Chaka Khan spills all of the tea about her life and career in her newest interview with Rolling Stone. She addresses speculation about her retirement from music, learning about Princeโs addiction, beef with Kanye West, and more. Here are all of your burning questions being answered!
Suggested Reading
Retirement?
She laughingly responds to the question if retirement is happening soon, โWell, I might do that three or four times, like other bitches do.โ She went on to say that she fell out of love with touring over the years due to things like rude promoters, grueling travel schedules, and other โugly shit,โ so until she can find a way to enjoy that process again, sheโs just record music and only do a few shows, โRight now Iโm just trying to define and refine my performance [so] that every time I hit the stage Iโm going to be happy to do it.โ The โIโm Every Womanโ singer also is looking forward to spending more time with her great-grandchildren moving forward.
Her beef with Kanye West
โIโm not hanging on to any silly grudges.โ In 2003 Kanye West released โThrough the Wireโ which samples Khanโs voice from her 1984 song โThrough the Fire.โ In 2022 she came out and expressed her disapproval for the way that her voice was used in the song, sped up and made to what she believed sounded like a chipmunk. Today, she thinks that she shouldnโt have been so โsaltyโ about the sample and shouldโve had more knowledge about the rap world before even approving it in the first place.
She wasnโt aware of Princeโs fight with addiction
Chaka Khan claims that even though she believes that she is an expert on addiction, she did not know that Prince was dealing with one, โHe was very adept at being private, at maintaining his privacy. That was like number one on his list of things to do. He was an absolute genius at it.โ She also says that itโs only by โthe grace of Godโ that she survived her drug use.
Upon hearing that โAinโt Nobodyโ mightโve been for Michael Jackson
The interviewer brings up a rumor that Quincy Jones wanted her song โAinโt Nobodyโ for Michael Jackson, โI had no idea. Nobody told me. No, I doubt it.โ She believes that possibly his keyboard player and writer of the song David โHawkโ Wolinski wouldโve advocated for Jackson to have the song, but that didnโt happen according to knowledge. However, she does think that the song couldโve been even more popular if Jackson sang it.
She is great friends with Joni Mitchell
The โThrough the Fireโ singerโs father saw the similarities between Joni Mitchell and his daughter, โMy father, whoโs a photographer, was taking pictures of us, when we were hanging out one night with Joni. And he said that she and I are like the dark and the light on a negative. We are like two sides of one coin.โ Khan remembers earlier in her career when touring with Rufus, she would go to the backroom of the tour bus and turn on Mitchellโs music as an escape.
The story behind Chaka Khan being removed from Robert Palmerโs โAddicted to Loveโ
She felt disgusted when she heard that she would no longer be featured in โAddicted to Love,โ especially because Palmer himself wanted her to record it with him, โI marveled at how something so pure and simple and beautiful could be just wiped off the face of the Earth because of money. That was crazy. We were on the same label. It would have been a win-win situation for everybody.โ She did defend Robert, saying that she offered her an apology for the situation and they both agreed that racism was also a reason why she was wiped from the song.
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.