Learning From Prince’s Death

Following all the Prince news coverage over the last few days I’ve learned two things. The first is that of all the people in Minnesota – and there’s nearly 5.5 million of us – I’m the only one who didn’t know Prince or who doesn’t have a Prince story.

The second thing – and I guess this doesn’t really count because I pretty much knew this before Prince’s death – is that the media are a bunch of blood sucking vampires without shame or decency. I was watching the press conference yesterday with the Carver County sheriff Jim Olson and Martha Weaver, spokeswoman for the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, and I thought it was terrible. Nothing wrong with Sheriff Olson or Ms. Weaver, they were nothing other than perfection, but the media people in attendance were, in my opinion, terrible. “What was he wearing?” one reporter asked. “Was there music playing, do we know the last song Prince heard?” asked another.

Do we really care what Prince was wearing or what he was listening to in those final minutes? And if the Sheriff’s office does know those things why is it any of our business?

No one would debate the fact that Prince was an intensely private person and for years we respected that and now, in death, we just throw the respect we had for the man away and ask questions like this? Who the hell even wants to know this stuff? Just because the man died shouldn’t give us the right to turn his life inside out and upside down and treat him like a sideshow freak.

He’s Prince for crying out loud and he deserves more from us. He deserves to be treated in death the way we treated him in life and that’s with respect.

Personally I wish the coverage would stop completely. I’d like Prince to be put to rest the way I think he might have wanted which is privately and without the world watching. I feel the same way about the autopsy; assuming there wasn’t a crime involved I don’t see any reason the public needs to know how he died. I understand that because of Prince’s magnitude that’ll never happen but maybe as the days go by and we learn more we could exercise some respect and discretion and remember who we’re all talking about.

And another thing: the vault. Everyone has heard the stories about Prince’s “vault”. A room at Paisley Park that holds hundreds – thousands – of hours of music and video. He’s not even cold yet and all I hear is people, newscasters and DJs talking about the vault and what he might have left behind.

Please just give it a rest. In the name of love and in the name of respect please just give it a rest.