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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 30 OctOber 2019
Prince's posthumous book released as fans continue to mourn

By LEANNE ITALIE Mattie Della Shaw, was a 1982 treatment, "The Kid"
Associated Press beautiful, fun-loving party character Prince plays is a
NEW YORK (AP) — Panic, girl with a stubborn, irratio- diagnosed schizophrenic
joy, shock: Dan Piepen- nal streak — and a sneaky who as a child watches
bring felt them all when flair, as Prince wrote: his mother shoot his father
Prince plucked him to col- "She would spend up what dead, then turns the gun
laborate on his first memoir, little $ the family had 4 sur- on herself.
followed by more shock vival on partying with her Prince had envisioned play-
and profound sadness friends, then trespass in2 my ing both his mother and
at news of the superstar's bedroom, 'borrow' my per- father in flashback scenes.
death while the book was sonal $ that eye'd gotten The finished film, not written
in its early stages. from babysitting local kids, by Prince, involves a suicide
Though the project was & then chastise me 4 even attempt with a gun that the
thrown into chaos when questioning her regarding father survives.
Prince died on April 21, the broken promises she Many of the photos in the
2016, of an accidental made 2 pay me back." In this Feb. 4, 2007, file photo, Prince performs during the half- book are familiar to hard-
drug overdose, his estate The tumultuous nature of time show at the Super Bowl XLI football game in Miami. core fans and it includes a
ultimately decided to press his parents' relationship had Associated Press heavy dose of previously
on, allowing Piepenbring a lasting impact. published interviews with
and his publishing team "The wound of Ur parents he really was in many ways original sound score. In the Prince. q
free access to the pieces fighting is chilling when U're the sum of his mother and
of his life left behind at his a child," Prince wrote. "If it father and they were the,
beloved Paisley Park, in- happens 2 become physi- sort of, two poles of his be-
cluding the contents of his cal, it can be soul-crushing." ing." Prince wrote on other
vault. Their conflicts, divorce subjects as well, including
Now, the highly antici- when he was 7 and the puberty (his stepfather took
pated collaboration, "The dual impact on Prince and him to R-rated movies at a
Beautiful Ones," is out in the his work is the book's pre- drive-in as a stand-in for the
world with its release Tues- vailing theme. birds and bees talk), the
day as many fans continue "So much of his writing is blackouts and seizures he
to mourn, propelling the about division in some way had as a child and his first
33-year-old journalist into and the fight to make one- kiss, with a girl of just 5 or 6.
the spotlight to explain how self whole again," Piepen- They'd play house.
he sorted it all out. bring said. "There's this kind Piepenbring wrote a
"There was a sense even of brokenness that he's al- lengthy introduction ex-
from the start that it ways working to repair." plaining his encounters with
couldn't really be hap- Prince writes that his first Prince and how the book
pening," Piepenbring told memory was his mother's was completed. He wasn't
The Associated Press of his eyes, describing her habit allowed to take notes dur-
involvement. "It felt very of throwing conspiratorial ing their first meeting so he
surreal. There was also winks his way. was forced to reconstruct
just a sense of joy, I think, "Sometimes when my fa- the conversation. Some
at the possibility of meet- ther wasn't playing piano of their chats are printed
ing someone that I held in he'd say something 2 my as marginalia in the book.
such high regard, someone mother & she would wink There's an abundance of
whose music had been the at me. She never told me hand-drawn childhood
soundtrack to the better what it meant and some- doodles and cartoons,
part of my youth." times it would be accom- along with lyrics Prince of-
The book, from Spiegel & panied by a gentle caress ten wrote on whatever was
Grau, includes no bomb- of her hand 2 my face. But handy, including a brown
shells, though Prince very eye am quite sure now this paper bag.
much wanted to provide is the birth of my physical There's a photo album
some, and a mere 28 imagination." Piepenbring unearthed at
memoir pages written in his Prince had big ideas for the Paisley Park that a sleep-
elegant script and quirky book, considering at one less Prince decided to put
style, replacing the word time a "how to" on making together in 1977 at age 19,
"I'' with a drawing of a hu- it in the music business with- only days from complet-
man orb, for instance. All out selling your soul. At an- ing his debut album, "For
told, Piepenbring spent 12 other point, he suggested You." With witty remarks
to 15 hours face-to-face that he and Piepenbring written in pencil, Prince sits
with Prince in Minneapolis, figure out a way to end on the hood of his first car
New York and on tour in racism. At still another, he in one shot. In another, he
Melbourne. wanted to focus on the im- snapped his first paycheck
Their last conversation was portance of creative free- from Warner Bros.
just four days before Prince dom. There's also an early out-
died. It was focused on his "I think he was really in the line he wrote for the 1984
parents and their conflict- process of excavating his film "Purple Rain" with an
ing influences in his life. His past with a level of detail even darker story line than
father, John L. Nelson, was and specificity that maybe the one that made it onto
a disciplined, God-fearing he had avoided before," screens. The film, based
jazz pianist with an explo- Piepenbring said. "He had loosely on his life, won
sive temper. His mother, come to the realization that Prince an Oscar for best