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Prince’s Half-Brother Alfred Jackson: ‘He Was Everything in the World to Me’

Alfred Jackson
Alfred Jackson

Proud of Prince. Prince’s older half-brother Alfred Jackson looked back at the late star’s legacy in a new interview.

“I miss my brother, because my brother was everything in the world to me. God bless Prince, God bless the world. He’s a legend, he really is,” Jackson told Entertainment Tonight in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Thursday, April 28. “He was a genius. Wherever he heard music, he could copy it just like that — like he had a photographic memory or something.”

Prince and Jackson have the same mom, Mattie Shaw. Alfred admits that he hadn’t spoken to the “Purple Rain” singer in 15 years.

“He was so busy on the road because he had so many engagements with his music. So, he had to travel, all around the world. I always saw him on television, read the magazines, and said, ‘There’s my brother, Prince.’ I was so happy he was making it for himself, I really was,” he explained to ET.

When Jackson did see his sibling it was usually at the star’s Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota. (St. Cloud, where Jackson resides, and Chanhassen are nearly 90 minutes apart.) “My mother liked looking at his records on the wall,” Jackson said. “She wishes she had that many herself.”

Prince performs onstage at the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.
Prince performs onstage at the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Jackson also recalled Prince’s love for James Brown and basketball. “I think he wanted to be taller because he wanted to be a basketball player,” Jackson said of Prince’s 5-foot-2 frame. “[When we were kids] we brought up all the paper in the house and put the trash can over there in the corner and threw paper into the basket … After I did him in that way, he went to school … and they kind of did him a favor because he was the smallest on the team. He did better than some of the rest of them.”

In March 2015, a photo of Prince at his high school basketball team resurfaced online. The “Little Red Corvette” singer rocked an Afro and a No. 3 jersey at the time.

As previously reported, Prince died at the age of 57 at his home on April 21. His body was found in an elevator and prescription drugs were on the scene. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that investigators are looking into whether the star died of a drug overdose.

Prince died without a will. Earlier this week, Bremer Trust was appointed to temporarily oversee his multimillion-dollar estate. His assets could possibly be divided between Jackson and Prince’s other living siblings Tyka Nelson, John Nelson, Norrine Nelson, Sharon Nelson and Omarr Baker.

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