Ever since the passing of Prince, we’ve read one tribute after another to the legendary singer.
There was the touching message from Will Smith and a few very poignant words from Justin Timberlake.
But Stevie Wonder appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper just hours after he learned of Prince"s death and was given a chance to talk about his close friend on air.
It was very difficult for him to do so.
"He was a great musician. He loved music. He loved playing his instrument," Wonder says of Prince in the following video.
"The times that we did jam together were amazing with all of the various people that he would bring together, and most of all he brought all the various cultures together.
He could play classical music if he wanted to. He could play jazz if he wanted to, he could play country if he wanted to. He played rock, you know, he played blues. He played pop. He played everything.
And [he was] very cognizant of what his responsibility was as a musician and a human being."
At one point in the moving interview, Cooper played a clip of a chat Prince had with Larry King back in 1999.
The clip featured Prince heaping a world of praise on Wonder, his fellow legendary artist.
"I use Stevie Wonder as an inspiration, whom I look up to a great deal just for the way that he crafted music and his connection to the spirit," Prince said at the time.
"And boy, back then I used him as a role model in trying to play all the instruments and be very self contained and keep my vision clear."
Wonder, meanwhile, performed a secret show with Prince at the White House last year.
He admitted on Thursday night to Cooper that he was "shocked" when he heard his friend died at age the relatively young age of 57.
"I didn"t believe it as I find it so hard to believe.
"You know, in this journey of music, we as artists that create the reflection of society and reflect, really the people that really want to see a better world, a better people, a unity of people, all those things – as did his music do and will continue to do for those of us who will continue to listen to it – it"s a heartbreak to lose a member of that army of love."
Did Wonder want to play a song?
A song by Prince or a song that reminded him of Prince?
Cooper did not want to put the singer on the spot, but he kindly posed this question to Wonder anyway.
And Wonder could barely even respond.
He politely declined, saying there"s no way he"d be able to get through a track without breaking down… and then he broke down.
Watch the emotional exchange below:
