Prince, The Vegan, The Activist, The Legend

The death of 57-year-old music legend Prince Rogers Nelson last Thursday led to the mourning of an entire industry. But there's a lot about the musician most people didn't know much about, including the fact that Prince was an animal lover and a committed vegan.

He is known to be one of the most popular music icons known today. With dozens of albums, sings and collaborations with other artists, he is indeed a talented musician with a total of 32 Grammy awards nominations and tons of other awards.

Prince is considered as a controversial artist, more so an activist. In 1981 New York Times said "Prince, the 21-year-old singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist who is performing tonight at the Palladium, is the most controversial contemporary rock star precisely because he challenges sexual and racial stereotypes". Because some of his songs expresses sexuality with language dubbed as "explicit" or not suitable to the young audience.

But his activism is what made him the big star that he was. He was loved by many because of his no-fear attitude to break the norms.
He is also praised an remembered due to his social activism. Throughout his career, he had been dropping hints of support when it comes to poverty, racism and even women empowerment. This made him appeal more to the people. A perfect example of this is when he tackled the cold war in his song Ronnie, Talk to Russia. In 2014, he released a song called Baltimore to protest the incident in Ferguson. Part of his song laments "if there ain't no justice then there ain't no peace."

But aside from being a social activisit, PETA revealed that Prince was also fond of animals. This love for the creatures lead to his commitment to veganism lifestyle.

 In a tribute released by the People for the Ethical Treatment of animals said "A committed vegan who never shied away from speaking the truth, Prince laid out the reasons why animals are not ours to eat in these stirring lyrics from his song "Animal Kingdom."

Here are some excerpt of his song "Animal Kingdom" which is a testament to his love for animals:

No member of the animal kingdom nurses past maturity
No member of the animal kingdom ever did a thing to me
It's why I don't eat red meat or white fish
Don't give me no blue cheese
We're all members of the animal kingdom
Leave your brothers and sisters in the sea

He was an active member and donor of PETA attending Galas and events for the benefit of their cause. In 2006 he was even cited as the PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity.

When asked about his prevent advocacy towards animals despite pressing human problems, he was quoted by PETA saying that "Compassion is an action word with no boundaries."

And that's the reason why the music icon and his social activism will always live in the hearts of the people he managed to touch and inspire.