I've posted here before asking about The Egg. Lots of rumors as to what was in it, and what it was intended for. The two most common stories were that it was intended to become a vegan restaurant, but P could not get the proprer permits. And, it is used for storage.

The evidence photos have at least one snap of the interior, I think. It looks like they just gave up on the construction right after the exterior was finished (though you can see that the entrance isn't even done in other photos). It's completely empty. An unfinished shell...

Another mystery dies with Prince.

Continuing to look through, and there are other interior shots. Yep, completely empty and unfinished. I wonder how and why this came to be?

I guess the vegan restaurant thing makes sense. But to just let it sit there like that, rather than use it for something else...

First, the last lines of your post are really morbid and a bit much, IMO.

Next, here is the photo you're referencing. It seems they never got inside the egg. The photos were taken through a window, and there are only about 3 looking inside. This is the best of the three. The pic is clickable to the original size.

Wow, so it was just an empty shell?

Thanks for posting the picture. Yes, that's the one...

I'm not sure what you mean about the last line being morbid and a bit much. A lot of the mythology of Prince died with him. It's just a sad observation.

TrivialPursuit said:

First, the last lines of your post are really morbid and a bit much, IMO.

Next, here is the photo you're referencing. It seems they never got inside the egg. The photos were taken through a window, and there are only about 3 looking inside. This is the best of the three. The pic is clickable to the original size.

Yep... Sad, in some ways.

cloveringold85 said:

Wow, so it was just an empty shell?

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous. He started off with a large staff and eventutally whittled it down to his assistant and one groundskeeper as the only fulltime employees. Every other job was contracted out. Someone posted pics of PP about 7 years ago and the place looked abandoned and disrepaired. Even the Vault looked like it was frozen in time. At some point, Prince just seemed to give up on his original vision of the facility.

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous. He started off with a large staff and eventutally whittled it down to his assistant and one groundskeeper as the only fulltime employees. Every other job was contracted out. Someone posted pics of PP about 7 years ago and the place looked abandoned and disrepaired. Even the Vault looked like it was frozen in time. At some point, Prince just seemed to give up on his original vision of the facility.

he must have been constantly stressed out and worried about maintaining the building and staff's salaries and keeping everything going. bless him for giving it his all, and even as i post that i also wish he had dropped the entire burden of being "Prince" and retired a few years back.

XxAxX said:

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous. He started off with a large staff and eventutally whittled it down to his assistant and one groundskeeper as the only fulltime employees. Every other job was contracted out. Someone posted pics of PP about 7 years ago and the place looked abandoned and disrepaired. Even the Vault looked like it was frozen in time. At some point, Prince just seemed to give up on his original vision of the facility.

he must have been constantly stressed out and worried about maintaining the building and staff's salaries and keeping everything going. bless him for giving it his all, and even as i post that i also wish he had dropped the entire burden of being "Prince" and retired a few years back.

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That was thoughtful. I agree -- Prince was always concerned with keeping things going, and getting everyone paid. I don't think he would have ever retired; music was his life. I think he was getting depressed, because once you can no longer enjoy what you once loved, life becomes a sad place.

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He gave so much to people and the world.

XxAxX said:

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous. He started off with a large staff and eventutally whittled it down to his assistant and one groundskeeper as the only fulltime employees. Every other job was contracted out. Someone posted pics of PP about 7 years ago and the place looked abandoned and disrepaired. Even the Vault looked like it was frozen in time. At some point, Prince just seemed to give up on his original vision of the facility.

he must have been constantly stressed out and worried about maintaining the building and staff's salaries and keeping everything going. bless him for giving it his all, and even as i post that i also wish he had dropped the entire burden of being "Prince" and retired a few years back.

Yeah, remember at the height of it all. Prince had business people running the day to day activities at PP. He was opening Glam Slam nightclubs. There was a full administrative staff and full time costume department. The soundstage was being rented out to movie and commercial productions. The top artists at the time were recording there.

Then he just closed it down either because the profits weren't covering overhead costs or he just got tired of all the noise and activity. There are rumors that he was going renovate it and reopen it for business, but that obviously never happened.

[Edited 4/22/18 12:31pm]

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous. He started off with a large staff and eventutally whittled it down to his assistant and one groundskeeper as the only fulltime employees. Every other job was contracted out. Someone posted pics of PP about 7 years ago and the place looked abandoned and disrepaired. Even the Vault looked like it was frozen in time. At some point, Prince just seemed to give up on his original vision of the facility.

You are correct. PP was bleeding money in the 90s. Early on, it was doing better. The cash flow was consistent. Music artist used the studios for music, and the production stage for videos. Film companies used the stage for filming major films. It was a fluid place for creation and income. Once Prince started to shut that down, and not selling records like he used to (whoever's fault that was is another thread) then he really had to hustle. He used to say all he had to do was pay the light bill. That might have been true to some extent, but he still had property taxes, paid regular wage taxes, etc. He was smart with some of his cash, but stupid in other areas.

The place still looks abandoned and in disrepair in parts. I don't think he gave up on it, but perhaps it was just too overwhelming to consider on his own. Prince was pretty good about looking the other way when there was a problem in front of him. His attitude was often "if I ignore it long enough, it will go away". The perfect example of that is the egg. No permits? Like - did he go just once to get a permit? Someone told him 'no' the first time and he gave up? He couldn't even complete it enough to use it as a solid storage facility or even a residence? The rub is that any problems he had never did go away just because he ignored them. He did need a staff to get things back in order, take care of daily stuff.

I suppose there were probably, at least, a dozen different ways to do things than how he handled Paisley Park. Londell and others who aren't there consistently bitch about how PP is run now, but I didn't see all those folks over there assisting him with anything in the past decade and now they wanna run a laundry list of ideas.

In reality, Paisley Park is arguably on its way to being more profitable now as a museum and public forum for music, dance, film, and gatherings, than since its inception when the doors were open to professionals.

rogifan said:

Hopefully Paisley Park management will be able to restore it at some point and put it to use. Maybe as a merch shop? It would be nice if there was a way for locals to purchase merch without having to do a tour.

Merch shop, or bijoux hotel.

rogifan said:

Hopefully Paisley Park management will be able to restore it at some point and put it to use. Maybe as a merch shop? It would be nice if there was a way for locals to purchase merch without having to do a tour.

Yeah, I can't imagine them never using it. There is a lot of water in it, which either dictates it needs a new roof, or just suffers from poor workmanship overall and should maybe be demolished. I would think it'd be easier to rehab it than destroy it.

grantevans said:

rogifan said:

Hopefully Paisley Park management will be able to restore it at some point and put it to use. Maybe as a merch shop? It would be nice if there was a way for locals to purchase merch without having to do a tour.

Merch shop, or bijoux hotel.

Aren't there some future plans at PP for overnight stays?

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous.

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IIRC one of the reports of the past two years mentioned that PP was bleeding 2.5 million per month.

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Kinda puts all those "look how generous Prince was" stories into perspective, doesn't it?

lrn36 said:

Then he just closed it down either because the profits weren't covering overhead costs or he just got tired of all the noise and activity.

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He didn't like it that some of the studios would be unavailable to him when there were paying customers.

BartVanHemelen said:

lrn36 said:

The operating costs of PP must've been enormous.

.

IIRC one of the reports of the past two years mentioned that PP was bleeding 2.5 million per month.

.

Kinda puts all those "look how generous Prince was" stories into perspective, doesn't it?

In what way?

leecaldon said: