Lynette Nelson was in her 20s when she first met Prince at the packed Pacific Club in Minneapolis. His bodyguard asked for her phone number. She said if Prince wanted it, he’d have to ask himself.
Later that night, the two were in a limousine.
He asked if she liked hugs and said, “Let me know when you want one.” He invited her to get dinner at a friend’s restaurant — in Los Angeles. She said she had to work the next morning.
When he dropped her off and walked her into the lobby of her building, she said she’d like her hug now.
“And he gave me a hug, and that’s my Prince story,” Nelson said, holding a bouquet of purple flowers as she stood in the rain Thursday outside the music icon’s Paisley Park estate and studios in Chanhassen to mourn his death at age 57.
She was part of an impromptu in-person and virtual wake that ranged from local fans to President Barack Obama, with friends and colleagues sharing memories of an artist whose persona ran the gamut from enigmatic to gregarious — and more often than not, tinged with brilliance.
FANS GATHER
Paisley Park and First Avenue in Minneapolis quickly became memorial sites, with fans gathering to lay bouquets and signs, play music, shed tears and share stories.
A group of seniors from Chanhassen High School arrived at Paisley Park with a homemade “RIP” sign.
Chris Prather brought a red rose and a purple tulip — the rose in homage to the one Prince held during a photo shoot for his hit “Purple Rain.”
Prather said he sang right to her during a 1981 concert as she sat in the fourth row.
He was “just unique,” she said. “I love that he was an individual,” and that “he still called Minnesota home.”
Purple roses, which are very uncommon, were in short supply, said Chanhassen Floral owner Nikki Grund, who could only get 50 from her supplier Thursday afternoon.
Floral deliveries from as far away of Tampa, Fla., were being sent to Paisley Park,and many fans were picking up arrangements to leave out front.
Even those fans going to nearby groceries for were finding purple flowers in short supply. The closest Cub store was sold out by 3:45 p.m.
Scott Gregoria of Jordan, Minn., was at Paisley Park for a dance party Saturday night that Prince threw to thank fans for supporting him after his plane made an emergency landing last week because he had a medical problem, later described as the flu. It was one of perhaps 25 to 30 Prince shows Gregoria had seen, he said.
“The first thing he said was, ‘Don’t believe the media, thanks for your prayers, but wait at least two days before you pray,’ ” Gregoria said Thursday.
Then Prince showed off a brand-new purple piano and guitar.
Adam Cook Jr. of Chanhassen was in the front row at Paisley Park to see Prince in October. He got to play his guitar and keep the pick.
“It’s a pretty sweet memory,” he said.
Terrie Verduzco and Gretchen Van Dyke, nurses from Lakeville, came with sandwiches over lunch to drop off some purple flowers and pay their respects.
Verduzco recalled going to her first show at First Avenue in the early 1980s and seeing Prince in the audience.
“That was the place to be if you wanted to see Prince,” Verduzco said. “It was before he was famous.”
She would go on to see him perform several times over the years.
“He embodied his music,” Verduzco said. “He just was such an artist. He put on a great show. He was so little and yet so powerful.”
At First Avenue in Minneapolis, hundreds of fans and media gathered at Prince’s star on the wall outside the music venue. The sidewalk was full of flowers and candles — and a Fender guitar left by Christopher LaCroix, a 36-year-old from North Minneapolis.
“It’s only a guitar; it can be replaced,” LaCroix said. “He can’t be replaced.”
‘IN A BETTER PLACE’
Sean Tillman — better known as Har Mar Superstar — said he was “bawling” at the news of Prince’s death.
“Prince means everything to me,” he said. “I make music because some dude from Minnesota could be so cool, and so amazing. I remember staring at the turntable with ‘Purple Rain’ spinning when I was 6 and doing summer theater with girls who were extras in the movie.
“He was an amazing, beautiful soul with a wicked, weird and almost mean sense of humor. He was better at every instrument than everybody else,” Tillmann said. “Minneapolis – and the entire world – is going to have a huge hole in its heart for a long time. He may be physically dead, but his music and personality and his soul will live on forever.”
Grammy Award-winning Minneapolis native Dan Wilson, of Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic, said Prince served as an example in many ways and at many times.
“I feel like living and making music in Minneapolis when he was ascendant was a giant stroke of luck for me and my friends,” said Wilson, who now lives in Los Angeles. “He stayed in town, made his career and his life in his hometown, and gave us all the crazy idea that we could do that, too. And of course, his personality was endlessly puzzling and fascinating. ‘What makes Prince tick?’ could have been the unofficial title of a hundred conversations between me and my Twin Cities music friends.”
Soul singer Sam Moore first learned of Prince when he used to play the Cabooze in Minneapolis with his group, Sam and Dave. “He would come and stand at the bar and drink cranberry or orange juice,” 80-year-old Moore said from his home in Miami. “He never came to the stage, he never asked to come to the dressing room. He just stood and watched. He had these big old eyes, all you could see were those big old eyes.
“Music will never be the same now that he’s gone. What he did for the city, state and his home – he was one of the best. He’s not in pain any longer. He’s in a better place than you and I are right now.”
Rick Shefchik, who covered music for the Pioneer Press in the mid-1980s, remembers a Prince show where Prince was trying out a new band.
“It was just a jaw-dropping experience,” Shefchik said. The only other musician he’d seen who instructed his band as precisely was James Brown. “It was really obvious that it really, really mattered to have not a note out of place.”
NATIONAL OUTPOURING
Prince’s death also drew tributes nationally and internationally from all corners — fellow musicians, movie stars, athletes and the president of the United States.
“Today, the world lost a creative icon,” President Obama said in a statement, calling Prince “one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time” and saying “few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., spoke about Prince on the Senate floor Thursday, calling him “a superstar composer, an amazing performer and a music innovator with a fierce belief in the independence of his art.”
Mariah Carey wrote on Twitter: “Genius, legend, inspiration, friend. The world will miss you. I’ll never get over it.”
Said fellow pop star Katy Perry: “And just like that … the world lost a lot of magic. Rest in peace Prince! Thanks for giving us so much …”
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wrote: “Prince was brilliant and larger than life. What a sad day.”
And actor Dwayne Johnson: “Unbelievable just heard about PRINCE. Strength and light to his family/loved ones. One of my favs and a true pioneering artist. RIP brotha.”
Wrote Justin Timberlake: “Numb. Stunned. This can’t be real.”
Ross Raihala and Tad Vezner contributed to this story.