Today in Prince: a Revolution reunion, a second line, and a Paisley Park museum

By Katie Rife  |  April 26, 2016 | 10:22pm
Aux Features Music

The death of Minneapolis’ own Prince Rogers Nelson—better known by his mononym of Prince—last week took the world by surprise. The outpouring of grief among fans was sudden and heartfelt, and continues five days later. Prince’s music is selling in record numbers, and Purple Rain’s spontaneous theatrical revival has proven so popular that it’s being extended for another week. And over the weekend New Orleans donned its finest purple garb and celebrated the Purple One with a massive, joyful second line parade—a Louisiana tradition where mourners march with brass bands through the streets—in its Treme neighborhood (you know, like the show?):


And today, The Revolution—Prince’s backup band throughout much of the ’80s, featured on the album and in the movie Purple Rain—announced to Minneapolis public radio station The Current that they’re getting back together for a handful of shows in unspecified (but probably in Minneapolis) locations. (Wendy and Lisa will both be there, in case you were wondering.) Prince’s legacy lives on, in other words, and isn’t in any danger of going anywhere, especially if those legendary vaults (plural) of unreleased Prince tunes—enough for decades’ worth of new releases, supposedly—are released.

That legacy will be complicated, though, as according to The New York Times Prince’s sister filed documents in a Minnesota court earlier today stating that he died without a will. That leaves his estate similarly without an executor, and without a spouse or children (Prince’s only son died in infancy), an agreement over who controls his assets will have to be made between his sister and their five half-siblings. His brother-in-law, for his part, wants to turn Prince’s Paisley Park estate into a museum in the style of Elvis mecca Graceland.

 
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