DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper remembered influential musician Prince as a “quintessentially unique creative spirit.”
Prince was found dead at his home Thursday in suburban Minneapolis. He was 57.
Hickenlooper – who has long held a passion for music and plays several instruments – said of Prince: “He was someone who was fearless in attacking musical genres and really going places no one had ever gone before.”
The governor responded Thursday to a question asked by reporters about Prince’s untimely passing, which has shocked the world. Prince set the tone and paved the path for generations of musicians, with impacts that haven’t been fully realized.
Beyond hits such as “Little Red Corvette,” “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry,” Prince was an improvisational musician, letting the soul of the music guide.
“People would say, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t change your name,’ or, ‘You can’t completely change ... your style of music.’ And he wouldn’t fight. He would say, ‘Great, great,’ and then he would go off and do it,” Hickenlooper said.
“There’s just not that many people that are in the world that are that talented and so focused on their own drum beat that they are able to go against the tide of popular opinion and what the media says about them. He just did it his way.”
Not all of Prince’s music was loved by all, a simple side effect of experimentation. But the governor said that’s also what made Prince special.
“I’m not crazy about all of his music,” Hickenlooper said. “But some of his music I loved. Some of it, I think I just hadn’t heard it enough. But I always admired him as someone who had the courage to be out there.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com