Cancelled gigs and diverted flights fuel questions over Prince’s death

As fans await the 57-year old pop icon's official cause of death, questions have started to swirl over whether Prince had been hiding serious health problems.

Singer Prince gestures as he announces upcoming live dates at the Apollo Theater in New York in October 2010. Lucas Jackson/ Reuters

MINNEAPOLIS // Questions have started to swirl over whether Prince, who died aged 57 on Thursday, had been hiding serious health problems from his fans.

An autopsy was conducted on Friday and the body released to his family but authorities said it could be weeks before the cause of death is released.

But in the weeks before his death, Prince cancelled a series of shows and his plane had performed an unscheduled landing so that he could undergo medical treatment.

Prince’s body had no signs of violence when he was found unresponsive on Thursday morning in an lift at Paisley Park, his estate in suburban Minneapolis, and there was nothing to suggest it was suicide, county sheriff Jim Olson said. It appeared Prince had been at the compound alone, he added.

“This is certainly a big event internationally and nationally, and I can tell you that we are going to leave no stone unturned with this and make sure the public knows what happened,” the sheriff said.

Mr Olson and a spokeswoman for the medical examiner refused to say whether any prescription drugs were taken from Prince’s home after his death, and they would not comment on a report by the celebrity website TMZ that the Purple Rain star had suffered an overdose of a powerful painkiller less than a week before he died.

The sheriff said Prince was last seen alive by an acquaintance who dropped him off at Paisley Park at 8pm on Wednesday. He was found by staff members who went to the compound the next morning when they could not reach him by phone.

Emergency crews who answered the emergency call in Chanhassen, about 30 kilometres outside Minneapolis, could not revive Prince, the sheriff said. He said emergency workers did not administer Narcan, a drug they carry to counteract overdoses.

Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, had spoken about struggling with childhood epilepsy, and friends said he had hip trouble. His former percussionist Sheila E. said Prince suffered the effects from years of jumping off risers and speakers on stage while wearing high heels.

“There was always something kind of bothering him, as it does all of us,” she said. “I hurt every single day. You know we’re like athletes, we train, and we get hurt all the time. We have so many injuries.”

TMZ reported that Prince was treated for an overdose of Percocet while travelling home from concerts in Atlanta last week. The site said his plane made an emergency landing on April 15 in Moline, Illinois, where he was briefly hospitalised.

The singer’s death came two weeks after he cancelled concerts in Atlanta, saying he was not feeling well. He then played a pair of make-up shows April 14 in that city, apologising to the crowd shortly after coming on stage.

At one point early in his first show, he briefly disappeared from the stage without explanation. After about a minute he returned and apologised, saying he did not realise how emotional the songs could be. He played the rest of the show without incident, repeatedly jumping up from the piano and pacing around the stage between songs, and performed three encores.

Then came the reported emergency landing en route to Minnesota. The night after that, Prince hosted a dance party at Paisley Park, where some fans said he looked fine and seemed irked by reports of an illness. “Wait a few days before you waste any prayers,” he said.

By his high-energy standards, it was a subdued appearance. Prince did not play except to tap out a few notes on a new purple Yamaha piano, and lingered only for a few minutes before disappearing.

Prince was slated to perform two surprise “pop-up” shows earlier this week at the Fox Theatre in St Louis but cancelled last week because of health concerns, promoter Steve Litman said.

Prince disclosed in a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley that he was born an epileptic and had seizures when he was young. It was unclear if his epilepsy carried into adulthood.

In 2009, Prince, a Jehovah’s Witness, told an interviewer with the Los Angeles Times that he didn’t do drugs “or I’d give you a joint” to share while they listened to music.

Heather McElhatton, who worked on and off as a set decorator for Prince’s video shoots at Paisley Park from 1988 to 1998, said she never saw him take drugs or drink during her time there.

“But he did have a lot of energy. He could shoot for two days straight,” Ms McElhatton said. “Was it natural energy? Was it augmented energy? I don’t know. I never saw him eat.”

*Associated Press