Sheila E., acclaimed musician, as well as very close friend and collaborator to Prince, is speaking out following reports that Justin Timberlake will have the late singer appear in hologram form during his Super Bowl Halftime Show. "Prince told me don’t ever let anyone do a hologram of me," she wrote on Twitter. "Not cool if this happens!"
https://twitter.com/_/status/959878818310828034
As it turns out, Prince actually went on record about his opposition to holograms, or at least similar technology. Fader has pointed to a Guitar World interview in which the legendary entertainer in which he's asked, “With digital editing, it is now possible to create a situation where you could jam with any artist from the past. Would you ever consider doing something like that?”
"Certainly not.," he responded. "That's the most demonic thing imaginable. Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age. That whole virtual reality thing... it really is demonic. And I am not a demon. Also, what they did with that Beatles song ["Free As a Bird"], manipulating John Lennon's voice to have him singing from across the grave... that'll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control."
There has not been official confirmation that Prince will appear as a hologram at the Halftime Show. The news broke in a report from TMZ early Saturday morning. The tribute to Prince would likely be happening due to the Super Bowl being hosted in the late musician's hometown of Minneapolis. In a press conference earlier this week, Timberlake spoke of Prince's influence. “In my opinion, the greatest all-around musician in popular culture,” he said. “The time I got to spend around him, with him, talking about music. Those are memories that I’ll take with me forever."
