A Phenomenal Ride

"Well, we finally did the Paisley Park Museum tour yesterday. Glad we waited this long to go. Things felt together and organized. We were in a small group of 6 and had a great tour guide, Tomi, who was also a fan and had been to Paisley many times as well. It was weird being there without Prince, but not as heavy as I thought it might be, surely given that time has passed. If we had done this a year ago, it would have been totally different.

Emotional parts for me were being in the Sign O' The Times and Lovesexy rooms, as well as in the soundstage space. On a large screen, they played a small portion of the last Piano and a Mic show that we were at at Paisley in January of 2016---and it got hard...remembering the last time I was there (inside) and how emotional that show was, as well as all the other times I have been there over the years. Walking into the Galaxy Room room, first thing you hear is the heartbeat of Amiir, before cutting to a clip of the Oprah appearance. Heard it many times before--but there in that space it just hit me. And, lastly, walking out of the soundstage space and seeing that area cleaned out. What is now the back exit door, was our main door of entrance for years. Emotions ran through me just solidifying the facts that we won't be coming in that way again and knowing that the space of freedom so many of us know at PP won't ever happen again.

Highlights: Seeing Prince's handwriting everywhere (song lyrics in notebooks, tapes etc), the book shelf in Prince's office (several Egyptian history books I saw), a pair of white kind of tennis shoe looking shoes? lol, a drawing of Jimi Hendrix on the table, tapes on the desk lol :) Being in the video editing room, where the tour guide BUMPED the volume to a soundcheck that was being played on the screen--sound was AMAZING and filled my whole chest cavity. There were several VHS tapes on a shelf--Woodstock, SOTT, Eddie Murphy's RAW and some others, and seeing all the "foo foo" still around (bowls of dried flowers, scarfs hanging on the walls and near instruments, candles practically everywhere, etc.)

One thing I did not realize (call me a bad fam lol) was that Prince kept Paisley an analog recording studio all these years. I knew it was built that way, but I guess I just assumed that with time, digital would have taken over. Love this and hey, always learning, right? :)

Miss you Prince and miss spending time in your house and playground for the new power generation. The ride has been phenomenal. Thank you for it all! <3"

Shawna Thompson

Minneapolis, MN