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A bout of flu on 7 April saw Prince cancelling his two shows for the Piano & A Microphone tour scheduled at Altanta’s Fox Theatre on the day they were due to take place. On the 11th the venue announced the shows were indeed rescheduled for the following week and with all original tickets honoured for the new date, Thursday 14 April.
“I am #transformed”
Prince was at pains to brush off his illness as no little more serious than a case of mere man flu. Concern for the star was sparked during his flight home to Minnesota the morning after performing two 80 minute Atlanta shows when his health deteriorated and required his hired jet to make an emergency landing at Quad City Airport, Moline, Illinois, where Prince was rushed to hospital. Although he discharged himself three hours later, fans took to Twitter to air their concerns over the state of Prince’s health. Fears grew to such extreme, Prince had to confirm via Twitter that he was feeling ok. His former Purple Rain co-star Appollonia Kotero also waded in to shed light on the situation, tweeting she had been in touch with Prince and he was resting at home and that his hospitalization was to receive fluids for flu symptoms.
To further prove that he was indeed alive and well, a dance party was hastily arranged at Paisley Park for April 16th, and whilst he did not perform to the 200 ($10 paying) attendees, he showed his face for 5 minutes to scotch fears over his health and to unveil a new, purple and gold bass guitar by Gus Guitars, plus a new piano given to him by Yamaha. He also confirmed that the Atlanta shows on 14 April had been recorded and that he hoped to later release the recordings in a live album.
Read Goldies Parade's unique and complete biography chronicling Prince's life, from his early career success, acrimonious split with Warner Brothers, resurgence as an independent artist and his shocking and untimely death in 2016.
