TopazGirl said:

The first pic is from November 2015 and the second is from January 2015. He looks more dehydrated in the first pic. So, there is just like 10 or 11 months in between there. In November...maybe there was a lot of stress going on too as he would be gearing up for his tour. I take the touring into consideration too...the preparation, rehearsing, etc. as another stress factor on top of everything else. As you get older, not sleeping, not staying hydrated, and not eating well will show up your face more than when younger. Your skin can't bounce back as well as in youth. And yes, this is all speculation too I realize, but I'm not looking looking at him like he's dying because really, I don't think so. Also, I couldn't find a pic of him without the glasses, though. Maybe someone else can find/make a better pic comparison.

[Edited 6/8/16 17:38pm]

[Edited 6/8/16 18:26pm]

I know its difficult to accept but something was going down with Prince and it wasnt just a grueling work schedule. Prince's makeup has always been on game. Look at those eyebrows in the top photo! I could start a entire thread on Prince's eyebrows throughout the years! The Old Prince would never go out in public with those messed up eyebrows. Trust.

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

TopazGirl said:

The first pic is from November 2015 and the second is from January 2015. He looks more dehydrated in the first pic. So, there is just like 10 or 11 months in between there. In November...maybe there was a lot of stress going on too as he would be gearing up for his tour. I take the touring into consideration too...the preparation, rehearsing, etc. as another stress factor on top of everything else. As you get older, not sleeping, not staying hydrated, and not eating well will show up your face more than when younger. Your skin can't bounce back as well as in youth. And yes, this is all speculation too I realize, but I'm not looking looking at him like he's dying because really, I don't think so. Also, I couldn't find a pic of him without the glasses, though. Maybe someone else can find/make a better pic comparison.

[Edited 6/8/16 17:38pm]

[Edited 6/8/16 18:26pm]

I know its difficult to accept but something was going down with Prince and it wasnt just a grueling work schedule. Prince's makeup has always been on game. Look at those eyebrows in the top photo! I could start a entire thread on Prince's eyebrows throughout the years! The Old Prince would never go out in public with those messed up eyebrows. Trust.

TBH I thought maybe he wasnt photoshopping the crap out of his pictures anymore and was starting to allow us to see him aging. It wasnt like he looked THAT musch older anyway...to me he looked a little tired and dehydrated sometimes but not sick. I got the impression he just wasnt doing full face makeup 24/7 anymore and was embracing along with his natural hair, his natural brows and face

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

TopazGirl said:

The first pic is from November 2015 and the second is from January 2015. He looks more dehydrated in the first pic. So, there is just like 10 or 11 months in between there. In November...maybe there was a lot of stress going on too as he would be gearing up for his tour. I take the touring into consideration too...the preparation, rehearsing, etc. as another stress factor on top of everything else. As you get older, not sleeping, not staying hydrated, and not eating well will show up your face more than when younger. Your skin can't bounce back as well as in youth. And yes, this is all speculation too I realize, but I'm not looking looking at him like he's dying because really, I don't think so. Also, I couldn't find a pic of him without the glasses, though. Maybe someone else can find/make a better pic comparison.

[Edited 6/8/16 17:38pm]

[Edited 6/8/16 18:26pm]

I know its difficult to accept but something was going down with Prince and it wasnt just a grueling work schedule. Prince's makeup has always been on game. Look at those eyebrows in the top photo! I could start a entire thread on Prince's eyebrows throughout the years! The Old Prince would never go out in public with those messed up eyebrows. Trust.

Oh, yes of course...I have more posts in this thread and I fully believe something was wrong, but my posting leaned towards an opiate issue. This post is just the tail end of what I was discussing. I'm just one that believes it was the opiate issue and not an illness that was affecting his appearance. In the post above I should have been more specific and instead of saying, "I take the touring into consideration too...the preparation, rehearsing, etc. as another stress factor on top of everything else" I should have said "the preparation for touring in combination with an opiate issue etc." in place of the "on top of everything." I gotta remember that not everyone reads all the previous posts. Thanks.

All these years Prince fans demeaned MJ as a drug addict, junkie, etc.. It turns out Prince was one as well. Ironic, to say the least.

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

TopazGirl said:

The first pic is from November 2015 and the second is from January 2015. He looks more dehydrated in the first pic. So, there is just like 10 or 11 months in between there. In November...maybe there was a lot of stress going on too as he would be gearing up for his tour. I take the touring into consideration too...the preparation, rehearsing, etc. as another stress factor on top of everything else. As you get older, not sleeping, not staying hydrated, and not eating well will show up your face more than when younger. Your skin can't bounce back as well as in youth. And yes, this is all speculation too I realize, but I'm not looking looking at him like he's dying because really, I don't think so. Also, I couldn't find a pic of him without the glasses, though. Maybe someone else can find/make a better pic comparison.

[Edited 6/8/16 17:38pm]

[Edited 6/8/16 18:26pm]

I know its difficult to accept but something was going down with Prince and it wasnt just a grueling work schedule. Prince's makeup has always been on game. Look at those eyebrows in the top photo! I could start a entire thread on Prince's eyebrows throughout the years! The Old Prince would never go out in public with those messed up eyebrows. Trust.

i read he was doing his own makeup in his final months, could have something to do with it. for me it's not the makeup, it's the exhausted look, prince never, ever, ever looked weary, even when he was getting by on 3 hours sleep, to see him looking tired should have been a wakeup call, I just wrote it off because, well, I love him, but I should have been paying more attention.

ML2016 said:

All these years Prince fans demeaned MJ as a drug addict, junkie, etc.. It turns out Prince was one as well. Ironic, to say the least.

we don't really know to what extent and why. It's just sad though. I never saw prince falling prey to this, I mean, maybe that's part of the problem. I don't think he did either, maybe he was blindsided too, and just couldn't accept the fact that he was hooked. Personally, it wouldn't have been uncommon or a big deal if he just went to a rehab. that would have been a shock to his system after all these years having total control. Lots of musicians have done it and it doesn't really hurt their legacies, especially if they live through it.

The bleakness clearly seen here. That is pure pain in his eyes. He was hurting. Badly. Go ahead, throw your arrows, I don't care. I am standing by what I have said.

in retrospect, he looked worse to me on the Arsenio Hall show. I just wrote it off "oh, he's getting old" which I guess it could have been but i don't think it was.

What many people forget is how much photoshopping has been done to so many of his pics. Occasionally, it seems as though a couple get by though.

Mumio said:

What many people forget is how much photoshopping has been done to so many of his pics. Occasionally, it seems as though a couple get by though.

I think this may have been one of the reasons he wore sunglasses so often, to throw people off about how he looked..... getting older..... etc.????

mailaccount63 said:

Mumio said:

What many people forget is how much photoshopping has been done to so many of his pics. Occasionally, it seems as though a couple get by though.

I think this may have been one of the reasons he wore sunglasses so often, to throw people off about how he looked..... getting older..... etc.????

Of course. The man could see for himself in the mirror what showed through his eyes. Speaking as someone close in age to him, you don't age a great deal in the span of 6 months-year. It's a more gradual process.

mailaccount63 said:

Mumio said:

What many people forget is how much photoshopping has been done to so many of his pics. Occasionally, it seems as though a couple get by though.

I think this may have been one of the reasons he wore sunglasses so often, to throw people off about how he looked..... getting older..... etc.????

I think we can all agree that he looked older and not in perfect health in that pic. It's hard to imagine what he'd look like without the makeup.

.

Personally, I agree that most of the photos that have been released in the past couple of years are either from far away, or have been retouched (I recall he wouldn't allow Rolling Stone to photograph during their interview a couple years ago, and he instead provided them with a retouched photo).

.

However, considering his work ethic and lifestyle, sleeping habits and taking opiates for who knows how long; he looks damn good! I just feel bad that knowing how vane he was it must have been very hard on him to visibly age.

sure, the sunglasses hid the eyes and the bags, but he'd been showing vestiges of age for a bit, still he always looked amazing, just look at the 2010 tribute, botox or not, makeup or not, he looked amazing. Something was bothering the man, that much is clear. I recall a couple of Malcolm X's men saying how he aged 10 years in the span of a couple weeks, worry, stress, health, they all go together.

jumanji2016 said:

Also, I DO think that the guy really had the flu which only exacerbated the chronic pain. If he had a pre-known terminal illness, Dr. Schulenberg wouldn't have been running tests to see what he had, because Prince would have already known. 57-year-old man with the flu and chronic pain pops too many pain pills on the plane after doing two shows back to back when he wasn't feeling super well enough to be doing them in the first place.. I can only imagine that I may have done the same thing in a similar situation, and I'm only 27. But that was Prince...sacrificing himself to make others happy and not wanting people to worry.

There have been so many articles and rumors since Prince's passing so maybe I missed something, but where did you hear or read what tests exactly Dr. Schulenberg ran or that they were tests to 'see what he (Prince) had'? There are so many possibilities as to what tests were run, from basic blood counts to electrolytes (which would make sense if Prince was not eating or drinking much at all, as has been reported). If a person has a chronic or terminal illness, there are MANY tests that are regularly and repeatedly run to monitor the situation.

I think there's been retouching/photoshopping going on for years. Facial pics are just way too perfect, no pores, no blemishes, etc... No judgement though, that's not anything that other celebrities don't have done to their own pics too. Just part of the fame game.

derrick31 said:

He is so gaunt in this photo and looks so tired. And the eyeliner on his right eye, upper lid, is way above his lash line. His eye makeup used to always be SO PERFECT and this pic really (for me) illustrates that he was suffering greatly. I have a few chronic illnesses and chronic pain now for almost 20 years so I feel like I can recognize that in others and that's the feeling I get looking at this photo. My heart aches for what he must have gone through with his chronic pain and, imo, other health issues as well on top of that.

StephanieThePisces said:

jumanji2016 said:

derrick31 said:

This is crazy. Prince ALWAYS looked younger than his age. Now all of the sudden people are making excuses for him ALL OF THE SUDDEN looking really old. He looks ill is what he looks like.

Not making excuses. I never denied that he started looking drastically older than he used to. My issue was using unrelated men as a rubric for how he SHOULD look. "He's sick because André Cymone doesn't look as old." That doesn't even make sense. Prince is the only rubric for himself.

I never stated how Prince "should" look, AND I never said he was "sick." I SAID, "something wasn't right!" If you look at his sister and pictures of his mother, you'd see that they did not age like that! And the reason I picked the pictures of his friends and former band mates was to take in consideration place of birth, environment growing up, and culture. I believe in looking at complete pictures, not tunnel-vision hunches.

jumanji2016 said:

StephanieThePisces said:

There have been so many articles and rumors since Prince's passing so maybe I missed something, but where did you hear or read what tests exactly Dr. Schulenberg ran or that they were tests to 'see what he (Prince) had'? There are so many possibilities as to what tests were run, from basic blood counts to electrolytes (which would make sense if Prince was not eating or drinking much at all, as has been reported). If a person has a chronic or terminal illness, there are MANY tests that are regularly and repeatedly run to monitor the situation.

The New York Times. Here's the link: http://mobile.nytimes.com...-dead.html Yeah, that's why I made sure to specify a pre-known terminal illness---(dispelling the bizarre rumor that he contracted HIV in the 90s and it developed into AIDS.) He surely wouldn't have needed new diagnostic tests to confirm that, because he would have known for a while. Even if the doctor suspected cancer on April 7---surely his testing visits would have been scheduled more closely together, wouldn't they? Two visits over the course of two weeks is kind of sparse to me. I've known people that have had a suspicious mass detected and went for follow-up testing in a day or two. Whatever it was, the doctor got a pretty quick turn-around with his results after what ended up being his last visit on April 20.

Thank you for the link -- I hadn't read that particular article.

-

As for your comment about the doctor suspecting cancer on April 7: IF Prince DID have a serious illness such as cancer, there's no way to know that it wasnt discovered long before April 7 and this Dr Schulenberg was merely doing more routine tests to check Prince's basic health..again, such as basic blood panels or electrolytes or maybe he had a chest xray and had walking pneumonia (actually, I thought that I did read that somewhere? that he had pneumonia? or maybe I'm confused...). And you'd be surprised by the timeframe for testing or follow-up visits that get scheduled despite a person having what would be considered a serious or even terminal illness. two weeks really isn't that long depending on what the tests were for, and what was already known about Prince's condition or diagnosis. (for example, I have had low platelet and white cell counts for some years. If I get my platelet count checked and the count is low enough to necessitate a recheck, the doctors won't do another test for anywhere from a week to a couple weeks because it takes the body that long to generate new cells, so testing any sooner than that would be pointless. Same with testing such things as thyroid levels, etc.)

-

The fast turnaround for Prince's test results could mean anything from Prince had basic routine tests done that came back quickly because thats normally how long it takes for those tests to come back to that the doctor fast-tracked the results because Prince was Prince and the doctor was making special accomodations for him. It's so hard to speculate about this kind of thing with so little actual information regarding which specific tests were done.

roxy831 said:

jumanji2016 said:

derrick31 said: Not making excuses. I never denied that he started looking drastically older than he used to. My issue was using unrelated men as a rubric for how he SHOULD look. "He's sick because André Cymone doesn't look as old." That doesn't even make sense. Prince is the only rubric for himself.

I never stated how Prince "should" look, AND I never said he was "sick." I SAID, "something wasn't right!" If you look at his sister and pictures of his mother, you'd see that they did not age like that! And the reason I picked the pictures of his friends and former band mates was to take in consideration place of birth, environment growing up, and culture. I believe in looking at complete pictures, not tunnel-vision hunches.

Yes, I know that you didn't "say" that, but it was implied...and I do understand the intent of the pictures, but I just don't think there were as many actual parallels as you attempted to convey. That pic of Morris is old. Looks like it's from his Baisden After Dark days several years ago. This is Morris in February 2016: http://media.gettyimages....d511697812 As far as Prince's sister Tyka is concerned, this her after the little memorial for Prince at Paisley Park:

You can't exactly tell if she was Prince's younger or older sister by looks alone.

[Edited 6/9/16 16:54pm]

StephanieThePisces said:

jumanji2016 said:

StephanieThePisces said: The New York Times. Here's the link: http://mobile.nytimes.com...-dead.html Yeah, that's why I made sure to specify a pre-known terminal illness---(dispelling the bizarre rumor that he contracted HIV in the 90s and it developed into AIDS.) He surely wouldn't have needed new diagnostic tests to confirm that, because he would have known for a while. Even if the doctor suspected cancer on April 7---surely his testing visits would have been scheduled more closely together, wouldn't they? Two visits over the course of two weeks is kind of sparse to me. I've known people that have had a suspicious mass detected and went for follow-up testing in a day or two. Whatever it was, the doctor got a pretty quick turn-around with his results after what ended up being his last visit on April 20.

Thank you for the link -- I hadn't read that particular article.

-

As for your comment about the doctor suspecting cancer on April 7: IF Prince DID have a serious illness such as cancer, there's no way to know that it wasnt discovered long before April 7 and this Dr Schulenberg was merely doing more routine tests to check Prince's basic health..again, such as basic blood panels or electrolytes or maybe he had a chest xray and had walking pneumonia (actually, I thought that I did read that somewhere? that he had pneumonia? or maybe I'm confused...). And you'd be surprised by the timeframe for testing or follow-up visits that get scheduled despite a person having what would be considered a serious or even terminal illness. two weeks really isn't that long depending on what the tests were for, and what was already known about Prince's condition or diagnosis. (for example, I have had low platelet and white cell counts for some years. If I get my platelet count checked and the count is low enough to necessitate a recheck, the doctors won't do another test for anywhere from a week to a couple weeks because it takes the body that long to generate new cells, so testing any sooner than that would be pointless. Same with testing such things as thyroid levels, etc.)

-

The fast turnaround for Prince's test results could mean anything from Prince had basic routine tests done that came back quickly because thats normally how long it takes for those tests to come back to that the doctor fast-tracked the results because Prince was Prince and the doctor was making special accomodations for him. It's so hard to speculate about this kind of thing with so little actual information regarding which specific tests were done.

Ahhh...OK. I see. I think I read about the pneumonia also. It's clear that he did have something going wrong, outside of the opoids.

PeteSilas said:

jumanji2016 said:

roxy831 said:

I never stated how Prince "should" look, AND I never said he was "sick." I SAID, "something wasn't right!" If you look at his sister and pictures of his mother, you'd see that they did not age like that! And the reason I picked the pictures of his friends and former band mates was to take in consideration place of birth, environment growing up, and culture. I believe in looking at complete pictures, not tunnel-vision hunches.

Yes, I know that you didn't "say" that, but it was implied...and I do understand the intent of the pictures, but I just don't think there were as many actual parallels as you attempted to convey. That pic of Morris is old. Looks like it's from his Baisden After Dark days several years ago. This is Morris in February 2016: http://media.gettyimages....d511697812 As far as Prince's sister Tyka is concerned, this her after the little memorial for Prince at Paisley Park:

You can't exactly tell if she was Prince's younger or older sister by looks alone.

[Edited 6/9/16 16:54pm]

You would pick the most unflattering picture possible...lol. Let's agree to disagree.

roxy831 said:

jumanji2016 said:

Yes, I know that you didn't "say" that, but it was implied...and I do understand the intent of the pictures, but I just don't think there were as many actual parallels as you attempted to convey. That pic of Morris is old. Looks like it's from his Baisden After Dark days several years ago. This is Morris in February 2016: http://media.gettyimages....d511697812 As far as Prince's sister Tyka is concerned, this her after the little memorial for Prince at Paisley Park:

You can't exactly tell if she was Prince's younger or older sister by looks alone.

[Edited 6/9/16 16:54pm]

You would pick the most unflattering picture possible...lol. Let's agree to disagree.

That's what came up on Google! LOL. But I saw where you were coming from.

[Edited 6/9/16 17:19pm]

jumanji2016 said:

I think I read about the pneumonia also.

That was within the first 24-36 hours after death, when most reports centered around Prince supposedly having the flu. I'm not aware of it being mentioned since except by fans here.

Mumio said:

The bleakness clearly seen here. That is pure pain in his eyes. He was hurting. Badly. Go ahead, throw your arrows, I don't care. I am standing by what I have said.

When I look at this picture I see sorrow and maybe despair. That spark he always had in those beautiful almond eyes is gone. Like he's looking somewhere that we don't see, only he can. And no haters please, I have a right to my feelings on this matter also/

StephanieThePisces said:

jumanji2016 said:

Also, I DO think that the guy really had the flu which only exacerbated the chronic pain. If he had a pre-known terminal illness, Dr. Schulenberg wouldn't have been running tests to see what he had, because Prince would have already known. 57-year-old man with the flu and chronic pain pops too many pain pills on the plane after doing two shows back to back when he wasn't feeling super well enough to be doing them in the first place.. I can only imagine that I may have done the same thing in a similar situation, and I'm only 27. But that was Prince...sacrificing himself to make others happy and not wanting people to worry.

There have been so many articles and rumors since Prince's passing so maybe I missed something, but where did you hear or read what tests exactly Dr. Schulenberg ran or that they were tests to 'see what he (Prince) had'? There are so many possibilities as to what tests were run, from basic blood counts to electrolytes (which would make sense if Prince was not eating or drinking much at all, as has been reported). If a person has a chronic or terminal illness, there are MANY tests that are regularly and repeatedly run to monitor the situation.

Exactly.

Same day as the much discussed photo. With a smile and different angle he looks much better. I think we were accustomed to the edited images of Prince and these got by the edits I guess.