Parts of this interview was originally published in the Danish gay & lesbian newspaper PAN-bladet, April 1999.
Ever since I joined prince.org in 2003, I've wanted to post it here in English. But I never seemed to find the time to do the interview from scratch in its original language - until now.
So here it finally is, almost celebrating its 10 year anniversary. I hope you will enjoy it regardless.
[Edited 1/31/09 8:08am]

Chaka Khan: Come 2 My House interview



I met with Chaka Khan at Hotel Kong Frederik in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday 12 March 1999 during her promotion tour for her Prince produced album Come 2 My House.
Chaka Khan, whom I had witnessed as the opening act on Prince’s 18 August 1998 show in Copenhagen, seemed to have a large presence on stage, but when she was seated opposite me in a big armchair in the hotel lounge, she seemed small and fragile. At first, she was very reserved, but I quickly got to meet the persona I recognized from her live performance as she apparently liked my questions and opened up considerably. She talked freely about what it was like working with Prince.

SciFi: How did you start out in the music industry?

Chaka Khan: It was really by accident. I ran away from home at sixteen. My mother and I didn’t get along. I was headstrong. She was, too, but it was her house, so... I found my long lost father whom I hadn’t seen in twelve years. I moved in with some friends on the Northside of Chicago. Joined a band called Light and we worked a couple of months in clubs in Chicago on the Northside. And I met the girl Scarlet Paulette who was with a group called Rufus. They were working the same circuit. So when my breaks came, I ran right over across the street to see Rufus and when she had her breaks, she’d come to see my band. She left the group and they asked me to join. Hers was the better group. They were getting more money, so I joined Rufus. And then I planned stuff, like, maybe make enough money to get an apartment and go back to school. But within a year we had a record deal with a company, so here I am, still waiting to go back to school.



SciFi: I was a Prince fan in the eighties and was introduced to your music because of the tracks you recorded with him. I bought your albums and got exposed to your other music as well. CK became one of my all-time favourite albums and I still listen to it a lot. I’m particularly moved by the songs The End Of A Love Affair and I’ll Be Around.

Chaka Khan: Those are Billie Holiday songs.

SciFi: You didn’t write your own lyrics back then, but you chose those songs and I’ve been wondering how personal those lyrics were to you.

Chaka Khan: I’ve listened to those songs since I was five years old. My grandmother used to play Lady In Satin a lot and those were the two songs I fell in love with when I was just a kid. And then, as I grew older, one of them especially, End Of A Love Affair, started appealing to me. I could see all sorts of similarities in my life to what she was saying.

SciFi: Have you experienced if waiting around, in regards to the song I’ll Be Around, is fruitful?

Chaka Khan: That didn’t really refer to me. I’m not waiting around for anybody. I’m too busy. Maybe that’s a wish that I have for someone to be there for me. Perhaps it’s a mirror song.

SciFi: You had some big hits in the eighties with I Feel For You and It’s My Party and then following the CK album it got kind of quiet around you for awhile. So what happened in your life back then?

Chaka Khan: I moved to London. I just sort of reassessed my whole life and what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I lived by myself in a little apartment, a little flat in Chelsea, and sort of just got into myself for a minute and got away from everybody that I knew. I felt the need to do that. But part of the reason you didn’t hear from me wasn’t my fault. I was still recording albums. My record company was not doing their job. That’s another reason. I had albums that were released that a lot of people don’t even know I had released, which is ridiculous.

SciFi: I was at the concert with the Artist here in Copenhagen last summer and you appeared unannounced. It was a wonderful surprise, but the audience got impatient waiting for the Artist and actually booed you at the end of the set.

Chaka Khan: Oh, did they? I wasn’t aware.

SciFi: I heard that happened in other cities as well. So how was that whole New Power Festival experience?

Chaka Khan: I didn’t know about that. I didn’t hear any booing, personally. It was a great tour for us. We were just having fun, just doing our thing and doing it together. It was a good experience.

SciFi: I remember your show well, although I hadn’t heard the songs at that time. You played I’ll Never B Another Fool and The Drama. And I had a dream shortly after in which I met you and here we are.

Chaka Khan: (Laughs.)




SciFi: The thing that was attracting me to Prince back in the eighties was his mixture of sex and spirituality and on Come 2 My House I find that spirituality is very much present as well. Was that because of the Artists’ influence?

Chaka Khan: Possibly, or it could be I could be like that, too. I don’t know. It’s like my first CD, ever! Because it’s the first CD I’ve ever done where I did anything I wanted to do the way I wanted it without a record company looking over my shoulder telling me "well, this is good for radio, but that’s not." I really got to express myself in a way that I never, in all my career, have. So it’s hard to say. I made sure that my presence is going to be as powerful on the CD as his. Because former CD’s that he’s done with other girls... They disappear. You don’t hear from them after him. Is there life after Prince? That’s the question. So I just made sure I was very strong in that the songs that we did together we would do half and half. I would do the lyrics. He’d do the music. That’s it.

SciFi: But the lyrics have kind of a spiritual feel to them and you wrote them. I’m wondering if you’ve had any metaphysical experiences yourself? Do you see yourself as a spiritual person?

Chaka Khan: Oh, yes, I’ve got several metaphysical experiences throughout my whole life. Well, you know, singers and artists are supposedly super sensitive to... stuff. I think my high level of sensitivity has probably opened me up to some stuff that sometimes I didn’t want and stuff that was good that I did want. I’m not with any organized religion or anything like that. I was raised a Catholic but I’m not practising. I live my religion. I think that I’m in a very magical and spiritual space because of the very fact that I haven’t been in a plane crash already. I’m flying every other day and it’s alright. I’m sure my number’s been up a couple of times, not just by airplanes but other stuff, too. But I’ve always had, like, a little voice inside of me that says when to leave, when to stop, shit like that, so I think that has to do with my higher self, listening to my voice, you know? It could be that. I don’t question what it is. I am just living it. It’s much simpler that way.

SciFi: One of my favourite tracks is Eye Remember U, which I think is very beautiful.

Chaka Khan: Thank you. That is Larry Graham and I.

SciFi: I was wondering how you fared with the one you remembered?

Chaka Khan: Actually, I wrote that song because Prince and I wasn’t in the studio and we were talking about who saw the right God and he was saying to me: "Don’t you have a memory of something?" And, yeah, I seemed to remember something spiritually. I don’t know. It was so clogged up and so unclear and I just have more of a feeling about stuff. But there was a memory of coming from someplace else or something like that. So I wrote those lyrics based on that conversation. It wasn’t about a person.

SciFi What about The Drama? Was that something you experienced?

Chaka Khan: Yeah, that was kind of based on an experience of a relationship I just got out of.

SciFi: I’ve experienced The Drama myself.

Chaka Khan: Okay. Actually, many people have. Many people relate to that song.

SciFi: I take it Betcha Eye is about having pride?

Chaka Khan: It is. To have a good love, you have to have some sort of love for yourself or even pretend that you do to keep the other person interested in you. They say "ooh, what is it about her that you like so much? I wanna know this." And that’s what interests other people in you, if you act like you have self-love.

ScFi: So if you like yourself, people will notice that?

Chaka Khan: Yeah. They wanna be in that. It’s a place they wanna be.

SciFi: In the song Betcha Eye, you end up dismissing the other person.

Chaka Khan: Mhhm. Eventually that is usually what it comes to.

SciFi: So do you think that sense of pride is self-destructive?

Chaka Khan: No, because it’s not self-destructive to start a new relationship or to break one off. Sometimes it’s in your best interest. One conscious thing we did about the CD was trying to make it like a relationship. The first song, Come 2 My House, is "okay, let’s have a date". The second song is a confessional: "This is my life, this is what I am, are you still interested?" And then, you know, down to breaking up or whatever.

SciFi: Are you gonna have more collaborations with the Artist?

Chaka Khan: Yeah. Well, maybe. I hope so. That would be nice. We work well together. Working with him on this CD was fantastic. We did the whole CD in three weeks, writing it and recording it. So it was like working with myself. It went so fast, that it was over, like, it’s finished. We didn’t want it to be finished. So it was good.



SciFi: Before the album was released, I saw a track listing on your web page that was different from the one you ended up with.

Chaka Khan: Well, I’d recorded a whole other CD before this one with Me’Shell Ndegeocello. She and I wrote the stuff and she played all over that CD. And David Gamson, formerly of Scritti Politti, we got together, the three of us. We did a great album. But the record company was tripping. This was about the time I was leaving the company. So I said I’d rather just hold on to this stuff and do another CD. So on my next CD I’ll get to that stuff. I’ll have to rerecord it so I can own the masters, of course.

SciFi: You did a song with Prince called Pain on the Living Single Soundtrack.

Chaka Khan: Pain? Was that on the Living Single Soundtrack? I didn’t know that.

SciFi: You didn’t know it’s on a soundtrack?

Chaka Khan: For Living Single? No. I had no idea. Are you sure about that?

SciFi: I read a magazine called Uptown which always writes about what’s new from Prince.

Chaka Khan: So this is recent?

SciFi: No, this is in ’97, I think, that there was a soundtrack. I think Living Single is a television series.

Chaka Khan: Yes, it’s a TV-series, I know that. With Queen Latifah.

SciFi: And I read that on the soundtrack there’s a song called Pain that you wrote with Prince.

Chaka Khan: Actually, I didn’t write that. That was written by the girl who sings Diamonds And Pearls.

SciFi: Rosie Gaines?

Chaka Khan: Rosie Gaines and Chan Berry and Prince. They wrote that. She had a version too, though. I wonder if it’s her version or mine, because she had a good version of it, too.

SciFi: No, I think it was yours.

Chaka Khan: I’ll have to ask my sister, then. My little sister is my manager.

And speaking of her manager, she showed up to let me know that my time with Chaka Khan was up. But before I was showed out, Chaka Khan kindly autographed my copy of her Come 2 My House album.
Next up for an interview was the Danish newspaper B.T. (Published on 5 April 1999) When asked about working with Prince and Larry Graham, Chaka Khan replied "It was good. It worked. Next!" and pushed the subject aside with a hand gesture. When asked about the 1998 New Power Soul concert in Copenhagen, Chaka Khan replied: "I don’t remember that."
[Edited 2/6/09 7:21am]

Kewl.

That was an interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

I'm tripping on the fact that she did not know "Pain" was released on the Living Single soundtrack.

Chaka is a fine black woman. Remember her in Rufus band?? WHOOHOO those curves, that voice and a sweet smile on top a that, drives a man crazy! memories.

thanks Michael! well done!

kitbradley said:

Yeah. I'm wondering if was responsible for that considering how dismissive she suddenly was on the subject of him in the following interview.

I've just posted the interview on Housequake as well. It will be interesting to see where it gets the most views.

scififilmnerd said:

Doh.

HamsterHuey said:

And indeed. More peeks at Housequake.

Very cool. Thanks for translating this!

scififilmnerd said:

I didn't even know you are on Housequake too.

Serious said:

Well, I only just joined late last year.

HamsterHuey said:

But now Housequake is closed!
[Edited 1/31/09 5:46am]

scififilmnerd said:

At least it seems it's not because of you .

scififilmnerd said:

Very strange. She gave you so much info and the next publication none.

Great interview!

scififilmnerd said:

What have you done NOW?

ChakaKhan said:

Well, I haven't really heard of any new Chaka Khan music this side of Come 2 My House, so I guess the answer to her question is: No, there is no life after Prince.
[Edited 2/6/09 7:23am]

Chaka's released 2 other albums since "Come 2 My House":

"Classikhan" in 2004

and

"Funk This" in 2007, which actually features a remake of "Sign O The Times" with Jesse Johnson on guitar.

So yes, there is life after Prince.

Also, she had a hit single with De La Soul in....I think it was about 2001, called "All Good."

anc282 said:

I didn't know that. I love Jesse Johnson, too, so I hurried to Itunes and bought the track. It sounds good. I love it. Thanks for the info.

And of course, she was on Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix.