Prince’s protégée, Judith Hill, recalls that fateful flight, just one week before the late iconic singer and musician’s unexpected death, where he lost consciousness, forcing his plane to make an emergency landing.
As fans know far too well, the duo shared an intimate friendship. You could say Prince aided “The Voice” alum with inking a record deal with a major label. He also put her on the main stage, allowing her to open his shows and placed her album in a local Minnesota record store, where it was to be treated as his own, Hill told the New York Times.
“There was a very intense relationship. I deeply cared for him,” Hill said, admitting that before his tragic passing, “He told me that he loved me and that he would always be there for me.” While Prince may not be here in body, he is certainly here is spirit — as he left Hill with tragic and wonderful memories, including that of the emergency landing that put his alleged addiction on the map.
As previously reported, shortly before his unexpected death, Prince had been rushed to Trinity Moline Hospital after his private plane made an emergency landing. Although it was reported that he was treated for the flu, in the days following, rumors of opioid addiction began to surface. What many did not know was Prince was not alone. Hill was on that very plane; she witnessed it all.
“We knew it was only a matter of time; we knew we had to get down. We didn’t have anything on the plane to help him,” she added before revealing, “I thought he was gone.”
While Hill reportedly described Prince as being alert and full of life by the time they reached the hospital, she also revealed friends urged him to stay over night and he complied. “He wasn’t dreary or drowsy or anything,” said Hill. “He wanted to watch Zootopia. He loved those films. I was going to pull it up on my phone. He said, ‘No, no, no, not here. We’re going to pick a special time and place to watch that.'”
Hill revealed Prince’s struggle with prescription painkillers was a shock to her. In fact, she was confident that their time at Trinity Moline Hospital was a one-time thing. Prince seemed “serious about getting help” while he was in Moline, she added.
Meanwhile, Prince, who agreed to undergo tests with a California-based addiction specialist, still played down the seriousness of the plane incident. “He did it because he was concerned, and he wanted to do the right thing for his own body,” Hill told the Times. “And that’s the part that breaks my heart, because he was trying. He was trying.”
Sadly, help came too little too late, as Prince was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis just one week later. His death was ruled an accidental overdose of the drug fentanyl – an extremely potent, synthetic opiate.
