Great sadness over the death of Prince, who was as good as any pop musician of his era and probably better at his peak, though I wouldn’t be surprised if his demise was hastened by living inside a sealed bubble, a delusion of his own design, much the same as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. When you recuse yourself from the world, the mind tends to race, and it doesn’t always wind up in a safe place. At any rate, terrible to see him go so young.

In 2010, Peter Willis of the Mirror visited Paisley Park for what he terms the “most bizarre interview I’ve ever had with a celebrity.” An excerpt:

Unlike most other rock stars, he had banned YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music and had even closed down his own official website.

He said: “The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

Then he led me to his recording studio in the complex and invited me to sit in his leather swivel chair at the enormous mixing desk.

Wow! I had finally arrived at the epicentre of Prince’s world – the scene of fabled all-night-long sessions in which he apparently played up to 27 instruments.

This is where the genius behind classics such as Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, 1999 and Let’s Go Crazy created his music. The walls were a vibrant reddish purple, flickering candles lined every ledge and the smell of incense filled the air.

Prince jabbed a few buttons and hidden speakers burst into life with my preview. He looked at me for a reaction and I told him it was brilliant, as indeed it was.

“This one’s called Compassion,” said Prince. But as I tried to jot down the title he looked aghast, grabbed my wrist and pleaded: “Please, please. It’s a surprise, don’t spoil it for people.”

A religious man

He told me how these were trying times and to emphasis the point, chivvied me into another room, switched on the TV and showed me an evangelical TV documentary blaming corporate America for a range of woes from Hurricane Katrina to asthmatic children.

He said that one problem was that “people, especially young people, don’t have enough God in their lives.”•