Did Prince have a premonition of his own death? Everyone remembers the day that the superstar died... but not everyone knows how many questions arose afterwards.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Did Prince have a premonition of his own death?
00:03Everyone remembers the day that the superstar died, but not everyone knows how many questions
00:08arose afterwards.
00:09How did you feel when you heard the news today?
00:12Devastated.
00:13Any Prince fan knows that he presented himself as the poster child for clean living.
00:18While he might have rocked and rolled through an era that promoted excess, he reportedly
00:22didn't want artists who indulged in alcohol and drugs on tour with him.
00:27Turns out, though, there was a side of him that most people had no idea existed.
00:31It all became apparent on April 15th, 2016, only about a week before he died, when his
00:37private plane was forced to make an emergency landing at the Quad City International Airport
00:42in Moline, Illinois.
00:43At first, his representative told the press that he had experienced the effects of the
00:47flu for a few weeks and felt unwell.
00:50It was later revealed, however, that he had received Narcan, a drug that rapidly reverses
00:55an opioid overdose, on the tarmac.
00:58The revelation that Prince was using opioids came as a shock to his fandom.
01:02According to some reports, Prince had depended on painkillers for years because of his long
01:07history of iconic — and grueling — performances.
01:10This ultimately resulted in him opting for hip surgery in the 2000s.
01:14Thereafter, he received more prescription pills, and when he died, authorities found
01:19a number of pills around his house.
01:21His use of painkillers wasn't a secret to his closest friends and confidants, though,
01:25leaving behind questions of what measures — if any — were taken by these people
01:30to help the musician.
01:32Prince's official cause of death was determined to be accidental fentanyl poisoning.
01:37What never made sense about this is why Prince would be taking fentanyl in the first place.
01:41We now know that he took painkillers, but he never had any prescriptions for fentanyl
01:45to his name.
01:46So why did investigators find around 49 black market pills that contained the lethal substance
01:52after his death?
01:53How did he acquire it?
01:55Addiction psychiatrist Scott Bienenfeld proposed that Prince didn't even know he was taking
02:00something else to begin with.
02:01He told Rolling Stone,
02:02"...the majority of my patients are pain patients, and someone gave them fentanyl as an add-on.
02:07You've taken OxyContin, now take this.
02:10Most of these musicians, trust me, don't know it's laced with fentanyl."
02:14These types of counterfeit pills are produced in other countries, then brought back into
02:18the U.S. where they are sold for as little as $10.
02:21According to Mark Metz, an attorney for the state of Minnesota, Prince believed the pills
02:25he was taking, which were marked as Watson-853, were run-of-the-mill painkillers.
02:30"...so Watson-853 can be a legitimate pain reliever, similar to Vicodin."
02:34However, it was undetermined how the musician attained them.
02:38Metz said in a statement,
02:39"...there is no reliable evidence showing how Prince obtained the counterfeit Vicodin
02:43containing fentanyl.
02:45The bottom line is that we simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with
02:49a crime related to Prince's death."
02:52Upon arriving at Prince's Paisley Park on April 21, 2016, medical personnel found the
02:57unresponsive musician inside an elevator.
03:00They proceeded to give him CPR in an attempt to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced
03:04dead shortly after they arrived.
03:06While this might seem like a minor detail in the grander context of what happened, music
03:11executive L.A. Reed appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss how this event chilled him, because
03:16of a conversation he had with Prince beforehand.
03:19Reed mentioned Prince and the Revolutions' song, "'Let's Go Crazy," from the 1984 Purple
03:24Rain record.
03:25Specifically, he focused on one particular stanza, which asks,
03:29"...are we gonna let the elevator bring us down?"
03:32Reed went on to recall,
03:34"...one time, when I was with him, privately, he said, you know what the elevator is, right?
03:38Well, the elevator is the devil.
03:40It scared me.
03:41I don't like to talk like that, but he said that.
03:44So for me, it was like really haunting when I read that he was found in an elevator."
03:49Did Prince have some sort of premonition about his death?
03:51It's not something we'll ever know for sure, but this small anecdote will always beg the
03:55question.
03:57Despite the fact that authorities found a highly illegal substance in Prince's body
04:01and on the premises, no arrests were made in connection to this.
04:05Why?
04:06There simply wasn't enough evidence to go after anyone.
04:08Still, considering Prince's high profile and the nature of his death, it was surprising
04:13that no one was charged or implicated in this manner.
04:15"...I'm pretty sad.
04:16I'm trying to keep the tears back.
04:18Somebody had to have gotten these pills for him."
04:22In addition, authorities discovered that Dr. Michael T. Schulenberg allegedly prescribed
04:27a painkiller in someone else's name for Prince a week before he died.
04:31In doing so, Schulenberg went against the Controlled Substances Act, but he only faced
04:36a $30,000 civil charge.
04:39As noted by the court, this was in no way an admission of guilt.
04:43Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson, told Rolling Stone that no prosecution would bring her
04:47brother back.
04:49She said,
04:50"'You could charge 20,000 people and toss them in jail.
04:53Will that bring my brother back?
04:54It's not.
04:55It didn't matter if it was a knife or a gun or fentanyl.
04:58If it doesn't bring back my brother, it didn't matter.'"
05:01Being a public figure or even someone with immense wealth, a will becomes crucial to
05:06deciding who inherits what and how much after someone dies.
05:09Prince, who is reported to have a fortune in the region of hundreds of millions, didn't
05:14have one.
05:15This is especially strange, considering the amount of people involved in his business
05:19and personal affairs.
05:21In the days after Prince's death, Tyka Nelson revealed that she had no knowledge of a will
05:25and filed a case to have someone appointed to the handling of her brother's estate.
05:30After this, over 700 people came forward, claiming to be somehow related to Prince and
05:35wanting a piece of the proverbial pie.
05:37Sifting through these claims and numerous opportunists, it was determined that the only
05:42official heirs would be Tyka Nelson and Prince's five half-siblings, Sharon Nelson, Noreen
05:47Nelson, John Nelson, Omar Baker, and Alfred Jackson.
05:52Six years after Prince died, the court ordered for his estate to be split evenly between
05:56Prince Haute Holdings LLC and Prince Legacy LLC.
06:01If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available.
06:05Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
06:10SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP, 1-800-662-4357.