Prince has been celebrated in a major way on the fourth anniversary of his death in a two-hour star-studded television special.
Taped back in January two days after the 62nd Grammy Awards, Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince – a nod to the opening track from 1984’s Purple Rain – kicked off with a slew of star-studded performances from Foo Fighters, John Legend, and many more.
Ahead of the Foo Fighters taking the stage to perform a rock-heavy cover of Prince’s ‘Darling Nikki’ for the first time in two decades, Dave Grohl gave a heartfelt speech detailing the influence the legendary rocker had on him growing up.
“I’m an ’80s kid – I grew up with all of his records and as a popular musician, he was the most talented of anybody,” he said, adding, “I was explaining this to my daughter as I picked her up from school. I was like, ‘He was the best bass player. He was the best guitar player. He was the best drummer. He was the best singer. He was the best dancer.'”
He continued: “He was just the best and you never imagine that a popular musician could be that talented. Usually, you got one person that’s good at one thing; he was good at everything. He was the best. He was the best.”
Host Maya Rudolph also opened the show with an emotional tribute to the music icon, as well as performing with her Prince cover band, Princess.
“In his wildly productive time here, Prince created a body of work that will truly outlive us all,” she began.
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“This show airing four years to the day when we lost Prince is an expression of love and profound respect. I have difficulty putting into words my personal feelings for Prince, there are words that don’t exactly cut it for me [like] genius, brilliant, gifted, prolific [and] legendary. They’re all true, but they don’t really get right to that feeling that can only be described to his music.”
Other musical performances throughout the evening included Earth, Wind & Fire, Common, Usher, Sheila E, H.E.R., Morris Day & the Time, Juanes, Miguel, and Prince’s former band, The Revolution.
Prince was 57 years old when he died of an opioid overdose in his Paisley Park Studios home outside of Minneapolis on April 21st, 2016.
Dave Grohl talks jamming with Prince:
