Singer Morris Day has honored his close pal Prince with a new tribute song on the first anniversary of his death.
Morris Day, who appeared alongside the late legend in his movie musical Purple Rain, shared the video for Over That Rainbow, co-produced by Snoop Dogg, on Friday (April 21), exactly one year after Prince was found dead in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota.
“It’s a heartfelt tribute and video,” the 59-year-old tells People.com. “It was just my way of saying goodbye.”
Morris admits it has taken him a while to come to terms with the loss of his childhood friend, who he used to perform with as a member of Grand Central, and it’s for that reason he has turned down a lot of requests to speak about Prince in public.
“I didn’t want to, it didn’t feel right,” he says. “It didn’t feel appropriate. I wanted to deal with it in my own time.”
Now Morris is finally ready to share his memories of Prince.
“I just waited until it felt appropriate,” he continues.
Morris saw Prince for the last time in February, 2016, when he and his group were invited to perform at Paisley Park.
“It was cool,” Morris adds. “I hadn’t seen him in a long time and I was happy to see him.”
The Time frontman insists he had no idea his friend was secretly suffering from a hip injury, because he appeared to be “one of the healthiest people”. Prince’s death was ruled an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers.
“It caught me off guard,” Morris says, “and I still have trouble with some of the stories that I’m hearing in the aftermath (of his death).”
And as Prince’s friends and fans mark his first anniversary of the music icon’s death, Morris has urged them to ignore the tabloid fodder and remember the singer “as the great artist that he was”.
