Prince’s sister reveals her final conversation with the late icon who was struggling with illness

7 June 2024, 15:29

His death sent shockwaves throughout the music world.

Prince was one of the greatest musical talents to ever grace the airwaves, a multi-disciplinary magician whose ambition knew no bounds.

During each period of his career, Prince pushed boundaries of what was possible within certain music genres, bending R&B, soul, funk, pop, hip-hop, and rock to his whim.

Whilst he may've been a dominant and determined personality from the outside looking, that might not have been the case towards the end of his life.

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On 21st April 2016, Prince died after an accidental overdose of fentanyl at his Paisley Park home in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

His death was one of many throughout that bleak twelve months, in which the world lost other icons such as George Michael and David Bowie.

But in a new interview with Prince's sister, Tyka, she has revealed an insight into the 'Purple Rain' legend's frame of mind amid his struggles with illness.

In a new interview with the Star Tribune, Tyka Nelson has revealed the pair's final conversations during the final days of his life.

Tyka is Prince's only full sibling - they also shared five half-brothers and half-sisters - so they no doubt had a close bond.

In the days leading towards his death, Prince was struggling with a mystery illness which he and his team asserted was influenza, after he cancelled two concerts at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre.

The 'Raspberry Berry' artist had recently announced his stripped-back 'Piano & A Microphone Tour', though it was abruptly cut short.

On 14th April 2016, Prince performed his final ever concert in Atlanta, where he played a series of his classic numbers like 'When Doves Cry' alongside a haunting cover version of Joni Mitchell's 'A Case Of You'.

The morning after during his flight back to his home city of Minnesota, Prince became unresponsive which required his private jet to make an emergency landing, though he shrugged off medical advice and claimed it was dehydration.

His sister Tyka spoke to him soon after the ordeal, though he came across as avoidant. Little did she know it'd be the final time she'd see her brother.

"A couple of times I said, ‘How are you really?]'" Tyka recalled, saying she hadn't noticed any ill health in Prince, though she did realise he'd lost weight after hugging him.

"He didn’t go into anything with me. That was bothering me, and he knew it was… but that was all he wanted to tell me."

The siblings refrained from discussing heavy topics, instead talking about their parents, with Tyka saying her brother played the piano like their dad, joking he was "built like" their mother.

The final time they talked was over the phone several days before his passing.

"He kept avoiding questions,” she continued. "I kept getting mad. I felt like, 'Talk to me for two seconds.' He’d change the subject, make a joke and then we’d both laugh."

She remembered: "He asked me [to] find more information about our family. Prince wanted me to find [half-sister] Sharon’s number,"

"It was like, 'Send this picture to that person.' 'OK. What for?'" which left Tyka baffled, perhaps suggesting that Prince knew something was looming over him and he wanted to reconnect with his loved ones.

Nevertheless, it paints a picture of Prince's frame of mind, which seemed dogged with an uncertainty he'd never displayed in the public domain.

Tyka had a minor hit herself in 1988 with 'Marc Anthony's Tune', and is in the process of writing her memoir which will no doubt reveal a deeper insight into the relationship with shared with her brother.