There's fascinating new information contained in documents taken from Prince's home which has been released by authorities now that they've wrapped up his death investigation.
Among the piles of paperwork and countless files is a document revealing some of the lucrative financial offers the late star — who died two years ago from an accidental drug overdose at age 57 — was mulling over.
The Blast reported on April 22 that in 2015, Hollywood stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith offered Prince $400,000 to perform at a private party for just 100 guests in Los Angeles that Sept. 17. It's presumed it was a birthday bash for Jada, who was born on Sept. 18, though it's unclear if Prince agreed to the gig.
The same documents, which were released by Minnesota's Carver County Sheriff's Office, also show that Prince was offered $1.25 million to perform at a private event just five days after the Smiths' party, this one in Hong Kong for an investment group to be attended by 2,000 people.
One private performance the world knows Prince did do took place at the White House when Barack Obama was still president. The document shows that the White House was trying to set up a meeting with Prince for the 17th or 27th of June in 2015. It later leaked that the president and wife Michelle Obama had thrown a private party for 500 friends and supporters at their Washington DC home on June 13 that year and that both Prince and Stevie Wonder had performed.
James Taylor, who was there, later told Rolling Stone, "Prince's set was unbelievable." (The Purple One performed for two hours!)
Documents seen by The Blast also confirm some of the enormous paychecks that the music legend earned for his live shows abroad five years before his shocking death.
"An email printout from Prince's 2011 tour shows that the Grammy winner could bring in millions for just one show," The Blast writes. "The Hop Farm Festival in Kent, England, paid Prince $2,000,000 to play a 24-song set that included three encores for a crowd of 30,000 people."
Prince also raked in $1.65 million for a show in Poland a day earlier on July 2, 2011, and earned $1.35 million two days before that for a festival slot in Paris, The Blast confirmed.
TMZ also reported on April 22 that Prince's estate is preparing to release more contents of the late music star's vaults — but these will be carefully curated.
"Paisley Park Enterprises — the merchandising arm of Prince's estate — has filed paperwork to produce printed content. According to the docs, it will include collector's books of his handwritten lyrics as well as poetry. Prince's never-before-released photos and journals could also be flipped for a profit," TMZ wrote on April 22.
Just a few days earlier on April 19, Minnesota authorities announced that they'd finally concluded their investigation into Prince's death on April 21, 2016, from a fentanyl overdose and had decided that no criminal charges would be filed because there was no evidence to explain how the star got the drugs that killed him. There was "no conspiracy to murder Prince," Carver County, Minnesota, attorney Mark Metz said.
Cops determined that the performer was taking counterfeit Vicodin laced with fentanyl but that he did not know there was fentanyl in the pills.
The county attorney said Prince had no prescriptions in his name and the counterfeit Vicodin he took was not prescribed by a doctor. The identity of the person who gave Prince the counterfeit medication remains a mystery.
Time magazine also reported that Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a federal civil violation after he was accused of illegally prescribing an opioid painkiller for Prince a week before the star died at his Paisley Park compound. The doctor prescribed it to the musician's bodyguard instead, to preserve Prince's privacy, which is illegal.