I have loved Prince's music since the very first time I remember listening to music on the radio...1984, i was 4, my mom had a silver radio, with a single speaker, and a manual dial that had broken and which she had strung together to make it work again using rubberbands. We were homeless much of that year. I remember we had NOTHING. But we had that radio. My little fingers turned the knob to static and suddenly Purple Rain and Prince's voice and that guitar, and I stopped, and I listened to the entire song and I loved every second of it. And that memory stayed with me my entire life as something incredibly special and profound. That with NOTHING, a mono radio that was rigged to work with a rubberband...a little girl could feel happiness in a song. Prince did that to me as a little girl, and i was ALWAYS grateful and have always told people that my first song on the radio was Purple Rain.

And now he's gone too...way too soon. And my heart aches from wounds of losing two dear friends and my dad in less than 2 months, and three dear musicians to my life: David Bowie, Merle Haggard, and Prince...and ugh...and this year can stop already, my heart can't take anymore ache.

~e