A few months before his death in April of 2016, the usually interview-shy and private Prince shocked everyone with the news that would write his memoir. It was given the title The Beautiful Ones, after one of the singer’s most beloved songs from Purple Rain. Originally set to publish in 2017, Prince’s untimely death shattered many fan’s hopes we’d ever get this personal insight into the creative genius of the Purple One. But according to Deadline, this memoir is indeed coming out, with a publication date of October 29th, 2019.
Random House released a synopsis of the 288 page book, which said “From Prince himself comes the brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time – featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death”. The announcement was made on the three-year anniversary of Prince’s death.
The book will be broken into four parts, with the first consisting of the the memoir he was writing before his death. The rest will chronicle the iconic musician’s rise to fame, using a scrapbook format based on Prince’s own notes and other writings from his youth. The third part will be mainly images, with a fourth and final part dedicated to Prince’s original treatment for Purple Rain.
It will be interesting to see how much of Prince’s own words and thoughts really do end up in this book. He was only able to work on it for a very brief time, after all. Still, for longtime Prince fans, any peek into his creative process is going to be welcomed with a lot of excitement. We’ve only ever just guessed about what some of his classic songs mean, and who they were about. Hopefully this memoir gives us the window into Prince’s unique mind that we’ve always wanted.
Images: Warner Brothers
