{"id":26871,"date":"2026-08-04T04:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T23:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26871"},"modified":"2026-08-04T04:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T23:43:36","slug":"david-z-producer-who-helped-craft-princes-early-music-dead-at-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26871","title":{"rendered":"David Z, Producer Who Helped Craft Prince\u2019s Early Music, Dead at\u00a078"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tDavid \u201cZ\u201d Rivkin, a Grammy-winning producer and one of the architects of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/minneapolis\/\" id=\"auto-tag_minneapolis\" data-tag=\"minneapolis\">Minneapolis<\/a> Sound,\u201d has died at the age of 78. Throughout his prolific career, Rivkin famously worked with Prince during his early years, helped create Lipps Inc.\u2019s hit \u201cFunkytown,\u201d and worked with a number of artists including Etta James, the Jets, Fine Young Cannibals, and more. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHis brother Bobby Z, drummer for Prince and the Revolution, confirmed his death to the <em><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/david-rivkin-prince-bobby-z-jonny-lang-funkytown-etta-james-gram-parsons-owen-husney\/601874481\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a><\/em>. The publication stated that Rivkin died Sunday at a hospital in Burbank, California, due to complications from an infection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cDavid was the secret ingredient on many, many musical projects,\u201d Owen Husney, a bandmate of Rivkin\u2019s in local groups during the Sixties and Prince\u2019s first manager, said. \u201cHe stayed pretty silent about it. He never really talked about his work or what he did. His significance is undeniable on the Minneapolis music scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHusney recalled introducing an 18-year-old Prince to Rivkin in 1976 at Sound 80 studios. As Rivkin listened to Prince\u2019s demo tape, the producer hummed a horn line alongside the music. At one point, Husney said, \u201cPrince turned to me and said: \u2018Let\u2019s go. Let\u2019s get out of here.\u2019 I was embarrassed. I told David, \u2018I\u2019m sorry.\u2019 I got in the car and said, \u2018What happened?\u2019 Prince said: \u2018David is the only one I want working with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAfter Rivkin worked with Prince on the demo, the legendary singer signed a contract with  Warner Bros. and would work with the producer on multiple other projects. Rivkin also garnered two Grammys for producing Etta James and earned a Grammy nod for record of the year for producing Fine Young Cannibals\u2019 1988 song \u201cShe Drives Me Crazy.\u201d Rivkin contributed to Lipps Inc.\u2019s disco classic, \u201cFunkytown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhen discussing the Minneapolis Sound with the<em> Star Tribune<\/em> in the mid-Eighties, Rivkin called it \u201cthe sound of ignorance.\u201d He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s (a sound) made up in an isolated atmosphere. We don\u2019t steal from someone in L.A. or New York. From the songs to the licks to the engineering techniques to the cheap mics we use, we\u2019re so different from everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David \u201cZ\u201d Rivkin, a Grammy-winning producer and one of the architects of the \u201cMinneapolis Sound,\u201d has died at the age of 78. Throughout his prolific career, Rivkin famously worked with Prince during his early years, helped create Lipps Inc.\u2019s hit \u201cFunkytown,\u201d and worked with a number of artists including Etta James, the Jets, Fine Young&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/david-rivkin.jpg?w=1600&h=900&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}