Authorities investigating the sudden death of pop star Prince are focusing on the role painkillers may have played in his premature demise, according to a published report.
Prince, known for the hit songs “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry”, among others, was found dead Thursday at his Paisley Park estate in suburban Chanhassan, Minn. He was 57.
Michael Padden, a longtime attorney for two of Prince’s siblings, told theMinneapolis Star-Tribune that had come to him in 2001 with concerns about the star’s drug use. Padden said Prince’s sister Lorna Nelson and brother Duane Nelson told him that Prince particularly abused the painkiller Percocet, as well as cocaine.
“Lorna told me that her brother would die young … before his time and of a heart attack,” Padden told the paper. The lawyer also claimed that Prince’s brother, Duane Nelson, told Padden that he paid straw buyers to obtain prescriptions, then gave them to Prince.
Lorna Nelson died in 2006 and Duane Nelson died in 2011, according to the Star-Tribune.
Many of Prince’s longtime colleagues in the music business have insisted the “Let’s Go Crazy” singer led a clean life. Former band member Sheila E. said Sunday that she had “never seen him take anything, not even aspirin, in the 38 years I’ve known him.”
Robbie Paster, Prince’s former valet and personal assistant, told the Star-Tribune that he “never knew of any opiate or cocaine problem. There’s no way you can do both of those and be as driven as he was. I never saw it.”
Investigative sources also told the paper that Prince had overdosed on an opiod when his private plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill., early on the morning of April 15.
A 7-minute recording made prior to the emergency landing and obtained by the Star-Tribune and NBC News reveals that air traffic controllers were unclear about the nature of the emergency beyond being told it was for an “unresponsive passenger”. The pilot of Prince’s private jet, which was en route to Minneapolis from a concert in Atlanta, clarifies the passenger is male, but says nothing else.
The Star-Tribune reported that Prince was given a shot of the opioid antidote Narcan by first responders on the tarmac. He was then taken to a local hospital, but left later that day and continued on to Minneapolis.
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