Red Chairs & Purple Thoughts: ‘The Voice’ Coaches Pay Touching Tribute to Prince

When The Voice opened this Monday, the coaches were, as usual, sitting in their red chairs. But as the lights dimmed, the entire studio went from red to purple – and went totally pindrop-silent – as host Carson Daly asked Adam, Pharrell, Christina, and Blake to share their personal thoughts about the late, great Prince.

Dig, if you will, this beautiful purple picture, which sets the scene:

“It’s all been so kind of shocking,” a solemn Adam Levine began. “Processing all of it has been a little bit difficult. It seems like all of a sudden I woke up and he was gone. Probably one of the most profound musical influences on me, personally. The whole world felt his presence always. He did things his way, always, until the end. And I just have a lot of respect for someone who is able to continue to make amazing music and never changing anything about who he was. That’s inspiring. I’m going to miss this guy so much.”

Pharrell Williams went next, saying, “Man, I will never forget when I was a little boy, a friend in Virginia Beach, Virginia, would get her records in the mail. When that Purple Rain album came, it played in that apartment complex for the rest of the summer. That’s all my childhood. Like, I will never forget what ‘Darling Nikki’ felt like. I will never forget ‘I Would Die 4 U’ feels like. This guy continues to do it. It’s a shock. We’re going to miss him. But you know what? Every time I see purple – and everybody else here, too – we will definitely be thinking of Prince.”

Related: So I Honored Prince by Singing ‘Kiss’ for the ‘Voice’ Coaches

“It’s devastating. Prince will always be such an inspiration for every generation to come and music,” said Christina Aguilera. “It’s so fascinating and so amazing to listen to his genius on record. So many songs, no matter what, what age, what era, it would be a hit. That’s a true sign of somebody that’s timeless and legendary and, wow, he just… and I loved his passion for artists, an artist’s rights, and truly staying authentic and genuine to music. There was nothing manufactured about what he did and what he stood for, and that I appreciate more than anything about him.”

“I wish I would have had a chance to meet Prince; I can only speak of him like a fan, like most of us,” Blake Shelton concluded. “His music still, to this day, can change my day. It changes my mood every time I hear it. He was larger than life, and he’s gone, and it’s upsetting, and he is already missed.”

This lovely and loving tribute made me wish The Voice Season 10 had been on the air at the time of David Bowie’s passing in January. Hearing these four very different artists – usually known for their onscreen joking shenanigans, friendly rivalries, and “bromances” – speak so elegantly and eloquently about Prince reminded everyone watching that at the end of the day, this show is (or should be) about music.

Well done, The Voice. Well done.

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