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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Music Legend Prince Dead at 57; President Obama Visits London; Shares of United Continental Sink 10%. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 22, 2016 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN HOST: Man, remembering and celebrating the life of Prince. The music icon dead at the age of 57. All night tributes and memorials, and new questions surrounding his death. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: It's hard to believe. I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour. Happening today, an autopsy to find out what killed music superstar Prince. All night long, though, celebrations of his music, his career, around the world and especially in his hometown in Minneapolis.

Fans are remembering, they're listening to his music. They're paying tribute to the artist now and forever known as Prince. This morning, what we're learning new about his death and how fans are celebrating his life. We take you now to Ryan Young. He joins us from his Paisley Park estate and studios.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, if you look behind me you can see some of the people who decided to show up here to Paisley Park. We've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people standing here at the fence line paying their respects to Prince. In fact, we've seen several people talking amongst themselves just about how this could happen to the 57-year-old.

A couple of stars have actually been walking amongst the crowd here. One talking to me saying he didn't want people to know that he was here but he wanted to pay his respects to an artist and a man, he says, that has meant so much to the community, far beyond what people may actually know in terms of what he's done for other people.

One of the things we do know is that Prince was found here around 9:40 in the morning, and he was found unresponsive in an elevator. There was a 911 call and those transcripts shows that apparently there was some trouble getting a response here because the person calling 911 did not know the address of this location.

Once EMS arrived they tried to do CPR. He was unresponsive and was pronounced dead here on the scene. An autopsy will happen on Friday and people are hoping and clambering -- hoping for more information about what happened to Prince, but that may not happen as quickly as people may want it to happen. All across this city, all across the world, people have been paying their respects to Prince and that will continue over the next few days. Back to you guys.

MARQUEZ: Thank you, Ryan, and check this out. Late into the night, just a few miles away in downtown Minneapolis, the nightclub where Prince filmed "Purple Rain" -- an all-night dance party in his honor. CNN's Kyung Lah is there.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, it seems that all of Minneapolis has come out to pay their respects to Prince in the only way that he would want -- a celebration of his music outside of the very club that he helped put on the map.

This is the First Avenue Club and what you're seeing here, outside, is an enormous crowd. Hundreds of people, and they're packing the street out here in downtown Minneapolis. They're actually waiting to get in. The doors have opened. This is an all-night into the early morning dance party. We can hear his music blaring inside the club. There is no charge. Everyone is being allowed in to dance the night and the day away to Prince's songs.

And what we've seen outside the club here -- you can see that there are flowers and personal notes. They've been dropped here throughout the day. People walking through rain to leave some remembrances -- notes about what various songs meant for them.

And for this city he's more than just a musician, he's more than just a star. Prince is someone who never gave up on his town. He is their favorite son. He is a musician that helped unite the city in the 1980's and continued until today. Christine, Miguel --

ROMANS: All right, Kyung Lah, thanks for that. Joining us now to discuss Prince's impact on music and his legacy, senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES". Brian, someone just sent me, from the archives of -- I guess it would be the St. Louis Dispatch, September 1st, 1977. A just-turned 18- year-old Minneapolis youth has signed a six-figure recording contract with Warner Music, and the rest is history.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Wow.

ROMANS: An 18-year-old, with at that time, I think the largest, if not one of the largest -- I'm pretty sure it was the largest signing contract for an unknown artist ever and he really proved to be a valuable investment. Look at -- innovating all those years, right? And then in the end, really regaining creative control over this own brand, getting control of his own music catalog and really defying the industry to be in charge of his own -- I mean, this guy is clearly a business and music legend.

[05:35:00] STELTER: That's right. Yes, all the way from that first album in 1978, the result of that recording contract all the way through to this year he was performing up until last week. And he was prolific over the decades. Not just the years, but the decades. A glittering, brilliant performer and that's why we're seeing that all- night, now all-morning dance party in Minneapolis.

It's scheduled to go again tomorrow night and Saturday night, and it's not just in Minnesota either. In New York last night, in Brooklyn, Spike Lee led a dance party -- a block party in Prince's honor. Songs like "When Doves Cry" were being performed and the crowd was singing along.

And we also saw on Broadway, last night, some tributes as well. At the show "Hamilton", Lin-Manuel Miranda leading the cast in a dance- off on stage. And also Jennifer Hudson -- in her show, "The Color Purple" --I thought this was a notable tribute as well.

The cast came out after the end of the show. Jennifer Hudson and the rest of the cast on stage performing "Purple Rain". She said he said his music would live on. He'd live on with his music, so we'd like you all to join us. (Video playing) That's Jennifer Hudson inviting the audience to sing along to "Purple Rain" last night.

MARQUEZ: Oh, my God.

(Video playing)

MARQUEZ: Oh, my God, that is so unbelievably cool. The inspiration that he inspires -- this is a guy who could write, who could play any instrument he seemed to pick up, even make up instruments. Who would compose his own pieces. Who was completely in control. I mean, he wrote songs for other artists as well. His talents seemed to be so universal.

STELTER: I think that's absolutely true. That's why Madonna said, in her tribute, he changed the world. He was a true visionary. And I thought Chuck D, the rapper, said it really well. He said it's like the earth is missing a note. That's what this loss feels like and that's why the kind of tributes we've seen are like nothing we've seen in a long time.

I think maybe Michael Jackson's death and Whitney Houston's death come to mind. David Bowie, of course, earlier this year as well. But there are few artists who were able to affect and inspire so many people that way that Prince was. He provided a soundtrack for the lives of so many people, particularly in the 1980's.

But those songs have lived on for a long, long time, even though they're sometimes hard to find. They're not on Spotify, they're not on Pandora. Most of his music is exclusively on Tidal -- that streaming service. His work has nonetheless resonated so widely, partly through bootlegged copies of concerts on YouTube and things like that.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

STELTER: He is accessible but in his own way.