Someone once told me there are a limited amount of “greats” in this world: people who can come in and change the atmosphere with their presence alone. Within recent years our hearts have been ransacked at the loss of so many musical greats, to name a few, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and David Bowie. Once again our hearts have broken at the death of a musical genius who will go down in history as a legend. He is the Purple One. He is Prince.

Prince Rogers Nelson, known as Prince, was found Thursday morning, April 21, 2016, at his home in Chanhassen, Minn. The Minneapolis native was only 57-years-old and the cause of death is still undetermined.

Musically gifted on guitars, keyboards and drums, Prince revolutionized the 80s. Even as he defied genre, Prince was deemed a prodigy in R&B, rock and pop. Not only as a  musician, but also as a songwriter and actor, Prince left a legacy of non-conformity. In his song “Uptown” Prince sang,

“Now where I come from we don’t let society tell us how it’s supposed to be/ Our clothes, our hair, we don’t care/ It’s all about being there.”

He was a man who wanted fans to experience music without distraction, to take in all of its splendor. In the mind’s eye of fans all over, Prince will be remembered as one of the “greats” of music, while on stage, taking his listeners on a euphoric adventure out of the dreary happenings of the daily life, engulfed in purple lights and smoke. His final performance, this thing called life, has, like all good things, come to an end. No one said, rather, sang it better than Prince himself in his song, “Sometimes it snows in April”.

“Sometimes it snows in April/ Sometimes I feel so bad/ Sometimes, sometimes I wish that life was never ending/ And all good things, they say, never last.”