The few on board Prince's private airplane as it made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill., early that morning of April 14, 2016, feared he was dead.
Longtime friend Kirk Johnson couldn't wake him, unaware that he had overdosed on opioids. Johnson scooped up his boss and rushed him down the airplane steps, cradling him like a baby, paramedics said.
They gave him a shot of Narcan, an opioid antidote, but were shocked when it didn't revive him. So they stuck him again. Prince gasped and woke.
As responders asked questions, a stoic Johnson spoke for Prince, giving short, terse responses. Prince feels fine, he said.
All Prince said was that he felt fuzzy. He refused more treatment and a blood test because he didn't want people to know about "his use of prescription medications," Johnson told police later. They then returned to Minnesota.
Singer Judith Hill, who was on the plane, said later that Prince complained about how his hands had been hurting from banging on the piano. He said he had mixed two different kinds of pills, and that he wouldn't do it anymore.
"He's like 'I know my body well. I know!' " he told Hill. "I'm a pretty good judge of my body."
He wasn't.