RICHMOND, Va. -- Prince fans flocked to Plan 9 Records in Carytown Thursday looking for anything by the beloved musician. The music icon died Thursday after he was found unresponsive in the elevator at his Minnesota estate. He was 57 years old.
“I’m just dumbfounded right now,” said Arnie Johnson.
It turns out, one of Prince’s last tweets, posted April 2, featured the Carytown record store and a 10-year-old Mechanicsville child named Gabriel.
“It’s pretty cool to have Gabriel on his Twitter page permanently now,” mother Maria Solle, who tweeted the photo that Prince used in his tweet, said.
The picture showed Gabriel in the store dressed like the man whose music he loves to dance to.
“Sometimes he just feels it. He gets funky with his music,” Gabriel Solle said.
Gabriel’s mom said when she moved to the United States from Poland as a child, she did not speak English. She said Prince's music helped her through the tough times.
“One of my first albums was 1999, and it was very dear to me because I sang many of the songs before I knew English,” Maria Solle said.
Solle saw Prince perform at the Richmond Coliseum when she was just 13 in September of 1988.
Steve Branch, the owner of the former Ivory’s Uptown Lounge on W. Broad Street, went too and even met the star.
Prince performs his first of three shows onstage during "One Night... Three Venues" hosted by Prince and Lotusflow3r.com held at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE on March 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
“I had VIP tickets from his entourage,” Branch said. “I’m telling you his hands were the softest hands I have ever felt.”
Prince showed up at Ivory’s after his show.
“That’s the highlight of my career, the night Prince came to Ivory’s and the club stood still,” Branch said.
Branch said news of Prince’s death once again made time stand still.
“A true cultural genius,” Branch said.
