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Sheila E., Apollonia Head To Minnesota For Answers On Prince’s Death

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 22:07 PST, Apr 21, 2016

https://phoenix.playwire.com/en/publishers/1013074/videos/4823125

Sheila E. And Apollonia Kotero, two of Prince’s most famous protégés and members of his inner circle, have headed to Minnesota just hours after the death of the music legend at his Paisley Park recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, was announced.

Sheila E., the famous drummer who made magic with Prince both on stage and off, spoke to TMZ as she was boarding her flight out of LAX. As expected, Sheila E. was visibly upset as she spoke about the death of Prince, and she admitted that she is not holding up well. The airport interview with Sheila E. is posted below.

When she was asked for details on the music icon’s mysterious death, Sheila E. said Prince had not told her about any specific medical problems before his sudden passing. It was rumored that the singer had been battling the flu when his plane made an emergency landing at an Illinois hospital last week en route from his concert in Atlanta. Sheila E. said she plans to find out exactly what happened with the late 57-year-old music icon’s health.

“Everyone gets sick once in a while, we don’t know. We’re going to find out.”

“Just keep saying prayers for everyone, for the family,” Sheila E. said. She added that Prince would want to be best remembered for his song “Purple Rain.”

On Friday morning, Sheila E. appeared on Good Morning America live from Minneapolis. The “Glamorous Life” singer said she already misses Prince and is still trying to process her loss.

“It’s unreal. It’s surreal. I miss him dearly,” Sheila said. “He was a private person. Everyone knows that and there’s things that we have shared, him and I together, that people will never know. They are our moments.”

While the cause of death remains under investigation, Sheila E said Prince often suffered from ailments from playing sports and jumping around on stage, but she didn’t know of any types of health issues he may have been dealing with.

“We know that he’s had issues with his hips,” Sheila said. “If you look back in the days of ‘Purple Rain’ when he was on top of risers and jumping down off risers in those heels, you know, it damaged parts of his body. I know we’re always injured when we play on stage. I don’t know anything other than that.”

Before her GMA appearance, a devastated Sheila E. also posted messages to fans on social media, saying her love for her late friend and musical companion will live forever.

Sheila E. is not the only woman from Prince’s past who is grieving. Apollonia Kotero, his Purple Rain co-star and longtime friend, is reportedly headed to Minnesota as well. According to Hollywood Life, Apollonia had been in contact with Prince multiple times in the days following his medical emergency. While Sheila E. seemed in the dark about Prince’s possible medical ailments, the Hollywood Life insider revealed that Apollonia had been “calling him a lot, checking in with him” and had been “really worried about him” ever since his plane made that emergency landing last week.

Unlike Sheila E., Apollonia has not yet publicly commented on the death of Prince, but she did post social media response over the weekend explaining that she is just not ready to talk about her loss yet.

In addition, he late singer’s musical collaborators and fellow Purple Rain stars Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman posted a poignant message about his death.

While he had many beautiful women in his life, Sheila E., whose full name is Sheila Escovedo, was one of Prince’s most iconic partners. Sheila famously collaborated with Prince during the Purple Rain recording sessions and beyond after meeting him in the late 1970s at a concert. The drummer was a frequent fixture on Prince’s tours in the ’80s, and she wrote about her long relationship with the singer in her 2014 memoir, The Beat of My Own Drum. In the book, Sheila revealed that Prince proposed to her onstage by mouthing the words “marry me” before launching into a killer guitar solo.

“He blew me a kiss, turned to the audience and took the most amazing guitar solo ever. For the rest of that year my relationship with Prince was a dream,” Sheila E. wrote.

In addition to Sheila E. and Apollonia, Prince’s first wife, Mayte Garcia, is mourning the loss of the music legend. Garcia told People that despite their divorce, Prince meant everything to her, and she said that her former love is with their son, who died in 1996 when he was just five weeks old.

“This man was my everything, we had a family. I am beyond deeply saddened and devastated,” Mayte said. There is no word if Mayte will join Sheila E. and Apollonia in Minnesota.

Take a look at the heartbreaking video below to see Sheila E. talking about the death of Prince.

[Photo By Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NCLR]

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