Prince Had Thousands Of Songs Stashed In Secret Vault

Prince, the acclaimed musician had two thousand unreleased songs stored in a secret vault at home.

The legendary singer-songwriter, who sold more than 100 million records during his career, died at his home in Minnesota at the age of 57.

The Daily Express reports:

But it can be revealed the pop legend’s Paisley Park estate is home to a vault of thousands of unreleased tracks.

It is known the vault includes a never-released song call Moonbeam Levels, which he recorded on July 6 1982.

Prince’s sound engineer Susan Rogers described the track as “unbelievably beautiful” and claimed it was one of his finest ever works, one of many “classics” he never released but stored in the huge vault.

So vast is the collection that an entire album of his unreleased music could be published every year for the next century.

Although many believe the vault is just a legend or urban myth, those who have worked with the star confirmed its existence.

It is actually a huge bank-style storage facility with a massive door and combination lock, ensuring maximum security.

Rogers, who joined Prince’s team as a sound engineer in 1983, told how she began the curation process for the incredible collection.

She explained the artist was always asking for old tapes to be brought to him, so she came up with the idea to put them into one place.

She said: “Then it became a bit of an obsession…I wanted everything he’s ever recorded right here.

“So I started amassing them and i started making a database for all these things and then thats when we began Paisley Park and we realised if we’re going to have a vault, let’s have a vault.”

She added it was his legacy that needed protecting, so they built a secure storing area similar to a bank.When she left in 1987, the vault was full of “row after row after row” of his tapes – most of which was not released.

Eric Leeds, a saxophonist who’s performed with Prince on and off for three decades, said a huge number of musicians would head to Prince’s home to play with the pop icon.

He said: “We would just go into the studio and jam every night and just record everything.

“We worked on a whole bunch of instrumentals and Prince threw it all to me and said, ‘make me an album’.

“I actually sequenced the record. There was one 45-minute jam called Junk Music. The project was going to be called The Flesh and it was the greatest thing in the world in Prince’s mind.

“That lasted about three days. Then Prince got bored and the record got shelved.”

Leeds added the diminutive artist recorded music at a phenomenal pace. He said: “There’s no question about his speed. In 2004 we made an album called NEWS which did make it to release.

“That entire album was recorded pretty much as you hear it. It probably took an hour.”

Brent Fischer, a Grammy-winning composer who has collaborated with Prince since the 80s,told the BBC he believed more than 70 per cent of the music he worked on for Prince is yet to be released.

He added: “There are lot of songs that were sent to us clearly with the idea that they would never be released.

“They were almost comical songs that he would work out with his horn players.

“There was lot of wild horn parts and experimentation with samples.”

Prince himself has teased fans, name-checking unreleased songs in his album liner notes and suggesting they could be released at “a later date”.

In 2012, he released a YouTube clip of new guitarist Donna Grantis auditioning to be part of his band which ended with the text: “Every good thing in the vault… coming 2013” – music which never came.