The first weekend of Coachella 2016 was special. Months prior, it was confirmed that Guns N’ Roses would reunite to headline the festival, marking the first time Axl Rose and Slash had performed together since 1993. Angus Young even turned up to play a couple AC/DC songs: “Whole Lotta Rosie” and “Riff Raff,” with GnR. Those first few days were full of collaborations: Rihanna and Big Sean appeared during Calvin Harris’ set; Disclosure got assists from Lorde and Sam Smith; and Ice Cube’s performance nearly had a full N.W.A reunion with MC Ren and DJ Yella but no Dr. Dre (who did end up joining them during the second weekend).
GnR and most of N.W.A weren’t the only reunions. The first weekend also saw one of the first handful of LCD Soundsystem performances since their huge, much-hyped, supposed “farewell” concerts in 2011. They ran through the hits and even nodded to Axl and company with an interpolation of “November Rain” during “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down.” Immediately before closing their set with “All My Friends,” they covered David Bowie’s “Heroes.” The performance was a sadly relevant tribute: Three months before, on January 10, Bowie died—two days after releasing Blackstar, his final album, on his 69th birthday. Given Bowie’s impact on generations of artists, it was perhaps expected that he would have some sort of presence at the world’s biggest music festival in the wake of his death. What was, however, a surprise was what happened between the first and second weekends.
Earlier that April, Prince postponed some concerts, with an explanation at the time saying he was dealing with the flu. A few days later, on April 16, he made an appearance at a Paisley Park event and addressed rumors about his ailing health, telling those gathered, “Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.” Prince’s words were tragically prophetic: On April 21, he died at 57 years old due to what was later confirmed to be an accidental fentanyl overdose.
The public outpouring of mourning and admiration was swift and substantial. President Barack Obama released a statement that read in part, “Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.” Movie theaters across the United States hosted screenings of Purple Rain in the days following Prince’s death. Structures across the world, from Los Angeles City Hall to the Eiffel Tower, were bathed in purple light in the artist’s honor. For those following few days, everything was about Prince.
His death came on a Thursday, the day before Coachella’s second weekend began. Festival organizers pulled together a subtle last-second tribute, lighting its distinctive signature palm trees in Prince purple. Early in LCD Soundsystem’s headlining set on Friday, they added a cover of Prince’s “Controversy” to the mix. That was how much of the weekend went: some of the world’s biggest and buzziest artists came together to turn Coachella into one giant Prince tribute with covers scattered throughout the weekend. Joey Bada$$ took a stab at “1999,” Jack Ü wrapped up their set with a Prince montage, and Mavis Staples had a particularly touching moment when she recounted her first meeting with Prince and sang “Purple Rain” a capella.
While Billboard observed that Saturday was mostly free of Prince tributes, they noted that Sunday had a couple memorable ones: Usher joined Major Lazer to sing “I Would Die 4 U” and “1999,” and Kamasi Washington riffed on the latter track by mashing it up with his own “Malcolm’s Theme” for a moving 11-minute jam. Considering these artists had at most just a few days’ notice, and that there were perhaps some nerves about screwing up a highly visible tribute so quickly after Prince’s death, the showing was commendable. The aesthetic variety of the artists participating alone, from LCD Soundsystem to Usher to Kamasi Washington, could itself be seen as an homage to how boundless Prince and his music were, how his work impacted so deeply across seemingly disparate genres.
It’s tough to go first in a situation like this, but Coachella’s second weekend set the tone for the various Prince tributes that would unfold over the course of the next year. At the Billboard Music Awards in May, Madonna (who collaborated with Prince on her Like a Prayer track “Love Song”) sat on a purple throne as she sang “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Near the end of the song, Stevie Wonder emerged to lead the crowd in singing “Purple Rain.” At the BET Awards in June, essentially the whole show was dedicated to Prince, with The Roots, Erykah Bad, Bilal, Tori Kelly, Jennifer Hudson, Maxwell, Janelle Monáe, Sheila E, and, once again, Stevie Wonder honoring him at various points in the show. Wonder carried on with his Prince tribute tour during a dedicated five-hour event at Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center that featured folks like Tori Kelly, Jessie J, Bilal, and Chaka Khan. Finally, at the Grammys in early 2017, Bruno Mars joined Prince’s old band The Time for a three-song tribute.
Those were all organized, highly produced affairs, but it was different at Coachella—in a good way. A bunch of artists independently honored a legend they loved, with last-minute performances fueled more by admiration than preparation. It wasn’t sleek, but it was genuine. It also had another layer of impact considering Prince’s own perfectly on-brand history with the festival. Months in advance of Coachella’s 2008 event, Prince was set to headline… or so festival co-founder Paul Tollett thought. In late 2007, he personally visited the enigmatic musician at his home, to finalize some details. During the meeting, Prince prompted Tollett to tell him about his life, about all the ups and downs of his personal journey. A surprised Tollett obliged and Prince then offered a diagnosis, telling him where he went wrong. Then, out of nowhere at the end of the visit, Prince unexpectedly informed Tollett: “No, I’m not playing Coachella. Not now and not ever.”
Even though a Coachella poster with Prince’s name on it had already been designed, Tollett accepted the festival’s fate and went home. Three weeks before the event, Tollett received a call from a private number. It was Prince. He had a question about T-shirt sales. He told Tollett, who was understandably confused, that he was in. So, just two weeks in advance, Prince was announced as a last-minute, one-night-only addition to the lineup. It was reported he earned about $5 million for the gig, delivering a performance that has since been described as “incendiary.” His eight-minute cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” alone remains one of the most memorable Coachella moments ever.
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