Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan joined the music world in sharing his grief on Twitter with: "What do we do now? PRINCE. No. I hope you weren't in much pain...your music saved me time and again."

A short time later McKagan tweeted a link to a tribute to Prince that he wrote for his Seattle Weekly column back in June of 2011. In the article entitled "There's Taking Things to the Next Level, and Then There's Prince" Duff wrote in part, "Life can get overwhelming for all of us. There are blocks of time when--and even when you are ultra-aware of it and its reproductions--stress and tension and work and family obligations take us out of ourselves. Some of us have religion, yoga, exercise, and creative art to relieve life's weight. But sometimes we need a little something more. For me, seeing Prince play the Inglewood Forum during his multi-week stand was just what the doctor ordered.

"I have been a die-hard Prince fan since the early '80s. When Controversy came out in 1981, a punker friend of mine in Seattle demanded that I listen to it. Prince was unlike anyone else.

"When 1999 came out in 1982, the record transformed my insides. I was going through a tough break-up with my first real long-term girlfriend and was heartbroken. 1999 somehow became my psychiatrist, and I held on to that record for dear life as I slowly got my feet back under me.