‘He worked 154 hours straight': Family member reveals how Prince worked tirelessly and got little sleep in the weeks leading up to his death

Singer Prince worked feverishly all through the night, getting little sleep in the weeks leading up to his shocking death, a family member has revealed.

The Purple One didn’t even let the medical problems that led to his plane being forced into an emergency landing keep him from his work.

‘He worked 154 hours straight,’ Maurice Phillips, the Little Red Corvette singer’s brother-in-law, told fans who milled around outside Paisley Park, Prince’s compound and recording studio in Chanhassen, southwest of Minneapolis.

‘I was with him just last weekend,’ he added. ’He was a good brother-in-law.’

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Most visitors stayed well away from the hundreds of people outside the chain link fence that surrounds the compound, but Phillips (pictured) made a point of coming out and chatting

Prince's brother-in-law Maurice Philips, 52, came out to chat at Paisley Park on Saturday. Mourners arrived for a memorial service while fans gathered (pictured)

Fans, many of them wearing purple, tied hundreds of purple balloons to the fence and lined up for more than 30 minutes to sign a message of condolence on the fence 

Phillips, 52, talked as mourners arrived at Paisley Park for a memorial service on Saturday afternoon. Most visitors stayed well away from the hundreds of people outside the chain link fence that surrounds the compound, but Phillips made a point of coming out and chatting.

Members of Prince’s staff later handed dozens of boxes containing t-shirts, booklets and CDs to the people who have gathered in tribute ever since news of Prince’s death was announced on Thursday.

Fans, many of them wearing purple, tied hundreds of purple balloons to the fence and lined up for more than 30 minutes to sign a message of condolence on the fence.

During the afternoon, police ushered a steady stream of cars through the gates and mourners glumly walked inside.

One woman dashed out into the mid-afternoon sunshine and burst into tears. Others hugged before going in.

Earlier, purple floral arrangements and food were delivered to the estate. Among the mourners were Prince’s ex-fiancee Sheila E and former Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, who first turned the singer on to the Jehovah’s Witness faith.

Prince’s body was cremated at the First Memorial Waterston Chapel in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon immediately after it was released by the medical examiner in St. Paul.

Philips would not say what Prince had been working on in the days before he was died, nor give details of what was going on at the service, instead moving his fingers across his lips as if to zip them shut.

Instead he made small talk, asking young children their names and bantering about basketball.

The Purple One didn’t even let the medical problems that led to his plane being forced into an emergency landing keep him from his work, Philips said Saturday

Members of Prince’s staff later handed dozens of boxes containing t-shirts, booklets and CDs (pictured) to those who gathered in tribute

During the afternoon, police ushered a steady stream of cars through the gates and mourners glumly walked inside. One woman dashed out and burst into tears. Others hugged before going in

Prince (pictured walking out of a Walgreens near his home in Minnesota on Wednesday just hours before his death) was a 'good brother-in-law' who sometimes worked round the clock, Philips said

Purple floral arrangements and food were delivered to Prince's estate in Paisley Park (pictured as police stood guard on Friday) earlier on Saturday

Phillips is the husband of Prince’s sister Tyka. He said his wife is ‘holding up as best she can’ after Prince’s shocking death. As his closest living relative, she stands to inherit the singer’s $300 million fortune unless he willed it either to his Jehovah’s Witness faith or someone else.

That figure could swell to as much as $800 million thanks to increased sales of Prince’s music following his death and the expected release of a vast collection of some 2,000 so-far unheard songs that he kept in an underground vault at Paisley Park.

Tyka, with her hair dyed purple, also thanked fans when she arrived at the compound on Saturday, telling them her brother ‘loved all of you'.

‘Thank you for loving him back,’ said mother-of-six Tyka, 55, who admits to being a former prostitute and crack addict.

She and Prince had an often contentious relationship, but had become much closer in the years leading up to his death.

She posted messages on Facebook saying: ‘Thank U 4 Loving My Brother! He LOVED Playing His Music & I KNOW He Loved U 2..’ and ‘Thank U ALL from the bottom of my heart!'

Phillips is the husband of Prince’s sister Tyka (pictured at the service on Saturday). He said his wife is ‘holding up as best she can’ after Prince’s shocking death

Tyka, with her hair dyed purple, also thanked fans when she arrived at the compound on Saturday, telling them her brother ‘loved all of you'

The medical examiner is now awaiting the results of toxicology tests to see what killed Prince, who was just 57. Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson ruled out suicide and says there was no signs of trauma to the singer’s body, which was found in an elevator at Paisley Park on Thursday morning, 13 hours after he was last seen, when he was dropped off at the compound.

Paramedics attempted to revive him unsuccessfully and he was pronounced dead a few minutes after 10 am.

Prince’s publicist said he had been suffering from the flu, but just six days before his death, he was given a ‘save shot’ after overdosing on the painkiller Percocet. His plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, less than an hour from Minneapolis, during a flight home from Atlanta.

He refused to stay in hospital after getting the shot because there was no private room available.

Prince got hooked on Percocet after taking the powerful opioid to relieve pain from chronic injuries that left him walking with a cane. For years, the 5ft 2in star pranced around on stage in heels, which over time affected his hips and ankles.

But he would not have an operation for fear he might need a blood transfusion — a procedure forbidden by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe a person’s spirit is in their blood, so a transfusion is similar to mixing two people’s spirits.