Read This: Prince protégée Judith Hill describes an infamous final flight

Hill, a Los Angeles-born vocalist and pianist who appeared in the Oscar-winning documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom, was likely the last significant musical protégée of Prince’s career. Impressed by her talent, he sang and played on her debut solo album and helped her negotiate business deals as well. Hill describes their relationship as “very intense” but balks at labeling it romantic. She talks about the Prince she knew, the one who could beat her at ping-pong and who would always be dressed to the nines, even for an impromptu trip to Dairy Queen. She also talks about what that terrible flight from Atlanta was like. It was Hill who recognized that the musician was unconscious and unresponsive, not merely asleep, and alerted Johnson, who subsequently alerted the pilot. “Thankfully, I happened to be looking into his face,” she said. The flight was a scary close call, but unfortunately it was the harbinger of something much worse to come.