NJ residents on Prince’s death: I called you to stop the tears

When the news broke that legendary musician Prince passed away at the age of 57, Dennis and Judi started taking calls from listeners who wanted to share their thoughts or memories of the icon.

NJ1015's very own Big Joe Henry was one of the first calls we received, saying that it was a "very sad day today in music, very sad." Big Joe was working in Minneapolis at the time when Prince was filming the Purple Rain video and said that Prince's music was "absolutely phenomenal." You can listen to Big Joe's entire call in the video above.

We received a wide array of calls from our listeners sharing their fond memories of Prince and what they thought of his music. Here are some of what our listeners were saying:

Nancy in East Brunswick: 

Nancy told us that she was a huge fan of Prince and that her kids would take her as a gift to see him perform in concert.

"I was totally shocked that Prince died. I'm 72 years old. my other icon was Elvis."

Cortez from Freehold:

Cortez was really hit hard by the news of Prince's passing. Cortez, who is a DJ, said he is planning on paying tribute to Prince this weekend while playing music at a friend's art show in Asbury Park.

"Calling you kind of stopped the tears."

Denise from Plainfield:

"I remember seeing him on Johnny Carson and my mother called him a little James Brown and she said 'he's going to be big,' and she was right.

Lynn in Monmouth County

Lynn lived near Prince in Toronto in the early 2000's and at one point, got to know Prince a little bit and the person he was away from the stage.

"I'm broken up. I'm so sad. I guess what I realized is that musical people, artists, can come into your life bigger than you can even realize."

Karen in Doylestown

Karen used to live in the same town as Prince in Minnesota and said that it was a thrill if you even got to spot him outside his house.

"He was very private and once in a while you'd see him driving around in this little purple car with blacked-out windows and be like 'Oh, I had a Prince sighting today.' Very exciting knowing that he lived there."

Chris Swendeman, Digital Managing Editor for Programming at NJ101.5

"The first time I saw Prince was at the Continental Airlines Arena in 2004.  The show lasted over 3 hours and it is still one of the top 5 concerts I've ever seen. It was nothing short of a phenomenal performance."

Dan Tantillo, Producer for the Dennis & Judi Show:

What are your memories of Prince? Let us hear about them by commenting below.