WASHINGTON — Prince's unfinished memoir, The Beautiful Ones, will be released in October, its publisher announced on Monday - three years after the singer's sudden death in April 2016.

The "Kid from Minneapolis", who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose aged 57, had announced a month before his death he would tell his story in his own words in a book originally set for release in 2017.

Publisher Penguin Random House said the book - now to be released on October 29 - would contain previously unseen photos, scrapbooks and lyric sheets, as well as the memoir Prince had started to write.

"This work is not just a tribute to Prince, but an original and energising literary work, full of Prince's ideas and vision, his voice and image, his undying gift to the world," Penguin Random House said of the book, which will be published by its imprint Spiegel and Brau.

Prince's memoir, The Beautiful Ones,will be released in October 2019. — AFP Photo

The memoir will also feature an introduction by Dan Piepenbring, who collaborated with Prince on the book in the months before he died.

Prince - one of the most influential but elusive figures in music - became an international sensation in the 1980s as he popularized the Minneapolis Sound of danceable funk, with 1984's Purple Rain often described as one of the greatest albums of all time.

Born Prince Rogers Nelson, he became famous in his later career for eccentricities that included changing his name to an unpronounceable "love symbol," announcing his concerts at the last minute and refusing to let reporters take notes on - let alone record - encounters with him. — AFP