R&B singer Alexander O’Neal, once a central figure in the Minneapolis Sound, is recovering after a fire tore through his Minnesota apartment early Friday morning, a blaze his wife Cynthia says began when his oxygen tube suddenly ignited.
According to her account, O’Neal woke her in the middle of the night as flames began crawling through the tubing attached to his oxygen machine. “There was a bubble of fire in the cord,” she told TMZ, describing how the couple scrambled to contain the flames while O’Neal, still weak from recent hospitalizations, tried to stomp out a second fire on the floor and burned his bare foot.
It’s the latest scare for the 72-year-old performer, who had only recently been discharged from the ICU following a nearly two-week stay for bacterial pneumonia and an enlarged heart.
A Legacy Rooted in the Minneapolis Sound
The incident comes at a time when O’Neal’s long, complicated history with Prince and the Minneapolis scene is once again drawing attention.
Before his solo stardom, O’Neal was part of Flyte Tyme, the band featuring Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, long before the duo became Grammy-winning superproducers. When Prince reshaped the group into what became The Time, O’Neal was infamously fired, and Morris Day was installed as the frontman. The rift pushed O’Neal out of Prince’s orbit but ultimately launched him into his own hit-making run.
Solo Success Beyond Prince
Once signed as a solo artist, O’Neal carved out a signature sound blending powerhouse vocals with Jam & Lewis’ sleek R&B production. His run through the mid-’80s and ’90s delivered a string of classics, including:
- Fake, a crossover smash that became his biggest U.S. hit
- If You Were Here Tonight, now considered an R&B slow-jam essential
- Criticize and Saturday Love (with Cherrelle), both staples of the Minneapolis Sound era
Though his relationship with Prince was professionally rocky, O’Neal’s influence remains intertwined with that musical dynasty.
Home Destroyed, But Hope Intact
When Cynthia returned to their Burnsville apartment later Friday, she found devastation: melted medicine bottles, walls soaked from the sprinklers, and water “up to my ankles.” Four units were damaged in total, and the fire remains under investigation.
By Friday evening, O’Neal had been discharged and he and Cynthia were staying with family. Even amid crisis, Cynthia kept her spirits high: “We are so happy to be alive. We may not have a toothbrush, but we have a car. Our spirits remain good and we are moving forward.”
The couple, together for decades and married in 2024, now faces rebuilding, a new challenge in the storied life of a man who has already survived the music industry’s wildest twists.
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