When you think of female percussionists, the list is not long. Commonly referred to as “The Queen of Percussion,” Sheila E has made quite a name for herself as a percussionist, singer, actor and author. I had the opportunity to talk with her about her upcoming tour, Prince and what’s in store for the future.

Sheila E has a new album out, “Iconic, Message 4 America,” I asked her how this album came about and she said, “I was doing a dance record, and I had never done a dance record before. I was in the process of finishing that up, and Prince passed away, so I just shut down; I couldn’t release any music for a while. It was taking me a minute, and at the same time the election started to happen. I realized that I couldn’t be silent with what was going on and how I truly felt. Years ago I had put a project together called politically correct, which was an album I knew I wanted to do, and it would take me a long time to put it together. During the election time, I figured, I’m not gonna be able to do that record yet because I probably wouldn’t be able to finish it as quickly as I’d like to. I went back to songs that I grew up listening to in the 70s and realized that a lot of those songs, from my dad to Marvin Gay, The Beetles, Sly & the Family Stone were songs I chose to put on the record. Those songs were relevant to what’s happening right now in our country, and I chose to pick those based on what was going on, and that if I wrote it this is what I would say, kind of thing. That’s how the record came about.”

Having some incredible artists on this album that collaborated with her, I asked Sheila if it was difficult to get everybody’s schedule to work on this and she said, “A little bit, the week I was recording, I knew that I was gonna record all the songs in a week, which we did. We recorded the whole record in a week. The first day of recording, George Clinton couldn’t make it, and Ringo Star couldn’t make it. The only person that I could get was Freddy Stone, from Sly & the Family Stone, Sly’s brother. He was the co-owner as well, and songwriter with Sly. I said, “You know what, if you can make it that would be awesome,” so the first song that we recorded was Everyday People. That set the bar high. He came in, he was ready to play. To record with him, and just realize… I grew up listening to them. It was just an honor and a privilege to have him in the room, and us play his song, was just amazing. Later on scheduling everyone, as soon as I could get people together, then they would come in and overdub. During that week I got George, Ringo the following week, and Israel the same week I got Candy Dulfer. All the other artists came about after that. It’s gotten a very good response, people love it! We’re still trying to push it out there. It’s still relevant, and even more so, that the election’s coming up pretty soon in November. We really have to, if we wanna make change, and we can make change. We’ve just gotta get out there and vote. If we don’t vote, we’re giving up, and things will be the same.”

The album that Sheila was working on, the dance album, I asked Sheila if that is something that she is going to work on down the line and she responded, “Yes, I’m actually working on it now. There’s a couple of records that I was writing. One, I was writing the dance record before Prince passed. After Prince passes, I started writing another record, and then, I wanted to do a gospel record. Right now, we’re recording another gospel song, and I have the singers here right now. Then, I’m doing a straight salsa, 12 piece Latin band, and I’ll record that in Miami. The fifth album would be the E Train, which is my jazz. I’m doing five records at the same time right this second. I’m switching, we’re doing three different genres of music today. It’s crazy, but I’ve always wanted to do five records. Based on the artist that I am, I grew up listening to Latin, Jazz, that the foundation of who I am. Then, R&B and Motown, everything about that was so inspiring to me, and gospel music has just been a blessing, of course, jazz as well, salsa music. Then, dance music, I just love. It’s a little bit of mixture of everything that I am as an artist, separately. I’m just gonna just be releasing singles. I might do one full record, maybe two, out of the five, but this is the first time that I’m saying it, I’m probably not gonna do any more records. This will be the last one if I do it, and everything else is gonna be singles.”

Now it’s been a little over two years since Prince had passed, I said does it still seem surreal that he’s gone? Sheila said, “Yes, absolutely. I was in LA, actually I’m in LA now, and driving to San Francisco, I said, ‘I’m gonna listen to some songs that I haven’t listened to in a long time.’ And I just put on my playlist, and for the next three hours I tried to listen to as much as I could of him because I’ve not been able to do that even as of yet. Some songs, I was like, ‘Oh my God,
I love this song.’ And some of them, I just thought, ‘Man I can’t even believe this,’ and then I look at his picture, and it doesn’t even seem real. When I really realize the reality of it, you sit back, and you just go, it doesn’t even make sense. I get sad again, but I do wanna celebrate who he is, and what he left as his
legacy is his music. I know that, for sure, that’s what he would want.”

After Prince died, Sheila wrote the song, “Girl Meets Boy,” and I asked her if this helped her deal with Prince’s death and she said, “Oh, for sure. My guitar player Michael Gabriel came up, he says, ‘I think I have an idea for a song.’ I said, ‘Don’t tell me what it is. I’ll walk away for a minute, go get something to eat, an, and you just put it down. I’ll come back and we’ll finish it.’ We played some guitar, and I said, “Give me a minute.” So, he walks away. and I’ll start writing lyrics, and he had a couple of lyrics as well. Start singing, and I couldn’t get through the end of the song, because I kept crying. It’s just like it was too emotional, and I tried like five times, and then I had to let it go, come back a couple days later to sing it again. I finally got some of it, but it was very emotional, real crying on there because I just like, I might as well leave it what it is. The song was written in about an hour. It’s just one of those things that happen when you wanna say something. We’re able to creatively express ourselves and how we feel, and that’s what that became because my guitar player Michael said, ‘You know, I have an idea.’ It’s because of him that we wrote that song.”

Sheila E will be coming to Chene Park Amphitheater in Detroit on August 18th, with Morris Day and The Times for a Prince tribute. I asked Sheila what should fans expect from this show and she said, “Well, we’re gonna have a great time, first of all. We’re gonna do a lot of the songs Prince and I played, wrote together, recorded together, and some music from the “Iconic” record as well; some old and new. It’s gonna be a bit of everything. First of all, just to let people know, they always think that I’m closing the show. I always like to open or be in the middle. I don’t like headlining, as much as I do headline. With Morris, I said, ‘You know what, I’ll open for you.’ It’s not a big deal. I don’t have an ego. I love playing. People get their early if you wanna see me. People always think, ‘I came later because I thought you were gonna close.’ Nope, I wanna open, it’s not a big deal for me. I get in, get the audience ready to party, and we have a great time, and it’s a good show.”