Prince’s former guitarist Dez Dickerson cannot believe the autopsy report that showed the iconic rocker died of an overdose of the painkiller fentanyl.
“The Prince I’ve known and the Prince the folks that I’ve known in association with him over the years … drug overdose would not be something that we would even think of in a sentence with his name,” Dickerson told Fox News.
Dickerson met Prince after answering an ad in the paper stating that a Warner Bros. recording artist was looking for a new guitarist. After a 15-minute audition in the back of a tire shop and a conversation with Prince in the parking lot, Dickerson would go on to become a guitarist for The Revolution for five years.
“We communicated on a peer level. There was never any sort of boss-employee kind of thing and the respect was mutual, obviously,” he said. “We often had conversations about things that were personal to him or business things especially.”
The Midwest Medical Examiner’s office released Prince’s autopsy results on Thursday, which stated he died from an overdose of “self-administered fentanyl.” This confirms suspicions that Prince abused painkillers that were prescribed to him after a hip surgery.
Prince was found unresponsive in the elevator at his Paisley Park estate on the morning of April 21. Responders were unable to revive him.
Following his death, reports surfaced that Prince staffers had reached out to California-based addiction specialist Dr. Howard Kornfeld, who was due to arrive in Minneapolis on April 22. On April 21, Kornfeld’s son, Andrew, arrived at Paisley Park to explain the impending treatment to Prince and was present when the singer’s body was found.
Subsequent reports noted that painkillers were found in Prince’s possession on the day of his death, as well as at the estate.