Remembering Pepé Willie

July 22, 1948 – June 1, 2025

The Minneapolis Music community has lost a legend. Linster Herbert Willie, Jr., affectionately known to the world as Pepé, passed away Sunday, June 1, at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis after a brief illness. He was 76.

Born July 22, 1948, in Brooklyn, New York, Willie’s life was destined to be shaped by music as nearly everyone on his mother’s side of the family sang, played an instrument, or in some cases, both. As a young child the frequent visitors to his Grandfather’s Carlton Avenue home included the likes of Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, and Wynton Kelly. 

Coming of age in Bed-Stuy during the early 1960s, Willie became teenage valet for the singing group his Uncle Clarence Collins founded, future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Little Anthony and The Imperials. And while working the historic musical revues staged by renowned impresarios Alan Freed, Murray the K Kauffman, and Clay Cole at the Brooklyn Paramount and later the Brooklyn Fox, Willie learned the business firsthand, studying at the feet of not only The Imperials, but of rock and soul icons such as Chubby Checker, Mary Wells, the Ronettes, Ray Charles, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, the Temptations, and fellow teen, Stevie Wonder, among scores of others.

An aspiring musician and songwriter, Willie benefited immensely from the tutelage of Teddy Randazzo, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

“Teddy taught me so much,” recalled Willie in 2024, “How to construct and produce a song from start to finish – how to craft the melody, verses, chorus, bridge, and of course, the hook.” 

It was a fortuitous encounter at New York’s Copacabana where Minneapolis native Shauntel Manderville and her green eyes caught the attention of Willie and the two soon became inseparable. Willie’s initial visit to the City of Lakes came in December 1970, when, while on leave from the US Army, he first met Manderville’s 12-year-old cousin, a precocious Prince Rogers Nelson. 

Upon his honorable discharge from the service, Willie and Manderville married in New York. And in 1974, he decided that it was time to make Minnesota his permanent home. The very day he landed at MSP, Willie caught a performance of Grand Central, a formidable group of youngsters, which, in addition to Prince, included future Minneapolis Sound royalty André Cymone and Morris Day.

Willie, the mentor, immediately took Grand Central under his wing; in awe of the talent and ambition he was witnessing. “I was telling my friends back home; this is where it’s at. Minneapolis is the place to be.”

In December 1975, Willie tapped Prince, who at the time was only 17, to play guitar during a studio session with his own newly formed band, 94 East. Prince’s first foray in a professional music studio, history would come to know the results of those sessions as “The Cookhouse Five,” the master tapes of which now reside in the Library & Archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was on the strength of those recordings that 94 East secured a contract with Polydor Records and Willie was paired with producer, songwriter, and Motown legend, Hank Cosby.

The next year, Willie, along with bandmates, best friends, and lifelong business partners, Kristie Lazenberry and Marcy Ingvoldstad, established Pepé Music, Inc (PMI), where the motto remains in 2025, “The music may be different, but the business is the same.”   

Subsequent recordings over the next few years, that included both Prince and Cymone, yielded the 94 East albums, “Minneapolis Genius and Symbolic Beginnings,” treasured items among collectors to this day.

One of Willie’s signature compositions is, “If You See Me,” which doubled as the title of his 2020 autobiography (Minnesota Historical Society Press), nominated for a Minnesota Book Award. The original recording served as the opening track on Numero Group’s Grammy-nominated compilation, “Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound.” Prince, who took a particular liking to Willie’s tune, reimagined it in 1982 as “Do Yourself a Favor,” the only song not penned by Prince to appear on the 77-track Super Deluxe Edition of his landmark album, “1999.”

Willie continued to support Prince into the 1980s. And among the many contributions he made to Prince’s career, were: serving as his interim manager in the late 1970s; opening his home for six months so that Prince and his band (which would ultimately be hailed as the Revolution) could rehearse; accompanying him on early promotional tours; PMI producing Prince’s first ever professional concerts at the historic Capri Theater; and helping him establish his first publishing company, Ecnirp Music.

With regards to Ecnirp (Prince spelled backward), Willie remembered how a barely teenage Prince would phone him in New York, asking questions about publishing, copyrights, and royalty points.

“Prince was so smart about all of this. He wanted to be in control of the business aspect of things as much as he was his art,” explained Willie, “So, I brought the papers to him, we filled them out and sent them off to BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc) in New York.” Not a week later his attorneys in Los Angeles sent those same agreements for him to complete, with a bill attached for their services.”

“And that is the sort of thing I told Prince to always look out for,” he continued, “They sent you a bill for $900.00 for something you’ve already done for the price of a stamp.”

For all of Willie’s musical acumen and achievements, he also managed to make his way around a few motion picture sets as well, working as a day player and/or performer in films such as “Purple Rain, Overnight Delivery,” the independent “Siren,” and Paramount’s 1974 classic “The Education of Sonny Carson,” the latter for which Willie  composed the song “Five Cent Ride to Freedom.”

Revered as the Godfather of the Minneapolis Sound, Willie was inducted into the Minnesota Black Music Hall of Fame in 1988.  And in addition to Prince, Cymone, and Day, Willie influenced the careers of so many other that have helped to make the Minneapolis Sound a household name around the world, a list that includes but is not limited to Sue Ann Carwell, Bobby Z, Matt Fink, Dez Dickerson, Cynthia Johnson, Jellybean Johnson, Jesse Johnson, Rockie Robbins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Ricky and Paul Peterson, and Marshall Charloff.

Willie is loved by so many. It’s been said often that he stole the show every time he walked into a room. Not just because of that big, beautiful personality, but also that big smile and even bigger heart. His smile was never brighter, nor his heart any fuller, than when he spoke of his daughter, granddaughter, and his grandson.

  Willie was preceded in death by his father, Linster Herbert Willie, Sr., mother Agnes Collins Leake, sister Pearl, and Danielle’s mother, Michele Lynn Anderson. He is survived by his daughter Danielle Marie Berry (Alan); grandchildren Jamiah Marie and Cameron Christopher; sisters Delores, Carol, and Tina; and many loving aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and cousins.

Willie will be interred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in a private ceremony. A celebration of life will be announced for some time in the summer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a Minnesota 529 College Savings Plan for his grandchildren and should be sent to Bridgewater Bank, 4450 Excelsior Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416, Attn: Danielle Berry. Please make checks payable to Danielle Berry. 

Tony Kiene is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, as well as a Prince aficionado!