Youtube daily e.on Jan 24 2019

[Andrea Swensson] I wanted to ask about a couple of the later era albums that you recorded

on, because you and Prince got back together in the mid-2000s, and then you were on kind

of a run of albums there.

Musicology, 3121, and Planet Earth.

So I wanted to start with Dear Mr. Man, if you remember anything about that.

[Sheila E.]

Not a thing.

Here's why.

What ends up happening is we're in the studio day after day after day, and when the song

starts, it might be one way, and when I come back it's completely different.

He's left what I played on there, but it's a different song and he's changed it around.

I'm going how did you flip that.

I don't even know how you heard that from what we started.

So half the time I don't even know what I played on.

I really don't.

So I know nothing about that song.

Could you tell me?

[Swensson] Maybe more generally just thinking about that era, what was it like to rejoin

forces?

Had you been in contact up until that point?

[Sheila E.] I only left him for like barely two years.

We stayed in contact.

It was barely not even that.

We did all kind of stuff.

It was just – I just stopped recording, or didn't – I was doing other things.

I was recording for a lot of different people at that time as well.

But it's just not being in the band.

It's like going back and forth and I wanted to do some other things.

But it's not like we stopped, and like I said, there are still, in between that, music

that we recorded that's still not even out.

So this is only what you know.

So there it is.

[Swensson] I know, which is maddening.

I want to know it all.

I want to hear it all.

[Sheila E.] I don't think we'll ever know it all.

[Swensson] That is such a cool era for me to think about because that 7/7/07 show happened,

and you played at the Brit Awards with him again.

From the public standpoint it did seem like you guys were back together.

[Sheila E.] I was still back for a while.

It feels like I just left for a week.

I'm not kidding.

It felt like such a short time, but for the public to see us to perform and do all that,

yeah, that makes sense.

[Swensson] My closing question is – because as I know it, the last time Sheila E. appears

on a Prince recording would've been in about 2007.

Were there recordings that happened after that?

[Sheila E.]

After 2007?

I'm pretty sure, but – yeah, because – I just want to refer to my references in there,

and Lynn and Gilbert – but we recorded different songs even after that, because then we did

Leader of the Band.

We wrote songs.

There are a bunch of songs after 2007.

[Swensson] So maybe someday we'll hear them.

[Sheila E.]

There you go.

[Swensson] Thank you so much for taking so much time with me and for just being so willing

to answer all these questions.

I really appreciate it.

[Sheila E.] You're welcome.

For more infomation >> Sheila E. on reuniting with Prince and how he re-invented their sound (Interview) - Duration: 3:01.

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Sheila E. on Prince's humanity, music in the vault (Interview) - Duration: 7:12.

[Andrea Swensson] Sheila E., thank you so much for coming in.

[Sheila E.] You're welcome.

Thank you for having me.

[Swensson] Awesome to be here with you today.

Happy birthday.

[Sheila E.] Thank you.

[Swensson] Tomorrow's your birthday.

You're in town to play First Avenue for the first time in quite a few years.

Was the last time you played First Avenue the 7/7/07 shows where you played Macy's

and then the Target Center and then I think you guys went on at 2:30 in the morning at

First Avenue?

[Sheila E.] I don't remember what time it was.

It was all a blur.

That was the last time, and I'm really excited to play there.

It's been a while, and a lot of good memories there.

We were coming in last night and I was thinking about all kinds of things like man, I'm

here celebrating my birthday, 61 years, and what Minneapolis means to me, and family – this

was home.

Just excited to be here.

I had that fuzzy, anxious butterfly – I'm going to cry – I'm not – I'm happy.

It was really emotional coming in.

I'm very happy to be here today.

[Swensson] Something I was thinking about is as you came to Minneapolis and as you started

working more with Prince, that was kind of in the era of you transforming from Sheila

Escovedo to Sheila E., right?

[Sheila E.] Yes.

[Swensson] Can you tell me a little bit more about what was involved in that transformation?

[Sheila E.]

It wasn't a lot, basically, other than dropping my last name and just saying Sheila E. That

was one thing, and again, trying to see if that was going to work for the people that

did know me.

He started introducing me as Sheila E. to see what people would thing, and people remembered

my name easily or a lot better than Escovedo, because that was not pronounced always correctly.

And then later on it was confusing because they would call me Sheena E. or Sheila Easton,

so it was just like wait, what?

I changed it so people could remember.

That was one of the transitions.

The other was, for me, knowing that I wanted to always be a solo artist and do my own music.

It was more so of how would I play percussion and still maintain the foundation of who I

am as an artist.

It was a little bit different and challenging in explaining to people that I am a percussion

player and sing a little bit and love dancing.

That was going to be the transition, that now what I did for other people as being part

of the band or a group, this would now be me in the forefront.

That was going to be fun.

[Swensson] I was watching an interview you did with Larry King, and you estimated that

in the span of just three or four years, that you and Prince must have recorded hundreds

of songs together, which is just incredible to think about.

I'm wondering if we could hear all of those recordings and sift through them and reflect

on them, what do you think we would learn about the way you influenced Prince's sound

and the way he influenced you.

[Sheila E.]

We were always trying to – I was saying earlier that there were no limits to us creating

in the studio.

Like we're in a studio right now.

There are no limits.

The limits that we have is what we put on ourselves.

So in order to create and be different and be inspired as well is to try things you've

never tried before.

Let's try this mic on the kick drum or the snare, or let's sing a vocal in the kick

drum mic.

Let's change the sound.

There are no rules.

Every day you come in the studio just creating.

It's like here's another idea.

I have no idea what it sounds like right now, but I'm sure that my brand, as who I am

as an artist, that stamp is in that music for sure.

[Swensson] There've been a lot of different things announced recently that people are

going to do to celebrate Prince's legacy, whether it's a documentary or whether it's

releasing his music, and I'm wondering just as someone that knows him so well, what would

be your preferred medium or approach to really telling future generations about Prince's

legacy.

[Sheila E.]

There are many documentaries that are happening.

A lot of people want to tell that story.

And there's different ways of sharing who he is.

As long as they get the story straight and tell the truth and share who he was and always

will be us – a great musician.

He's an incredible songwriter, but the musicianship for me – us being in the studio all the

time and playing – the things he would come up with – just sharing those stories.

As long as they tell the truth and share his legacy of music, I think it's great.

[Swensson] Over the years I've observed a lot of people talking about Prince and trying

to approach this idea that his legacy – and something that's always bothered me is the

way that people talk about him a little bit like he's an alien or that there's something

extraterrestrial about him because he's so talented and because he was a little eccentric.

The stories just irk me a little bit because I do hear these other stories about what a

kind and tender human being he was in the moments with his friends.

So I'm wondering, just to close today, if you could share a story that would tell us

something about Prince's humanity.

[Sheila E.] Everyone has a bad day, first of all.

And so yes, he was a great person and he had bad days as well like we all do.

We're human, so I don't know the extra other stuff that you hear, but as far as a human

being he was different in his own way by the way I think he approached his music and how

he wrote.

Half the time recording with Prince, we would just finish setting up the gear, and he's

ready to count it off and play.

There's no "let's spend two hours on a drum sound".

No, we don't do that.

Or let's clean up – the cowbells are rattling.

That's what it should sound like.

And I love that.

Those things he did differently, and I think that's what made him different – standing

out and not being afraid of changing his sound, trying to experiment with drum machines and

making it different, and the different sounds on his guitar or the bass or the piano.

To me – I don't even know if that answers your question.

I just think his approach is different in that way.

[Swensson] Sounds like he was just always very in-the-moment.

[Sheila E.] He was.

[Swensson] Sheila E., thank you so much for being here today.

[Sheila E.] You're welcome.