Prince Took His Faith Seriously, He Even had a "Swear Jar" at Home

The Bible speaks of letting our words be seasoned with salt.  Legendary singer Prince took such a teaching seriously.  When the "Purple Rain" singer was alive, he had a "swear jar" in his multi-million dollar home Paisley Park.  He made anyone using bad language at his Paisley Park mansion pay up to $10 a time.

"He didn't want to dishonor the faith. He wasn't joking," said friend and fellow Jehova's Witness James Lundstrom. "You had to pay in cash in the bucket. He would charge you between three and 10 dollars per swear word. Once I bumped my knee and I said 'damn'. He said 'What did you say?'"

On one occasion a foul-mouthed back-up singer arrived with a handful of hundred dollar bills and paid in advance, putting the money in the "cuss bucket".

Prince joined the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001, following a two-year-long debate with friend and fellow Jehovah's Witness musician Larry Graham. Prince said that he did not consider it a conversion, but a "realization". "It's like Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix", he explained. He attended meetings at a local Kingdom Hall and occasionally knocked on people's doors to discuss his faith. 

Prince when he was alive atteneded the Kingdom Hall, a centre less than half a mile from his home. He was known there as Brother Nelson, his birth surname.  He was noted in coming to church with his Bible full of stick-it notes attached. Bruce McFarland, secretary of the congregation, said Prince was "exceptionally shy." 

At a service on Sunday an elder told the congregation: "Our brother Prince fell asleep in death." 

Last Saturday, Prince was cremated at a modest white clapboard two-story building next to a freeway and a petrol station. The skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis loomed in the distance. His body had been brought there in a nondescript grey hearse and, according to a price list, the service cost just $1,645.

The handful of of mourners included his only sister Tyka Nelson and her husband Maurice Phillips, both of whom dressed casually in black leather jackets.

Prince, famously reclusive during his lifetime, had wanted the event to be private and low key.

 

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