The late music legend Prince made his voice heard as an 11-year-old, and not just as a budding entertainer.
Footage unearthed by WCCO in Minneapolis shows him singing the praises of educators at a 1970 teachers’ strike picket line in the city. (Watch the segment below.)
“I think they should get some more money, because they work extra hours for us, and all that stuff,” the young Prince said.
Production manager Matt Liddy found the clip while researching old footage to provide perspective for a recent teachers’ strike. The station confirmed the boy was indeed Prince — then Prince Rogers Nelson — through childhood friend Terrance Jackson.
“I’m totally blown away,” Jackson said after he watched the clip, calling Prince by his childhood nickname Skipper.
Prince already was making music at that age, Jackson noted. Now we know he was speaking out on important causes as well.
Prince, the iconic singer of such hits as “Purple Rain,” “When Doves Cry” and “1999,” died in 2016 from a fentanyl overdose at the age of 57.
Fast-forward to the 1 minute mark for the beginning of the reveal:
