Five pristine vinyl copies of Prince’s unreleased Black Album have been discovered 30 years after it was supposed to be released.
The album should have been the late star’s 16th offering but he became convinced it had been created by a demon and was “evil” and should not be released.
He pulled it a week before its planned release date on December 8, 1987 and all 500,000-vinyl copies were recalled and destroyed.
But five survived and were discovered by a former Warner Bros employee who was hunting through old boxes of his records to find some for his daughter after she bought her first record player.
Prince - Factory Sealed 1987 U.S. "Black Album" Vinyl LP - One Of The Rarest Records In The World #Prince #TheBlackAlbum https://t.co/4RwSwRUN8p pic.twitter.com/SM71AOaPro
— Jeff Gold (@recordmecca) 13 December 2017
The man, who has not been named, contacted Jeff Gold, a former Warner Bros. Executive Vice President who now runs the music memorabilia store Record Mecca and sent him three copies.
Gold said: "It's easily one of the rarest records in the world, if not the rarest."
All three were priced at £15,000 and one has already been snapped up and the other two are for sale on his website.
