Prince’s longtime lawyer and former manager, L. Londell McMillan, has dismissed claims that the music icon overdosed on painkillers before his death.
“Everybody who knows Prince knows he wasn’t walking around drugged up,” McMillan told the Associated Press late Monday. “That’s foolish. No one ever saw Prince and said, ‘He looks high.’ It wasn’t what he was about.”
McMillan also said he spoke to Prince on Sunday before he died, after reports surfaced that his plane had made an emergency landing.
“He said he was doing perfect,” McMillan recalled. “He said, ‘OK, I’ll call you soon.’”
TMZ reported that Prince was treated for a drug overdose days before his death after his plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois. He was reportedly rushed to a hospital where doctors gave him what TMZ described as a “save shot,” also called Narcan — a prescription medicine that blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose.
The cause of Prince’s death is still pending after an autopsy was completed Friday, but investigators are reportedly focusing on the role that drugs may have played in both his death and his medical emergency the week before.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported Monday night that a longtime attorney for two of Prince’s siblings has told authorities that his clients told him over a decade ago that Prince had “substantial” drug problems, specifically with the opioid painkiller Percocet and cocaine.
Attorney Michael Padden said that Lorna Nelson and Duane Nelson often discussed the “Purple Rain” singer’s drug issues with him, adding that “both were really concerned it would end his life prematurely,” the Tribune reported.
McMillan, however, said that while Prince was “not on any drugs that would be any cause for concern.”
The lawyer noted his client was vegan and known for his clean lifestyle. “Prince had an amazing life,” he added. “He enjoyed life. He had a lot of fun.”