A real-time compilation of the latest news on the investigation into Prince's death, the singer's estate and tributes.
7:40 p.m. ET: Multiple news networks are reporting that prescription painkillers were found in Prince's possession when he died. NBC, ABC and CBS say drugs were found in his house, known as Paisley Park, outside Minneapolis. Officials have yet to say what role, if any, those medications may have played in his death, according to the networks.
Additionally, the Carver County Sheriff’s Office has asked the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for help in determining where the medications came from and what prescriptions Prince had obtained, the reports say.
6:46 p.m. ET: Before Metallica challenged Napster and long before Taylor Swift took on Apple Music, Prince was campaigning for artists' rights — even going so far as to change his stage name to a symbol to protest what he perceived as unfair terms on the part of his record label. USA TODAY's Mike Snider examines Prince's influence on the business side of the music business.
3:00 p.m. ET: For nearly a week now, celebrities have been discussing how Prince's life and death touched them, but no one may have been more gutted than Lenny Kravitz, who says, "Not to be dramatic or overly sensitive, but I really feel like a piece of me died." In a new essay for Rolling Stone, he wrote about Prince's influence on him. Upon seeing the album cover for Prince's 1979 album Dirty Mind, he thought, "Here was an African-American cat, mixed like I was, skin color like mine was, playing the guitar like I wanted to play."
He says they developed a friendship after the release of Kravitz's 1989 debut Let Love Rule and over the course of the next 20+ years, they met up all over the world to hang out and play music. "I never saw a huge difference between the private person and the public persona with Prince," he observed. "I saw one person."
He also praised Prince for his far-sighted views on guarding his intellectual property. "Control of his music was very important to him. The beautiful thing is he wasn't just holding onto things for himself. He was always talking to other musicians about their master tapes, their publishing and so forth. He wanted artists to know their rights."
2:05 p.m. ET: Sources close to Prince have acknowledged that the singer left behind enough unreleased material to fill dozens of albums. The tracks, stored in a vault in his Paisley Park complex, are said to number in the hundreds — or possibly thousands. And now that Bremer Trust has been appointed to oversee his business affairs for the next six months, Prince biographer Alan Light poses another crucial question: "Who is his musical executor?"
2:02 p.m. ET:Bremer Trust, Prince's longtime bank, has been appointed to temporarily oversee the singer's multimillion-dollar estate.
In a conference call with the singer's family, a probate judge gave the company authority over the singer's assets for six months or until a personal representative is chosen.
The move comes a day after Prince's younger sister Tyka Nelson filed court documents stating that she didn't believe her brother left a will and that a special administrator be appointed so that decisions can be made in the coming days regarding his considerable business interests.
11:48 a.m. ET: Here's a little positive news: The Revolution, Prince's backup band from 1984-87, is getting back together. "We have decided after spending three or four days together now grieving over the loss of Prince, that we would like to come out and do some shows," explained Wendy Melvoin in a Facebook video posted Tuesday night. They have not announced any specific plans or dates as of yet.
They were with him for some of his biggest hits, including 1999 and Let's Go Crazy.
Their sense of humor is still intact: They had a little fun with the assumption that fans probably don't recognize any of the Purple One's bandmates 30 years on.
10:46 a.m. ET: On Tuesday, People unveiled the cover of its Prince tribute issue, which hits newsstands Friday. In a teaser post, they said that their cover story will investigate whether the singer had a history with the prescription painkiller Percocet. Former collaborator Sheila E. had previously remarked that the singer was plagued by a hip problem stemming from decades of jumping around onstage in high heels.
9:32 a.m. ET: During a surprise visit to the stage Broadway's School of Rock on Tuesday, Stevie Nicks shared the story of collaborating with Prince on her 1983 hit Stand Back. She said the idea came to her while listening to Little Red Corvette while driving, and she was compelled to call him about it.
“I asked him if he would come over to Sunset Sound in Los Angeles," she recounted. "Never in a million years expecting that he would say yes or that he was even in Los Angeles, and he was there in like 20 minutes,” Nicks said.
Then she added: “I didn’t have to call and tell him that I kind of ripped off his song, but I did because I’m honest. So it turned into a really amazing relationship. Is my heart broken? Absolutely.”
8:15 a.m. ET: Nearly a week after Prince's deaths, the tributes are still pouring in. On Tuesday, NBC's Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon organized its own salute with D'Angelo performing Sometimes It Snows in April and the requisite crazy Prince tales from Questlove and Fallon, who recounted the time Prince was dead-set on challenging the comedian at ping-pong. (The moral of the story: If Prince wanted you to play ping-pong, you played — no special dispensations were given to new fathers who'd just welcomed a baby that very day.)
Contributing: The Associated Press
