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Saxophonist & Prince Alum Eric Leeds Says Prince Is "Frozen In Time" For Fans Following The Iconic Rocker's Passing At The Age Of 57.
Saxophonist & Prince Alum Eric Leeds Says Prince Is "Frozen In Time" For Fans Following The Iconic Rocker's Passing At The Age Of 57.

Eric Leeds Says Prince Is "Frozen In Time"

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Saxophonist and Prince alum Eric Leeds says he is "frozen in time" for fans. His comments follow the death of the iconic rocker, who passed suddenly last week at the age of 57. Leeds, who played with Prince from the mid-80s through the 90s as a contributor to Madhouse and member of the Paisley Park Records roster, noted in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he does not believe Prince was meant to grow old.

What was your reaction when you heard this news the other day?

After the initial shock of hearing the words — my brother is the one who told me — and after trying to wrap my head around the phrase “Prince died this morning,” which is what Alan said, I posted a thing on my Facebook page last night and kind of ended it saying it never occurred to me, for example, that Prince would outlive me, and I'm several years older than him. I don’t believe that Prince is someone who was meant to grow old. It just never occurred to me that this was somebody who was going to grow old, like in their 70s or 80s, so the idea that he would check out at a relatively young age just seem to be almost fitting. This might sound cynical, and I don’t mean it in that way, but there are certain icons that kind of get frozen in time if they pass at a relatively young age. We have no idea, for instance, what an old John F. Kennedy would have been. People who were into Marilyn Monroe, so much of the legacy of people like that ends up being that they died at a young age, and I almost think of it in the same manner as Prince, because people are going to remember him as being relatively young and still able to perform at a level he was able to perform, and I think he’s going to be frozen in time like that. To be honest here, he was never someone who seemed particularly interested in the idea of growing old. So I just sat there and said, “You know, this is probably the way it was meant to be.” That doesn't make it any easier for anyone to deal with.

Read the full interview with Eric Leeds via post-gazette.com.