RIP Prince

They could always get Axl Rose.

 

From an interview with Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam

"Prince really recorded differently than everybody else. He kind of wrote his own rules, but still, being in sessions with him also teaches you things to do that are a little out of the box. He called it "visual records." He said, "You always wanna make the record so that it takes people to a place, that they imagine a place." And this is just before music videos were happening. It was the early ‘80s. MTV hadn't really come to fruition yet. Prince was always making records that were really sonically aggressive, but also painted some sort of picture. "​

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Celebrate 30 Years as ASCAP Members

 

To your point:

 

In a column in the Guardian, their music critic recalled a 2014 interview with Prince, who'd appeared solo accompanying himself on piano. "I have to take chances," Prince said, "because I'm not one who'll get bad reviews." In other words, he never wanted to let down his inner critic by being less than original.
He never was, either.

 

They probably have second-hand stores where he's going.

 

Recency effect. They're forgetting what a huge, huge star Dylan was in the Sixties. Even before Beatlemania in the days of civil rights marches, he was a national name, then when he jumped on the rock bandwagon, he was just massive.

Actually the careers of Dylan and Prince have quite a few similarities, with an offset of 20 years. Both started as semi-cult artists somewhat obscure to the mass audience, but with a rabid hardcore, then exploded into megastardom when the mainstream suddenly "got" them, remaining huge stars for most of a decade.

Both then downshifted to a lower level of production, putting stuff out steadily, often critically acclaimed but rarely selling big.

Both were somewhat sidetracked commercially by a diversion into heavily religious content in mid-career.

And neither ever went away; they just kept on putting stuff out according to their own tastes and their own schedules.

 

Dylan was probably more influential, if only because nobody seems to bother trying to emulate Prince's career.

 

Obituaries breed exaggeration. When Dylan dies, he'll be elevated past Prince as is only right. That by no way should be seen as any kind of denigration of Prince.