Prince's cousin's efforts to expose the truth behind the musician's fentanyl death

Eight years have passed since the world lost Prince, an unparalleled musical force and one of America's most revered artists. During his life, the creative genius sold over 100 million records, ranking him among the best-selling musical artists ever. However, despite his worldwide fame, the circumstances surrounding his sudden death from fentanyl poisoning remain shrouded in mystery, with no one held accountable for the tragedy.

In an eye-opening interview, Prince's cousin, Chazz Smith, joins Grieving Out Loud host Angela Kennecke to talk about his mission to preserve his loved one's legacy and search for truth in the icon's unexpected passing.

Join us as Chazz shares intimate stories about growing up alongside the musical genius, witnessing the challenges of fame, and ultimately grappling with his cousin's passing due to a drug that has now become one of the leading causes of death in America. In this heartfelt conversation, we delve into the personal struggles of an icon and the quest for justice that continues to shape Prince's narrative eight years after his passing.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Prince: Purple rain, purple rain. 

[00:00:07] Angela Kennecke: Prince, one of the most recognized and celebrated singers, songwriters, and musicians in American history. During his life, the creative genius sold more than 100 million records, ranking him among the best selling musical artists Of all time. But today we're not just focusing on the singer's life, but also his sudden and tragic death.

[00:00:32] 911 call: Two car for a medical Paley Park. 7 8 0 1 Audubon Road. 7 8 0 1 Aon Road for a hale down not tree. 

[00:00:41] Angela Kennecke: That's the nine one one. Call to Prince's house the day the renowned artist suddenly died. The cause fentanyl poisoning from counterfeit pills. But today, eight years after Prince's death. No one has been charged and our nation's fentanyl crisis continues to escalate.

[00:01:01] Chazz Smith: From the moment they came on said they didn't have any, they weren't charging anybody. I just said, I don't care what it takes. I said, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I said, we're going to keep the attention. 

[00:01:11] Victoria Smith: And the entire inner circle, they all lawyered up. They refused to cooperate with investigators.

[00:01:18] Angela Kennecke: Today on Grieving Out Loud, we're honored to have Prince's cousin, Chaz Smith on the podcast along with his wife, Victoria. They're on a mission to not only preserve the legacy of their loved one, but also find the truth about who caused his death. Eight years later, is it too late? No, it's never too late.

[00:01:38] Chazz & Victoria Smith: Not at all. There's no statute of limitations on murder. Do you believe that someone could be charged with murder? Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:01:55] Angela Kennecke: I'm Angela Kenecke, the host of Grieving Out Loud and the founder of Emily's Hope, a non profit I created after my daughter died from fentanyl poisoning. We hope this episode leaves you informed about one of the top killers of America's youth. and inspired to make a difference in the fight against fentanyl.

Well, Victoria and Charles, Chaz, it's very nice to see you again. I'm very sorry under the circumstances that bring us together, but I'm happy to know both of you. 

[00:02:37] Chazz & Victoria Smith: And we feel the same. Thank you, Angela. We appreciate that, Angela. Thank you. 

[00:02:41] Angela Kennecke: This has been a really long journey for me already, and I am six years out, just about six years out from losing my daughter.

It has been eight years since the loss of your cousin, Prince. Can you talk a little bit about your history together? 

[00:02:57] Chazz Smith: Sure, I'd love to. We grew up from little babies, and because our families were really, really, really tight. I'm his second cousin, so we are from First Covenants. They were older than us, but we all were real close.

We could only hang with family members of Prince and I kind of gravitated together because we both love sports. And we both were the really only boys in the family. The most, we have girls in the family. So right away when we would go to family functions, him and I would gravitate towards my aunt had an organ in her house during the holidays, we'd go over there and me and Prince would sigh the organ.

I knew I couldn't play, but Prince. I had heard through the family that he could play, and he's just like a little kid, like six, five years old. And so, my aunt said one day, why don't you go over there and play it? And friend said, no, you go play it. And I said, no man, you go play it. So he could play the organ, and I said, what am I going to actually really play?

But I didn't care, because I wanted to just watch him play. And we, instead of hanging out with the family, him and I would always, I'd sit next to him, and he'd play the organ, and I'd sit and tap on the bench with him. Not knowing that I'd be playing the drums later, but he just had this kind of belief that was unusually, almost like something up from a spiritual kind of place that at that time, I had just lost my mother.

So my father was raising my sister and myself by himself. So I was in a lot of pain at that time, but sitting with friends and stuff at that young age. Being able to express myself through music with him really was healing.

[00:04:31] Angela Kennecke: Not only was playing music together therapeutic, but the two quickly learned that they also had some serious talent. 

[00:04:41] Chazz Smith: So I got a drum set and him and I started playing together. And my aunts and my relatives, they all encouraged Prince and I to play, play together. So we started playing local talent shows.

at that young age and was winning them against adults and kind of making a lot of noise around town of these two kids. The one kid he tap danced because Prince would tap dance like Sammy Davis Jr. and stuff. I'm dating myself now, but if you really remember Sammy Davis Jr., people know what I'm talking about, how talented.

[00:05:09] Angela Kennecke: I remember. I was a kid. I remember. 

[00:05:11] Chazz Smith: I mean, and appreciate really, but Prince was just like that. He was, and people were amazed at him. And this is Fourth grade, third grade, and we're wiping out people in talent shows and stuff. He really was a musical genius from the time he was a small child. I know a lot of people think they know what a genius is, but I always sat and watched this turn, what it really is to see a genius and know what it really feels like, that it makes you feel.

You can do anything.

[00:05:43] Angela Kennecke: In junior high school, Chaz and Prince teamed up with a couple of friends to form a band named Grand Central. They mainly played cover versions of popular hits from the 70s, including songs by Fleetwood Mac and Grand Funk Railroad. 

[00:06:00] Chazz Smith: The thing that was unusual about us, we were black kids playing all kinds of different kind of music.

Well, we had turned really the kids that were waiting to hear some black music from us. We didn't play anything. We played what was, we thought was popular. 

[00:06:13] Angela Kennecke: In 1974, Chaz was replaced by Morris Day as the drummer of the band. Chaz says he was still close to his cousin for a few years, but that began to change as Prince's popularity.

[00:06:28] Chazz Smith: I'll say when he got a record deal and all these people start coming and we had talked about it We have studied the record business before Prince actually really got it promised each other. We would never let these things Drugs all the things you can think about the women all the whole the rock and roll show We're not doing it like that.

We're gonna stay grounded. We're gonna be the band of gypsies. We're gonna be the righteous groups Members that are going to bring messages to society in a positive manner. That was our mantra and change lives and stuff, but that's what we wanted to really do. We didn't have any idea what the business had in store.

There was a lot of, a lot of stuff that really did some research on his career that affected him. And I think it all led up to his demise. Unfortunately, you get a lot of people that will do anything for you. People got in between him and I. People started telling us stories. Oh, the way they had Prince's kingdom locked down.

I mean, it was impossible to, if you're a family member, people asked me, they said, when's the last, because I've reached out to them through the years, I'd hear certain things and I'd reach out. President was easier to get a hold of. So you couldn't get to your own cousin is what you're saying. Literally, I've heard stories of people saying they had to tie, a message on a rock and at Paisley Park, hoping s it and bringing us, you'r a phone call through when dead in his place.

The first thing that came to my heart was not just sadness I really read the script out there. 

[00:08:04] Angela Kennecke: You felt like 

[00:08:04] Chazz Smith: Oh, no doubt about 

[00:08:07] Angela Kennecke: it. On

would like to uncover the was how his cousin developed an addiction to painkillers. Multiple reports, including this one from Entertainment Tonight. 

[00:08:22] Entertainment Tonight: Prescription painkillers were found in the legendary singer's possession when he died. 

[00:08:27] Angela Kennecke: Suggests that the singer's struggle with substance use disorder started from a doctor prescribing opioids following hip replacement surgery.

Did you know that he was suffering from substance use disorder or addiction? Following his hip surgeries, did you know about the pain pills? 

[00:08:46] Chazz Smith: Never. I heard rumors about the family with the, uh, hip replacement. Found out later that it was a shabby hip replacement that Prince was suffering at the point near his death.

You could hear him walking. You could hear a clump like from the witnesses that I talked to about. So he had to be in pain, but I had no idea because Prince swore off. He never did anything.

[00:09:11] Angela Kennecke: In fact, Prince was known for focusing on his health. Abstaining from alcohol and embracing a deeply spiritual lifestyle. His private nature was such that interviews were rare, making this one on one conversation with Larry King unique. 

[00:09:28] Larry King Live: Oh, I've always known God was my creator, and that, uh, without him,

nothing works. Uh, it works to a point, and then it just kind of deteriorates. Entropy takes place. 

[00:09:45] Chazz Smith: It was one of the realest, you know, most people speak it, but he walked it and that's what I love the truth. He walked in the truth at all time. 

[00:09:52] Angela Kennecke: But it's really easy to see how somebody who even though they have those beliefs, once they are prescribed pharmaceuticals, highly addictive pharmaceuticals, how they could become addicted.

It's really easy to understand that. 

[00:10:05] Chazz Smith: It is now, but at the time I thought Prince looked at people that depended on anything. He said the only thing you should be able to depend on is your faith in God. And so he was real about that and he walked in that light and when I seen him, it was so real and who has a gift, that gift that he had, it only could have come from a source.

People call God whatever they want to call it. It wasn't from this source here on this earth at all. It was something incredibly special. I'm not knocking anybody, but God gives certain people certain things and I always felt like wow. And I was really blessed. Just to be sittin there watchin it. 

[00:10:42] Angela Kennecke: And I think the world knew that.

I think the world knew it because everyone knew Prince. And it is a big part of my life and my formative year, you know, when Purple Rain came out and so many of us who are fans really saw that talent.

That talent was on display just days before Prince's death. He performed two shows in one night in Atlanta. and then boarded a plane to head home to Minneapolis. But during that flight, the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing. 

[00:11:15] 911 call: What's the nature of the emergency? What's the nature of the unresponsive passenger?

Was it a male or female passenger?

[00:11:23] Angela Kennecke: They landed his plane. He was treated for an overdose. Right. Did you know anything that was going on at the time? 

[00:11:29] Chazz Smith: Well, you know, the word got around real quick. When the plane went down, there was a story about he had the flu or something about a show a week before that he had canceled. And my wife will tell you, I know my cousin, I followed him for years, whether I was with him or not, I always paid attention to what was going on.

I always had sources that would give me information that other people couldn't get, but I would get it. And when that plane went down, my wife will tell you, I said, Oh, Prince doesn't cancel shows ever. God is my witness. He never missed shows. When that happened, I said, Oh, something's wrong. 

[00:12:06] Angela Kennecke: Indeed, something was wrong.

After the emergency landing, Prince was administered Narcan, which reversed his overdose. But then instead of getting treatment for substance use disorder, he left the hospital. So here's the tragedy. I think really, before the tragedy. is that he didn't really get the proper help that he needed, right? So he left the hospital and the people around him, and I know you weren't around him at the time, but then they call in this addiction person from California.

I mean, you've got Hazelden right there in Minneapolis. Why do you think nobody brought him to help? Do you know why he didn't get the help he needed in time? 

[00:12:47] Victoria Smith: They didn't want to help him. They didn't want to help him. 

[00:12:50] Chazz Smith: And then some people would go, well, why wouldn't they want to help him? Because he was paying everybody and all that whole thing.

I think it was a lot deeper than just Prince dying of an overdose. And I don't think that was a coincidence of any type of at all, because you have to look at the whole history. If you even see now, a lot of people are jumping their catalogs left and right. A lot of strange things have happened. Top, he had the same, died the same year, Prince, so did David Bowie.

And there are catalogs of both being sold. Michael Jackson's of course is. All kinds of stuff. And you really start getting deep. You start really realizing that, wow, this is as shocked as everybody was. It was, is that a coincidence that Prince died twice? He died the first time. You mean you take him back to Paisley park?

And then it was strange. He went, had a party. My wife will tell you, I said, something's going on because he's coming out, trying to tell everybody he's okay, but I know the cradle, I know the brother. I said, Oh no, he's trying to cover up something. And then when he died later, that. Thursday. I said, Wow, man, why didn't they take him to get some help?

And the thing is, my wife said, I don't think they really wanted to help him. I think it was at the end of the road. Prince was going to get his rights back to his music. That had been 30 years. 

[00:14:02] Angela Kennecke: And then on the day of his death, he took what he thought was Vicodin and it turned out to be fentanyl. I think the mystery surrounding that and where that came from, I've done a little bit of research.

I read that Prince didn't have a cell phone, so it was hard for investigators to figure out. Where this came from. 

[00:14:21] Chazz Smith: There's so many weird things. There were no cameras hooked up for years. Then Princess, a million dollar complex there. You mean to tell me there's no security cameras? They said the doves were the security that if they made a noise or something like that, that was Prince's security that he didn't want the cameras on and stuff.

[00:14:39] Angela Kennecke: Where do you think he got the Hydrocodone or Vicodin, what was really Fentanyl? And he didn't know. I mean, I think that's the thing that we need to establish because people don't always realize Prince didn't know he was taking Fentanyl. 

[00:14:52] Chazz Smith: Oh, we, we also agree that it wasn't his fault. We're not blaming anybody, but we also say people bear the responsibility of knowing what you're taking, or at least find out that they do have test kits and they do you, if you're going to be Prince or anyone else on that kind of level, and a lot of, a lot of guys have died after Prince, all these artists that just Coolio, all these famous, oh, Fentanyl.

[00:15:19] Victoria Smith: My husband has always said they trust the handlers too much. 

[00:15:25] Angela Kennecke: Right. And I think it's hard to understand substance use disorder. It's hard to understand where someone's head is, especially if they're desperate and maybe they just want to believe this is Vicodin. I'm going to believe it's Vicodin. 

[00:15:39] PBS News Hour: New information on the death of Prince.

Nearly a year after the music legend died, investigators say painkillers were prescribed under the name of a friend to protect the singer's privacy. 

[00:15:51] Angela Kennecke: While no one was criminally charged in Prince's death. A Minnesota doctor agreed to pay 30, 000 to settle a federal civil violation. He was accused of illegally prescribing an opioid painkiller for Prince a week before the musician died.

When authorities searched Prince's house, they found pills, but none of them were prescribed to Prince. Some were written to his former drummer and longtime friend, Kirk Johnson. Others were found in vitamin pill bottles and in envelopes. But the people around him were helping him. They were enabling him.

[00:16:26] Victoria Smith: Enabling is a better word. That's 

[00:16:28] Chazz Smith: what I said at first. I like that word. Because they could have easily said, I'm not going to go do that. 

[00:16:34] Angela Kennecke: From your understanding, what hindered the investigation? What were the reasons that they gave? Why they didn't charge anybody? 

[00:16:43] Victoria Smith: In the entire inner circle, they all lawyered up.

They refused to cooperate with investigators. 

[00:16:49] Chazz Smith: From the moment they came on set, they weren't charging anybody. I just said, I don't care what it takes. I said, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but I said, we're going to keep the attention. 

[00:16:58] Victoria Smith: Right. There are plenty of people that don't think that Charles is running an official and professional investigation, but I have to say, think what you want.

We had been meeting with Jim Olson, the sheriff who was leading the investigation. We had several meetings with Jim Olsen. 

[00:17:22] Chazz Smith: We decided, we said, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to keep so much attention and so much light on this. They're not going to forget about anybody that dies from fentanyl.

They're going to know about it. And it's not, Oh, just another person. This just happened to be Prince for anybody because they're really not taking it serious enough. 

[00:17:39] Victoria Smith: You know, fans have said, just be careful because we don't want Charles to make Prince into the opioid poster boy, and that's not what we're, that's not what we're doing.

[00:17:51] Angela Kennecke: But I also think it really is important to let people know. What happened to Prince to raise awareness about 

that it can 

happen and it can happen to anybody. I mean, that is why I speak about my daughter and maybe she is the poster child of this epidemic, you know, in some ways. But how else are you going to save other people if you don't tell the story?

[00:18:13] Chazz Smith: Why not have them be the poster though? Because we need to teach. If people really could see that that could happen to somebody that seemed like they had so much. And they were so gifted, and yet they were still ashamed to tell everybody, I need to vote. 

[00:18:29] Victoria Smith: Yeah, his legacy will always live on. However, our focus is his death.

He wants answers. He wants the truth. You need to sit down with the authorities. Regardless, if you worked Alongside of him and we're that close. Why not sit down with law enforcement? What do you have to hide? 

[00:18:52] Chazz Smith: And people questioned me. They said, you weren't around him at that time. And I go, that relationship between Princeton and I, since we were little kids, I've got pictures.

that never stop. We just went different journeys. I've been married for 30 years. I've been fortunate enough to God bless me with a wife and beautiful children and a great life and a great musician. And I just feel like I've been blessed to have gotten to know Prince. And so this is my way of giving back to what he gave me.

Complete confidence like you can't believe I learned all that from. 

[00:19:24] Victoria Smith: And why not, Angela, like you said, Why not talk about it? 

[00:19:28] Angela Kennecke: Exactly. 

[00:19:29] Victoria Smith: Because you know, that goes along with the stigma, 

[00:19:32] Angela Kennecke: right? And the stigma is runs so deep and nobody wants to tarnish his talent or all the ability he had or the amazing gifts he left the world in terms of his music and his artistic ability, right?

So he had all those things. And addiction or substance use disorder. doesn't take away from that. In fact, people who are that gifted and sensitive and talented tend to suffer from this 

much 

more than the rest of us.

Only those at Prince's Paisley Park home know the exact truth. But according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Purple Rain Star was dead for up to six hours before his friend and former drummer, Kirk Johnson, and his personal assistant found him unresponsive and alone in an elevator in his house.

They called emergency services shortly before 10 that morning, but the Star Tribune reports that the star likely died during the night. I have two questions. What are you hoping to accomplish? And is it too late? 

[00:20:35] Chazz Smith: The more we looked, Angela, the more we started finding more things. And so, 

[00:20:41] Victoria Smith: I think 2024, there is going to be some action on this case.

I really do. I feel like my husband is in a place right now And he has made such phenomenal contacts, and things are coming to fruition. 

[00:20:59] Chazz Smith: Remember 2024, a lot of truth's coming out in this world right now. 

[00:21:03] Victoria Smith: And I think that there is going to be some things that will come forward, some information. 

[00:21:11] Chazz Smith: It's going to surprise people, but it's not going to surprise some people.

[00:21:14] Angela Kennecke: What questions need to be answered here in this case? What do you want to see answered? 

[00:21:20] Chazz Smith: After Prince died on the plane, who got him the pills and ended up taking his life that next week? Even though the doctor who got away with filling out a prescription And put it in Kurt Johnson's name, that little slap on the wrist for 30, 000, okay, that's always been our, like, somebody knows something in that little bunch of people, because Prince didn't go down and make a deal himself.

Somebody had to get them for him, and they know who they are, and they shouldn't get away with it. 

[00:21:50] Victoria Smith: My husband always says, whether it was an accident or not, and Shouldn't 

[00:21:54] Chazz Smith: be dabbling in that, and they know they're dabbling in death, they know that some people can die from it. 

[00:21:59] Victoria Smith: And we also have learned that it was not an accident.

[00:22:04] Chazz Smith: I really believe they're really trying to murder. Like, your daughter and everyone else are trying to kill people left and right. And I don't understand what the reasoning of it is. It's something deep and evil. Cause the stuff is all over the world. Yeah, it sure feels that way, doesn't it? And a lot of walking around 

[00:22:19] Angela Kennecke: here mourning.

Eight years later, is it too late? 

[00:22:24] Chazz Smith: Not at all. No, it's never too late. Not at all. There's no special limitations on murder. 

[00:22:28] Angela Kennecke: Do you believe that someone could be charged with murder? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Or 

[00:22:32] Victoria Smith: else 

[00:22:33] Chazz Smith: we wouldn't be still doing this. 

[00:22:35] Victoria Smith: Yeah, we're getting closer and closer, so. 

[00:22:38] Chazz Smith: Something happened a couple years ago that totally took us in a whole different direction because there were some days where some of the fans would go like, Hey, man, keep going, Charles and Victoria.

We're really dependent on you guys to keep going. We're like, cause some days we just go, man, there was a whole bunch of fraudulent people coming around and a lot of attacks on why am I doing this in my feelings about Prince and all, they didn't even know Prince, didn't even know him. And they're sitting there trying to tell me, which is really insulting, but I guess I understand they loved him too and didn't know what to do with the pain or whatever, but I'm sitting there going, I'm trying to find out.

The 

[00:23:17] Victoria Smith: trajectory of everything. It changed the course in 2018 when I was driving on flying cloud drive and I was on my way home and my husband telephoned me and he said, where are you right now? And I said, well, I'm almost home. I'm on flying cloud. He goes, I just received a phone call and you're going to want to hear this.

And I got home and. It changed the course of everything, the information that my husband learned. 

[00:23:54] Angela Kennecke: Is that information is still being used or looked into today? It's 

[00:24:00] Victoria Smith: information that changed the course of my husband's investigation. And we contacted our contacts. Our attorneys are both former assistant U.

S. attorneys. So they both know what they're doing and we are very confident. 

[00:24:19] Chazz Smith: That's why if you stay the course, you never know what God's planning, what he'll drop on you. You just don't give up. And a lot of the, like I said, a lot of the fans were always encouraging and I would always go when you just feel like you're just tired and you're going like, well, you know, maybe we won't because people will go.

You're really messing with some dangerous people and there are people that really don't like what you're doing because we get some messages and threats and stuff from people that are going like You better watch what your family member is going like we don't want you talking to people You don't need to talk to the media right from the beginning when Prince died.

My family told me Confronted me and said why are you talking to the media? So right away there was confrontation Ultimately, you want to see what happened. I want them in jail. Whoever did it, I want them in 

[00:25:05] Angela Kennecke: jail. 

[00:25:06] Victoria Smith: A federal indictment, and that's what we're aiming towards. 

[00:25:10] Angela Kennecke: And in addition to the case, you're going to keep talking about fentanyl.

[00:25:14] Chazz Smith: Oh, 100%. Until they eradicate this stuff, because there's no reason for it to be here. There just really isn't. The record business is really a part of this as well. They're ignoring it. They could really make a lot of noise if they were like at the Grammys, for example. 

[00:25:31] Angela Kennecke: I thought that same thing. I thought, you know, they did a tribute to Tom Petty during one of these award shows, and not once did they say that he died from fentanyl, and it really bothered me.

I thought, here they have this huge platform where they could educate kids. 

[00:25:46] Chazz Smith: And the thing with, it was 50 years of hip hops, let alone, they didn't celebrate the artists that died from fentanyl that were two pioneers in hip hop, that Coolio and a dude called Shock G that was in this group called Digital Underground that produced Tupac Shakur.

So I'm going, they should have said something about it, but it was, no words were spoken about fentanyl. I thought, wow, all these great artists have died from this. And you mean to tell me they don't have a little couple of minutes segment they can. Zero in on it. So the whole, while we got the whole world's attention, right then and there, they don't want it out there.

[00:26:21] Victoria Smith: No. 

[00:26:22] Angela Kennecke: Right. I think there's so much stigma associated with it too. I think people are afraid to talk about it. Afraid of offending somebody. 

[00:26:30] Victoria Smith: One thing we learned, Angela, is one of the larger treatment facilities here in the Twin Cities shared with us that they had contacted Paisley Park to do their annual gala.

And Paisley Park said, You know, in other words, sure, we'll take your money and this was a couple of years ago before the estate was closed and whatnot. But, you know, sure, we'll take your money, but you can't mention the word opioid. The president of the treatment facility said, this is a gala. This is our largest fundraiser.

And you mean we can't mention opioids? 

[00:27:11] Chazz Smith: You think Paisley Park will be number one talking about the death of a rock star? 

[00:27:16] Victoria Smith: Yeah. 

[00:27:17] Chazz Smith: And what took him out, and so that other people will not make the same mistake. 

[00:27:21] Victoria Smith: When we were together at the U. S. Attorney's Office, and you were talking about your daughter, I turned and looked at my husband, and he had tears, literally, tears running down his face.

[00:27:37] Chazz Smith: I felt her heart, man. That was like, that was something that you can't rehearse or anything. I was going like, wow, man, I, we're, whoa. And that made me, my push for justice for Prince and everybody even more is after hearing your story, I don't, I don't 

[00:27:51] Victoria Smith: believe in coincidences. I 

[00:27:53] Chazz Smith: don't either. I said, you know what?

I'm really going to take this to another level. 

[00:27:56] Victoria Smith: Not a lot moves my husband. You 

[00:28:00] Chazz Smith: know, everybody's got an agenda. I just felt like, wow. But I'm 

[00:28:03] Victoria Smith: telling you, when I turned and looked at my husband and 

[00:28:08] Angela Kennecke: Well, I felt that connection with you guys too at the DEA summit and I really appreciate you know your kind words and that you appreciated Emily's art and all of that as well.

And like I said, it is these incredible artists that we lose and so many young people, and even Prince was 57 but still way before his time and what else he could have produced. 

[00:28:29] Chazz Smith: The stuff he left, they said there'll be a hundred years, an album every year and Prince will still be having records out, man.

It's just, it's just insane. 

[00:28:39] Angela Kennecke: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your relationship, you know, with Prince and what you've been doing since his death. And I really appreciate you sharing that with us. Yes, 

[00:28:51] Victoria Smith: absolutely. Thank you very much.

[00:28:58] Angela Kennecke: And thank you for spending your time with us. To learn more about Chaz and Victoria's mission for justice, check out the show notes in this podcast. While you're doing that, we'd also appreciate it if you take a moment to write a review and share this episode with all of your friends and family. It does help us further our mission to increase awareness about the nation's fentanyl crisis, decrease stigma surrounding substance use disorder, and hopefully get more people the help they desperately need.

Thank you again for listening. Until next time, wishing you faith, hope, and courage. This podcast is produced by Casey Wannenberg King and Anna Fye.