Prince fans making vigil to view ashes ask: ‘How Could You Just Leave Me Standing?’

Lifelong aficionados of His Royal Badness are not able to see his remains when they visit his Paisley Park complex currently, but family members disagree on whether or not they should be on display

Amanda Washington

Mar 21, 2019

Prince thegrio.com — Musician Prince is seen on stage at the 36th NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. Prince was honored with the Vanguard Award. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Visitors who continue to make pilgrimages to the one-time home of Prince in suburban Minneapolis will be able to see mementos that highlight the life of the iconic artist, but at least for now, they won’t be able to see his earthly remains.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the complex which doubled as a concert space in addition to Prince’s living space — which was also where he was found dead of an overdose of fentanyl in 2016 — is no longer displaying his ashes.

His brother Omarr Baker says the ashes are still at Paisley Park, “just not on display.” Baker said, explaining the removal from visitor access. “Three years is enough time to mourn. There’s a season for everything.”

However, not all of the late “Purple Rain” singer’s family feels the same.

“I’m very upset with this,” Sharon Nelson, the oldest of Prince’s six surviving siblings, said. “I think one or two heirs approved the move.”

Since, Prince’s death the heirs to his estate have been at odds according to Forbes, due to him not having a will or estate plan, resulting in them receiving nothing so far.

But Nelson feels Prince’s ashes should be accessible to everyone. “I may want to go and sit and reminisce with him. Just like he went to the graveyard to see our mom and dad where they are,” she said. “I felt the fans also wanted to be close and know that Prince was there.”

Nelson told the Star Tribune she would love to see a mausoleum built at Paisley Park just for his ashes. She got a bid of $400,000 for a purple and white mausoleum to be built, but claims none of the heirs wanted to do it. She feels with a mausoleum, “the fans could always know where Prince was,” she said.

Apparently, fans agree.

Prince maven Marilynn McNair of Atlanta has visited Paisley Park three times since he died and is puzzled as to what is happening with his ashes.

“If anyone should be in Paisley Park, it’s Prince,” she told the Star Tribune. “Did the relatives spirit [the ashes] away somewhere and they’re going to be buried or divvied up in their homes? You don’t really know what’s going on.”

A History of the Ashes at Paisley Park

In October 2016, when the museum first opened the urn stood in the middle of the floor of the studio’s atrium, being one of the first things visitors see on the tour.

The ashes were in a custom-made ceramic urn shaped like Paisley Park with his symbol on top. The urn stood in the middle of the floor of the studio’s atrium, greeting visitors in the first room on the Paisley tour.

By December 2016 the urn was moved, per his family’s request from the floor of the atrium to a frosted plastic case attached to the front of the balcony.

Fans like McNair, saw the move of the ashes as a bit cold. “I thought it was a little reductive. You really couldn’t see anything.

“He deserved a better place of honor, so to speak.”

McNair added she believes the mausoleum is a great idea for fans. “If you’ve been to Graceland, Elvis [Presley] is buried in his backyard with his mom, dad and grandmother,” said McNair, a Prince fan since 1979. “It might seem corny on the surface, but not when you’re a fan.”

Although the urn is gone from the room Paisley Park’s tour manager Mitch Maguire said visitors have not complained and are still able to pay their respects.

“Now we ask for a moment of reflection in the atrium,” Maguire said.