Latest On Two Big Stories; Tributes To Prince; Prince's Legacy; Smokey Robinson Remembers Prince.
DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT SHOW HOST: You are listening to a choir of thousand Southern California High School students performing Prince's "Purple Rain." This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us. A tribute to Prince pouring in tonight as investigators try to learn why he died so suddenly at the young age of 57. The autopsy is now complete, but it could be days or weeks until the test results come in. Police say there were no signs of trauma on Prince's body and they have no reason to believe his death was a suicide. Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, we're counting down to the next big contest, five states voting on Tuesday, with hundreds of delegates at stake on both sides. Are the front runners getting close to sealing the deal? We'll discuss all of that this evening. But I want to get into it -- beginning with CNN's kyung Lah joining us from Minnesota. Kyung, hello again to you. You spoke to someone who saw Prince, just a few days before he died, what did he -- what she tell you about what she learned about today's investigation?</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The most remarkable thing we learned, Don, is that she was actually able to capture some video of Prince doing something very mundane, he was riding his bicycle in a strip mall right near his house. She said he looked quite healthy. She didn't think anything was wrong. It is confusing to her and certainly to investigators who are now trying to piece together a timeline. They say that they know some specifics, they know he was battling the flu, they know that he had canceled some concerts, that he picked up those concerts, that he was healthy enough to ride a bicycle. They know that the night before he last seen alive and fine at 8 p.m. and the then next morning when he did not pick up his phone, staff started to get confused and concerned and that's when they discovered him collapsed in the elevator. The investigators say what's going to happen now is they want to try to talk to as many people as they can. You mentioned the autopsy is done. They need to figure out who was he seeing, where did he go? Was he suffering from anything significant? Don?</s>LEMON: CNN's Kyung Lah. Kyung, thank you very much for that. Now joining me exclusively, so icon Ron Isley of the legendary Isley brothers, he was a close friend, he was close to Prince. And he joins us now via phone. Thank you, Mr. Isley. How are you?</s>RON ISLEY, SONGWRITER: How are you doing, Don?</s>LEMON: Yes. I've been better. How are you?</s>ISLEY: Oh, man, me, my brothers and family, everybody is just upset over this thing. You know, it is just something that is hard to believe.</s>LEMON: Yes. Did he influence your music? Because you guys, you know, were around about the same time. Did he influence you at all?</s>ISLEY: Well, we started, like, 20 years before him, you know. And so he -- when he started, in the business, he would call us at the studio, and talk about records and we would talk about what we were doing and we talk about the things that he was doing.</s>LEMON: Yes. But, you know, I remember, drop the bomb and all of that back in the '80s, when I said you were around for the same time. I knew that you started years before him. But I wonder if you went back and forth and were inspirations to each other. Did you even collaborate?</s>ISLEY: Oh, yes, yes, we did. And you know, him and my brother, you know, on the guitar, that, you know, Ernie would play his guitar and talk about, you know, what he was recording and that type of thing all the time.</s>LEMON: Yes. You know, his music transcended genres, generations. He also helped collaborate with so many artists. Can you think of another musician like him, who helped so many artists? We hear about the young people he was trying to help out. Is anyone else like him?</s>ISLEY: Sam Cook. Sam Cook with songs for other artists and, you know, he would share his everything with you, you know?</s>LEMON: Yes. When you mentioned Sam Cook, you made me think about Sam Cook, you made me think about Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown. And if you look at -- you know, I said last night, he's all of that rolled into one, plus Prince, unique in that respect. A lot of people had -- a lot of people influenced him, but he also influenced a lot of people. Talk to me about those people who he sort of -- I think he brought them into the present, even though they already had a presence. I mean, he brought many people into the presence because they had such an influence on him.</s>ISLEY: Well, he would talk to us about Jimi Hendrix played with us and he would talk to us about Jimi, you know, and want to know different things about Jimi. Jimi, living at our house at the time, another musician that he knew about was Elton John played with us when we were -- when we were in England. And so we would talk about all those -- just about everything and just -- and everybody. Yes.</s>LEMON: Yes. What do you think his greatest hit was?</s>ISLEY: "Purple Rain." "Purple Rain". The movie and just the whole time. When we thought so much of that, you know. And God bless his family and -- it's just -- he's going to really be missed. He was one of the greatest.</s>LEMON: Yes. What are you going to miss -- how often -- you said that you guys -- I know that you said he would come over and you would talk to him. When was the last time you had spoken to him? Had you spoken to him recently?</s>ISLEY: We were in Minnesota, I think it was October, around October, we played Minnesota. And at the theater. And I think that would be the last time.</s>LEMON: Yes. What do you think about most when you think about Prince, Mr. Isley?</s>ISLEY: He's going to be -- his music will be here forever. His music and what he did in the business will be the same as Michael Jackson or, you know, just the greatest.</s>LEMON: Yes. You know, can I ask you a question? We have talked about it on this program when other artists have passed, and now about ownership and about a lot of those artists, especially artists of color during your time, in the music industry, when you started, and before, other people taking their stuff, making money off of it, they died poor. Prince really fought against that. How important was that?</s>ISLEY: It is very important. You know, we -- from 1969 on up, you know, we started with our label and we own -- we had ownership of everything. And so, I was glad to see him be able to get his ownership back. That was very important to us and he would talk about that, with us.</s>LEMON: Well, Ron Isley, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.</s>ISLEY: I thank you.</s>LEMON: Thank you. I want to bring in -- go ahead, continue Mr. Isley.</s>ISLEY: The family just keep him in our prayers and everything and, you know, he's in the right place now.</s>LEMON: In heaven.</s>ISLEY: Yes.</s>LEMON: Thank you, sir.</s>ISLEY: Thank you, Don.</s>LEMON: I want to bring in now Rolling Stone contributing editor, Douglas Brinkley. His latest book is called "Rightful Heritage, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America." Also Rolling Stone contributor, Alan Light. He is the author of "Let's Go crazy" Prince's and the making of "Purple Rain." Can I start with you, talking about this, when I was talking ownership and about artists who went to their graves broke because of record labels, some other artist had stolen their material and many times, most of the time, those were artists of color. That's a real thing.</s>ALAN LIGHT, ROLLING STONE CONTRIBUTOR: That's certainly a real thing and it is interesting that Mr. Isley referenced Sam Cook because that really was the pioneer, the first person who was thinking and talking to other artists of color about the need to get involved in the business, get involved in the music publishing and other side of everything that was going on with the industry. I mean, when we think about Prince in the 90s when he change his name to the unpronounceable symbol...</s>LEMON: Artist -- yes. That symbol. Artist.</s>LIGHT: That we didn't how to call him and he kind of turned into a punch line for a little while, but those issues that he was raising about who controls how his music was released, when and why his music was released, who owned those recordings. You know, those are all the things that right now in a digital universe are the center of every debate that we're having about what the future of this business is going to be. How do musicians get paid? Who does decide how and when is the best way for them to put music out? So, I think he knew that he was maybe making himself look a little ridiculous in the way he was presenting himself, but he was drawing attention to issues that he saw an urgency to, you know, 10 or 15 years before a lot of the rest of us caught up.</s>LEMON: As a historian, Douglas Brinkley, I would be interested to get your perspective on that. And that's going to be -- is that going to be part of Prince's legacy, and a big part of it?</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, yes, you know, the very fact he had to have slave on his -- and did it so bravely, I mean, Prince is so brave to think of how many African-American artists have been ripped off over the decades, how shabbily we treated Little Richard in the '50s, Chuck Perry went to jail and was hounded by the law, and he stood up in so many ways for African-American artists in the past, and paved a way in the future. So, if it is all part and parcel for this highly individual Minnesotan who, you know, didn't take any gruff from anybody, but was a deeply spiritual man, a Jehovah's witness at the end of his life, somebody who tried to not be about power and bullying but about love and sexual healing.</s>LIGHT: I think what Doug is starting to say there, the thing that is interesting is this business crusade that he was fighting was consistent with this absolute independence and pure creative vision that always drove what Prince did. I mean, this was a kid who, he was a teenager and offered his first record deal, he turned it down because he was holding out for complete creative control. Think about, you're some, you know, teenage kid from Minneapolis, you get offered a shot at the big time and you say, no, I'm not going to sign that deal because I need to be in charge of what my music sounds like.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>LIGHT: That was always what drove him was trying to be as true and as close to his own vision, his own creative spirit as he could and that then moved into this business fight.</s>LEMON: How hard is that to do when you're an artist and, you know, during your time, you're making money, you're the top of the charts, right? You don't want to tick off the record label, you don't know where your future is going to go, Douglas Brinkley, and then all of a sudden, you say, you know what, I'm going to drop -- I'm going to take my name out of it for a while, I'm going to put slave on my face, and I'm going to fight for other artists including myself. That takes you know what oneness.</s>BRINKLEY: Absolutely. And incredible self-confidence, but self- confidence, Don, backed by practice, you know. His parents were jazz musicians. You don't become as quality a musician as Prince without playing, playing, playing. We were talking earlier on your excellent tribute show you've been doing, Don, about the vault and all the songs. He couldn't go a week without doing something because it was just part of his life blood.</s>LEMON: I want you to listen to this. This is lyrics and I wonder if this lyrics put him in a different category. Listen to this.</s>LEMON: So, I'm not your woman, I'm not your man. I'm not a man, I'm not a woman. I'm something that you'll never understand. Lyrics like that earned him a real -- you know, the real nickname of his royal badness. And there were other very provocative lyrics he had as well.</s>LIGHT: Well, this was somebody who from the beginning, you know, really trafficked in, first of all, in being absolutely fearless about being controversial, being daring.</s>LEMON: Controversy.</s>LIGHT: Writing about things that were on his mind and inside of himself. Controversy. He came out with that song and sang and saying, you know, "am I black or white, am I straight or gay?" He knew the power also of mystery and secrecy and keeping people guessing and wondering. I mean, we live in a world now where everybody Instagram's every cup of coffee that they have. And it's all about impressions and likes and being visible all the time. And I think Prince had that sense, people will stay interested in you if they still want to know more about you if they're not sure about where you came from. And he was a master of working with, you know, big themes and big ideas and not turning over all the cards.</s>LEMON: Yes. You know, I wonder how much he was able to look into the future, Douglas Brinkley, because you and I have been speaking a lot about Donald Trump, right? He wrote a song for R&B group the time and the lyrics featured a prominent political figure, we all hear about today and that's Donald Trump. Listen to this.</s>LEMON: I mean, you have to smile when you hear that. So, let me just say this, that, you know, Donald Trump tweeted that he met Prince numerous occasions, calling him -- the musician an amazing talent and a wonderful guy. What do you think that song meant, Douglas Brinkley?</s>BRINKLEY: Well, it's funny, and it is about power in the '80s. The greed is good, Donald Trump becomes very big in 1987, Prince had done an album called "Sign of the Times," that was quite political, and here by 1990s making a joke about Donald Trump, kind of I'll be your sugar daddy like Donald Trump. It's a love and he's bringing in contemporary like Trump in a very clever way and it seems to hold up well even today listening to it. The press CNN funny at the same time.</s>LEMON: And comedians have said, have made jokes about Donald Trump as black man because he likes gold and all those things. You heard that. I'm not saying that you haven't heard. Forget it.</s>LIGHT: Well, the most interesting -- one of the most interesting things, you spend time around Prince and when I would, you know, be with him for a different stories. You know, you have the sense that he landed from outer space and he was this completely disconnected figure from the world. But, you know, then there was this side of him that this guy from Minneapolis, who liked to talk about, you know, like to talk about basketball, liked to talk about new movies that were out, new records that were out, was involved in different social causes, charities, you know, understood what that was to make a joke, to make a punch line out of Donald Trump. You know, for all of the things that made him different than every other person on earth. There was also a part of him that was grounded and connected to the reality. And that was always the most surprising thing. You know. You knew when he could do these incredible musical things that nobody else alive could do. You expected that. I mean, from what you didn't expect was something that, you know, one of your friends might say.</s>LEMON: What does this loss mean?</s>LIGHT: Well, I think we've lost the towering musical genius of a generation. I mean, there is nobody who could do all of the things as a singer, songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, band leader, nobody had all the tools the way he did and he did all of that better than anybody else. And I think he stood for this independence and the idea that if you're an artist, you always move forward, you're always creating, you're always evolving. He set that example, not just for musicians, but all creative people that follow him. And that's the most important thing we take from him.</s>LEMON: Alan, thank you.</s>LIGHT: Thank you, Don.</s>LEMON: Douglas, thank you. I appreciate it. I'll see you soon. All right.</s>BRINKLEY: OK.</s>LEMON: We're going to talk more about Prince and his legacy. But when we come right back, I want to turn to the other big story tonight, the race for the White House. Big votes coming up in five days. We're going to tell you what to watch for. We'll be right back.