I’m ashamed to admit that until he died, Prince wasn’t really on my radar. I knew his late 80s/90s hits, but I hadn’t ever listened to his early stuff—his best stuff, in my opinion. Moreover, I didn’t even know he played guitar 🎸❗
(I know what you’re thinking: “😞”)
If you haven’t watched this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance from 2004, please stop doing whatever it is you think is more important, and watch this now:
Isn’t that the greatest thing ever?
Did you notice how at the end of his performance, after slinging his guitar into the air, it didn’t come down?
The A.V. Club knows what happened:
That night at the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall Of Fame, Prince’s guitar tech Takumi Suetsugu was tasked with catching the guitar at the end of the performance, but he was given additional instructions to then hand off the guitar to one special fan. According to a post on the People Of Paisley Park Facebook group, “Takumi stood in the front row and caught the guitar… and then handed it to Oprah Winfrey.” These instructions were given explicitly from Prince himself, so clearly he and Oprah had worked out a deal beforehand. Or perhaps it was a surprise gift the musician had planned. Truly, no one can know what was in Prince’s mind.