via flickr/scottpenner
Prince had a secret pop-up show in store for St. Louis before he fell ill.
April 21 dealt a heavy one-two punch for St. Louisans who love the music and artistic majesty of Prince.
First we learned the musical icon, a seven-time Grammy winner whose hits include “Little Red Corvette,” “Kiss,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “When Doves Cry,” had died. Then St. Louis learned how close we were to hearing one of his final shows.
Prince, who died Thursday at age 57, was planning a surprise pop-up show for April 18 at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, the theater’s concert producer told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Keeping the show a secret was challenging. Kevin C. Johnson, the Post’s music writer, posted on Facebook yesterday that, “I had been sitting on this for a week.”
Everything for the concert, including artwork, tickets, and press announcements, was ready to release once Prince gave the word, but when the musician began to feel ill, producers kept a lid on what was sure to be a popular show.
“As you can imagine, on short notice, it was a massive job to get all the pieces in place and keep it as quiet as possible,” producer Steve Litman told the Post.
Litman said he was on the phone with Prince’s representatives constantly on April 14 to see if he’d feel well enough to perform here. Prince talked about the St. Louis show in his dressing room “on and on until the Atlanta shows were over,” Litman said.
Prince, who was born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis, died at his home Thursday. His publicist had said the songwriter and artist was “fighting the flu” last week.
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
