Andrea Swensson is an author, podcast host, and music journalist based in Minneapolis. She hosts the Official Prince Podcast, produced in collaboration with Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records, Warner Records, and Sony Music Entertainment, and has contributed music journalism to numerous outlets, including NPR Music, Pitchfork, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, City Pages, and The Current, where she previously hosted "The Local Show." Her first book, Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound, chronicling the funk and soul scene from the 1950s to the 1970s, was released in October 2017 and honored with a Minnesota Book Award. She is also the author of the new book Deeper Blues, a heartfelt biography of the nonagenarian blues musician (and Jimmy Jam's father) Cornbread Harris.

"...faithfully recaptures his heyday and the time when Purple Rain was released. Because a film was so integral to the Purple Rain phenomenon, the visual aspect of the project is important and this book, in all its paisley and lingerie glory, is a feast for the eyes. There are few books that so evocatively capture the creative human chimera that was Prince."

"The book goes beyond Purple Rain providing a fast-moving biography of Prince's entire life leading up to Purple Rain. It provides concise but thorough overviews of each of the five previous albums with a wealth of quotes from a cross-section of credible sources, in addition to Swensson's own interviews, plus a forward written by Maya Rudolph."

"Poring over all the details in this book, from the ticket stubs to the film stills and all those impeccable Purple Rain tour outfits in the concert photography, it all brings me right back to that summer in 1984 when I first purified myself in those Lake Minnetonka waters. Just when I think I know everything about him I realize that there's still so much to learn, and reading Andrea's interviews with The Revolution and with Prince himself provides all these little puzzle pieces. The story keeps unfolding, and that brings me so much comfort."