Prince’s Memoir, “The Beautiful Ones” Set to be Released

As you know, yesterday (April 21) marked the 3-year anniversary of the passing of music icon Prince. What you may not know was that prior to his passing, he was actually working on his memoirs, a rare look back at his life and career. Well, you may be happy to hear that his memoir, The Beautiful Ones (named after his passionate Purple Rain ballad) is set to finally be released this fall.

MPR News (via Associated Press) confirms that publisher Random House will combine Prince’s unfinished manuscript with a collection of lyrics and rare photos from his life. Dan Piepenbring (of The New Yorker), who Prince chose as a collaborator, will write the introduction. That introduction will dive into the final days of the rocker’s life,“a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated.” In a statement, Piepenbring stated:

“‘The Beautiful Ones’ is the deeply personal account of how Prince Rogers Nelson became the Prince we know: the real-time story of a kid absorbing the world around him and creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and the fame that would come to define him,” Random House announced.

The book will span from Prince’s childhood to his early years as a musician to the cusp of international stardom, using Prince’s own writings, a scrapbook of his personal photos, and the original handwritten lyric sheets for many of his most iconic songs, which he kept at Paisley Park. The book depicts Prince’s evolution through deeply revealing, never-before-shared images and memories and culminates with his original handwritten treatment for his masterwork, ‘Purple Rain.’”

The Beautiful Ones will be released October 29, and you can preorder it now on Amazon and other book retailers.