Prince reportedly worked for six days without any sleep prior to his death.
Prince died aged 57 at his home in Minnesota on Thursday (21Apr16). Since his untimely passing, there have been numerous reports of what may have contributed to his death, including reports he overdosed on painkiller Percocet, which he was allegedly taking for hip issues.
However, Prince’s brother-in-law Maurice Phillips has come forward to admit the singer had been awake for a staggering six days straight before his passing.
According to the Press Association, Phillips, who is married to Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson, told fans outside the singer’s Paisley Park complex: “He worked 154 hours straight. I was with him just last weekend. He was a good brother-in-law.”
Prince’s former manager Kerry Gordon has since spoken about Phillips’ allegations. While the singer had built up a tolerance to sleep deprivation, Gordon thinks six days of being awake could have been a “contributing factor” to Prince’s death.
“Prince wasn’t normal like the regular person, he could function on a lot less sleep than most people,” Gordon told television show Good Morning Britain on Monday (25Apr16). “And we would go, you know, three days sometimes without him getting any sleep. But I do think six days without sleep is unusual and that could be a contributing factor.”
One of Prince’s last public appearances came when he visited the Electric Fetus record shop in Minneapolis just five days before his death.
His trip to the store came just hours after his plane had an emergency landing on the Friday night (15Apr16). At the time, Prince’s team said it was due to “flu symptoms” but it has since been alleged that it was the Percocet overdose that caused the singer’s hospital dash.
Max Timander, who works at the store, said his fellow employees had told him the singer didn’t look in “the best shape” during the outing on the Saturday (16Apr16).
Timander told the Press Association: “Everyone I’ve talked to on that Saturday said he looked kind of pale and he was not totally looking in the best shape as he normally is.
“It sounded like he was looking kind of weak. I know he had just got over the flu supposedly.”
Timander added that the final six records purchased by Prince during his trip to Electric Fetus were Talking Book by Stevie Wonder, The Time Has Come by The Chambers Brothers, Hejira by Joni Mitchell, Inspirational Gospel Classics by Swan Silvertones, The Best Of Missing Persons and Santana IV by Santana.
Following Prince’s death, sales of his work have understandably increased dramatically. Two of his albums, The Very Best of Prince and the soundtrack for his movie Purple Rain, took the number one and number two spots respectively on the Billboard 200 Albums chart this weekend (23-24Apr16).
Another of his albums, The Hits/The B-Sides, featured in sixth position on the chart.
According to Billboard, if they look at the week ending April 21, Prince’s overall album catalogue sold an incredible 256,000 copies – an increase of 5,298 per cent compared to just 5,000 units the previous week.
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