It's been helpful to hear others remembrances and to share some of mine with those close to me.

This is what I was able to type up and share after a few hours of crying when I found out in the morning:

Prince I wish you Heaven.

To everyone that reached out knowing that today's sad news would be incredibly painful thank you for your words and thoughts.

It's a weird thing because I don't know this man personally but he has meant a lot to me through out my life. He did for me what any artist hopes to bring to their audience. He brought me joy. He challenged me. He influenced me. I also honestly learned a lot from him.

My earliest memory of Prince entering my life is dancing to Little Red Corvette in my family's basement with my little brother Adam and our baby sitter Billy. Every time When Doves Cry came onto the radio at its height of radio play it would always strike me with its hypnotic bassless funk groove and what to me at the time was a very funny line about what it sounded like when doves cry. I knew then whoever this guy was he was my kind of person.

As an artist Prince taught me a great deal. I might like to fancy myself at times as a visual artist and Prince was a genius of a musician but there were many lessons still to be learned. The most important for me as an overly critical and insecure creator was that while, Prince, who to me is the Picasso of sound showed me to not be afraid to explore and to challenge your own boundaries and while he created literally hundreds if not thousands of amazing songs he had some absolute disasters and embarrassing moments. I cherished those moments too and knew if he could fail that I surely would and it was OK.

I feel luckier than most - I have heard most of the bootlegs, and started downloading live concerts via MP3s 20 years ago. I got to see the man perform live 10 times and if he wasn't the greatest live performer of all time then he was just sharing the stage with a select few who were equally great.

This isn't a family member that has passed so I can't grab a fellow family member and embrace them and feel the catharsis of knowing they are heart broken as well.

I am heart broken.

I love you Prince.

I hope some where right now that skinny mother fucker with the high voice is mocking his opponent as he hits another ace in a ping pong match.

May you rest in peace.