Comedian and friend to Prince Arsenio Hall recently revealed he was privy to the knowledge of Prince’s health problems before the singer had passed. “I was aware of hip pain that he had,” Hall told Access Hollywood.
“It’s interesting, ’cause Prince would have the cane, but I feel like the cane preceded the pain,” he added. “I think that the cane was kinda swaggy before the pain kicked in, but there was a point where he was having some pain, and I never talked about that kind of thing, or got into that kinda stuff. I knew it, but guys don’t [go],’Yo, how your hip, man? You know, guys don’t even have those kind of conversations. But I’m really gonna miss him.”
Prince appeared twice on The Arsenio Hall Show. The most popular Prince video on YouTube is this powerful “Purple Rain” performance from his 1993 appearance, an episode which is mostly remembered for Prince setting an album review on fire (with said reviewer in the audience, nonetheless.)
Two decades after his notable Arsenio Hall appearance, Prince took over an entire episode of the relaunched Arsenio Hall Show for one of his final talk show appearances. Prince fielded questions from an audience of fans, professing his love of cooking omelets, giving relationship advice, and disclosing his back-up career plan. “I’d want to teach,” Prince said. “There’s a lot of fine musicians in the group right now, and I’m learning from them, so as much as I’d like to teach, I also like to learn.”