This is the original interview submitted to PrideFest for their 2007 Pride Guide issue. At the time it was submitted (in early May) arrangements had been made for a track show, rather than a full concert. PrideFest organizers were later able to offer the full “sneak preview” concert Chaka had promised in her interview.
Funk “I-Khan” Chaka Live At PrideFest June 9
Interview by Mike Fitzpatrick

“Just tell everybody in Milwaukee: Look out! I’m taking no prisoners!” Those enthusiastically uttered final words from Grammy winning funk  legend Chaka Khan during a late April interview with Quest’s Mike Fitzpatrick aren’t a threat. They’re a promise and an invitation to what likely will be a historic performance at PrideFest Saturday, June 9.

“I’m looking so forward to being there - with my band,” Khan said. “There are nine of us! And its the best band I’ve ever had. I’ve got three singers that are kickin’ - they sound like ten!” Chaka elaborated on the rare, “all-live” aspect of her upcoming PrideFest show. “I don’t often get to do gigs for the gay audiences with my whole band,” she said. “It’s usually a club thing, where its always a track show. So this is going to be something special!”

For Chaka, what also will make the PrideFest performance special is both being close to her home town of Chicago and performing for some of her favorite people. “I’m really looking forward to coming to Milwaukee,” Khan said. “I love doing all the gay prides - It’s like Christmas or a birthday party doing gay prides.” “My gay audiences are the most un-fickle, mainstay of my whole career,” Chaka explained. “When times were rough for me, when the gigs weren’t flyin’ in, I could always depend on my gay brothers and sisters  to be there for me, to defend me. I am privileged to be so loved, so coveted by the gay audience.”

Fans can expect to hear Chaka’s catalog of chart toppers during the PrideFest show: from her #1 solo smash “I Feel For You,” through Rufus classics such as “Tell Me Something Good,” “You Got The Love,” and “Do You Love What You Feel,” to what Chaka personally considers her signature song, “I’m Every Woman.” “I do, even more than ‘I Feel For You’,” Chaka said, admitting that over the years she has grown a bit tired of her million-selling collaboration with Prince and Stevie Wonder. “Some songs I could still sing every night, all night - songs like ‘Pack My Bags.’ I’m sorry - I love Prince, I love Stevie - but when ‘I Feel For You’ comes up on the list, I get a little watery in the mouth.”

Chaka also shared a gender-bending background story about her 1973 breakout hit, “Tell Me Something Good”: “A lot of people thought I was a guy,” she confided. “I kid you not! A lot of people didn’t know... because back then chicks weren’t into singing really low.”

Chakaholics will also get to hear cuts from Khan’s soon-to-be-released album on Sony BMG-distributed Burgundy Records, produced by veteran hit makers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. “The CD - we’re just finishing it up,” Khan said, who was speaking with Quest following a studio session. “I’ve still got three songs to finish, so the CD will be out in July. Title unsure - Funk I-Khan or I Khan Fun - there’s a lot of possibilities.”

The CD will be a return to Chaka’s Rufus roots. “The one thing that Jam and Lewis and I decided going (into this project) was ‘Just stop! Remember who I am, where I came from’ and we’re just gonna go there,” she said. “This will be Chaka Khan and Rufus again, or as close as possible to that.”

Fans likely will get a taste of Chaka’s upcoming show on presenting sponsor radio station Jammin’ 98.3 FM just prior to the PrideFest show. “We’re gonna have a single out there by June 1st,” Chaka said. “We want to get a white label (promotional copy) and a remix into the clubs so it will be playing already by the time I get there. I’m thinking it’s gonna be ‘Will You (Love Me).’”

Chaka shared the names of a few other tracks set to appear on the album. “We did some covers: we covered ‘Sign ‘O The Times’ by Prince. (We) killed it! It goes into ‘I’m Every Woman’ at the end,” she said. “We also did ‘Ladies Man’ by Joni Mitchell. We have all this original stuff that sounds so beautifully Rufus as well.”

With a mix of classic hits plus a sneak-preview of what she calls “the album I’ve wanted to do for ten years,” the Saturday, June 9 Chaka Khan performance at PrideFest should be at the top of music lover’s ‘to do’ list.