Prince was raised by a pair of musicians, his parents John L. Nelson and Mattie Della Shaw Baker.
The “Kiss” singer’s dad and mom initially met through music when John performed at a jazz club, and Mattie was in the crowd, according to Prince’s website. He originally invited her to sing in his band, but their romance unfolded, and the couple married in August 1957. Less than a year later, they welcomed their first child together, Prince Rogers Nelson, in June 1958.
Prince, who died in April 2016, was notoriously private about his personal life throughout the course of his decades-long career, but he gave rare glimpses into his relationship with his parents and how they inspired his music to develop and evolve.
During a 2009 interview, Prince shared that he dedicated himself to improving his piano skills when his parents split.
“My father left his piano at the house when he left, and I wasn’t allowed to play it when he was there, because I wasn’t as good as him,” he explained. “So when he left, I was determined to get as good as him, and I taught myself how to play music and I just stuck with it and I did it all the time.”
Years before, though, Mattie had noticed his natural talent. “He could hear music even from a very early age,” she told the Minnesota Star Tribune in 1984. Mattie was supportive of her son’s musical endeavors and often attended his performances in his home state of Minneapolis, Minn.
Here’s everything to know about Prince’s parents, John L. Nelson and Mattie Della Shaw Baker.
His parents were musicians
While Prince is widely regarded as one of the greatest recording artists, he inherited his musical abilities from his father and mother.
John crossed paths with Mattie while he was playing at the Blue Note jazz club in Minnesota and asked her to sing with his band, the Prince Rogers Trio, per Prince’s website.
After collaborating musically, their relationship developed into a romance. John and Mattie wed on Aug. 31, 1957, and welcomed Prince on June 7, 1958.
Later, outside of music, Mattie would earn a master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota, according to a May 2019 post from Prince’s official Facebook page. She was a social worker for Minneapolis Public Schools for over two decades.
He was named after his father’s stage name
John and Mattie drew inspiration for their son’s name from their shared love of music. Prince was ultimately named after his father’s stage name while he led the Prince Rogers Trio.
The Grammy-winning singer reflected on their shared name in his 2019 memoir The Beautiful Ones, writing in part, “There were 2 Princes in the house where we lived. The older one with all the responsibilities of heading a household & the younger one whose only modus operandi was fun.”
As a child, Prince was regularly referred to by his nickname, Skipper, as well.
They raised him in Minnesota
Prince was born and raised in Minnesota and retained roots in his home state until he died in 2016.
Prince’s website reported that from 1959 to 1965, he lived at a residence with his parents along with his younger sister, Tyka Nelson, who was born in 1960. Though the home has since been demolished and replaced with a new building, it’s where Prince was first exposed to music.
“My house—it was pink,” Prince told his The Beautiful Ones coauthor, Dan Piepenbring, during the writing process of the memoir. “It looked like Mad Men, but not as nice. Simple furniture. I remember this funky energy about it. People, voices, energy. Like the Kennedys, but black.”
They separated when Prince was a child
John and Mattie’s marriage was short-lived: The couple separated when Prince was 7 before they eventually divorced. Though it was a confusing time, Prince took it as an opportunity to teach himself to play the piano after watching his father perform for years.
Prince reflected on his parents’ divorce while working on his memoir before his death, writing, “Eye had no idea what impact that would have on me. Eye was 7 years old & more than anything Eye just wanted peace. A quiet space where Eye could hear myself think & create.”
When Prince was in junior high, his mom got remarried to his stepfather, Hayward Baker. The “Let’s Go Crazy” vocalist found it difficult to adjust to his life with his stepfather and ran away from home for the first time.
During this period, he started bouncing around between his dad’s home in North Minneapolis, his aunt’s home in South Minneapolis and the house of Bernadette Anderson, the mother of his friend André Cymone.
After his parents split, Prince also had a strained relationship with his father, the Los Angeles Times reported in August 2001. While they were estranged at various times throughout their lives, they were able to grow close as friends and collaborators down the line.
They had a blended family
While Prince was a notoriously private person, he integrated some of his family life into his music and artistic projects over the years.
Purple Rain was a semi-autobiographical musical film scored by and starring Prince. The 1984 movie follows a Minneapolis-based musician and his band, The Revolution, as he finds an escape from his difficult home life through music.
In an effort to not make the mistakes of his own father, he entered the club scene and started a tumultuous relationship with a singer before another musician sought to steal his girlfriend and spotlight.
While John was often thought of as the inspiration for the dad in Purple Rain, the Los Angeles Times reported in August 2001 that Prince clarified that his father didn’t drink, swear or have guns.
Prince also explored themes of family in his song “When Doves Cry.” The lyrics include lines such as “Maybe I’m just like my father, too bold / Maybe you’re just like my mother / She’s never satisfied (she’s never satisfied).”
His father cowrote several of his songs
In addition to inspiring his son’s projects, John also worked with Prince on several songs.
John, who was inducted into the Minnesota Black Musicians Awards Hall of Fame in 1989, cowrote some of his Prince’s tunes, including “Computer Blue” and “Father’s Song” on Purple Rain, “Scandalous” on Batman, and “The Ladder” on Around the World in a Day.
According to Prince’s website, he discussed his musical relationship with his dad during a 1986 interview with Ebony, telling the publication, “We have the same hands. We have the same dreams. We write the same lyrics, sometimes. Accidentally, though.”
“I’ll write something and then I’ll look up and he’ll have the same thing already written,” he continued. “I thought I’d never be able to play like my dad, and he never missed an opportunity to remind me of that. But we got along good. He was my best friend.”
His parents died in the early 2000s
Both of Prince’s parents died in the early 2000s, less than a year apart.
John died at age 85 on Aug. 25, 2001, at his home in Minneapolis, the Los Angeles Times reported. He had lived at that home since 1972, and his son would periodically live at the residence as a teenager.
Mattie died at age 68 on Feb. 15, 2002, at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
Her husband told the publication that she faced several health issues in her life, including suffering from arthritis and kidney problems and undergoing a kidney transplant three or four years prior to her death. Leading up to her death, he also said that she had been hospitalized for several months.
Prince died over a decade after his parents on April 21, 2016, after an accidental fentanyl overdose at Paisley Park, his home and recording studio in Minnesota, according to The New York Times.
Source: People
