On this day in vegan history · April 21, 2016
Prince Dies at Paisley Park, the Vegan Who Became Vegetarian
The musician who once told a magazine he didn't "eat anything with parents" was found dead at his home studio, closing out a decades-long, imperfect commitment to a plant-based diet.
The facts
- Died
- April 21, 2016, at Paisley Park, Chanhassen, Minnesota, age 57
- Cause
- Accidental overdose on counterfeit hydrocodone/paracetamol pills laced with fentanyl
- 1997
- Told Vegetarian Times he and his then-partner were "complete vegans"
- 2011
- Told George Lopez, on-air, that he was vegetarian rather than vegan
Prince died on April 21, 2016, at his Paisley Park home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, at age 57, after accidentally overdosing on counterfeit hydrocodone/paracetamol pills laced with fentanyl. Nearly two decades earlier, he had told Vegetarian Times he and a partner were "complete vegans," and PETA later named him its "Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity." By 2011, asked point-blank on Lopez Tonight whether he was vegan, he corrected the host: vegetarian. The shift was never explained publicly, but the animal-rights conviction behind it never wavered, showing up in interviews, liner notes and a song he gave away for free.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
We don't eat anything with parents. Complete vegans, both of us!
Prince, interviewed by The Vegetarian Times, 1997
Source: Bustle
Why it still matters
Prince's diet was never as tidy as the tributes made it sound, but that's the more useful story: a famous convert who slid between vegan and vegetarian without losing the underlying conviction, which is closer to how most people actually try to eat this way.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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