MINNEAPOLIS — Prince had many hardcore fans. However, he preferred to call them “fams” — as in family — because he felt that “fan” was short for fanatic. But he didn’t know Rich Benson, a bona fide fanatic.

Since moving to Minneapolis in 1998, the Wisconsin-reared Benson attended 127 Prince performances, mostly at Paisley Park. He has collected more than 5,000 pieces of Prince memorabilia from stage-used guitar picks to subway posters. He even shook Prince’s hand once.

Benson’s extensive collection is the source of “Remembering the Purple One,” a free exhibit on display in conjunction with the “Purple Rain” musical that bows on Oct. 16 at the State Theatre.

“I bought 150 photos from Billy Robin McFarland [local photographer] and that one is from Rupert’s, the benefit for Big Chick,” Benson said referring to a displayed close-up of a shaggy-haired Prince in 1990 performing at the Golden Valley nightclub fundraiser for the family of his late bodyguard, Big Chick Huntsberry.

“Remembering the Purple One,” which is spread across seven empty storefront windows in LaSalle Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, offers a history of sorts of Prince, who died in 2016.

The exhibit features posters, photos, paintings, ads, lots of magazine and newspaper clippings, a bottle of Prince 3121 perfume, and a customized “Purple Rain”-inspired motorcycle (that is not part of Benson’s collection). There is also a multistory atrium wall with giant blowups of 39 album covers released in Prince’s lifetime.

“Now that I have it out for the world, it’s another set of therapy, a way to deal with his passing and sharing with the world,” Benson said of this exhibit. “I think he’d be proud in an educational way, and it’s free to the public.”

Benson, 49, speaks more like a matter-of-fact archivist than a gushing fan. He relishes the backstory — and the provenance — of an item as much as the item itself such as mentioning that the Rupert’s concert was the first time keyboardist Rosie Gaines played with Prince in public.

“There’s obviously this analytical side of his brain that really gets joy out of the details,” said Prince historian Andrea Swensson, who helped curate the exhibit. “He remembers the exact dates of all the Prince shows he saw. He can tell you what he was wearing and what Prince was wearing. There’s something almost scholarly or academic about the things that interest Rich.”

Benson can nerd out as much over a cardboard store display as he does over stage-used guitar picks he grabbed off the floor at Paisley Park. Like the pick he scored on Dec. 18, 1999, at the taping of Prince’s “Rave Un2 the Year 2000″ concert at Paisley Park.

“Technically it was the last guitar pick he used in the millennium,” Benson recounted. “It’s white with a purple symbol on it, and it’s smudged from use.”

Benson has meticulously compiled year-by-year folders with sleeves filled with newspaper and magazine clippings from around the world. He keeps his collection in a climate-controlled Minnesota storage facility. He presented one previous exhibition, in Newark, New Jersey, in 2023.

Without traveling, Benson has collected items from Japan, Australia, Russia and throughout Europe and the United States, especially Minneapolis, where he sought store displays at record shops and bought items at Paisley Park and Prince’s old NPG Store in Uptown. He’s purchased live recordings from sources in New York and Chicago.

Benson, whose day job is as a massage therapist and teacher at a health care spa, doesn’t buy items at auctions, where he finds the prices “astronomical” for Prince clothing and guitars. The most he’s paid for a collectible is $650.

One of about two dozen hardcore Prince collectors around the world, Benson hasn’t sold any pieces. He hasn’t even counted the exact number of items he has. But he has insured the collection for $750,000.

When anyone starts using Prince’s name or likeness, they usually hear from lawyers for Prince’s estate. Benson said two invited Paisley Park employees viewed his Minneapolis exhibit, which does not use Prince’s name, and the estate was aware of the Newark presentation.

Londell McMillan of Prince Legacy LLC told the Star Tribune that he loves “Remembering the Purple One.”

“My goal has always been to have the Twin Cities more involved in celebrating Prince and Paisley Park,” he said in a text. “Having authentic stories told from the local experts and curators is phenomenal.”

Discovering Prince

At age 6, Benson first heard a Prince song, “Little Red Corvette,” while riding with his truck-driver dad, growing up in Onalaska, Wisconsin.

“I didn’t know what a metaphor or double entendre was, but the lyrics pulled me in. I asked my dad: ‘What is he talking about?’ He said, ‘I don’t know son,’” recalled Benson, who grew up on the story songs of country music. “I had no idea he lived two-and-a-half hours away from where I grew up.”

As he delivered the La Crosse Tribune for six years as a kid, Benson clipped articles that mentioned Prince and “I was the only person buying Prince records at the Deaf Ear in town.”

After studying to be a dietitian at two Wisconsin colleges, Benson transferred his senior year to a Minneapolis trade school to learn how to become a recording engineer.

“The first day I set foot in Music Tech, I asked two questions: ‘Who here worked with Prince and how do I get to Paisley Park?’ They wrote down the address for me.”

Benson showed up at Paisley Park in Chanhassen taking photos and got kicked out of the parking lot but not before he learned about late-night performances at Prince’s studios where the budding fan eventually “found his tribe.”

An invite to Paisley on Oct. 18, 1999, turned out to be a 70-minute concert for fewer than two dozen people. Afterward, Benson, then 23, wiped off his sweaty hands and summoned the courage to approach Prince.

“I said, ‘Thank you for inviting us to your house tonight.’ He said, ‘You’re welcome.’ And I walked away. That’s all I needed to hear.”

About 22 years ago, Benson began seriously collecting Prince memorabilia after his workmate Jodi Berry, an avid concertgoer, wanted to unload some music collectibles. Benson and a friend split the $300 fee; the friend grabbed the vinyl and Benson took hundreds of ephemera like ticket stubs and posters.

Here are some of the highlights of the Rich Benson Collection, which is featured on rabenson76-cmqnt.wordpress.com.

Most recent purchase

A poster from the Hit ‘n’ Run Tour in 2014. “He wore his black bolero hat pulled tight over his Afro. I always loved that outfit. The poster is still rolled up. It’s in my car right now.”

Oldest item

A review of “For You,” Prince’s debut album from 1978, though Benson has reproductions of a Prince baby photo.

Most obscure

A 1983 ad in a Twin Cities weekly paper from the Minnesota Dance Theater, thanking Prince for his Aug. 3 benefit concert at First Avenue, where unbeknownst to concertgoers he recorded several songs for “Purple Rain.” “And I have a ticket stub from that night,” Benson said.

Most expensive item

A painting by the late Minnesota artist Dan Lacey, who became an unofficial ambassador to Paisley Park after Prince died. “I got it for about $650, a hell of a deal,” Benson said. “It was the last painting he worked on before he passed away” in 2022.

Biggest item

“It’s tie between the Dan Lacey painting and European subway posters from the ‘90s that measure 60 by 40 inches.”

Smallest item

Those stage-used guitar picks, the only items Benson received directly from Prince.

Most exotic piece

“I have a pile of the purple feathers that were dropped from the ceiling during the Rave taping [at Paisley Park on Dec. 18, 1999] and I still have them in a white plastic bag. I stuffed them in the front pockets of my leather jacket that night when they fell from the rafters probably for ’1999′ when he played that for the last time in the millennium.”

Came from the farthest

A 1984 “Purple Rain” movie review from Russia.

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REMEMBERING THE PURPLE ONE

Where: LaSalle Plaza, 800 LaSalle Ave., Minneapolis

When: Hours vary daily, through Dec. 31

Admission: Free

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