Prince is something of an enigma. From his incomparable musicianship to his distinct voice and wild stage presence, the singer born as Prince Rogers Nelson set the world on fire every time music flowed from his fingertips. Regarded as one of the best musicians of his generation, the Minnesota-born and raised icon is also one of the best-selling artists of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold worldwide.
Videos by American Songwriter
Prince’s life was cut short on April 21, 2016, when he passed away at the age of 57 due to an accidental overdose of fentanyl. Yet his legacy will live on for generations to come. Check out five facts you may not have known about Prince.
1. He was related to a human rights activist
Prince wasn’t the only trailblazer in his family. Prince is a descendant of Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, a Black nationalist from Louisiana who was the granddaughter of former slaves. In the 1930s, she created the Peace Movement of Ethiopia that advocated for African-Americans to return to Africa to avoid racism in the U.S. Gordon was Prince’s great-aunt on his father’s side.
2. He had epilepsy as a child
In 2009 more than 30 years into his career, Prince revealed that he was born epileptic. Throughout his childhood, he suffered from seizures, and his parents struggled to figure out how to cure them. The medical condition resulted in him being bullied as a kid, using his flamboyant stage persona as a coping mechanism.
“My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, ‘Mom, I’m not going to be sick anymore,’ and she said ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Because an angel told me so.’ Now, I don’t remember saying it, that’s just what she told me,” Prince explained in an interview with Tavis Smiley (via People). “From that point on, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased a lot in school. And early in my career, I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could.”
[RELATED: 5 Deep Cuts from Prince]
3. He was a ballet dancer in high school
In addition to playing sports in junior high, the future superstar also carved out time for a formative pastime—ballet. Prince enrolled in the Minnesota Dance Theatre run through the Urban Arts Program in Minneapolis Public Schools. The program was a lifeline to students “who didn’t fit into the traditional academic world,” MDT Artistic Director Lise Houlton told Rolling Stone.
The icon remained connected to the establishment even after he found stardom. In fact, he used the MDT branch at Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis to rehearse choreography for his film debut in Purple Rain. “He was so shy, and so dear,” “Purple Rain” choreographer John Command described of Prince. “He wore pedal-pusher tights, T-shirts, and ballet slippers. He was so darling, it took him two months to look me in the eye.” Prince also helped raise money for the institution throughout his career.
4. He has decades of unreleased material
Though Prince gifted fans 32 albums during his lifetime, he has tons more material behind closed doors. Dating back to 1979, Prince has upwards of 50 unreleased projects that range from music videos to live albums. The first one on record is a rock album he made with his band at the time called The Rebels that contained songs “You,” later recorded by Paula Abdul, and “If I Love U 2 Night” sung by Mica Paris. A short film based on four songs on Apollonia 6’s self-titled album (Apollonia 6 was a trio formed by Prince) and the unreleased 1995 live album, The Live Experience, are among the singer’s countless other scrapped projects.
5. He has a highway named after him
In the wake of Prince’s death in April 2016, there was an outpouring of tributes. One of those tributes is the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway in his home state of Minnesota. In May 2023, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz dedicated a stretch of the Minnesota State Highway 5 to be named Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway. State officials also made an exception to have the road signs written in Prince’s favorite color, purple, as opposed to the typical brown text.
“You know Prince’s DNA is all up and down this highway, right?” Prince’s sister Sharon Nelson remarked at the dedication ceremony. “For so many years, he really was. And we’re going to remember every time we pass this way every great song he ever made.”
Photo by Nancy Bundt/Courtesy The Prince Estate
