Prince 1984

Prince 1984, hand-drawn performing at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago on December 10, 1984 with his Ivory Cloud custom guitar during his Purple Rain Tour, age 26.

The Ivory Cloud electric guitar custom-made and hand-built by a Minnesota-based luthier Dave Rusan.

Prince Rogers Nelson was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation.

In late 1982, Prince released a double album, 1999, which sold over four million copies.
1984 became his “breakthrough” year.

During this period Prince referred to his band as the Revolution. The band’s name was also printed, in reverse, on the cover of 1999 inside the letter “I” of the word “Prince”.
The band consisted of Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, Brown Mark on bass, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Jill Jones, a backing singer, was also part of the lineup for the 1999 album and tour.

In the early 1980s Prince required his management to obtain a deal for him to star in a major motion picture, despite the fact that his exposure at that point was limited to several pop and R&B hits, music videos and occasional TV performances.
This resulted in the hit film Purple Rain (1984), which starred Prince and was loosely autobiographical, and the eponymous studio album, which was also the soundtrack to the film.
The Purple Rain album sold more than 13 million copies in the US and spent 24 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The film won Prince an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.

At one point in 1984, Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single, and film in the US; it was the first time a singer had achieved this feat.
The Purple Rain album is ranked 8th in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

On April 21, at 9:43 am, the Carver County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call requesting an ambulance be sent to Prince’s home at Paisley Park.
The caller initially told the dispatcher that an unidentified person at the home was unconscious, then moments later said he was dead, and finally identified the person as Prince.

Prince died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, at the age of 57.

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