new york, i think it's a little early. ebony, chris, thanks for having you go here. >> thanks, lou. >> that's it for us tonight. we thank you for being with us.town hall sky benson ahead with us here tomorrow night. please be with us. good night from new york. ♪ ♪ . kennedy: well, welcome to a very somber evening here. the world music fans mourning the loss of prince, whose tragic death brings immediate sadness and bittersweet rediscovery of favorite songs and outrageous moments. of course he was a shy minnesotaian who found his place in strength and music, having taught himself to play several instruments, whose steady rise was punctuated by an explosion when purple played in movie theaters and radios and tv in 1984. he remained a personal mystery as fans tried to glean his

essence from lyrics and performances. shy for decades about speaking to the press. he finally opened up just in the last few years, including this interview with tavis smiley. >> i've never spoken about this before. but i was born epileptic. early in my career, i tried to compensate for that by being as flashy as i could and as noisy as i could. >> explains so much. and the press is always eager to make comparisons and create rivalries between him and michael jackson. and one member of the press tried to size them up next to each other and prince deflected it quite beautifully when asked about michael jackson. he said the most important thing to him always was making music. there was no rivalry there. well, the genius. it was his biggest rivalry, his father who wouldn't teach him how to play piano, so prince taught himself how to

play and be brilliant. >> i taught myself music. my father left his piano at the house when he left, and i wasn't allowed to play it when he was there because i wasn't as good as him. so when he left, i was determined to get as good as him. kennedy: then he certainly was as good as it gets. we're going to talk about his life with those who knew him. his music with those who were changed by it. and we're going to talk to a journalist who is actually interviewed by prince. the man of the hour who was taken all too soon. the life and death of prince. welcome to it. all right. first let's go to the latest on the scene with fox news correspondent matt fin. matt is there in minnesota as we speak. welcome, matt. >> good evening, kennedy, we're outside prince's park, this is where he recorded music and a place that people also describe as his home. a place he stayed a lot. there have been people filing in and out all day.

leaving behind balloons, flowers, cards, most of them in his signature purple color. now, tonight police are not giving us a ton of information because this is a active death investigation. they responded to a call about 9:45 this morning. responders tried to reassess take the prince. they found him in an he elevator, they gave him c pr, but he was pronounced dead a few minutes later. prince had illness the last couple of weeks. he canceled a gig in atlanta, had to make an emergency landing in illinois. his publicist confirmed reports that he was suffering from the flu but that is not something that we have independently confirmed. now, what's interesting is here at the property prince is known to have these public dance parties where he would invite people to pay a minimal amount of $10 and then give that to the community. i ran into karen. karen came here today to pay her respects to prince. she was actually on this property last saturday and spoke to prince. what was he looking and

sounding like any indication that he was suffering from any kind of fatal illness? >> no. prince is pretty soft-spoken, but he did come and greet the crowd and introduce a brand-new purple piano that was made for him and a guitar and just welcomed us to listen to the music and dance away. >> so you were face to face him? >> yeah. i was probably within five feet. >> what were your thoughts after leaving? any indication that he was ill? >> no. i knew that he had been ill the previous day and, you know, i thought okay. he looked okay for being there, and it was a good time. went away, having a, you know, pleasant time and today i'm just in shock. >> well, thank you, karen. thank you for your time. kennedy, we're learning at the autopsy will be conducted tomorrow and a lot more going on. tonight there will be a dance party in prince's honor tonight in minneapolis, kennedy, back to you. kennedy: all right, matt, available couple of questions. has anyone asked the police whether they found a suicide note? >> that's a good question. police have not given us any information.

they released a very brief statement just concerning his death and they're not talking about suicide notes or any indication of drug use or anything along those lines right now. kennedy: i know we'll know more about that when the results of tomorrow's autopsy come. but we're just hearing more and more about some of the curious circumstances surrounding his death and oftentimes with these cases, you can't take everything at face value. obviously our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his fans. matt, thanks very much for bringing us the story from the scenes. >> you've got it. . kennedy: all right. downtown julie brown. she was an mtv star starring in 1985, and she didn't just report on prince be she knew him. she did the mtv video music awards with him. and dtjv joins me now. julie, how are you doing? >> hi, how are you doing? it's a very sad day as we all know that we're going through right now. how are you doing? . kennedy: indeed. this is such a tragedy.

so unexpected and coming on the heels of the loss of another icon and legend david bowie, trying to make sense of how music and, you know, this community deals with this loss. but i want to know what it was like for you. and you started in 1985. that was mid-purple rain explosion. that was the year he won several grammys and that academy award. how did prince interface with mtv at the time? >> mtv and prince fit as tight as his pants basically. and we can all talk about whoever we want to. but it certainly wasn't the '80s or '90s. he was such a musical genius. and we all loved to talk about him. we all loved to talk about prince no matter what he was doing. so he was so -- he was just a silent music god that we all kind of like. if he walked into a room, you would know he was there. and, you know, as a person, whenever we did the mtv

awards, i can remember being backstage at the mtv awards and how unbelievably sweet and kind he was. he wasn't one of those -- he wasn't one of those kinds of guys that had hundreds of bodyguards around him and you couldn't get to him. if he was in the hallway and bumped new, he would hug you. it's so shocking that he's gone. and i was fortunate to be in quite a few rooms with the purple man himself, and as i say just being a witness is on -- kennedy: that oscar head route. that would certainly be quite a thing. and how do you think -- because mtv was still very young at that point. it had only been around for four years when you started. >> yeah. kennedy: how well did prince take to the video medium? how well did he embrace the branding that was necessary to become a superstar at the young age he was in 1985?

>> i think the greatest thing about prince and credit is that he always kept it business. his personal life was never really involved in any of the mtv stuff especially because the man is a professional. so we saw the professional side of him. i got invited to his studio to a little in-house concert. kennedy: yeah. >> and that's when you got to see him kind of shake everything down. he was just, you know, just really relaxed. and he just got up and jammed and played until, like, 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. and he was comfortable at home. and he was a man that was very comfortable in his own skin. kennedy: and perhaps that's why he stayed in minnesota. that's why he was most comfortable bringing his music to the rest of the world. downtown julie brown, i hope i will see you in person. >> i hope so too. take care and love you. kennedy: love you too. thanks, julie brown.

appreciate it. let's bring in the party panel. tonight. fox news correspondent. lauren green. she went to school with prince. she knew the man and the myth and we'll talk about his legend here editor in chief. and michael columnist for the daily beast. he and matt cohost a podcast called the fifth column. hi. >> hi,. kennedy: it's sad circumstances what bring us together. so tell us when did you first meet him? >> i really couldn't tell you. he was just in the neighborhood when we grew up. as a child, in grade school. and he was just one of the kids in the neighborhood that was just hanging around. kennedy: yeah. >> and, you know, my cousin, his cousin all lived in the same area and grew up togethe t. kennedy: was he shy back then? what did you see? because we know him from being a shy person but also a musical genius. were there flashes of either of those elements when you were a kid? >> i suppose so, but i didn't take notice of it.

there were a limited number of kids in that area. and he was just one of those kids. and it wasn't until later that he became prince. we really associated him in different circles. i was a classical music pianist, and i kept to myself. i was shy that way as well. so he was a pop music theme. and i will tell you there were just hundreds of thousands of people who are mourning -- millions actually. but in minnesota, the whole community is mourning. i mean there are people from elementary school, junior high school, central high school in minneapolis and north high school and all of these people grew up with that aura of prince and for him, he is minnesota. so the mourning is just so much more than fans. it is people who really look to him as such an icon of their state and gave the state such an impressive reputation. kennedy: we're going to talk to one of your state senators, united states senator who is going to talk about his life and what his legacy means to

the state of minnesota. matt, i want to talk to you because you're a music head who studied his music for decades. and you have probably listened to most of prince's entire catalog, which is a difficult thing, since he put out 39 records. put in perspective musically his influence on you and others. >> one thing, he expanded my sense of what is possible and others sense of what is possible. we take this for granted for now. we live in a weird world. i was aware of him in junior high school, i was a classic rock meathead and the girl across the way had a poster of him in the dirty mind era. he was a thong and not much else and eye liner and this girl was attracted to this, and it was completely confusing to me. how is this midget be. so he opened up the

possibilities to what kind of personas you could have in a way we haven't seen since david bowie. kennedy: which is odd. >> which is odd. what a grim year for people who are music, in other words. i mean i'm just getting over the bowie thing, which was really actually the only person that i had seen that i didn't know that hit me that hard because bowie was so influential. much later weirdlily for prince. when i was growing up, those records and those movies, the string of three movies too, it was, like, i was too calm, and i didn't want to listen to that. but later when i started listening to going back to dirty minds, to controversy, to actually it's not the first record but the first record prince. it's actually. kennedy: what did she maybe the other one came out when he was 19 years old. >> 19 years old and under the producer that was way too controlling. but i used to play this game all the time when prince would come on if i was with friends or dinner party or something. i would say name a bunch of songs that were very, very po

popular or famous that prince wrote them and -- kennedy: there are so many. we are actually going to say that because when we come back from the break, we're going to talk about these with my party panel and beyond. >> good. kennedy: and speaking of which, i'm going to talk to dweezil zappa of how he was a game changing in the united states senate. because of prince as a. going to join me with a very surprising and emotional look at prince's impact on the great state of minnesota. please stay right here

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. ♪ . kennedy: welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the death of prince. he was raised and musically trained in minnesota where he lived until his passing. the community is now talking about his genius. senator of minnesota joins me now with reactions from her state. welcome, senator. >> well, thank you so much, kennedy, and thank you for devoting time for this. for our state, prince made our state cool; right? first avenue where he played all the time is now a landmark, purple rain, a household name. and mostly he was someone that

we were just so proud of. like, you could go anywhere and people wouldn't always know it but prince is from minnesota, and the great thing is he lived in minnesota. sometimes he lived places for a while, but he always came home.t was a state and place that he was proud of. and the fact that he had that studio, that compound that was often open to the public, he took care of his community, and he was also a philanthropist. talk about that a little bit. talk about the ways that prince supported some of the charities where you live. >> right. well, he was just a big supporter of our state. when you think about it, he grew up within the a lot of money. his parents are both musicians. his dad actually named him -- his dad's name was prince, and he named him that because his dad once said i wanted him to have everything i could have or couldn't have. and he grew up in that neighborhood, learned the instruments at a public high school. started singing songs and composing songs when he was just a little kid.

and he was just a genius from a young age. so he -- the fact he gave to charities, that was so important and cared about kids and cared about kids in his situation. but he had a concert recently for the women's professional basketball team that won the championship national championship out of minnesota, and he just splayed right there in his studio. and he did that kind of thing all the time. i don't know if you ever heard about it on the national news, but it was part of who he was. kennedy: it's a gratefuller and something that binds people together and the places they're from. he wrote purple and gold, a theme song for the minnesota vikings when they played the conference championship in 2010. >> yeah. when you think about how they live up there. but prince was a big vikings fan. in fact, there were rumors that he was going to be at the

last playoff game where they sadly lost at the last field goal kick, but i didn't see him. but i think he was supposed to be there, and he was just for me growing up in the '70s and '80s, you know, it was little red corvette and then went into purple rain, literally as a halloween costume i went as purple rain the concept. [laughter] and it was just everyone in minnesota has stories because we feel like we kind of discovered him first; right? he standard doing a tape in a studio in minnesota. started playing at first avenue early in the '80s. kennedy: that's right. >> '83. and he just never left his home. kennedy: no. but they're devastated at first avenue as are so many music fans. senator, thanks so much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. it was just great to be on. thank you. kennedy: thank you for celebrating his life and his legacy. the party panel joins me once again. michael matt welch, and emily green.

mike, you were talking before the break name songs by prince made famous by other people. and the first one that comes to mind to me is nothing compares to you. >> yeah. became very famous. i mean line the coverage is a decent record but she became a decent record. she became famous from that song and actually a funny story about that is only from o'connor, she actually went to a studio and got in a physical fight with him -- kennedy: doesn't surprise me. >> he told her to stop swearing. and being so rude in interviews because, you know, flator life he became much more religious. kennedy: and then tore up a picture of him. >> yeah. tore it up and got -- but that's -- the obvious one. but you think of all the bands that he -- and artists that he mid-wived. kennedy: yeah. >> and then you think of the bengals, for instance, and you think of the songs, and you go, oh, that's a prince song. kennedy: we've got much more breaking news with this

coverage, including tmz saying prince suffered from a drug overdose six days ago and treated with the same shot for that. we've got rolling stone writer neil strauss going to tell me about prince's rise and why prince interviewed him a few years ago. plus a band mate of prince's and much more. please stay here ♪ ♪ my school reunion's coming fast. could be bad. could be a blast. can't find a single thing to wear.

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prince was treated for a drug overdose six days before his death. fox is working on independently confirming this news and we're going to have more on that a little later in the hour. certainly raises more questions about his passing. he was found nonresponsive today and paramedics unable to arrive him. now, in the meantime more about his life. prince pushed the envelope in all aspects of his creativity, particularly his sexuality, becoming an american sex symbol to discuss how he blew the lid on squares all over the country, we turn to neil strauss, contributing editor at rolling stone who also covered prince for the new york times. rob in the studio with me, former contributing editor at rolling stone and author of the book i want my mtv. welcome to you both. rob, neil, thank you so much for being here. >> thanks, kennedy. >> hey, thanks, kennedy. kennedy: neil, i'm going to start with you because a few years ago this is really curious. prince requested an audience with you, so he could interview you.

what was that about? >> yeah. he had me come to a nightclub in los angeles. and as usual, always in the nightclubs in l.a. kind of in a roped off kind of area because he liked to be around the energy and around people but not too close to them. so i came there and i didn't know what it was about. and he started asking me questions kind of about god, if he believed in god. we talked about 9/11. it was a very serious, heavy almost interrogation until he told me sort of a book idea that he wanted me to write about a great mystery. kennedy: that's interesting. now, neil, you and i had spoken about some of the celebrities who reached out to you because of the time you spent living as a pick up artist and people like leonardo dicaprio had wanted to talk to you about the game, and i thought that's what prince wanted to talk about, but he had a much heavier agenda. did you find him to be a particularly spiritual person? >> i found him to be -- first of all, very soft-spoken and gentle. highly connected.

very spiritual and very cared a lot about what was going on in the world. we talked about a lot about 9/11 and terrorist and violence, and he really wanted to talk about solutions and how to stop it. and also a lot because wa was a witness about god and the name of god. kennedy: interesting and people may be surprised to learn that politically he was quite conservative toward the end of his life. did you guys talk about that at all? did you talk about his politics outside of his theories on 9/11? >> no. mainly his thought was that if people all know the name of -- this is really what he said. if people knew the name of god and could understand that, all of the problems in the world could be solved. earlier believed that. kennedy: yeah, and he was a person -- i mean that is one of the things he lived along with music and minnesota. he was a man who sought to understand spirituality and that connection and the nature of god. some heavy stuff. now, rob, you literally wrote

the book on mtv. >> cowrote. kennedy: cowrote the book from the beginning of mtv, prince had already started releasing music a couple of years prior when mtv launched 1981, so in your book when did you find out about prince and how he fit into that grand scheme? >> what i discovered is that everyone loved to tell prince stories. there's practically an industry of telling prince stories. kennedy: and what's some of the best you've heard? >> one of my favorite ones was a video producer who told this story about to go to prince's house in los angeles to discuss a video. the meeting started at 11:00 and he got there some time in the afternoon and this is at his own house. and the producer starts to talk about the idea for the video. and prince says hold on a second. and he gets up and leaves. while they're having the first part of this meeting, prince has a blue stiletto on his

left foot and yellow stiletto on his right foot. kennedy: naturally. >> as you do during a meeting. and he gets up and leaves and comes back 45 minutes later. now he's got the yellow stiletto on his left foot and blue on his right. and he sits down and turns to the producer and says what were you saying? . kennedy: so he was one of those guys like steve jobs who liked to play mind games with his subjects. now, speak lee sent out a tweet today saying that prince had a great sense of humor. did you know him to be a funny person? did people talk about how he -- we know he was shy. we know he was somewhat reclusive, but was he a funny person? >> he had to be comfortable around people to show how funny he was. and he wasn't comfortable around many people. kudos to neil r making him comfortable. most of the time i would whisperer to someone and have them deliver the message on his behalf. there's a director of a book

who said he showed up on set one day wearing a jacket full of buttons and he said to him what's with all the buttons? and he said should have told me you don't like buttons. kennedy: well, i love buttons, and i love prince. neil and rob, thank you, both, being here so much. i appreciate it. >> thanks, kennedy. kennedy: absolutely. coming up we've got more of our breaking news coverage. dr. matt perform in revolution with prince. he shares his experiences with me. i'm going to talk to dweezil zappa, frank zappa's son and going to talk about how prince is huge game changer in the industry and what an incredibly guitarist he was also a thorn in the side of busybodies like tip, that first amendment fight. we'll talk about it firsthand. that's coming up. stay right here listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs. this is 100% useful for a 100% fresh mouth. what's it like to not feel 100% fresh? we don't know. we swish listerine®.

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♪ . kennedy: welcome back. prince raised eyebrows across the board. he even helped to create a station in cleaning up sex and violence in the media and in music. and here to talk about prince and censorship, dweezil zappa, a legendary guitarist also a son of frank zappa and dweezil former with mtv. how are you doing? >> i'm doing good, kennedy, how are you? . kennedy: it's good to talk to you. >> it's been a while. kennedy: let's talk about the song that gore was so disgusted by. started with the resource center and your dad was one of the first amendment advocates who stood up to her and stood before congress and taught for our constitutional right to express ourself. do you remember that time? do you remember your dad's testimony? >> oh, yeah, i was there when

he testified. one of the greatest things that he said was that they were treating the issue like treating dandruff by decapitation. [laughter] oh, that's amazing. and i hope that it was a badge of honor for prince. did you know him? did you meet him when you were at mtv? did you ever? >> i got to see him perform a few times for certain things like mtv movie awards or onehos. but i did see him just, you know, going to a show like anybody else would go to. and he was an amazing performer. but the thing that i really was always struck by was how natural it was for him to just express himself with any instrument, and it wasn't a put on. it wasn't something that didn't seem authentic. he could play in various

styles on any instrument, and he was just amazing at it. he had, you know, if it takes 1,000 hours to be an expert of something, he had multiple lifetimes of expertise on all of these instruments and things that he could do and then, you know, bring it with this explosive presentation with the dancing and all of that stuff. kennedy: and we've only got about a minute left, dweezil, but tell me how good of a guitarist he was. i will never forget going to the 1993 video music awards with you and going back to your house and you and your dad critiquing the performances, and you were so critical about tones and all of that. how good was prince with the guitar? >> prince was under rated. he was good at funky stuff, but he could play blues really well and do rock things in the hendricks sort of style. he was an amazing musician and it's a real shame he's not around to continue making music.

kennedy: i know but you are, and i know you're still touring. so please come see me in new york so we can talk in person. >> we will definitely make that happen. kennedy: i'll buy you a cola. thanks, dweezil. >> thanks. kennedy: let's bring back the party panel. so, lauren, you grew up with prince. what do you think his most lasting legacy is as you stand back and survey his life? >> when i think about the legacy of prince, first of all, he's just from minnesota. that's what i think of first. and there's an era where there's so much talent and so much that came out of that era, it was flight time, the sounds of blackness, the gospel grammy award-winning group, they call came in the same school. they all knew each other growing up. in fact, my mom would tell the story the kids want to have a dance, you have to have your flight time. they went on to produce for janet jackson. kennedy: yeah. >> so you've got prince coming out of this era, and i don't know if it was a bubble in the system at that time in history

that just became the legacy of minnesota. you've got peesly park studios now because he felt that the business needed a studio. not just a studio but a place where people could film commercials and scenes. it was a business for him as well. but he understood the business, and he understood the crowd. kennedy: just the performance alone, that 2007 super bowl performance. >> it was nuts. kennedy: yeah. >> at some point in his life after he was doing weird things like that, he wasn't much of a mainstream pop star anymore. he didn't command our attention like he did in the '80s and early '90s, but he would float down back into our world every four or five year y. kennedy: yeah. >> just to remind us that he was god, and you were maybe a and i'll if you got luck. the super performance, we'll never see anything like that. kennedy: to have that command and that presence in front of 80,000 people, 100,000 people,

and to have that sound, it still blows my mind. what do you remember most about any of his performances? >> well, that's the thing. prince was an unbelievablable performer. there's a mixed bag from i would say '95 on, separating sometimes hard. but as a performer in 2007; right? the super bowl. kennedy: yeah. >> comes back and reminds everybody of how good he is of not only guitar players but as a live performer. and i've actually sent this to people in the past. in 2004 when he came out and did this, like, outrageous guitar solo -- kennedy: oh, yes. >> hall of fame george harrison. kennedy: yes. exactly. >> showing up these stiff white guys like tom petty and literally did the james brown thing where he fell offstage. and bring him back up. >> they had all of these classic guitar players getting ready to play solos.

you got it. kennedy: michael, matt, lauren, thank you so much. >> absolutely. kennedy: coming up more breaking news coverage on the death of prince. one of his band mates will be here to talk about the man himself. how difficult was it to play with prince? we will discuss. stay tuned

♪ ♪ . kennedy: breaking news coverage tonight on the death of prince. his legacy stretches across every genre of music and clay aiken is here, a singer, a former apprentice contestant, runner-up on american idle,

should have won. >> runner up on apprentice too. kennedy: that means something, clay. welcome aboard. glad to have you. i know you straddle two worlds. music and politics. we know we talked about prince being very active and spiritual person and someone who expressed himself through music. tell me about some of his influence on culture and politics? >> well, you know, even as most recently as last year, he was active in the community that was surrounded -- supporting baltimore and freddie grow he wrote that song, he did the video about freddie gray in baltimore. i think that was something that he really was different from a lot of other artists. i mean not only was he really better than probably any musician and songwriter, maybe ever when it came to being ahead of his time. but he was really socially conscious, you know? he was -- it was -- he believed in fairness and kind of making sure that people were treated fairly.

he railed against warner brothers years ago in part because he said that the record labels were taking advantage of young artists. kennedy: and you know what? he was absolutely right. if you're beholding to a contract for seven albums, you know? and you're not releasing something more than every two years, that's 14, 15 years. >> right. kennedy: where you're under one contract. that's such a -- >> he actually said the record labels were treating their artists in a way like slaves. kennedy: uh-huh. >> and i think earlier stepped out and spoke out for not just himself, i mean he worked to try to get himself on you the from underneath warner brothers but made sure to bring awareness to the needs of others. kennedy: and you left the music industry five years ago. what was it about that? do you share that with -- do you share a feeling that there is somehow injustice in music that wasn't serving you? >> well, i don't know if there's necessarily injustice in music for me, but it was the fact -- and this is something that i think prince it believed too. is that music and the platform you can get from music can do

better things in the world. for me, it was recognizing i had a platform to talk about issues that were important for me, and that's why i stepped into the political arena in a way. and i think prince was someone who recognized that his music could do more. kennedy: yeah. >> could help people, bring awareness to things. he was just very socially conscious, and i think that's something people loved about him as well. kennedy: yeah, people know you from reality tv shows and your incredible talent. i am a clay mate but may not make the leap into politics. do you see your similarities in your shared into public service? >> i do not. how dare you? . kennedy: well, think about it. you come from becoming that are not natural springs for politics. >> well, i think people who have been in the public eye do like i said bring attention to issues like otherwise may not, and i did it for that very reason. i can't tell you why donald trump is running for president. i don't know if it's necessarily the same reason. kennedy: you say you don't

recognize the person running for president as the person you met on the apprentice? >> no. i don't. it's a completely different person. and i'm not completely sure who he is today is who he'll be tomorrow and who he'll be tomorrow is who he was yesterday or the day before. so in a way, i've said i think that if -- i like to believe, and i know that my campaign was very serious. we are running for very serious purposes. i'm not completely sure -- kennedy: you think he'll be president? >> absolutely not. kennedy: you don't think so? >> absolutely not. kennedy: is that thinking on your part? >> no. i don't just don't believe the things he's said over the past months are wents that you can -- you know, you can't put the -- back in the horse. kennedy: you can't put the toothpaste back in the horse, you're absolutely right. [laughter] >> so i don't think it's possible. kennedy: well, come back and mix metaphors with me again. we can talk about politics, and i don't know what i have to do, what body part of yours i have to twist to make you sing. >> i left it at home. kennedy: clay aiken, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you so much. kennedy: i'm a great admirer,

even more so now. >> excellent. kennedy: coming up a former band mate of prince who knows him very well. going to tell me all about his life, the life he knew with the man, the legend that we're talking about tonight. rest in peace when you booked this trip, you didn't know we had hundreds of thousands of places to stay all over the world. or that we searched billions of flights to get you here. a few weeks ago,

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we're continuing our breaking news coverage. matt is with me, he was a member of the prince's band. doctor, welcome. >> hi. thank you. nice to be here. kennedy: so tell me, how hard -- this is something that i've been curious about. how hard is it to be in a band with a guy who knows how to play everything. were you ever good enough for prince? >> oh, yeah. definitely i mean i don't think he would have brought me onboard if i wasn't good enough. in fact, you know, we really set off each other in those days and he taught me things, i taught him things. you know, we each had our own take on our instruments. i mean even though he played everything, you know, i was the main keyboard player and then lisa colman was the other amazing keyboardist in the band. kennedy: yeah. >> and we fed off each other and taught each other

technical things that each did that the other didn't. and then we would learn from that and learn some of those techniques from each other. it was a wonderful thing. kennedy: so you learned techniques. did you ever write songs together? >> oh, yes. yeah, definitely. . kennedy: all right. because he seems like the kind of guy who just holds up in a studio by himself and writes songs and gets the credit. but was he generous? >> yeah. he was generous with certain songs. if he liked something that you did, he would write a song with you. but he really did the majority of the material, you know? i mean really it was mainly him. but i did have the fortunate of being able to write some songs with him during that time frame. kennedy: and you were there during the beginning of his career in 1978. >> that's correct. kennedy: his first record. >> yeah. kennedy: did you know that he was a legend in the making? when did you know that he truly was a star?

>> right away. right from the beginning. kennedy: yeah. and what was it about him that allowed people to grav state toward him and allowed him to explode on stage even though he was a shy person? >> well, i wouldn't exactly he was necessarily shy. kennedy: that's good to hear because that's all we've heard all day long in talking about his life. was he outgoing and funny? >> yeah. absolutely. yes. . kennedy: and was he a prankster? what are some of your memories of prince that we could never imagine? >> well, maybe in the early years he enjoyed when we would be traveling, earlier liked to -- he liked having somebody push him around in a wheelchair at the airport. kennedy: of course. >> yeah.

kennedy: well, thank goodness there was a doctor there to treat him for all of his informalities. doctor, thank you so much for being here tonight. appreciate it. >> oh, you're welcome. you're welcome. thank you for having me. kennedy: thank you for that prince and now has a prince tribute band. coming up we're going to wrap coming up we're going to wrap up our s listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs. coming up we're going to wrap up our s this is 100% useful for a 100% fresh mouth. what's it like to not feel 100% fresh? we don't know. we swish listerine®. as do listerine® users. the very people we studied in the study of bold. people who are statistically more likely to stand up to a bully. do a yoga handstand. and be in a magician's act. listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs so you can feel 100% in life.

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[martha and mildred are good to. go. here's your invoice, ladies. a few stops later, and it looks like big ollie is on the mend. it might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office... or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer, but...i wouldn't have it any other way. look at that, i had my best month ever. and earned a shiny new office upgrade. i run on quickbooks. that's how i own it. so we know how to cover almost alanything.ything, even a stag pool party. (party music) (splashing/destruction)

(splashing/destruction) (burke) and we covered it, october twenty-seventh, 2014. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ . kennedy: welcome back in our moments of our breaking news coverage of prince. tmz has broken news on the story in the past hour. here with the very latest. senior reporter for hollywood life. welcome, chloe, how are you? >> hi. very sad news. so tmz has just put out a shocking report that when prince's plane made an emergency landing a few days ago six days ago in his death it wasn't because of the flu. they're alleging that it was because he had a drug overdose. he had 48 minutes until he was actually going to be home, but they couldn't wait. that's why they landed, rushed him to a hospital, he was

treated for three hours, the hospital allegedly wanted him to stay overnight, and they couldn't get him a private room because it was just so last minute. so allegedly his team said, you know, we're going to leave and then they took him home. so, again, this throws another wrench into the whole mix and the autopsy results will hopefully come out tomorrow, and we'll have more information. >> i know carmen was a of his. >> yeah, she said i was sho shocked and lost to lose a mentor of mine. also went on to say she was given the name camera inelectra by him, and we met recently and she had a lot of nice things to say about him. everybody outpouring on twitter right now. kennedy: people are heartbroken and trying to come to terms of his death. >> he was so young. kennedy: 57 years old. >> he had so much more he wanted to do. his memoir, his music, he was not done. this is a life cut too short and there's more to the story here.

this is not the flu. kennedy: absolutely and we will keep investigating. thank you so much. appreciate it. always love your time. thank you so much for watching the show tonight. you can follow me on twitter you can follow me on twitter and instagram, for time life's music collection. (soft music) ♪ (narrator) these are songs that can relax and soothe you. (ray conniff) ♪ somewhere my love ♪ there will be songs to sing (narrator) songs that make you feel good. (frankie valli) ♪ you're just too good to be true ♪ ♪ can't take my eyes off of you ♪ ♪ you'd be like heaven to touch ♪ (narrator) songs that take you to wonderful places. (the 5th dimension) ♪ up-up and away ♪ in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon ♪