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Friday, April 26, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Pills Reportedly Found With Prince’s Body

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — After a Minnesota judge agreed to seal a search warrant for Prince's Paisley Park studio complex, reports say that prescription drugs were with the singer when he was found dead last week.

The music icon died last week in Minneapolis at the age of 57.

An affidavit from a police officer asked to keep details of the Paisley Park search secret, and a judge granted the request on Thursday, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.

In addition, the Associated Press reported Thursday that prescription painkillers were discovered with Prince when he was found dead last week, citing reports from NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, which apparently relied on unidentified law enforcement sources.

Carver County Deputy Sheriff Jason Kamerud declined to comment on the reports of drugs found at Paisley Park, according to the news wire service.

An autopsy has been performed on Prince, but results will take several weeks to be released.

Over the course of his amazing career, Prince released 39 albums, won seven Grammys and was one of the first music video stars after the advent of MTV.

Just 5 feet 2 inches tall, Prince became a big presence in the music industry in the late 1970s, and by the beginning of the next decade his stature was such that he was challenging even Michael Jackson in popularity. In fact, because he was sexually provocative and given to instrumental pyrotechnics, many tried to cast his as his generation's Rolling Stones to Jackson's Beatles.

But Prince was fiercely protective of his independence and his image, and rejected being pigeon-holed. He also frequently rejected input from his record company, and once appeared with the word "slave" written across his forehead to protest not owning the rights to his work.

That didn't stop him from producing a string of massive hits, including "Little Red Corvette," "Let's Go Crazy," and "When Dove's Cry," the latter song a ubiquitous presence on radio during the summer of 1984, the year the album on which it was featured, "Purple Rain," sold 13 million copies.

Prince made his motion picture acting debut in the movie "Purple Rain" the same year. It won an Academy Award for best original song score.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. In its dedication, the rock hall hailed him as a trailblazer who "rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties."

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