Prince died 10 years ago; his last concert was at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre
By John Dodge
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ATLANTA, Georgia (WXIA) — First, it was a tip from police sources in Minneapolis — a death at Paisley Park, Prince’s home and studio.
Then the news, made official later that morning: Prince was dead. It was 10 years ago today, April 21, 2016.
The week before, on April 14, Prince performed two shows at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. That 10 p.m. performance was his final public concert. He took the stage with a cane.
The intimate Atlanta shows were part of Prince’s Piano and A Microphone Tour, featuring classic hits, B-sides, and other surprises from his vast catalog, including tracks from his 39th studio album, HITnRun Phase II. After his death, it was revealed that he had hundreds of unreleased songs in his archive.
The Atlanta shows were originally scheduled for April 7, but Prince canceled because he was suffering from the flu, according to his PR team.
Prince performed solo with a purple piano. According to reviews of the concert in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the set list included “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Controversy,” “I Would Die 4 U,” and a surprise David Bowie cover of “Heroes”.
The final song was “Purple Rain.”
“I literally went to his last concert,” said AJC reporter Ernie Suggs, who said he had seen Prince 20 times live. “It was a fantastic concert. To see him at the Fox Theatre. It was just him with a piano and a microphone. It was a brilliant show. God knows, nobody thought it would be his last concert.”
“This is a place where creativity is abundant,” Suggs said. “So for Prince to come here, a person who was the living definition of creativity, the living definition of diversity, the living definition of living his life the way he wanted to live … that Atlanta ended up being some kind of spiritually or cosmically the perfect place to have that last concert because Atlanta kind of represents everything that he wanted to be.”
The day after the Fox shows, Prince was hospitalized after his plane made an emergency landing at Quad City International Airport in Moline, Illinois.
TMZ reported that Prince, 57, was treated at a local hospital after becoming ill on the plane. It was originally reported that Prince was still suffering from the flu. Still, sources close to the Hall of Fame singer reportedly said paramedics administered Narcan, which is used to revive patients overdosing on opioids.
According to witnesses, Prince admitted that he took “1 or 2” pain pills. According to search warrants released in 2017, Prince was prescribed oxycodone on April 7 and April 20, the same day as the emergency landing.
Deputies and medics were dispatched to Paisley Park, in suburban Minneapolis, around 9:43 a.m., where they found the singer unresponsive in an elevator. He was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.
Prince Rogers Nelson died of a fentanyl overdose, according to the autopsy report. His death was accidental, and Prince took the drug himself.
The autopsy was one page, but referenced a scar on his hip, likely from surgery to relieve chronic pain after years of performing. He weighed 112 pounds, according to the report.
Investigators found “numerous narcotic controlled substance pills in various containers” in Prince’s bedroom, according to search warrants.
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