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Prince is Gone, But His Spirit Lives at Minnesota Super Bowl
Prince performs during the "Pepsi Halftime Show" at Super Bowl XLI
Picture this: Prince
taking the stage at U.S. Bank Stadium in his hometown of Minneapolis
for the 2018 Super Bowl to a dazzling display of purple lights, wowing
the crowd at halftime with his frenzied guitar work, soulful singing and
slick dance moves.
Perfect marketing, a die-hard fan’s dream. But
it won’t happen. Prince’s death from an accidental painkiller overdose
in 2016 leaves fans to only imagine how the megastar might have topped
his electrifying performance in pouring rain at the Super Bowl 11 years
ago in Miami.
“People joke, ’Can we just have a Prince hologram?’” said Mike Howard, spokesman for the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee. Justin Timberlake
is the halftime performer for Sunday’s game. At a press conference
Thursday (Feb. 1), Timberlake said Prince was a big influence.
“In my opinion, the greatest all-around musician in popular culture,”
Timberlake said. “The time I got to spend around him, with him, talking
about music . those are memories that I’ll take with me forever.”
But
the sights and sounds of Prince still surround the big game between the
Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. There’s the mural of
Prince with a white dove in the Uptown neighborhood, his gold star
outside Minneapolis’ First Avenue nightclub, or Paisley Park, his
recording complex-turned-museum in Chanhassen, about 20 miles (32
kilometers) southwest of Minneapolis.
“Prince is not here in
being, but he’s here in spirit,” said music producer Jimmy Jam, who
along with his producing partner Terry Lewis went heavy on Minnesota
musical acts for Super Bowl Live,
a free, 10-day fan festival on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.
Jam said he hears Prince music “on every NFL telecast and highlight on
all the networks.”
Jam said Prince “is so associated with this state and with this city that his presence is definitely felt.”
Thousands packed downtown for Monday’s (Jan. 29) “Prince Night”
concert, featuring Sheila E., Morris Day and The Time, and Prince’s
1980s band The Revolution. Fans also are getting a firsthand look at
Prince’s guitars, costumes, hats and shoes on loan from Paisley Park at
an exhibit as part of Super Bowl Live.
“He was magic. I think that
people in Minnesota didn’t realize exactly how big he was probably
until after his death, because he was our hometown guy,” Jeanette
Blasewitz, 66, of Eden Prairie said while checking out the
displays. Sunday’s game marks the anniversary of Prince’s appearance at
the 2007 Super Bowl that saw the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago
Bears. Many called the show the best Super Bowl halftime ever.
Dressed
in turquoise jacket and pants with an orange shirt, Prince gave a
blistering rendition of his own hits, such as “Let’s Go Crazy,” followed
by covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” Bob Dylan’s
“All Along the Watchtower” and the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You” before
finishing with “Purple Rain” in a driving rainstorm.
Morris Hayes, 55, was a keyboardist for Prince’s former band New
Power Generation and was on stage that night. He remembers organizers
approaching Prince before the Super Bowl with the forecast of rain and
offering to pre-record his performance. Hayes said that prompted
Prince’s famous response: Can you make it rain harder?
“The fact
that it did rain when it did and how (Prince) did ‘Purple Rain’ in the
rain, you can’t beat that. ... It was magical, you know,” Hayes
recalled.
Fan Melisa Rokala, 46, of Cokato explains Prince’s appeal to Minnesota residents.
“As
a Minnesotan, we love our own. And we love it when our own people love
us here,” Rokala said. “He loved Minnesota. It was always his home. And
his music was groundbreaking.”
She believes Prince — who once wrote a song for the Minnesota Vikings —
would have been involved in a Minneapolis Super Bowl, perhaps again as
the halftime performer, if he was still alive.
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