US pop icon Prince, 57, found dead at home

Tributes have been paid to pop superstar Prince who died at his home in the US aged 57.

His body was discovered at his Paisley Park address in Minnesota early on Thursday, his publicist confirmed.

Prince, whose real name was Prince Rogers Nelson, suffered a medical emergency flying home from a show in Atlanta, Georgia on 15 April that forced his private jet to make an emergency landing in Illinois.

The Purple Rain singer was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance, where he was treated and released hours later.

At the time a representative for Prince assured fans he was feeling much better and was resting at home.

Television pictures from the scene showed fans gathering across the road from his home in the rain, with a number of dark-coloured cars parked inside the Paisley Park compound.

Tributes quickly flooded in for the music maverick, with Chic frontman Nile Rodgers tweeting: “RIP our dearly beloved Prince. Tears and love on our tour bus… I’ll never forget my brother. We’ve had good times.”

Madonna, who collaborated with Prince on Love Song on her album Like A Prayer, posted a picture of the two of them together on Instagram, writing: “He Changed The World!! A True Visionary. What a loss. I’m Devastated.”

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood wrote: “I will miss a good friend who was so talented. He was such a great performer/guitar player. Sleep well Prince.”

Model Iman, who lost her husband David Bowie earlier this year, wrote: “So sad to hear of Prince’s passing; one of the greatest musical talents of my lifetime. Maybe of the 20th century. RIP.”

Prince was widely regarded as one of the most inventive musicians of his era and many of his songs are seen as classics.

He became an international superstar in 1982 after his breakthrough album 1999 and was most famous for hits including Purple Rain, When Doves Cry and Kiss.

His music career spanned more than three decades and he won seven Grammy Awards, sold more than 100 million records and won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain.

The singer, who was just 5ft 2ins tall, was also seen as an eccentric with a tendency towards bizarre career moves, such as changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in the 1990s.

He was in the process of writing an untitled autobiography which was due to be published in 2017.

He became even more famous with the release of the film Purple Rain in 1984, a seemingly autobiographical movie set in the club scene in his home town of Minneapolis.

The film was a huge success and the soundtrack album spent 24 weeks at the top of the charts and sold more than 13 million copies.

It was the first time in his career that Prince had recorded with, and credited, his backing band, which he named the Revolution.

He was fiercely protective of his independence, battling his record company over control of his material and even his name.

“Prince once wrote ‘slave’ on his face in protest at not owning his work and famously battled and then departed his label, Warner Bros, before returning a few years ago.

“What’s happening now is the position that I’ve always wanted to be in,” he said in 2014. “I was just trying to get here.”

Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, where he was hailed as a trailblazer.

The dedication reads: “He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties,

“Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone.”

Prince’s last Scottish gig was in 2014 to a sold out Hydro in Glasgow. A planned gig in the same city last November as part of a Europe-wide tour was shelved following the Paris terrorist attacks.

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