'Remembering the Purple One' looks back at Prince's career

Maury's Stories: 'Remembering the Purple One'

Rich Benson has spent the past 40 years collecting all things Prince. FOX 9's Maury Glover has the full story.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - When visitors come to the State Theater in Downtown Minneapolis over the next few weeks, they'll see an adaptation of the film and album that made Prince a household name, but there's a different kind of tribute to the musical genius behind Purple Rain just a few feet away.

A purple passion

Local perspective:

Rich Benson has been fascinated with Prince since he was a little boy.

For nearly four decades, he's been collecting all things related to the hometown hero from photographs to newspaper clippings.

Every item has a story and Benson knows them all by heart.

"I feel at home. I feel that these are my children and I feel that I've said it before that they're running free for the world to see," said Benson.

‘The music I grew up on’

The backstory:

Benson says he first learned about Prince when he was six years old and heard "Little Red Corvette" while riding across the country with his father, who was a truck driver.

"There was something that grabbed me from another side of my brain and just really piqued my curiosity," said Benson.

When Benson became a paperboy a few years later, he started collecting mentions of his idol in the newspaper, wanting to hold a tangible piece of history.

"I felt like I needed to keep this in pristine condition, that one day it would be something to look back on, never knowing that I would amass a collection that would span decades," said Benson.

After moving to Minneapolis in 1998, Benson started hanging out at Paisley Park, where he saw many impromptu performances by Prince and on one special occasion, he even met the superstar himself.

"It was one of the most incredible experiences I ever had in my life. But to know that I got to thank him for inviting us, and we respected his house. I'll never forget that," said Benson.

In all, Benson saw Prince perform a whopping 127 times and when a friend of Benson's wanted to get rid of her Prince collection, Benson and another friend divided it up between them.

"I took more of the ephemera, the tangible items that I could look back at had yellowed clippings from 1980, 1979, the early early 80s. She was that old-school fan that inspired me to continue on exactly what she started and I took it from there," said Benson.

‘It’s almost like a time capsule'

What they're saying:

Now Benson's collection is on display as part of a free exhibit in LaSalle Plaza called "Remembering The Purple One."

The exhibit is separated into seven windows on two floors, spanning the various stages of Prince's career.

"There's just such a care to it. Really taking the time and energy to save items that would otherwise be discarded, like a magazine clipping or like a poster that got pulled down off a wall at a show. 

A lot of the stuff ends up in people's dusty basements or in the garbage. Rich has really lovingly cared for it and now has this impulse to share it with people," said Andrea Swensson, author of the book, "Prince and Purple Rain: 40 years" and co-curator of the exhibit.

The more obscure the memorabilia, the more interesting it is to Benson, like a bottle of Prince's fragrance 3121 that he sold at his store in Uptown or a ticket stub from the Purple Rain tour or a script for the Purple Rain movie.

"I do hope that people see this and remember that he's part of this place and that he is beyond just like a caricature of him in Purple Rain. It's actually like a lifelong devotion that he had to his art and to his hometown," said Swensson.

Benson hopes his collection travels to Broadway and beyond with the musical, so fans around the world can get a fuller picture of Prince's life.

In the meantime, he'll continue following his purple passion for Minneapolis' rock and roll royalty.

"It's gonna be an endless journey just to learn about who he really was because he was one of the most evasive, cryptic performers that I've ever tried to learn about, but it's always a learning experience," said Benson.