Prince Dead at 57, AP Reports

By Cody Fenwick/Patch

CHANHASSEN, MN - Prince Rogers Nelson, the enigmatic and hugely influential musician known to the world simply as Prince, died on April 21, 2016, at his Paisley Park studios and estate in Minnesota, the AP reported. He was 57.

The Carver County Sheriff's Department reported officers arrived at Paisley Park around lunchtime.

No cause of death has been reported.

Prince's private jet had made an emergency landing Friday, April 15, at 1:30 a.m. at a small airport in Moline, Illinois, as he was flying home from a show in Atlanta. A spokesperson told TMZ at the time that Prince was suffering from the flu, was taken to a local hospital for treatment and discharged a few hours later.

Bruce Carter, aviation director at Quad-City International Airport, told QCTimes.com during that incident that anambulance was waiting to pick up an "unresponsive" passenger from the jet.

Born in Minneapolis in 1958, Prince wrote his first song at the ripe age of 7 and had his first platinum album, "Prince," at 1979. By the end of his decades-long career, he had won seven Grammys, sold more than 100 million albums and, in 2004, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Prince spent his life in Minnesota. His 1978 debut album "For You" and the self-titled second LP kicked off a prolific run of albums.

It was 1984's Purple Rain, though, that crystalized his status as one of the greatest artists of his generation. He earned two Grammys and Oscar for that work.

(Perspective: The album gave him a victory over Michael Jackson's Thriller for Favorite Pop/Rock Album at the 1985 American Music Awards.")

Photo Credit: Scott Penner via Flickr