5 ways to tour Prince sites related to ‘Purple Rain’ musical

Don’t be like Apollonia.

Fans making the pilgrimage to Prince’s hometown for the premiere of the “Purple Rain” musical can take heed from his co-star in the original 1984 film. In the movie’s opening sequence, she wound up owing $37 for a taxi ride that should’ve only cost about 37 cents. There are better ways of finding your way around Minneapolis.

Several local organizations are stepping up to help fans in town for the Broadway-bound musical more efficiently find their way to Broadway Avenue in north Minneapolis and other key stops on a sightseeing tour of Prince landmarks. (The local Broadway is where Prince gave his first solo performance in 1979 at the Capri Theater.)

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there about some of the sites, like his childhood homes, so it’s good to get some help,” said Kristen Zschomler, whose new company, SoundAround Tours, now offers app-based, GPS-guided audio tours of Prince locations.

Zschomler got the idea for creating the audio guide on her hometown’s famous music icon after visiting Dublin and struggling to find sites related to the band U2.

“It shouldn’t be so hard with artists this famous,” she said.

Now, for $9.99, app users can download a guide that pinpoints Prince sites on a map and provides a narrated backstory to each stop. Other landmarks on the SoundAround guide — and most Prince tours — include: The Kid’s house in “Purple Rain”; Sound 80 studio, where he made his first demos for Warner Bros.; and the film location for the movie’s “Lake Minnetonka” scene (actually a stretch of the Minnesota River in Henderson, nowhere near Minnetonka).

Nine years after Prince’s death, the city’s tourism unit Meet Minneapolis latched onto the demand for Prince tours this past summer by installing 20 glyph-emblazoned emblems onto sidewalks around town, a route dubbed the Purple Path. Each of the large, stick-on decals feature QR codes that can be scanned with a cellphone and provide information about the location.

“People ask all the time: Where did Prince spend his time,” said Christy Loy, senior vice president of destination sales for Meet Minneapolis. “This is a really fun and accessible way for them to go where he went.”

Here’s a rundown of your options for walking in Prince’s — and Apollonia’s — shoes this fall around the musical.

The top attraction for Prince fans is his suburban studio/performance complex opened for tours soon after his death there in April 2016. You don’t get to see his personal apartment on tours, but you get access to various recording rooms, soundstages, his office and exhibit areas where he did most of his work from 1987 on. There are three tour levels, the pricier ones offer more rooms, photo-ops and the chance to hear unreleased music. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thu.-Mon., 7801 Audubon Rd., Chanhassen. $75-$199, paisleypark.com)

Before he built Paisley Park, Prince used Minnesota’s now-iconic rock club as his playground for pre-tour warmup gigs and, of course, as the primary film location for “Purple Rain.” The venue is offering behind-the-scenes tours again timed to the musical, offering a healthy dose of Prince lore and other music history — including the chance to stand on the stage The Kid humped in the movie. Days vary based on the club’s ever-bustling concert schedule, but there are currently 14 slots available through Nov. 12, and more will be added. (701 1st Av. N., Mpls. $50, first-avenue.com)

Specifically centered around Minneapolis sites, the self-guided offered by the city features scannable information that ranges from various Prince murals to his former schools and places he liked to hang to movie and recording places. It’s a very handy way of taking a lot in for free. (Downloadable map available at minneapolis.org)