Figured it might be nice to have all of this in one place, since there is so much confusion on Prince's intent for all of this unreleased material.

Kurt Loder interview 1999

Prince was asked what he will do with the vault and what is in it, he replied:

Some amazing jazz work

The REALLY erotic central Prince

The best revolution tracks that were deemed too heady for the time

The more psychodelic rock version of the time

In reply to what will he do with it all, he told Kurt he will give it away.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0R6M-cqFiA starting 10:20 in.

[Edited 9/27/16 8:22am]

He talked about it on The View saying "someone will release it".

And maybe he actually did not care what happened to it after he was beyond controlling it. After all, it was his and his alone.

I believe he did leave behind an estate plan. Somehow, it's been done away with.

FlyOnTheWall said:

I believe he did leave behind an estate plan. Somehow, it's been done away with.

I have to believe that as well, he wouldn't leave something he cared about so much and fought for his entire life to chance.

leadline said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

I believe he did leave behind an estate plan. Somehow, it's been done away with.

I have to believe that as well, he wouldn't leave something he cared about so much and fought

for his entire life to chance.

Well maybe per the Kurt Loder interview of 1999, he did "give it all away".

leadline said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

I believe he did leave behind an estate plan. Somehow, it's been done away with.

I have to believe that as well, he wouldn't leave something he cared about so much and fought for his entire life to chance.

I think he would. The thing he fought for, above all else, was control. HIS control. He never seemed to be bothered about the past or his legacy, so once the music was beyond his ability to control I think he honestly didn't care. It's hard for us to wrap our heads around that concept but he did say over and over that "someone else" could worry about it after he was gone. I guess we just never realized how serious he was about that.

.

Once those songs were no longer his, he didn't care whose they were. And here we are.

leadline said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

I believe he did leave behind an estate plan. Somehow, it's been done away with.

I have to believe that as well, he wouldn't leave something he cared about so much and fought for his entire life to chance.

Prince's whole thing was control. He didn't want record companies telling him what to do. He didn't want some corporation to own his creations. He didn't want people making more money off of his work than he did.

Maybe Prince realized that death is the ultimate loss of control. He had to have seen what happened to musicians like Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson and decided that he'd let the people left behind handle his affairs without his input.

And with how wishy-washy he could be in terms of his work - telling the photographer of the AOA album cover to delete all the pictures before he seen them or retroactively censoring his past work due to recently discovered religious beliefs - it's probably for the best that he didn't leave behind any orders.

renfield said:

leadline said:

I have to believe that as well, he wouldn't leave something he cared about so much and fought for his entire life to chance.

I think he would. The thing he fought for, above all else, was control. HIS control. He never seemed to be bothered about the past or his legacy, so once the music was beyond his ability to control I think he honestly didn't care. It's hard for us to wrap our heads around that concept but he did say over and over that "someone else" could worry about it after he was gone. I guess we just never realized how serious he was about that.

.

Once those songs were no longer his, he didn't care whose they were. And here we are.

Exactly.

Prince was too busy being Prince.

He made it from zero to hero. He never ever trusted anyone.

He changed people around him so often in his life. That says a lot.

He was also so high with his believes, but that's another story...

Prince seemed not wanting/able to listen to others around him. He couldn't care less sometimes.

He changed management, lawyers, advisors, staff, record companies, distributors, names, hell even wives and girls countless times. (Of course, partly as a creative deal too.)

He wasn't able imho to maintain a relationship because of not wanting to deal with critism on his persona, work, lifestyle, whatever. He surely was an absolute giant control freak. (that of course also lead to a great creative outcome, i have to admid.)

I don't know him at all. All i can do is just oversee a guy's career and how he dealt with all the aspects of it, people involved and all the twistings and turns that wern't all very clear sometimes... etc.

Of course, one has to be very careful to say these kind of things after someone died.

(It seems) We're only alowed to talk about the genius effect, the show of love, the achievements...

But fact is Prince was human just like all of us. And he was smart, very smart keeping his private life the way he managed to do so.

Sometimes, ex employees revealed stuff. And then there was the press, always looking for a story.

But some of us are capable to look through stories, and can make up minds of their own.

I love a lot of what Prince made and achieved.

But I'm not sure (if i knew him personaly) that i would be able to be friends with him or like him for who he was.

That's something totally different from all the tremendous creativity and music that came out of him.