Music icon Prince's younger sister Tyka Nelson died Monday at age 64, according to her son, President Nelson, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
"She had her own mind," Nelson's half-sister Sharon Nelson told the outlet. "She's in a better place."
Nelson was the only full sibling of Prince. Born in Minneapolis to jazz musicians John L. and Mattie Shaw Nelson, she was also a singer, having released four albums: "Royal Blue" (1988), "Yellow Moon, Red Sky" (1992), "A Brand New Me" (2008), and "Hustler" (2011).
Tyka Nelson announced plans to retire with a farewell concert at the Dakota in Minnesota in June, but due to illness, she was unable to attend, and the show went on without her.
"I'm getting older," she told the Minnesota Star Tribune before the show. "I really wasn't a singer. I'm a writer. I just happen to be able to sing. I enjoy singing."
Nelson also revealed she was writing a memoir.
"We are not there yet. We've got a few more chapters," she said of the book, for which she did not have a publisher at the time. "It's about me and my family."
During the interview, Nelson recalled one of the final conversations she had with Prince four days before his death in April 2016.
"He kept avoiding questions. I kept getting mad. I felt like, 'Talk to me for two seconds.' He'd change the subject, make a joke and then we'd both laugh," she said. "He asked me could I find more information about our family. Prince wanted me to find Sharon's number. I didn't question it. It was like, 'Send this picture to that person.' OK. What for?”
Prince died at age 57 from a fentanyl overdose. The Sun reported that he lay dead for several hours in an elevator at his Paisley Park home before he was found by his drummer Kirk Johnson and his personal assistant Meron Berkure.
According to reports, his private jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Illinois shortly after a performance in Atlanta, and he was briefly hospitalized days before his death.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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