When legendary rocker Prince died at his Minnesota home Thursday, even the most casual listener was stunned. My Facebook news feed suddenly erupted in a flurry of tribute posts, YouTube videos of live performances and sad emoji. It all served as a reminder of the performer’s genius as much as it reminded me of the gravity that certain celebrities have in our lives. National monuments across the globe, like the Eiffel Tower and New Orleans Superdome, glowed purple in memory of Prince Rogers Nelson, who’d died at age 57. When David Bowie passed away earlier this year, a friend of mine said, “It’s not like I knew the guy or anything, but the dude was a genius and I just liked knowing he was out there.” Prince was the same way for me—I’d simply taken him for granted. Hell, he was Prince. He’d always be there. After all, he was ageless and immortal. From Purple Rain to the New Power Generation to changing his name to “Love Symbol #2,” he constantly defied genres and expectations.
But as fans mourn, a darker shade of purple is growing in the headlines. Several news outlets allege that Prince may have died as a result of a Percocet overdose. This flies in the face of his publicist’s claims otherwise. While autopsy results won’t be available for several weeks, a secret painkiller problem calls into question why celebrities hide their addictions in plain sight, and how that only keeps stigmas around addiction locked firmly in place.
What We Know So Far
Six days before Prince died, just after 1 AM, his private plane made an emergency landing on the way home from Atlanta. He’d canceled two shows on April 7. Prince’s publicist immediately told TMZ that the singer “has been fighting the flu for several weeks.” For most people, the story was a curious blip in the news but, given his death just days later, it adds a layer of mystery. His official Twitter account didn’t indicate anything was wrong either, as it continued posting links to his songs. Multiple sources even “confirmed” that “the star was safely at home and doing fine, though still struggling with the flu.” Then, Prince himself reassured fans at a dance party on Saturday night that they should “wait a few days before [they] waste any prayers.” He’d apparently survived his bout with the flu just fine.
Of course, none of this was true.
According to an NBC News report, his plane had been diverted 300 miles to Illinois because of an “unresponsive male” on board the flight. TMZ took the story even further, revealing that EMTs gave Prince a “save shot” (aka, naloxone) and rushed him to the hospital.
Why Lie About It?
If narcotic painkillers, and not the flu, are to blame, the use of a cover story says as much about protecting a celebrity’s image as it does about the social stigma of addiction. Yes, the sad reality is that there’s an image to aggressively protect. Prince is much larger than the person—it’s a brand, concept and product. But it’s deeper than that. Many addicts are particularly skilled, if not uniquely talented, at keeping their booze and drug problems away from judging eyes. Bottles get hidden in crawl spaces, between cushions, behind bookshelves.
Publicists are employed to do the exact same thing: cover tracks, write pleasant fictions, explain away problems. They’re paid to enable bad behaviors. Think of all the lies casually spun by PR experts in the past, such as the old favorite: “hospitalized for exhaustion.” That’s what makes the highly specific flu story so puzzling. Last year, a controversial study contended that deception was the corroded heart of most every single PR effort.
“Of course I lie,” an anonymous PR exec said. “I lie because my CEO expects it.” Another rep said, “I lie to the media and my staff. I even have to lie to the CEO because I know more than he does.” If the allegations are true, Prince was the very definition of a high-functioning addict, hiding a painkiller problem right in front of tens of thousands of fans as he dazzled them onstage.
Nobody wants their client to be the poster child for drug addiction. And yet, that’s precisely what they become after they die: the faces of denial, shame and powerlessness. Substance abuse problems among entertainers aren’t anything new. Look no further than the deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Cory Monteith. Even Tom Petty has copped to being a heroin addict in the 90’s, opening up only two decades later about it. None of them got ahead of their own addiction stories, though. Nobody put it out there that they were sick and suffering. It says a lot about society when entertainers would rather be known for suffering “heat exhaustion” on a movie set than being the star of a genuine recovery narrative.
What Will Prince be Remembered For?
With speculation swirling around a corrective hip surgery Prince had in 2010, obvious conclusions are being drawn about the role that painkillers played in his death. We may be no closer to knowing what killed him, but we’re closer now than we’ve ever been to a genuine opportunity—one where we can actually start chipping away at the stigma of addiction. Absolutely nothing is gained when the truth of a celebrity’s addiction is hidden, dismissed or spirited away in the night. Hiding an addiction does more than just erode others’ confidence—it does a severe disservice to addicts and alcoholics everywhere.
If Percocet is to blame for Prince’s untimely death, he’ll still be remembered as a musical virtuoso. That’s guaranteed. But he’ll also forever be known as someone who hid a painkiller problem, with a sad “Cause of Death” footnote tattooed on his Wikipedia page. He won’t be remembered as the superstar who got the flu days before he died. That lie will be empty and useless. Countless people suffering from addiction would do well to learn from this growing cautionary tale: a celebrity whose money and influence could certainly buy some of the best PR on the planet but in the end, none of it mattered. Perhaps Prince said it best in one of his own songs: “What if half the things ever said turned out to be a lie? How will you know the truth?” We may never know the truth about celebrities who secretly wrestle with demons and booze and pills, but recovering alcoholics and addicts everywhere know that genuine recovery is only found when the truth is shared with others.
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