In just two weeks, the first tours will start moving through Paisley Park, the Minnesota-based recording studio, concert venue, and home of musical superstar Prince. Operated by Graceland Holdings—the same company that operates Elvis Presley’s Tennessee estate—the tours will take guideance from notes written by Prince himself, using emails, text messages, and plans the legend laid out for Paisley Park before his death in April of this year. “We’re seeing e-mails he sent four months before his death that say how he wanted it,” says one source on the project, as reported by Rolling Stone. “He wasn’t foreshadowing anything. [But] he always wanted his fans to come here. He left us a big road map.” The tours will move fans through 12 rooms of the complex converted into a museum to his life and career, but won’t include his basement vault, his private residence, or the elevator where his body was found. Meanwhile, curators exploring the estate continue to find hidden treasures, including the outfit from his Super Bowl performance in 2007, and a notebook full of lyrics.
But while Paisley Park’s fate seems settled—at least for now—Rolling Stone reports that other parts of the musician’s estate are still up in the air. For one thing, courts are still fielding requests from prospective heirs, who seek to discount the standing inheritance claim from Prince’s siblings and half-siblings. Most of these cases—including at least one from a woman who claimed her secret marriage certificate with the performer was classified by the CIA—have since been thrown out, but it still leaves the process in turmoil. Meanwhile, Prince’s family will be on the hook for a massive estate tax bill next year. Release of the artist’s music—either in the form of a greatest hits compilation, or new recordings culled from his private vaults—will help off-set that, but the process is moving slowly.
According to L. Londell McMillan, one of two music industry veterans currently tasked with stewardship of Prince’s musical library by the trust administrating the estate, a compilation of older material will likely be out before the end of the year. But sifting through unreleased material will take more time. “We’re still doing inventory, and we’re still mourning,” said McMillan, who once served as the artist’s lawyer. “I know the world wants to commercialize it, but we’re still getting through the stuff.”