prince

Prince Wanted Paisley Park to Become a Graceland-Like Museum, But With More Funk and Sex

36th Annual NAACP Image Awards - Show
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Prince may be gone, but his legacy, and the ways people experience the funk icon’s music, keeps evolving. Shortly after Prince’s death, his brother-in-law, Maurice Phillips, told the British tabloid The Sun that the musician wanted to turn Paisley Park, his home-cum-studio-complex in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, into a museum akin to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Sheila E., a longtime Prince collaborator, told Entertainment Tonight that the Purple One was already working on turning his home into a museum, gathering memorabilia from his career, including his Purple Rain motorcycle. Paisley Park features a huge sound stage, two recording studios, and the lingering residue of some many wild impromptu parties. Paisley Park derives its name from the song, which begins:

There is a park that is known
4 the face it attracts
Colorful people whose hair
On 1 side is swept back
The smile on their faces
It speaks of profound inner peace
Ask where they’re going
They’ll tell U nowhere
They’ve taken a lifetime lease
On Paisley Park

One would hope that Paisley Park would become a bacchanalian pleasure-dome of funk and sex and high heels, but there’s no word yet if or when this would happen.

Prince Wanted Paisley Park to Be a Museum