Legendary musician Prince was found unresponsive on the morning of Thursday, April 21st at his home at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, a Minneapolis suburb, and later declared dead. The Grammy/Oscar/Golden Globe winning artist was 57.

According to Billboard, Prince’s legendary song "Purple Rain" might not have happened without a little cooperation from the members of Journey.

Singer/songwriter Jonathan Cain tells Billboard that he was notified in early 1984 that Prince wanted to speak with him. Curious, Cain went to Columbia Records' offices in Los Angeles and took a call from Prince, who told Cain, "I want to play something for you, and I want you to check it out. The chord changes are close to “Faithfully”” - a top 20 single from Journey's 1983 album Frontiers - "and I don't want you to sue me." After listening, Cain says, "I thought it was an amazing tune, and I told him, 'Man, I'm just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you're that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it's gonna be a hit.' And it was “Purple Rain”.”

The two songs definitely share more than just similar chords, including the wordless outer vocals and the tone of the guitar solos. "Prince felt, I guess, it was obvious enough that he was worried we were going to sue him," Journey guitarist Neal Schon recalls. "I think he called our office asking about it and we all talked about it and everybody said, 'Nah, it's the highest form of flattery. Let it go.'"

 But Cain never had a moment's second thought about even asking for a co-writing credit on the anthem. "No, no, that'll just bring bad juju on you, and you don't want to do that," Cain says. "I just thought it seriously showed the kind of caring, classy guy Prince was. He wanted to check in with Jonathan Cain and make sure I wasn't going to say, 'That sounds like "Faithfully”.’ There's so many other things that have come down the pike that were more of a rip-off, that have stolen Journey songs. There was a One Direction song I was upset about and I just let it roll. But that particular phone call [from Prince] was amazing."

Read the full story at Billboard.com.