Prince’s Opioid Addiction Began After An Injury He Suffered While Rehearsing For His ‘Purple Rain’ Tour, Biography Claims

Prince’s Opioid Addiction Began After An Injury He Suffered While Rehearsing For His ‘Purple Rain’ Tour, Biography Claims

Prince‘s story is being shared in an upcoming biography, revealing an accident that changed his life forever.

Additional details regarding Prince‘s pill addiction are coming to light, five years after his death from a fentanyl overdose. In his upcoming biography–Nothing Compares 2 U: An Oral History of Prince–various accounts from those close to the pop star are used to paint a picture of his life. In one account, Prince‘s former tour manager–Alan Leeds–recalled an accident that many believe led the star down the path to addiction.

According to Alan Leeds, Prince sought to perform a song from inside of a suspended bathtub during his Purple Rain tour. However, during a rehearsal, the bathtub fell and injured the singer. Leeds recalled:

“It fell 10 or 12 feet with him in it… After that, his back hurt day after day. Then in LA, he slipped and hurt his knee. He got some meds and finished the tour, but I don’t think his hip and his leg were ever completely normal after that.”

In the years following his injury, Prince was speculated to have self-medicated to deal with his continual pains. Mark Brown–a bassist with Prince‘s band, Revolution–spoke on the matter, stating:

“I feel that the whole fentanyl thing was just him escaping pain from the hip and it got out of hand. [He needed] something to take that pain away, but then it got to the point where the addiction settles in, but he’s keeping it hidden because the thing he lived by [was], ‘Never let anybody see you sweat.'”

The biography’s author, Touré, summarizes Prince‘s situation as an all-too-familiar one for many Americans.

“[Prince] wasn’t doing drugs like a hedonistic rock star. He was doing drugs like so many working-class Americans who need pills to get breaking-down bodies through the workday so they can show up for the people who rely on them.”

Prince‘s biography, Nothing Compares 2 U: An Oral History of Prince releases tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug. 24th).

What do you think about the revelation about Prince’s drug addiction? Comment down below to let us know.

[VIA]