Today is purple rain for us all as we have found out that legendary music artist Prince has died at the far too young age of 57.

Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson) born on June 7, 1958 in Minnesota and from the young of age of seven knew his calling was music. He not only learned to sing, but could sing from a falsetto to a baritone and quickly change back and forth. This ability led to a very recognizable singing voice that almost anyone knows upon hearing. Prince also played many instruments. He regularly played the guitar, piano and drums, but dabbled in almost every instrument. He also wrote all of his own music over his almost fifty albums career. He also danced and his eclectic stage presence was like none other.

He was a highly talented triple threat that took over the world starting in 1979 when his album Prince went platinum. He followed this up with Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999 each year.

His music was a combination of pop, funk, dance and rock music. Later he also dabbled in hip-hop, R&B, jazz, punk and even heavy metal. His lyrics, often about love and romance and many times sexual in nature, allowed people to feel more freely with their feelings. It is because of Prince that all albums have warning labels now as Tipper Gore heard her young daughter singing Darling Nikki and created the Parents Music Resource Center that eventually the music industry bowed down to and we now see the Explicit Lyrics stickers on our albums. Prince also holds the record of 1 and 2 for most dirty songs on their site for the ‘Filthy Fifteen.’

Prince wasn’t done making history though. He also is one of two black artists that was able to breakthrough the very White Wall of early MTV music and have heavy rotation with his music video for his hit, Little Red Corvette. The other was Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

When Purple Rain debuted in 1984 (along side the film of the same name) it was a monster hit that was the culmination of Prince’s success. It is the sixth best selling album of all time for any artists of any genre and went platinum an astounding twenty two times.

Prince never stopped working though as he continued on with his great musical successes. He not only wrote many hits throughout the 80’s and early 90’s for other artists (often under pseudonyms), but also kept up with his own albums. Many were with his band The Revolution and most were out only a year apart and some even less than that:

Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign ‘O’ the Times, Love Sexy, Batman, Graffiti Bridge, Diamonds and Pearls, Love Symbol, Come, The Black Album, The Gold Experience, Chaos and Disorder, Emancipation, Crystal Ball, The Truth, The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, The Rainbow Children, One Nite Alone…, Xpectation, N.E.W.S., Musicology, The Chocolate Invasion, The Slaughterhouse, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotusflow3r, MPLSound, 20Ten, Plectumelectrum, Art Official Age and last but not least HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two both out in 2015.

He also had several Live, Remix, Computations, The New Power Generations, NPG Orchestra and Madhouse albums. Seventeen of those to be exact.

Prince was highly rewarded for his music. He earned a place in 2004 in the Rock n Roll hall of fame and was awarded seven Grammy’s with thirty two nominations. Won four MTV Music Awards and was nominated twelve times. Finally he was also nominated and won an Academy Award for Purple Rain.

Prince’s life wasn’t without controversy though as he was embroiled in many feuds. One of the largest was him trying to get away from his recording contract with Warner Bros as he felt them trademarking his birth name and not allowing him control of his music was wrong. This led to him writing ‘slave’ on his cheek at one hearing and also changing his music name to the love symbol and becoming the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

He also did not endear himself with many fans of the modern music era when he tried to sue eBay and YouTube for allowing his music to be used even though no money was being made from it (a stipulation that many artists let go by). In 2007 many Prince fansites gathered together to make the Prince Fans United where they fought back against claims and cease and desist orders from Prince’s legal team to take down his music and images.

These were quickly dismissed when Prince stepped in and stated he didn’t have a problem with them and only with a few sites having images from a live concert. He also created a song for them called PFunk that he made sure was debuted on their site and is not available at iTunes as F.U.N.K.

His last was in 2014 when he filed a lawsuit against 22 individual online users for copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement and bootlegging through sites like Facebook. Yet in the same month Prince dismissed it all.

Prince has had many loves throughout his life and many of those were famous women. Madonna, Vanity, Kim Basinger, Carmen Electra, Anna Fantastic were just a few of them. In 1996 Prince married one of his backup dancers, Mayte Garcia and the two had a son named Boy Gregory. Sadly their son died a week later due to complications of Pfeiffer syndrome. The two divorced in 1999. He also married Manuela Testolini in 2001 and they divorced in 2006.

Other noteworthy facts about Prince is that he was a vegetarian who often spoke out about cruelty to animals. He even mentioned it in one of his liner notes of his album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. Prince also became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001, calling it a realization instead of a conversion. He had also just announced a memoir he would write with the working title The Beautiful Ones.

As of last week Prince was still touring when his private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois so he could be treated for flu-like symptoms. He was released and went back to his home near Minneapolis, Minnesota to recover. This morning a call to 911 was sent from his recording studio at his home that he was unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The news was officially broke by his manager on twitter.

Music has had several deep hits over the past two years. We have lost many beloved artists, but losing our Prince makes it even sadder as he had never stopped working, was in relatively good health and it has come as such a surprise. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

Play a tune for him, check on some crying doves, party like it’s 1999 and do the batdance okay guys? Maybe we’ll get some purple rain.