Prince and Chaka Khan go back a long way. It’s believed that they first met in 1977, when Prince was recording his debut album, For You, at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California.
“I tricked her into coming down to the studio,” Prince would go on to tell the Philadelphia Daily News, many years later. “I imitated Sly Stone and she was looking for him, then she met me.”
In 1984, Khan covered I Feel For You, a song from Prince’s eponymous 1978 second album, giving her a huge hit. And, in the late ‘90s, she worked with Prince on a full album, Come 2 My House, which was released in 1998 on his NPG Records label.
But it seems that there may be more material in the vault; in a new reader interview with The Guardian, Khan Says: “We worked on a lot of songs, and they’re all going to be on a CD I’m soon to release - there’s a lot of red tape that’s been in the way, but we’ve cleared it. It’s him and me and Larry Graham, together.”
Graham also appeared on Come 2 My House, and was believed to have been part of Prince’s inner circle at that time. In fact, he had his own NPG Records release with his band, Grand Central Station, called GCS 2000. Graham, Khan and Prince also played shows together in both the US and Europe.
Presumably, the songs that Khan is referring to date from those late-’90s recording sessions, and it’s to be hoped that we do indeed get to hear them. “Prince just grabbed ideas out of the air and left you wondering: ‘Where did you get that?,’” she tells The Guardian.
Elsewhere in the interview, Khan says that she’s also working on an album of Joni Mitchell covers, and reveals that she still likes to play the drums, though perhaps not as often as she’d like.
“I love playing drums,” she confirms. “I just don’t often get the chance to play, unless I’m jamming at the club with somebody - and I don’t go out clubbing much these days. I love any drummer who’s in the pocket.
“Buddy Miles was my favourite, growing up, and my dad turned me on to Max Roach when I was a kid. My dad inspired me to play drums; he used to play congas.”
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