I’m glad you figured it out, but the child should not have to explain it to the parent—he’s the least equipped and it’s unfair. A child should be preemptively and automatically protected from such forced affection. The dad of a friend is a stranger; children are people, and people don’t want to pressed into false…

Very lucky. I’d loved him since the third grade, and got to keep loving him and being amazed and inspired for thirty more years. As you say, he was art. Nobody talks shit about Prince near me unless they are ready for a very serious conversation about the specific ways in which they are wrong and should feel bad.

His humor and obvious delight was always right under the surface—the moment when he falls back off the stage and his bodyguard catches him and lifts him upright again: just glee every time I watch.

I watch it whenever I need joy. The part at the end where he throws his guitar into the sky and it never comes down can get me through the worst of days.

It really is beyond. There are many excellent musicians and performers, and then there are true masters. Prince is the latter and I can’t stand it when people are confused about that ;-)

You are on some extremely potent crack or you are trolling. Prince was one of the best musicians in history—no hyperbole. He played over two dozen instruments and was considered a true master of guitar, keyboards, and drums, among others. When Eric Clapton was asked how it felt to be the best guitar player in the…