Hello Sharon,

Again, my condolences on the loss of your brother and my gratitude for your willingness to respond to the questions of us fans. I hesitate to ask the following questions about your family because the questions address sensitive topics. However, I am interested in your perspective, if you would are willing to share. Prince has touched my life with his music and he shared so much of himself with his fans through his music. Like other fans, I wonder about his life because he is a big part of mine.

I have read Mayte Garcia's memoir The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince. I found particularly touching her descriptions of Prince during their first pregnancy and while their son/your nephew, Amiir, was alive. Mayte’s descriptions of him as a devoted father are among the most loving, flattering, and magnificent descriptions that I have ever read or heard about your brother.

To my knowledge, no one from the family or the Estate responded to anything she wrote in the book. If you are willing to share, I am interested to hear your perspective, as a member of the Nelson family, regarding some of the content in her book.

1. In the book, Mayte recalls meeting your father John Nelson 2 times, neither of which was at she and Prince’s wedding. I am wondering if your father attended Prince and Mayte’s wedding, and if he attended Prince and Manuela’s wedding? Did you attend these weddings?

2. Did you ever have the chance to see your nephew, Prince and Mayte’s son, Amiir?

3. Prince never talked about his son Amiir publicly. Did he ever speak about Amiir privately amongst family or friends?

4. Given the loss of his child, was it hard for him to be around other people’s children?

5. When I hear songs like “Breakdown” and “Way Back Home” from Art Official Age, Prince seems to be singing from a place of pain, and I wonder about his mindset when he wrote songs like those 2. Given the unspeakable loss of losing his only child, in the latter years of his life, did Prince still think about Amiir? In the latter years of his life, did the loss of Amiir still affect Prince?

6. Besides “Comeback” and “Until U’re in My Arms Again,” do you know of any other songs that he wrote for or about Amiir?

Again, thank you for reaching out to the fans and trying to answer our questions.

Respectfully,
Michelle

[Edited 7/20/17 18:44pm]

Hi Sharon!!! Considering most Prince fans are in the 40-50 year old age group. How close is the family to actually putting Prince's full music catalog onto Itunes? Full catalog consisting of unreleased music, alternate versions and remixes? I would assume this would be the fastest and most cost efficient way to release his music. Maybe the family could have a separate distribution deal with Warner Brothers for Hard copy CDs which are popular amongst old school Prince fans. Most fans won't be around to enjoy Prince's music at one release per year, if average age of fans are between 40-50. Streaming music is very important now a days, but please do not make this the major way to distribute his music. Thanks for your time Sharon!!!

Another question, on behalf of other members who are discussing Prince's childhood in another thread...
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Are you able to shed any light on the relationship P had with his Mum, Dad, and Step-father as a child? What led to his leaving home / being made to leave so young? Are you able to dispel / confirm rumours about P being found to be behaving inappropriately?

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Do you think P's childhood had much of a bearing on the way he behaved as an adult?

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Thank you again for your indulging us all by answering questions that have plagued many fans for so many years - Prince was an enigma, for sure!

Bassette said:

Dear Sharon, First of all, my condolences. Thank you for your time and attention. Q: Knowing that Prince was working on his memoirs, I wondered whether his diaries (in case he kept a diary ) will be published?

I have wondered this also.

Moonbeam said:

Dear Sharon,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reach out to the fan community. Prince meant so much to his fans, and I can't imagine how hard it must be for his family after losing him.

First, I wanted to say thank you for the efforts thus far to push forward with your brother's legacy. The release of "Moonbeam Levels" on 4Ever was incredibly moving to me - that song has such wonder and its release was very helpful to me personally during what was a very difficult year, so thank you.

A question, if I may: there are many, many fans on prince.org who are encyclopedias of Prince knowledge (including BorisFishpaw, oldfriends4sale, Militant, Neversin, and many more I am forgetting). Would the estate consider engaging with fans like these for subsequent releases? While the opinions of Prince fans are wide and varied, the inclusion of fans such as these would be a great step in ensuring that future releases are received as enthusiastically as possible by the fanbase.

Once again, thank you for your time and consideration.

Regarding the underlined and bolded sentences, great question!

DarylB said:

Dear Sharon, This is Daryl.I just wanted to tell you if you never heard of the company Criterion Collection,I suggest that you please Google them and research,they do not disappoint on their releases,their movies!Thank you again!

Huh?

Ms. Nelson,

One last question, what ever happened to Prince's swear jar and the money in it? Did it go to charity?

Interview has now completed so this thread is now closed. Thanks June7 and Sharon Nelson for this awesome interview!