Vanity dead: Prince protege, singer-actress Denise Katrina Matthews dies at 57

Vanity was born Denise Katrina Matthews in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She worked as a model in Canada before moving to the United States.

Prince then recalled the time he threatened to throw her in a pool. She appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone with Prince, in a portrait shot by Richard Avedon, with her hands creeping down the front of his trousers. She released two solo records, Wild Animal and Skin on Skin, after signing with Motown Records.

She thrived on raciness, often performing in lingerie.

“When she walked into the room everyone knew she was something very special”, Craig R. Baxley, who directed “Action Jackson“, told The Canadian Press in an email Tuesday.

Her close encounter with death transformed her and led to her rebirth.

The latest reports are claiming that after an encore at the show, Prince returned to the stage where he said, “I am new to this playing alone. I didn’t snort cocaine, I smoked it”.

She blamed her cocaine addiction for a kidney ailment that required dialysis.

On her fundraising page, she said she was “born again” in 1992, turned away from the pop/rock lifestyle she now loathed, returned to using her birth name, and also got sick from her history of drug use. After this, she left her career in entertainment and became a born-again Christian.

In her memoir Blame It on Vanity, she wrote: “I’d inhaled enough rock so that by the age of 35, you could light me up, smoke me and stick me in the nearest cold grave”.

The group toured with Prince on his “1999” tour but she quit after that in 1984. The former Oakland Raider was sentenced last month to life in prison after being convicted of three murders.

Many musicians and artists expressed their condolences and remembrances on Monday night.

Rapper MC Hammer tweeted that he had just attended church with Matthews on Saturday.

FILE – In this March 22, 1985 file photo, actor Taimak, left, and Vanity arrive at the Century Plitt Theater for the premiere of their film “The Last Dragon“, in Los Angeles.

The Daily Mail reported that Prince paid tribute to Matthews during a solo performance in Melbourne this week. He even opened up and shared a memory he had with her with the audience.