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We Talked to the Producer of Prince's Instant Classic Super Bowl Halftime Show

Don Mischer, who produced Prince's epic Super Bowl XLI halftime show, remembers the "ethereal and magic" performance.

According to multiple reports, iconic musician and performer Prince passed away today at 57 years of age. His death comes less than a week after his private jet had to make an emergency landing when Prince suffered a mid-air health scare. According to his representatives, he had been battling the flu—he had previously canceled two shows that week due to the illness—and his condition worsened on the flight following a performance in Atlanta. He was treated in the hospital and later posted a message to his Twitter account "I am #transformed." He continued to tweet until April 18th.

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On February 4th 2007, Prince performed the halftime show at Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears in the middle of a swirling Miami rainstorm. You can watch an NFL Productions video of the event here, because the NFL is terrible and won't allow their YouTube videos to embed on other sites. It was a monster performance in horrible conditions and the video contains some insights from the people behind the show. Specifically, techs were concerned because Prince had four different live electric guitars he was going to use for the performance and the rain was a huge problem.

Don Mischer, who has produced and directed some of the biggest acts for various major events including Super Bowl halftime shows by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen, produced Super Bowl XLI that rainy night and over the phone from his office in Los Angeles, he told me he had nightmares the night before when he saw the weather forecast.

In the lead up to the Super Bowl, Prince had been performing a nightly show in Las Vegas and he and Mischer met several times to discuss the show. Prince wasn't concerned with pushing his own music. Instead, Mischer said, "he just wanted the show to be absolutely riveting and entertaining." He mixed songs from all over the place, including John Fogerty, The Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, and Queen. He hit his mark and he did it in the driving rain.

"There wasn't much we could do" about the the rain, Mischer said, they just had to roll with it. Still, Mischer was concerned. "I really panicked at one point," envisioning horror scenarios where Prince's backup dancers—known as The Twins—fell on the slippery stage while wearing their eight-inch heels. "Now, does Prince step over The Twins? Do we do a tight shot as EMTs care to them…?" But then eventually he stopped worrying and realized that the weather conditions "created an ethereal and magical mood" for Prince. Something he says couldn't have been reproduced with effects.

Mischer had a sense at the time that the show was a good one—"I knew it was something special"—but his first reaction was relief. It didn't really hit him how special it was until the next day, when he was traveling back and saw the New York Times review of the show, which called it "one of the most thrilling halftime shows ever." As for Prince? "He was happy with it."