Minneapolis just to see Prince’s home and baptize themselves in Lake Minnetonka. 

ARNDT: So as a girl who grew up in Minnesota, I feel like I’ve always known about Prince in the same way I’ve always known about the Vikings — they’re my home team and he’s my home musician. 

And growing up, there was always Prince music playing in the house, especially during the summer. My mom would often play his music on long drives up to the North Shore or on garden days when we were working. He became something I associated with my childhood and now my adulthood as a young woman living in Minneapolis. 

When he died, it almost didn’t register for me. In my mind, he was still alive because I could listen to his music and keep him alive in that way. 

HEINEN:  Saldanha was actively planning his “Prince from Minneapolis” symposium when Prince died, he had planned to invite Prince to the event. After his death, the symposium became more commemorative featuring panels of his old band mates and staff. 

Saldanha described how he has mixed feelings about how the city of Minneapolis has recognized Prince after his death. 

SALDANHA: So there was, I think a sort of, a too late recognition, just how big he had been, and a lot of people, myself included said, “Oh, I wish I would’ve gone to Paisley Park more often.” Because here you have the possibility to see a global superstar, a modern day Mozart, at his home, you know, for small money, because usually superstars only have like celebrities around him.

It’s not as if there wasn’t a love of, a lot of love for him locally. It’s, it’s true that there was appreciation for him, but I think what I mean is sort of like the more official culture, like including the university. I wish the university would’ve given him an honorary doctorate when he was still alive.

You’ve got a Mozart, why, why, why does, why didn’t he get an honorary doctorate in like 1985 you know, it has to do with, with, with race, I think. But also, you know, he was also, of course, quite provocative. So in the eighties there was a lot of sexuality and a lot of provocation. 

But let’s say in the early part of this century, he should have totally gotten the recognition, you know, by that time he was so established. Then it should have been like, OK, your lifelong achievement as a Minnesotan is clear. Like, here’s a little alleyway, or here’s a statue, or here’s like, you know, whatever it is.

HEINEN: Minneapolis has recognized Prince in many ways after his death, such as naming a stretch of highway after him, painting murals around the city, a new Timberwolves jersey collection and court, an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the U and purple lit buildings and bridges. 

Saldanha warns that some of these commemorations can stray towards seeking monetary gain and not truly meaning to pay respects to a legend. He also spoke about how some people do not want to recognize Prince because of the type of person he was and if you can separate the artist from the art. 

SALDANHA: But I do know that he mistreated his wife, Mayte Garcia, like it’s in her autobiography itself. So, so when I read her autobiography, I was really shocked about some details that she writes about Prince, full of admiration and love still, but the things that, that he did, which were horrible, I don’t need to repeat them. 

But he treated people badly, other musicians and so on, he wouldn’t pay them. Some, some things are quite known. My own very subjective feeling is not like, I think he was not a great person, but he could also be very loving and kind. That is completely on the record. He did have very meaningful sort of professional relationships, and he inspired so many people and so on.

I think the main thing is that, you know, it’s, it’s possible to just be a great musician or a great, you know, something else, politician or, or very inspiring person and have this dark side and that dark side needs to be discussed and not pressed away, but that dark side is not going to sort of annul or lessen the great impact that someone had in the art world. 

ARNDT: Prince’s legacy is not without its dark spots. After his death in 2016, numerous women came forward with accusations of abuse, including musician Sinead O’Connor who worked with him on a song in 1991 and former girlfriends. 

Saldanha suggested that some of the darker spots on Prince’s reputation were due to structural issues within the music industry.

SALDANHA: You know, like almost all artists have been men and a lot of them have been sort of adored by audiences and for a lot of them that made them unpleasant men. That explains how, you know, especially in this day and age, how the cultural industry works. 

So as long as you have that proper lens. Sort of understanding how gender works and sort of, you know, wealth becoming super rich, you know, all the time being sort of chased by paparazzi, doesn’t excuse anything, but you have to sort of like see it then as like, OK, someone becomes a nasty person because of these structural issues.

HEINEN: The music industry has many structural issues and in general, the public’s relationships with celebrities is something that I think is incredibly flawed and toxic. Unfortunately, Saldanha noted how this structural toxicity is a reason why so many artists die prematurely. 

ARNDT: If you want to learn more about this, Saldanha suggests reading Mayte Garcia’s memoir, “The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince.” 

Moving forward to 2025, I bet many of you can remember the big Prince moments. Both with Dancing with The Stars doing a dedicated “Prince Night,” and two of Prince’s top songs, “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain” being featured in the final episode of Stranger Things. 

For many of the younger generation, this was their first real introduction to Prince’s music, as almost the entirety of “Purple Rain” played over one of the most popular and talked about shows of the 21st-century. This was a rarity, as the Paisley Park estate has rarely allowed for Prince’s catalogue to be featured in television and movies after his death. 

According to Variety, “Purple Rain” saw a 243% increase in global Spotify streams, with a 577% jump in the Gen Z streaming group. My reporter Lizzy recently wrote a story about Prince’s impact 10 years after his death and the student reaction to his death on campus, you should go check it out! 

According to Pickett, one of the lasting impacts of Prince’s legacy was his message of confidence and his support of the Minneapolis music scene in a way that was unparalleled at the time. To quote his friend, Prince will one day be remembered as our generation’s Mozart. 

PICKETT: When he passed away a friend of mine who’s a music attorney and he was on the board of the, of the Grammy’s and he’s had a pretty strong career in, in music, he made the comment that he thought Prince was our Mozart, our generation’s Mozart. 

Now, on the one hand that sounds like hyperbole, but then he kind of broke it down and said no other artist that he was aware of did what Prince did at such a high level in every single component of the music industry and of his own music. 

He wrote the music, in some instances, he played all of the instruments. He was the recording engineer and set everything up. He mixed the music and he did the business part of it. The Beatles didn’t even do all of those things.

ARNDT: Prince was a provable master of his craft and widely considered a musical genius, mastering multiple instruments, including guitar and piano, as well as crafting captivating lyrics and a distinctive production. I would go as far as to argue that his music was some of the most influential and revolutionary music ever made. 

PICKETT: Not only was he one of the most multi-talented artists in our lifetimes, he was also one of the most authentic and, and he had fun with it. He played, you know, he, he worked, he, he had this extraordinary work, work ethic that, and the demands that he had of those around him to match that work ethic were pretty high.

HEINEN: We asked both Saldanha and Pickett what they want our listeners to take away from this episode and from Prince as a person, and what he can teach us about self-expression. 

SALDANHA: Definitely listen to the unreleased tracks because there’s so many great tracks that are not on the records. Definitely if you have access to streaming or, you know, on, on, of course on YouTube you can find everything, even the unreleased stuff. There’s a, there’s so much of more underground stuff that is very, very fascinating.

So, if you’re interested in classical music, if you’re interested in sort of very raw funk, disco, sort of, his rock work. A lot of students will appreciate, you know, excellent guitar solos. But, but I’m always astonished how many people don’t know that Prince is an amazing performer on the guitar.

And so please first check out his live performances on guitar before anything else. You know, see him shred the guitar, which he would do very, very loud. You know, basically a lot of his work is basically hard rock, you know, like a kind of funky, kind of hard rock. And then check out the movies. 

PICKETT: Prince obviously had tremendous self-confidence in himself, because what he was doing other people weren’t doing at the time. The notion that you could grow up in north Minneapolis and play your own music, play all the instruments yourself, dress the way you wanted to dress, project yourself into the world, into the world the way you wanted to project yourself. 

He retained absolute control of all of those things, all of those pieces of himself. And that came from obviously a massive once in a lifetime level of talent in so many different areas, but also came from a tremendous amount of self-confidence. That he wasn’t redirected by outside influences to do what they thought was marketable, was successful, you know, could be successful. 

He defined what he was gonna do and he just did it. And I think that that’s a lesson that could be learned, could be, should be taken to heart by a lot of us in this world that have confidence in yourself.

ARNDT: I hope you listeners take those words to heart and explore some of Prince’s unreleased tracks. To round out this episode, of course, we are going to share our top Prince songs. 

I will always recommend “Paisley Park,” it has a special place in my heart and is an ode to Prince’s favorite place, or “Kiss” because it’s an absolute classic. 

HEINEN: I agree. I think my all time favorite has to be “Purple Rain,” I cry whenever I hear that song without fail. I heard Bruce Springsteen cover it at Target Center recently. 

ARNDT: Flex. 

HEINEN: And I was a wreck. But apart from that I really like “International Lover,” “Thunder,” “Soft and Wet” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” I hope you all wear some purple today and dive into some of Prince’s massive discography. 

As well, if you are looking for a way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Prince’s passing, Paisley Park is holding a “Prince Celebra10n” which will last from June 3-7 with tons of special performances from his bands and more. The link to their website is in the transcription of this episode on the Minnesota Daily website. Tickets are paid, but there is a free Block Party and Sing Along by the Prince mural at 101 N 9th St., at 4:30 p.m. on June 6. 

Hope to see you guys there! Thank you so much for listening. 

ARNDT: This episode was written by Sophia Arndt and Ceci Heinen and produced by Ceci Heinen. 

HEINEN: If you want to send us your favorite Prince song, you can email us at [email protected]. Thank you again for listening. 

This is Ceci Heinen. 

ARNDT: And Sophia Arndt. And this has been The Daily Beat.