Stevie Wonder memorialized the life and music of Prince in a new tribute letter.
“If Michael was the King of Pop, Prince should be the Emperor,” Wonder wrote for Rolling Stone. “Prince fought for his artistic freedom. He didn’t allow anyone or anything to get in his way. By following his own path, Prince took music to a whole other place, like the Beatles did.”
Wonder also wrote about the last time he spoke with the Purple One, implying that they wanted to counteract the influence of Donald Trump through their music.
“All this bullcrap about getting our country back and ‘Make America Great Again’ — it’s always been great,” he said. “We just have to stop people filling their minds with lies and prejudice and open them up to the possibilities.”
“Prince’s music was so picturesque that even I could see it,” he continued. “Prince’s songs were that vivid, the images were that strong. I think I related to the way Prince saw things because we both grew up in the Midwest, where we met all kinds of people and had a great spectrum from which to learn. We both grew up hearing blues, rock & roll, jazz and gospel, and found the value in it all.”
Wonder concluded by briefly touching on the influences in Prince’s music, as well as a humorous reference to the tendency of people to play it during more intimate moments.
“He loved funk, so he really needed to know how to make things funky,” he said. “He loved jazz, so he needed to break down what made things truly swing. If Prince wanted to talk about love and sex, he got really into that — deep. And he made us see and feel it all with him. In fact, I’m trying to figure out which child of mine was born because of listening to Prince.”