Prince loved showing off his room of fan mail after he shot to fame.
The Purple Rain singer’s love of his followers has been revealed in a series of chats with his closest family, friends and collaborators to mark the upcoming 10th anniversary of his death.
Prince passed away on 21 April, 2016, aged 57, with the music icon found unresponsive in an elevator at his sprawling Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
His death was later ruled an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.
As part of a series of interviews to commemorate his shock passing,
his cousin Charles ‘Chazz’ Smith – also the original drummer in Grand Central – told The Guardian: “When he got famous he was flabbergasted that girls would drive all the way from places like Detroit to park outside his house, but he couldn’t wait to show me his room full of fan mail.
“I’m really happy with what he was able to accomplish, but I’m also sad because if he’d had a regular life he may still be here today. What if he didn’t have to take the whole world on from day one, or fight the record industry for the freedom to be himself?”
Chazz added about the pain in Prince’s life: “From the 18-hour recording sessions to the dancing, he pushed himself to the absolute limit and I don’t think you ever get over losing a child (Amiir Nelson, who Prince had with his first wife Mayte Garcia, who died from Pfeiffer syndrome type 2 at six days old.)
“He had a lot on his shoulders for a very long time. People are gonna talk about the great things he did for a very long time, but there was a lot of heartbreak.”
Despite Prince’s infamous love of women, singer Mica Paris, 56, told The Guardian about knowing the icon: “He never made a move on me. I’m not promiscuous at all but goddammit, I would have! He was incredibly sexy and had this aura.”
Owen Husney, 78, Prince’s first manager, added: “He was a shy guy, more comfortable with 10,000 people in a room than five. My job was implementing his genius.
“I remember a serious conversation about the word ‘controversy’.
“Some of Prince’s lyrics and early outfits were outrageous, but you need talent to back that up. He sang about sexuality, gender; identified people’s issues and made them feel OK.
“People have told me he saved them from being suicidal. His sexuality seemed heterosexual but he was certainly in touch with his female side. In private, he was such a prankster.
“Once, in LA, he bought a fake hand, wedged it in a bus door as it was driving off and went, ‘My hand! My hand!’
“People never saw that stuff because, even before he was famous, he didn’t want his fans to see him doing ‘normal’ things.
“He could see so far ahead and knew where he was going.”