Prince Roger Nelson died April 21, 2016 at the age of 57 years

Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7th, 1958 in Minneapolis. His father, John Nelson, was the leader of a jazz band in the area, and his mother, Mattie, was a vocalist for the ensemble. "I named my son Prince because I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do," his father once said. An autodidact, Prince began playing piano at age seven, guitar at 13 and drums the next year.

He joined a band called Grand Central, which eventually changed its name to Champagne, when he was 14. At age 18, he made a demo tape with an engineer named Chris Moon. When local businessman Owen Husney heard the tape in 1978, he helped negotiate Prince's first recording contract, with Warner Bros. Records, which granted him unprecedented autonomy for a new signing, let alone an artist his age.

Over the course of nearly four decades, Prince became an icon of artistry and individuality. Few musicians defined and redefined pop, rock, R&B, funk, soul and nearly every other musical genre imaginable like Prince, who issued his debut album in 1978.

He embraced controversy, presenting himself as an androgynous sexaholic in his album art and lyrics, and challenged conservative music ideals in his first decade on albums like 1999, Purple Rain and Sign 'O' the Times.

A singular force, he famously performed, produced and wrote nearly all of his own songs at the beginning of his career and would go on to build a music empire out of his home near Minneapolis as he expanded his musical vocabulary.


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