“I asked him what was going on. He said to me, ‘This is too good for you guys. I’m taking it back’”: Prince collaborator David Z, who helped create one of his biggest hits, has died, aged 78

David Rivkin Prince.

Frequent Prince collaborator and renowned producer David Rivkin – known professionally as David Z – has died at the age of 78, it’s been confirmed. He was being treated in hospital but suffered complications from an infection.

Like Prince, Rivkin hailed from Minneapolis, and the pair came into contact in the mid-’70s. It was Rivkin who worked with Prince on the demos that would eventually secure him a recording deal with Warner Bros, and the pair had a long-standing creative relationship. Indeed, Rivkin is remembered as one of the originators of what became know as the 'Minneapolis sound'.