Prince Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on February 21, 1981 where he performed "Party Up" and on February 4, 2006 where he performed "Fury" and "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed" (with Támar), becoming the first musical guest with the longest gap between appearances (24 years, 11 months and 15 days; Prince's first appearance was on the season six episode hosted by Charlene Tilton back on February 21, 1981). He also appeared in September 1989 on the SNL 15th Anniversary special, however technically the special isn't part of the regular SNL series. Prince's record would later be broken by both Elton John and Leon Russell in season 36 (Elton John's has a 29-year gap between appearances [from 1982 as the musical guest for the season seven episode hosted by Johnny Cash to his dual role as host and musical guest in 2011; Leon Russell has a 35-year gap between his appearance on the 1976 episode hosted by Dyan Cannon and his role as co-musical guest for Elton John also in 2011]).
He was also impersonated by Billy Crystal on the February 2, 1985 episode during the "Backstage" sketch and on the March 30, 1985 episode during the "I Am Also The World" sketch, by Chris Kattan on the January 9, 1999 episode during the "Extreme Hunting" sketch and by Fred Armisen eleven times from the February 14, 2004 episode to the February 18, 2012 episode, most of them were during the "Prince Show" sketch.
The week of his death, a repeat episode of Saturday Night Live was pulled and a retrospective dedicated to him aired instead, SNL Goodnight Sweet Prince.
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