Break out your purple jackets and grab your kitten-heeled boots, tickets for Paisley Park go on sale today! Prince’s residence and recording studio will begin public tours October 6. Located in Chanhassen, Minnesota, the massive complex will allow his fans a small glimpse into the very private life of Prince. Tours will be 70 minutes and will include the main floor, which houses his video editing suites, rehearsal rooms, private NPG Music Club, and concert hall where he rehearsed for tours and held private events. Also on view will be his awards, instruments, pieces from his wardrobe, concert memorabilia, automobiles and motorcycles.
Paisley Park, the private estate and studio complex of the late rock superstar Prince, will open for daily public tours starting Oct. 6, the trust company overseeing his estate announced Wednesday, and the company that runs Elvis Presley’s Graceland will manage it.
Bremer Trust said in a statement that millions of Prince fans will get the chance to tour the 65,000-square-foot complex in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, where Prince collapsed in an elevator and died of an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl in April.
“Opening Paisley Park is something that Prince always wanted to do and was actively working on,” Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, said in the statement. “Only a few hundred people have had the rare opportunity to tour the estate during his lifetime. Now, fans from around the world will be able to experience Prince’s world for the first time as we open the doors to this incredible place.”
Besides being the music star’s home, Paisley Park has been “the center of Prince’s creative endeavors” since its opening in 1985, Nelson and other siblings said in an additional statement.
The plan says the tours will include studios where Prince recorded, produced and mixed most of his biggest hits, and the soundstage where he rehearsed for tours and hosted exclusive private concerts. Also featured will be thousands of artifacts from his personal archives, “including iconic concert wardrobe, awards, musical instruments, artwork, rare music and video recordings, concert memorabilia, automobiles and motorcycles.”
Shelia E also said that Prince always wanted to open Paisley Park. I’ll take everyone at their word on this but considering only a few, select people made it inside Paisley and Prince forbade almost any photographing or recording inside the house, it’s still hard for me to believe. Given Prince’s whims, could you imagine how erratic the tours would have been if he were running it? “Sorry, Paisley Park is closed today. Wait, no – it will be open between 2:16 and maybe 4:03. Or not. Actually, can you come back in an hour?”
I wonder if the rest of the building will remain an active residence and who will live there? I hope the vault makes it on the tour at some point.
The tours will be run by Graceland Holdings, LLC. who oversee Elvis Presley’s former home, Graceland. They are also kicking in all the initial funds for the operating costs. Not everyone agrees with Graceland’s involvement, though. Apparently many of Prince’s half siblings are squabbling over who should run the tours. TMZ said the family is leery of Graceland Holdings due to past financial issues but I can’t find what those issues were. They’ve just announced a $45 million expansion of Graceland so they’re doing something right. Graceland Holdings will get 50% of the revenue, my guess is that is the family’s objection. Bremer Trust, who still manages Prince’s estate, is trying to pacify everyone but the reason isn’t so much for consensus as it is so the family doesn’t badmouth the project publicly.
Book ahead on the website if you’re planning a visit, no walk up sales will be allowed.
Photo credit: Fame/Flynet and WENN Photos and Getty Images
As a fan, I’m sort of torn on this because obviously Prince isn’t here, and it’s still a little hard to believe. In the long-run I just hope it all works out because it seems like it’s all still a legal mess. I wondered too if eventually they’ll hold concerts back at Paisley Park again? Besides Prince of course, I always thought of that place as a house of music, and it would be sort of a shame if nothing is played there anymore.
I’ve done the Graceland tour and really enjoyed it. Its very well done. Can’t say a bad word about it.
I’d love to go, and it opens the day before my 40th birthday! Alas though, right now I have neither the time nor the funds to plan a trip to Paisley Park. Maybe next year, if the tours are still happening.
Libras in the house. Mine is on the 14th and I was thinking of treating myself to a trip to Nashville. Now, I might have to sleep on it. And also see if I can get tickets.
It really is the best thing to do with Paisley Park. Making it a Graceland of sorts. I’m surprised the family isn’t selling it tbh.
Isn’t the Graceland expansion due to the fact that Lisa Marie is having money problems?
Anyway I have to haul some ass over to Michigan.
Michigan?
I think Graceland was sold to foreign investors years ago.
They really did not wait a moment. They couldn’t have given it until a year had passed after his death to start exploiting his home, which by all accounts he was quite private about? I wonder if the infamous elevator where he was found will also be part of the tour or will people gave to pay extra to view that? This comes across as so callous it really aggravates me. 🙁
Poor Prince. His unfortunate and untimely death has been like a cautionary tale on why wills are important. It’s pretty obvious that this is not something he would’ve wanted or been OK with.
Still sad to see that Prince is gone. He was a music legend who did a lot for the community. As someone who lives 5 minutes from Paisley Park, I am not thrilled with what this will do to traffic. It’s actually located way outside Minneapolis in a tiny suburb and we had a hard time with the traffic after his death. They had to close roads and reroute traffic for a couple of weeks. The gates are still covered with items for Prince and there is a steady stream of visitors outside the Park daily.
I will say that I am not surprised that it is being opened. While he was alive, Prince would regularly have buses full of people go into the place at all hours of the night. I don’t know who these people were but he was definitely inviting people in.
This seems a bit soon. I wonder if Prince would have wanted this, given his desire for privacy. But then I’m surprised that he didn’t have a will, too.
I still wonder if there was a will and someone who was close to him, as a relative, friend or employee who didn’t like what it said about what they were not to get if anything, grabbed it before anyone else saw it and got rid of it.
I would be disappointed if they don’t include his personal living quarters upstairs and the kitchen.
Does anyone know how the $40.00 fee compares to Graceland or other such places?
Prince very extremely private. I think the last thing he would want would be his home and place of death holding public tours. Wow.
Are they going to add a gift shop to sell overpriced tacky trinkets too?
Too sad still to digest this yet..