David Z, Grammy-Winning Producer Who Helped Craft Prince’s Early Music, Dead at 78
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- David "Z" Rivkin died Sunday at a hospital in Burbank, California, at age 78 from complications of an infection, with his death confirmed to the Minnesota Star Tribune by his brother Bobby Z, drummer for Prince and the Revolution
- Rivkin met an 18-year-old Prince in 1976 at Sound 80 studios after manager Owen Husney introduced them; after hearing Rivkin hum a horn line over Prince's demo tape, Prince declared "David is the only one I want working with me"
- Prince signed with Warner Bros. shortly after working with Rivkin on that demo, and the two continued collaborating on multiple later projects
- Rivkin won two Grammys for his production work with Etta James and earned a Record of the Year nomination for producing Fine Young Cannibals' 1988 smash "She Drives Me Crazy"
- Rivkin contributed to Lipps Inc.'s 1980 disco hit "Funkytown," one of the defining singles of the era
- Husney called Rivkin "the secret ingredient on many, many musical projects," noting he stayed quiet about his own role in the Minneapolis scene
- Rivkin described the Minneapolis Sound he helped build as "the sound of ignorance" — a deliberately DIY aesthetic shaped by isolation, cheap mics, and original engineering rather than imitation of L.A. or New York
Why it matters: Rivkin's death removes one of the last living architects of the Minneapolis Sound — the small circle of producers and musicians who midwifed Prince's career and reshaped '80s pop from a regional scene. Husney's "secret ingredient" framing matters for music history: Rivkin's fingerprints on Prince's Warner Bros.-landing demo and on era-defining hits like "Funkytown" and "She Drives Me Crazy" have likely been under-recognized relative to his actual influence on what came out of Minneapolis.
