Prince’s brother, Alfred, influenced him musically but had to be hospitalized after the Vietnam war. (Getty)
Prince is known for having one full-blooded sister, Tyka, and five half-siblings from his dad John’s first marriage. However, many don’t know that Prince also has two other half-brothers from his mom, Mattie Della Baker. One of them is Alfred, a Vietnam vet who is 62-years-old and influenced Prince musically.
Much of what is known about Alfred was subject to rumor until his sister, Tyka, shared a Facebook post celebrating her older brother’s birthday. In Mattie’s obituary, her son Alfred is referred to as Alfred Jackson. But Tyka calls him Alfred Frank Alonso.
Alfred may have been a big inspiration to Prince’s musical career. Several books have mentioned Alfred and they’re often referenced on discussion boards about Prince. In a book called “Possessed” written by Charles Smith, a former drummer for Prince, Charles talked a lot about Alfred. He said that Alfred was a big influence on Prince musically. He said that Alfred liked to sing to James Brown and he was a colorful and unconventional guy. In fact, in a discussion forum about Prince, one writer said that Alfred was always a good singer and used to have hair similar to Little Richard.
In Charles Smith’s book, he talked about how Alfred was raised with Tyka and Prince for a while. He said that Alfred would sometimes play jokes on Prince and scare him and Charles when they were hanging out. In fact, he surmised that Alfred had many of the same idiosyncrasies as Prince, but was not able to channel and control them like Prince and, instead, ultimately ended up in an institution.
Prince’s sister, Tyka, confirmed some of this in a Facebook post.
She talked about Alfred and said he was drafted to serve in Vietnam at 17. She said that when Alfred returned, he had to be admitted to the Vets hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he still is today. She wrote about how she visited him there on his birthday and he was delighted to know how many people were wishing him a happy birthday on Facebook. A friend commented on her post that Prince used to look up to Alfred like he used to look up to his own big brother, and would often talk about how “cool” Alfred was.
From her posts, it appears that Tyka has a very loving relationship with her older brother and wants to honor him for the service and sacrifices he has made for his country.
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