Ashland, Ore. — With the passing of a musical legend, friends and colleagues are embracing their memories of one of pop music’s greatest talents.
“It’s a platinum award for Diamonds and Pearls that they sent me from Paisley Park.”
Sylvia Massy knew Prince well.
“I would get a phone call at four in the morning and he would say, ‘Sylvia, come to the studio,’ and I was like, ‘Okay!'”
About as well as you can know one of the most enigmatic artists in pop music history.
“I’ve never known anyone as talented as Prince, he can play anything as well as anyone I have ever seen.”
Massy worked with prince for three years on the album Diamonds and Pearls engineering smash hits like Cream and Gett Off and other songs that never made the final.
So, when Massy heard the news of Prince’s passing, “I was shocked”
She says it won’t get her down, and that’s the way Prince would have wanted her to feel.
“He has lived three times the lives that the rest of us have lived just from what he has done with his life and how hard he worked.”
And she’ll always have the stories, like the time she criticized him in her diary.
“I hear Prince’s voice, reading. There’s Prince, sitting on his purple throne. He was reading my journal aloud and he was laughing. He liked that, the fact I had an opinion.”
And the memorabilia, like the chair she got him the first time they worked together.
“He asked for a big upholstered chair, a ‘grandma’s chair’ is what he called it.”
Or the cheap guitar he tried to sneak out of her studio.
“He really liked the sound of this and it’s all over the Diamonds and Pearls record.”
Memories of one of music’s greats, another talent taken too soon.
“An incredible talent and it’s really a shame he’s gone so young.”
Massy says she’s not alone and everyone who’s worked with Prince has their own unique story about the legend.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.