Tony Mosley’s voice trembles recalling that day. He was at work in Minneapolis on April 21, 2016, when he heard rumblings that Prince Rogers Nelson had died. At first, the dancer, rapper, and musician known to the world as Tony M.—member of His Royal Badness’ early ‘90s hard-charging New Power Generation band—thought the early reports were mere rumors. This simply could not be… not Prince, the genius, larger-than-life singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who rebirthed pop music into a new sensuous funk-new wave-rock-soul musical form known to the world as the Minneapolis Sound. Mosley immediately called his old NPG brother-in-spirit Kirk Johnson, who was at Paisley Park, the artist’s legendary estate and recording facility in Chanhassen, Minnesota. “But this time he texted me back and said, ‘Can’t talk right now, I’ll call you in a few,’” Mosley remembers from his Arizona home. “That’s when I knew something was horribly wrong. Kirk eventually hit me back and told me it was true… they found Prince in the elevator. I still get discombobulated thinking about it.”
When Prince left us a decade ago at the all-too-soon age of 57 following an accidental fentanyl overdose, it hit the world like a glitch in the Matrix. Stevie Wonder, Madonna, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Chris Stapleton, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars were among a legion of eclectic artists who paid heartfelt homage to the boundless visionary, multi-Grammy and Oscar winner. Landmarks across the globe, from Prince’s beloved hometown Minnesota Twins baseball stadium, and NYC’s Times Square to Paris’ Eiffel Tower, were bathed in purple in honor of the maverick.
