The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: Sheila E.

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

The legendary Queen of Percussion Sheila E. talks about the secrets of her craft, sneaking her brother into Marvin Gaye's band, having Michael Jackson on speed dial and lessons learned from working with Prince. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. What's up, y'all? This is QLS Classic. My name is Questlove. One of my favorite people ever, Sheila Escobito. This is from 2017, December 13th.

Yeah, man. Sheila is, you know, has killed the game for the last, well, you know, four or five decades. It's one of the greatest drummers and this is modern music. She's really, really made a name for herself from her humble beginnings playing with her family. Of course, her time with Prince. And her time after Prince as a percussionist and session musician and a solo artist in her own right. It's definitely a fun time.

She's a great storyteller. Let's get into it. This is Sheila E. Questlove Supreme QLS Classic from. 2017. Okay, here you go. You all ready? Yeah.

One, two, three. Supremar, Supremar roll, Supreme a roll call. Supremma, Subrema, Rocah call. Supremar roll call.

Some call me eyeball. Yeah. With 19 jobs. Yeah. Everybody stop on the one. Yeah. Oh. I knew I was going

Mm-hmm. Fine. Docs. How you doing, Sheila? Good God. See? Wait, why are you still? Why are you? Why are you?

In your face? Why are you still in my life? In your face? I didn't know, but that's what we would do. Whatever. Wow, damn it. Oh, really? Wow. Good God.

Supreme a Supreme. Supreme. All right things are going to let us. Sup, so, so, Supreme. Go ahead. Supreme. Supreme. My name.

Miss Sugar with Sheila E. Yeah. If we got married, yeah. I'd be sugary. Roll call. Suprima. Suprema. Role call.

Suprema. Suprema. Suprema, sub, subprima, roll call. Boss, little wanted to be a percussionist. Yeah. When at the age of six saw, Sheila bounced some sticks. Roll call.

Suprema. You were six years old. Suprema. Suprema. Superma. Superma. Submma. Supremia,

Not you, Sheila. It's Laia Yeah. With Queen Sheila. Yeah. This ain't gonna be quick. What? Yeah.

Because I want to talk about Dukeie stick. Roca. Suprema, So, Suprema, Role Call. Suprema, Suprema, Role Call. My name is Sheila.

Yeah. I am the queener. Yeah. Percussion. Yeah. No discussing. Roll call. Suprema,

Ska. Subima. So. Suprema Subra Raucca Supra Subra

Subra Roca Call Supra Subra Subra Roca Call

Wow That was Good one Actually I wanted to say that I don't think there's any

word in the English language that rhymes with Sheila I thought you're going to say Duky

Okay Yeah Vegetable Peeler Serafina Seraphina. Queen Latifah. There's no word that

Sheila might be the most unique name. Matamila? No, I'm serious. Like, I literally, for at least two hours last night. Are you serious? Yeah, there's nothing around with Sheila. It took you two hours? Then I just said, I'm really.

He teaches the NYU, ladies and gentlemen. Phila. Oh, yeah. Phila? Sheila. Phila. Fila. Okay, so next.

episode I'll rhyme it with Pila. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I will say that, yeah, I'm going to keep my composure. If you were probably to compile and gather probably the modern rock top three list for drummers or percussionists, I guarantee you that our next guest will no doubt always be placed on that list. her name and her legacy, I believe, is synonymous with drumming excellence, band leader excellence. And truth be told, as many times as I've ever named dropped as influences, either Tony Williams or Clyde Stubblefield or John Starks or whoever. Truth be told, probably, you know, Sheila E. is my drumming hero. Like I've done many hours practicing and studying and practicing and practicing and, you know, she never ever gets her props. I mean, as a session musician, the roster is endless from George Duke to Marvin Gay, to Lionel Richie Dinah Ross to Kenny Woggins to Phil Collins to Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Quincy Jones. Pat Boone? Yeah, Pat Boone. I did play with Pat Boone. Oh, okay. Oh, we know this. Absolutely. Come on.

Yeah, we know. All right. We do our homework. Yeah, the list is endless. And, you know, even in the art, as an artist in her own right, I mean, she has an amazing, diverse discography lasting over the last four decades from albums with her father, Piaz, Cavito, of course, to the grace of all time with Prince. And, again, it's absolutely endless. Your new project, which I believe is iconic. Yes.

Formally called boy versus girl. No. Or that was the, I thought it was initially called. No, no, no. That was another record. That was after Prince Pass. I see. Girl Me's Boy.

So, Girl Me's Boy. I'm sorry. No. But your new, I'm iconic is in stores now. Everyone from Freddie Stone to Pucci Collins and everybody's on this record. Even Ringgo Starr. Ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome, Sheila E, the Quest Love Supreme.

Thank you. Shout out to Fonte, who's kicking himself right now. He's like me when the shock episode that happens. Sorry, everyone has to. And Bill Sherman. And, yes, I'm Pete Bill. He's always kicking himself. Sucking both of you guys.

How are you today, Sheila? I appreciate you doing this for me. I know that you've been up since zero o'clock in the morning. That's true. Two hours late? Hey, anything for you. But I think, but I also, I was telling them that, you know, not saying that the sleepless streak

has to, but you're the queen of this. You've done many, me. I learned it from y'all. Like, you know, who needs sleep? Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, but I appreciate you for being here. No, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

That's awesome. Okay, I'm looking at the clock and realizing that my intro took seven minutes. It's only right, though. It's only right, though. Well, let's start right into it. For those that don't know about your history, could you tell our audience where you were born?

Oakland, California. Oaktown, California. Bay Area. Born and raised. My dad, Pete Escovito, still playing, still alive. My mom, Juanita, Marie Gardier, Escovito. Still crazy. They had their 61st anniversary yesterday.

61 years being married. miracle right there. What? Sixty-one years. Yeah. And Pops are still playing, percussion and playing with his band. So it's awesome. I have two brothers, one, and Peter Michael and his sister, Zena, and about five billion family members,

and I'm not exaggerating. Cousins and nieces and nephews and cousins. Forever. Every week you meet someone, it's like, yeah, I'm your cousin from that, no, no, no. That is true. And you just got to believe him? No, it's Mostly true. I'm not even joking. Right, Brett?

It's mostly true. I mean, seriously, I go somewhere. Okay, you got to prove it. Okay, well, my mom, da, da, da, da, da. So I'm your third cousin. I'm like, wow, you do look like that is. Okay, you're right. And that's both sides.

Both sides. I've not been so lucky. All my cousin situations have not, you know, worked that well. Plus, y'all have all kinds of funky mixes in your family. Yeah, which is, yeah. We have everything and everybody. Yeah. Mexican,

Creole, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Filipino, Japanese, German, French. Got to be related to So y'all literally

are the world. We are the world. Literally. Yes, we is. So, okay, you said that

you're Oakland born and raised. So I got to ask you. You know, because I go out to Oakland a lot. Well, I guess we'd be remiss if I didn't

say that Pandora or our parent company. Oh, right, right, right. Is located in Oakland, which is why I'm out there often. And I'm often told by people that, you know, the Oakland of 2017 is definitely not what Oakland was or the Bay Area in general. So what are your feelings of the current metamorphosis of what Oakland has become, from what it was to what it is now? Well, I mean, right now it's pretty pretty challenging because all of the,

tech, you know, and companies like Pandora and different things like that, and Apple and everything else, a lot of the people who are building all of these things have moved the people, some of the people out of the way in places where they used to live that can't afford it anymore. So, I mean, there's some places in the hood. I can't believe that are a million dollars, and they're not even worth $35,000. So the money's gone up. up as far as pricing, housing. So a lot of people are having to move out of the bay, you know, further out into like Vallejo or even past Richmond, but Vallejo, Sacramento, different places like that,

Fremont, Milpitas, because they can't afford it. And then at the same time, like my foundation, we're partnering, we've partnered with 5-1 Oakland. We started Elevate Oakland with Elevate Hope. So there's like three of us together just trying to. to keep music and arts in the schools in the bay because we just don't have enough help, especially in the hood, in the community where they really need us. And they're ending up dividing the schools instead of it being one school, they're dividing it to two and sometimes three schools because there's too many kids

and not enough teachers. So a lot of the teachers, the really good teachers don't want to go in the community. And we get small pickings from choosing a great teacher who would like to come and help our students. So I've been, you know, it's changed a lot even for us, like what we've been doing to help some of the schools and stuff and try to keep the kids and get them involved in music and arts. Because the music and arts have been taking out a lot of schools, we hire a lot of the Bay Area musicians. You know, and if they're in town, we hire them to do artists and residents. So they come, you know, two to four to six times in a month for like a couple of months if they're available. And we pay them to help assist the teacher in teaching classes in Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, whatever it may be.

So that change. We didn't do that early on. There was music in school when I was growing up, you know, and now there's that need. There are a few charter schools and stuff, but a lot of the kids, there's nowhere for them to go, so we need to fix what's happened. So to me, that's changed tremendously. So you're saying that during your time period in school, it was typical for music appreciation class and lessons. Like you didn't go to a performing art school.

Oh, no. Well, we couldn't afford it either. No. No, we just, we learned in school. We have music and arts in school. But I mean, most of my learning music was in the house watching pop. play so okay yeah so i mean describe that because you know there's rarely artists that are here that come from that environment what is it at least why is it important for music in the school

systems like how when did they like remove that pro like the idea of taking the arts away was it like the mid-80s the late wow i don't even really know because it if it seemed like it was about the 80s. I don't know for sure. I just noticed that there was a whole generation of kids that wanted to learn and we found out that they weren't learning and they were asking where could they go get classes or be taught. Can I get a trumpet? And that's when we started raising money like in the 90s. Oh let's just raise some money so we can get the kids, the instruments. Well then we got them

instruments. Well who's going to teach them? You know, well there weren't, they're not enough teachers to teach. So then again, going back to, well, let's get some of the local musicians, maybe we can have classes with them. We went beyond not, we didn't go to the superintendent of schools and things like that or the district. We ended up at that point, even in 2000, we ended up going to the schools personally and talking to the principals. Hey, we just want to help. Can we help you if you guys say yes, we'll just come in. You know, I don't, we were going to go to Sacramento and deal with the whole Supreme Court thing and all. It's like, well, no, if you just allow us to come in, we'll help.

So I think it was around 80s or so, and then we started helping in the 90s. And again, growing up with my parents, Pops always had percussion around the house, and we'd go to facilities since I was young and play the foster care facilities, the Jury facilities, anything where there were kids where they didn't have a lot of help, or they would live somewhere, you know, periodically at these facilities and then go home on the weekends or whatever. Some of the kids have been abused. So, you know, Pops, even though we didn't have much,

we would go there when I was young, like eight, nine years old. And we were doing that most of our lives. That's how we grew up giving back to the community back then. It sounds like the organization that you have is a great model for a lot of other major cities because I was thinking when you were speaking, the 90s was a period when this happened in most major cities. cities like music was let out of schools that's why the grammy started their little their organization and whatnot but do you ever think about like expanding that because there are a lot of i just thought

it but that's a great idea to have people who have already succeeded from the area start an organization for you know music for children yeah we're trying to build a curriculum now so that it works wherever we go and instead of saying we're going to elevate Oakland we want to elevate san francisco elevate l-a elevate compton elevate whatever is just elevate whatever city but but we have to raise the money. So we took a break and trying to raise the money so that we can start all over again

and get a good board of people and begin at the beginning. So this is the beginning. And it's funny because I play... I'm ready. I'm ready. I was in the bay. Yeah, we do that already. Do you? Thank you.

You didn't know that? I'm in a way. There's always more. It's Philly. There's always more you can do, right? There's always more. Yeah, because I'm coming out of pocket with that, so it's kind of hard to do it without a, it's kind of hard to do it without a sponsor.

I'm just on the board. You should still do more. Adding to the idea that Sheila said, you know, a board. Yeah, a board. Yeah, absolutely. We start a board and, and. Lai will also. I will.

Okay. You need to do more Lai'i. I will. Yeah. I just don't have the funds, but I definitely have the energy. No, you got the energy. Didn't mean to cut you off, Sheila. You didn't.

So, Sheila, what, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what? What was your first musical memory? Five years old, playing with my dad. Actually, I don't remember playing with him as much as I remember getting dressed to go play. I was five years old at my grandmother's house and my cousins were mad because they couldn't go to the club. They're like, well, Sheila's five.

How come she gets to go? My mom was explaining, well, she's going to play. So I'm getting dressed. I had on this white dress with the little white, socks and then the black patent leather shoes and I remember my mom combed my hair we got in the car we went to the gig which is still there the places it was called sans ballroom right on the gig you were five yeah gig for real like my first gig was five and I remember it like it was yesterday but anyway yeah sans ballroom so we go there my mom we get out of the car and and I could hear my dad playing

there were these windows up at the top so you can hear the music coming from the place. And as she was walking me up the stairs, I can hear the music getting louder and louder and louder, and then they opened the door. We stood at the door, and my dad saw us, and they ended the song, and then he said, ladies and gentlemen,

I want to bring up my daughter, Sheila Escovito. She's going to come and play with us, and then I just remember all the people parting like the Red Sea. It was so weird. It was like, wow, and I'm just looking at everyone. Wow, this is amazing. I remember him picking me up and I was going to play congas. The congas were pretty big.

And so he stood me on a stool and then I don't remember anything else. And he said I was killing it, but I don't remember. Wait, your little five-year-old hands on congas, like I'm just making a loud sound. Oh, yeah. My father's a drummer too and I remember trying and but it didn't come out loud as I wanted it to because my hands were too small. But that's crazy. Yeah. I was going to say as a drummer, I mean,

I started off on bongos, but... Really? It's, well, yeah, I mean, it wasn't like there was a drum set in the house, but there was like one bongo in the house, and I mean, I played it a lot, but the wear and tear on your hands, especially... No, bongos are horrible to play. Then why did you choose that? I chose conga's not bongos.

They're different. Yeah, bongos are small. Please. No, no, I don't know. You're telling him that the difference between bongos are con. I don't know. He was doing it for the listeners. Wow.

Shut up, Steve. This is how we act out with each other. No, but okay, so why? I didn't know that there is a wear and tear difference on your hands between the two. Oh, my God, yes. Okay, so explain the difference then. The difference are the bongos are really small. And because of the drum heads, oh, sorry, I'm going to put this down,

the drum heads, they're smaller. Playing bongos, you're going to play with half of your finger, where your finger, your knuckle, you know, so that first part of that finger, that's how you get that really high snapping sound on the bongos. So you're playing everything, you're just playing this, and it hurts after a while. Your finger is swollen.

I mean, my brother's hands used to be so swollen from playing. So I would play them too, but they hurt. And congas, you end up using more of your hand. I mean, you can do that on the bongles, but the sound of what you want to get for bongles is really the tips of your fingers. and that hurts. You have beautiful hands

with somebody who does that. Thank you. I was looking at your palms. Like, look at that. No marks, no scars. That's, let me start. Is it soft? It's tough, too.

Is tech nuk. Do you get treatments on your hands, like to keep them soft or anything along those lines? No, I do use lotion, but. Queen Alene's cocoa butter. You surrender? Okay.

In every household. In every household. In every household. No. No, no, you know, when I was playing every single day, like with George Duke and with my dad, playing Congress, just mainly playing that as my instrument, my hands were bleeding. I'd have to use razor blade to cut the calluses. Really?

It was painful, yeah. I mean, I remember, like, this wall right here, this is like a concrete wall. And before this shows with my dad and with George Duke, because we would play every night, I'd have to bang on the wall before we went on stage until my hands got numb so I could get through the first like two songs and then he'd do a ballad and I have to start all over again. It's like so painful but I loved it.

Not the pain but the, you know, the satisfaction of being able to play percussion is just... And when did you hear of the existence of these things called sticks that you can use instead of your hands? It's not any better. See, well, this is the thing. Without going to the unspoken situation with the roots right now. No, no, no, no, but here's the thing, though.

But no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, but what I'm saying is that, you know, is it, is it taboo or unspoken or cheating? I think it's taboo and cheating. If you use sticks on. Those things are meant to be played with your hands. Why are you answering the question I want to know? What is it? This is my favorite episode already.

No, no, no, no, I'm asking because I want to know, do you play? Oh, tell a while. Because it's interesting. No, but we've all used bongos and congas. No, she doesn't know your background. You're a superstar engineer. That's what she's asking about. No, but I mean, no, the answer is no.

But I've seen and recorded, I've seen and recorded both types. People who use sticks and don't use sticks. And it's just my, I guess, my opinion that bongas and congas are supposed to be played with the hands. Mm-hmm. And sticks are for other percussive things like drums. But I well I what my question was I always wanted sticks because there's a certain loud dynamic that I like when sticks hit bongos just for it for it and I think it's mostly because

of whenever Prince programmed the rim shot to be that conga sound that's the sound I always was going for in my head so thus I was like well can't get that with the hand but you get that with the stick So that's always been my default move. Of course, to the dismay of every percussionist watching us, oh, why y'all cheating? Why your man's cheating? Not, not, you know, that sort of thing. So is it really, is it truly, because even when you're at your setup with timbali's

and whatnot and your calabels, it's not like you're going to put them down and then. Yes, I would. So you're saying that is absolutely cheating? Oh, yes, but I agree with him as well. But let me tell you why. Because in traditional music, like traditional meaning, Latin jazz, salsa, things like, you're going to play bongles with your hands. They would kill you if you showed up playing.

And it's too loud when they, with sticks. Yeah, there's no sensitivity to the instrument is just going to be one tone. You can't get the different tones and the feel with sticks. Now, however, when disco music came out and more pop music, you would end up using sticks. know, for a different sound. I've done it on recording, but it depends on, I've done it too, but it depends on, you know, what music you're going to play with it. But definitely, they were made to play with your hands and not sticks. Final answer.

Final answer. That is my final answer. Well, the real answer to your question, which was why did I chime in? It's because no, Steve, no, no, no, no, sweet, no. No, who can't see. You already started. I think he wanted to stay right there. I just felt like talking. This is the most talking Steve. No, I love to see.

No, I want to hear with Steve have sake. I already said it. I was right, as it turns out. Thank you for agreeing with me. I'm a purist. You know, you can't use sticks on those things. But you're more famous actually in my head for using sticks. Wait, time now.

You just do me, you've been my engineer for like 20 years. You're just. Tell me this now. You know, I mean, you're more of a drummer in, you know, than a percussion, than a conga bongo player. Like, you know, but we. Do you play the conga? Made over 30.

Um, you know what? I have the ability to, but until I master the sound of, mm. I cannot claim that. And I do not know how to. What is that? She'll, you know what? It's like when you rub your finger on that. When you rub, this is a vibration thing.

Oh, okay, okay. I've never been able to do that either. It's like learning the whistle or like, when you wolf whistle. On the, actually, on the drum. It's a vibration with your fingers that makes it. What was the song? Dun dun to, don't,

do you. Yes. Oh, Scorpio. Scorpio. You practiced to that to get that. Of course. Of course. Okay, so how long did you, because we're big on just,

the one thing I want to convey to my listeners is the amount of practice that you have to put into, to master your crap. So in general, were you just always jamming in the house or like how much time would you personally practice, just isolated and that sort of thing? Or was it like, you had to go and practice, Sheila? Oh, no, no, no. Actually, like when I played that beat, it was if, you know, my dad's congos were there,

the song came out, we got the 45. And I was like, oh, that's dope. Let me try that. You know, we would just do it or we'd play it, you know, jamming with bands or out. in the park, you know, when a lot of the street drummers, we'd all get together and just play outside. I hate to say that I've never practiced a day in my life, and I'm sorry for those who need.

I believe that you've jammed a lot of hours. And that was your practice. Yeah. Kind of, yeah. Just like the roots before Fallon, the roots never practiced as a band. Like we just, you do three hours shows for 365 days out of the year.

then it's like. So you just jam with your family and that was kind of like. Yeah, just jamming and stuff. Yeah. But to sit down and say I'm going to learn a rhythm and a part so I can get better, I'm sorry, no. See, my parents made me practice to keep me from going out on the streets. And they did the right thing.

Right. But I'm saying like, but you grew up in the household with other musicians, so I'm certain that it was more like a jamming thing. It was. Well, yeah. Is that weird though? I mean, is it, I also, I, I'm not, not that I'm big on jamming, but, but, you know, big on jamming, but there's something very vulnerable about a jam session that makes it very

hard for me to do in front of people I know. Really? Okay. So the first day of taking the Tonight Show gig, and it's just the eight of us facing each other, so like the circle we're in now, it was the hardest thing in the world to do. like I stopped the session after five minutes and called my manager like I don't know what to do like what do you just just start playing the song like because I think it's it's a it's a vulnerable intimate thing almost I hate to be creepy with the metaphorical thing but I mean it's like intimacy

yeah and you know the thing is that you have to be on I mean we're on good terms with each other as a band but it's it's sort of like I think that you also socially have to be in tune with the person that you are playing with in order to get that the desired results. And so it's, I think that's, it's hard. So I'm amazed that you were able to jam or borderline envious that you're able to, like, play with your family. Yeah, and we grew up like that.

So, I mean, any time, opportunity, if they were sitting out, let's go play. All right. We started getting into this whole thing and then taking solos and going into different rhythms and like just jamming. In the house, in the backyard, outside. Absolutely. In the house, in the backyard. At the parks down at Berkeley College and on telegraph all the time, we were out in the

streets just jamming. In the mission in San Francisco. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah, for real. Where are you in the scheme of your brother and sister? Like oldest young years? How does, who's?

How many siblings are there? Yeah. So I'm the oldest. My brother Juan, my brother Peter Michael, my sister, Zena. Okay. Because I was wondering why you got picked. I was like, how did she get picked out of everybody to go jam with dad and do the record? They play too.

Okay. No, I know they play, but it seemed like you guys had a special relationship. You're your dad. Yeah, I was first. Yeah. So there you go. That's the answer to my question. So how unusual in your childhood was it for,

I know that drums are normally associated as a more masculine instrument to play? So how unusual was it like? Did you get any? ribbing whatsoever, T's like, ah, you play the drums, or like, why don't you play piano or why don't you play guitar? From family or people? Well, I'm just saying, was there anyone to discourage you like, well, that's not a young lady shouldn't be playing like,

do you have a grandmother that said like, she shouldn't be playing the drums? Can't wear a dress and play the drums? Oh, no, my family, no one in the family ever said anything. So it was a supernatural to. Supernatural. No one ever said my parents, my uncles, cousins, they all play. No one ever said, you can't play because you. you're a girl. Because everyone would pick up something and just play. My mom plays Guido. She plays a little

bit of congas. She tap dances. She sings. You know, it's just an entertaining family. And every time we'd go to a party, even with the family, we'd put on Jackson 5, Tempta, whatever, James Brown, and we just start imitating people. So we grew up like, let's, who's going first? And the way to get to the party, well, in the party, as soon as my mom would start singing, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. everyone start running to the living room. It's like time for... Wait, that's the intro. That's the intro.

Showtime. Show time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then my mama break right into tap dance and then we'll see who's going to play what record and start dancing. So I was never told, never, ever until I left the house

and started performing with other artists. Did people say things? But even in school, no one really said, oh, you know, you can't play because you're a girl. I don't... I mean, it was always cool. Like, you know, everyone who was in school was like, it's dope. Well, on the other side of the coin, like, did they make a big deal of it because you were dope or, you know, it was like, every time you play like, go Sheila, go she.

Like, it's a novelty thing that we're watching or whatever. Yes. I think with the exception with the exception of what was her name? I think her name was cookie. There was a jersey-based group in the 70s called Ecstasy. passion and pain. Oh my goodness. Never heard of them.

The Mobb Deep sample, the realist. I'll play it later. But yeah, there's, they were, I mean, they had a, they had a run from like 73 to 76, but they did like three appearances on Soul Train. Oh, wow. That's the first time I saw like a woman playing drums. She was actually playing drums? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I got to check it out. So, yeah, I was going to say, did you have anyone that you looked up to that was... Althea Smith was her name? Yes, but they called her cookie. Yeah. Okay. Did you have anyone that you looked up to that was a woman that was playing drums when you were coming up at all? The only woman that I saw play ever, especially drums, was Karen Carpenter when her and her brother had their variety show.

Yeah. And she was killing it, you know. and as soon as I saw around television I turned to pops and said how come I don't have a TV show I'm like nine or something what do you mean I said I play drums I play just like her

how come can't we just get a TV show he goes sure you can I mean it was never like no you can't play because you're a girl that no one else that was never said but in your formative years did anyone think like yo there's no one that we know of that can fill in the slot and you'll be the first to

like at that time would have been revolutionary. So I'm saying like, was anyone thinking like dollar signs like? No, we didn't. Actually, as a matter of fact, when I first started playing and sitting in with other bands and they wanted to pay me, I thought it was disrespectful to pay me because I know it's kind of weird. Burr?

Wait me, Bill just gave me. Like, R. Yeah, I thought it was disrespectful because I loved it so much. It's like, don't pay me for something I really love. I just want to do it. Like, this is my past. And then Pop's like, come here. He took me in the kitchen.

Yeah, he took me in the kitchen and opened the kitchen refrigerator. He was like, we need some food. You got to get paid. It's okay. And I'm like, oh, okay, all right, cool. How old were you at that moment? 14. So I was going to ask, at what age were you when you were like a total Jedi master as in like, I could close my eyes and know

I haven't gotten there yet. Good answer. Good answer. Now I'm to ask you again. This time just drop the humble. No, I'm so serious. I'm being honest. Well, I'll ask you. At what age were you when other musicians took you totally serious as in I want her for it? At what age were you when you started?

They still sometimes don't take music. I'm saying, sister can't get a call for a gig nowhere. Who? Me. I'm telling you. Have you read your discogs? Probably because you're me on. They're like, I can't afford that Shia E.

I thought that a lot. When I read your thing, I was like, oh, I could have called Shia Eid for some situation. See? That's what happened. But that's not nothing to do with. That's because we're afraid of you. Right.

Right. You're on a mountain top and now it's about a climbing. It's like, oh, we. Yeah, no. I mean, I know, I know you're not owning this. the superhero thing and I know that artists hate the fan worship thing but your existence is kind of a big deal no thank you I mean I understand it now but seriously when when growing up I mean I didn't get it and I don't think we realize it even pops until later on it's like okay well wait a minute you know

that wasn't ignoring you that was more like we're not worthy there was one time I think I was going to call you for a thing. It's only because I saw that you did, was it loving you? Tony Tony? Tony? Yeah. Loving you. Right. And I saw your credit. And then I was like, oh, oh, she would come down to earth and

mess with us. She also had history with them. At what point in your life were you thinking like this? Because you said you know now, you understand now why people weren't calling, but like at what point? Because until I started speaking with people, it's like, you know, hi, how are you doing? Oh, you know, like, and then I was like, wait a minute. You know, I'll come and do a session.

You would? Yeah. I mean, I'm asking Steve, you wanted to play the piano in your session. No, listen, this guy, this dude, this producer called me. I could have slapped him through the phone. He called me and he said, hey, Sheila, I just want to know something. All right. Okay, yeah, what you need?

I'm producing this record on this girl. I want to know how to get the Sheila E sound. Do you know anybody? that I can call What? But cheap I think you're on the phone

with her right now I did I said Wait a minute How can you My sound You want to You want me

to refer you To somebody else Dude Okay Here's another thing We're skipping We're skipping The line here

But I believe that The Number one Weapon Of the purple cloud period or just that period with Prince, the number one weapon was mystery. And anybody associated, at least in my eyes, like, you know, when I was 10, 11, 12, like,

seeing you guys, it was like, it was some untouchable, we're too, I don't mean arrogant, like, we're too good for that. But, you know, even the different world. Even the we are the world perception, like, oh, we'd never do that. Like, in our minds, we're just like, you guys would only do your music and you're laughing at us mere mortals, like, on Earth. That was great branding. It was kind of like that, but we weren't going to say, no, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just saying.

Somewhere in between. No, no, no. No, we, you know what? It's weird. It's like being in this room, all of us sitting here, we just start playing and jamming. And next year, you know, four days later, you might have cut in the, other record. I mean, it was just like we love being in the studio. And after being with everyone, you know, all the time, you kind of forget that there's a world happening. There's something's

going, something is going on. At one point, Prince and I just, we felt like we're in a bubble. And until we woke up at the end of Purple Rain, it's like, wait, what just happened? We didn't even, we didn't understand it at all. Okay. So now I know that you're available for session one. Which is the important thing? Yes, I am. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw,

unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

I'm Anna Sinfield. And in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story.

This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars

were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Lesbian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap.

Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best. advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way

up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, It's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So what was your very first gig as a professional? Percussions? Pops playing, his percussion player got sick. He had a band called S.

Tech assigned to Clive Davis. They were touring out with temptation Stevie Wonder, Earth Winning Fire. Pops' other percussion player got sick and I said, I'm 15 Pops, I know all the music. You know, let me play this show. Let me and coach. He was like, no,

you can't do it. And I was like, Pops, come on. Why? He said, you're only 15. You can't, you know, they're out on tour with all these bands. No, you can't do it. You're only 15 years old. And I said, moms, pops won't let me play in the band. Well, please. Thank you. So I got my way. And so I played that show in San Francisco. I think it was then Mayor Mosconi, I think. And it was for 3,000 people. And the band was killing, like, you know, 15 years old, like, I've been playing with these, a couple of other bands.

And they were like knockoffs of Santana music. So we knew all that stuff. And my dad was in Santana, right before having the band Azteca. And that band Asteca was formed with when Santana's band broke up. Carlos broke up his band, half the band with my dad, Neil Sean, Lenny White on drums, all those people were- For Journey? Uh-huh. Okay.

Yep. So they were playing with my dad in Azteca. And so you got this caliber of musicians in these people playing with an 18-piece, you know, five, six horns, three singers, three percussion players, two keyboard players, two guitar players. I mean, it was insane. And all this music, and it's like, I wanted to play in that band. So I got to play in the band. And it just brings you, if you're set in a place where it's going to force you to go somewhere you've never been before, you know, I wanted to make sure that I was there representing. And I mean, I went for it. Well, you know, my dad turned to me at one

point, and he said, you know, I want you to take a solo, you know, like he's gesturing to me. You know, play from your heart. I'm like, I'm so scared. I closed my eyes and I started playing a solo and I felt like I blacked out. I just left the planet. And next thing I know, I remember looking up in the sky. I was up in the sky like floating, looking at myself playing, looking at the entire room with my dad looking at me. I'm looking at him and the crowd is just starting to roar it. I saw it like from above.

It was so weird. And when I finally opened my eyes, did I realize like all of a sudden, you know, like in a movie and you hear the music like coming back in out of nowhere, that's how I felt. And then I started shaking because I got scared like, wait, did I just, what happened, you know? And I felt like it was an out of body experience. And my hands were shaking. And at the end of my soul, I looked at pops and I just started crying while I'm still playing. And then I heard the roar of the crowd and just like, and it just got loud. And it was a standing ovation.

And I was like, I don't even know what's that. I was just crying like crazy. And we ended the song. The show stopped, went backstage. And I was like, Pops, Daddy, Daddy, I'm going out on tour with you. This is what I want to do. This is what I want to do. I know it.

I know it. This is it. Was that the first and the last time you had that feeling like that moment? No. That was the beginning of my purpose. that was the beginning and pops looked at me and then we hugged and we just started crying he's like I don't even know how do you know all this I was like I don't know I think I was watching you I'm like a sponge I don't know we we had no idea like all of a sudden just kind of jamming with a local

band for six months and then I went from that local band to professionalism I don't know so okay this is definitely the I gotta get a NASTECA record bro man I don't get a Chil's There's two of them you have to hear it

It's amazing What years are those from Seventy 6, 5 something like that 75, 4 Okay so you as a drummer and as a musician

I was going to say that the The one thing that I think that you won't ever able to be, that you'll never be able to avoid is the solo. Now, that's the dividing line between you and I, because thank God I've made a life and a career on the most minimalist kind of approach to drumming.

That's a huge gift to have. It's a dangerous gift. And a big responsibility. I know. It's a dangerous. gift but the thing is is that in my age and as I get older like okay so when I was in my 20s

in my 30s or whatever especially the way that my arms are now with um when you carpool tunnel and everything yeah yeah it's so painful now to take solo so it's like I'm taking them less and less on Routos

how are you especially when most of your solos have to have this, you know, this, this climatic, uh, climatic, uh, applause from the audience. How are you able? Like, do you not, do you have a fear of soloing or? No. Just, but it's always expected of you.

Yes. Like, Sheila, and then music stops like, go ahead, Sheila. And yours has to be extra acrobatic. Like, it's always, you know, you have to be, you're not even zero to 10. You have to go from zero to ardubine. You got to go to zero to ardubine. You got to go to zero. Audubon in like five minutes.

And I'm just saying not even physicality or with age or whatever, but maybe there's just some nights you don't feel like turning it on. But that's pressure because you have to go from zero to a gazillion. It's expected of you at least in two minutes. Yeah, it's interesting because I don't think of it as an I've got to be on, on and off, or I don't feel like it. I've never put myself in that position to feel like that. So I love doing what I do.

And if people ask me, I would love to do it. But I wouldn't walk into a room to say, I'm not going to walk in there because I don't feel like it. Then I shouldn't have not showed up. I never want to put myself in that position to say, okay, I got to turn it on. I'm excited if someone asked me to play. I would love to.

So there's no on and off switch. You ask me, it's always on. Can I just, I'm not fast forwarding, but I just have a quick question on that note because I just watched you do the view. And in my mind, I said, she would not do this performance unless you have full 100% like comfortable.

They would say yes, and you could do everything that you wanted to do. Is that like an example of that moment because it was kind of amazing and groundbreaking some of the things that you did within it? Thank you. It was a, it's interesting. It was a fight.

It was a fight to get what we had. It was a fight. And I'm grateful to end up turning out good. but I always tell everyone, you know, no doesn't mean you can't do it. No doesn't mean you shouldn't a lot of time. No means opportunity. And I was like, this has just been insane the things that we had to do and change. I mean, it was, you know, from one thing to another.

And I just kept saying, but no, this is the message. We have to send a message. I have to stand for this is what we're trying to send this message. And we need the flag. And it needs to be upside down, you know. And I need to put. the images in the back so people can see what we're talking about. I need Dr. King's speech.

I need Kennedy's speech, you know. I need Obama speech, you know. So it was a definite fight, but, you know, again, how things turned around. We were only supposed to just play the music. And then it turned into two questions. And then once they understood what we were trying to do, then they were behind us 100%. And we're glad that they,

they understood what we wanted to do and then it turned into let's move you to segment 5 and 6 and it's like oh now I get to explain what happened but never give up you know never give up and know me as opportunity meant I wasn't coming through that front door but I came through that side door you know and I wasn't going to give up and I still got there and it was better than

it was going to be initially I'm sorry for those of us who don't watch the view on a regular basis you don't have to move your neck like that when you say the word Okay. And watch the view. I just, it happens to the show, I don't watch most of the time.

So what, can you just tell us what the performance was? Yeah, and you can go on Sheila E. YouTube channel to watch it too

or my Facebook. Okay. Yeah. Sheila E. Jummer or Sheila E. Let's watch right now. I'm playing. No,

the beginning of it is, I did the funky national anthem I call it. Oh, okay. So the national anthem with some things, and I had speeches in the song as well. She kneeled while she played. She kneeled.

Were the speeches samples of the actual speeches or were somebody else? No, it was the actual, like I got the okay from Dr. King's estate and family to use his images and his speeches on my record. That was huge because they just don't do that. For anybody. For anybody. It was super political. It was funky national anthem.

I got it, man. You got had me at Funky. Okay. When I reposted it, I was like, it was nice that they allowed you to show your love and your frustration for this country. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Okay. So in performing, I know that today, especially with it being the call to personality and based on celebrity, that gets people approval. I know that in the 70s, you actually had to be good and great. And you have to entertain. not just performed, but you had to entertain. So what was this the level of preparation, especially with Aztec and then eventually you went to George Duke and stuff? What was the level of preparation that you guys put into doing shows?

Like were you guys looking at other acts that were on the bill and like, yo, we got to blow them off the stage or, you know, were there headline acts that were like, okay, can you guys not, you know, juggle the drumsticks tonight? Can y'all just, you know, do something? normal. Right. I don't know that I don't remember once I said I was going to become a professional musician did, was there a competition? I think that there was competition

early on with the other bands, the local bands. We're going to be better than them kind of thing. But once I became a professional musician, it wasn't about we have to be better, the preparation was like, as Pop's told me all the time, in order for you to feel good about what you're doing and what you're playing and walk out there with confidence, the only way to do that is know what you're supposed to do. And if you prepare and listen to the music, learn all the breaks and you walk in, you play the show, you're going to enjoy yourself and you're going to play and not have to worry or be afraid. So I was always prepared.

I always listen to the music whatever I needed to listen to to make sure, especially if I had it ahead of time, that I would learn the music so I'd walk in and that was part of the issues with some of the other male drummers was I'd walk in prepared and they wouldn't know anything and they're just like pissed off of me really because you're

because she did the job I did the job with a smile I'm so glad we didn't come up in the scene I would have been one of the drummers like okay actual proof where the cuts in the movie song so how

I know that because George Duke came from the school of Frank Zappa. But I also know that in the mid-70s, he was trying to get more into his funk thing. I mean, were his shows. I've never seen like any of the tapes of his 70 shows on YouTube. I mean, there will be like a clip or two. Yeah.

But it'll just be, you know, again, like Dooky Stick or, you know, just like one of his groove-based songs. But how much of his fusion stuff did he incorporate? in his 70 shows by the time that you joined his band? Oh, a lot of it. The dope thing about George was he played so many different genres of music because he played the fusion a lot. He did play jazz.

We played a lot of Brazilian music. We played the funk music. I mean, he played everything in the show. So he allowed me to, he never told me what I needed to play or even what he wanted me to play. He just always said, okay, you got your house full of stuff, whatever you feel like fits in that song, just play it. So he allowed me to grow as a musician. That doesn't really happen with people.

Everyone's a lot of times you need to play this and you need to play that and be specific on what you're playing. But he just allowed me to express myself freely like always. And that was huge. For these early gigs, were you also your own tech and your own grody? Like I know that times have changed nouns like, I have a writer and those things. But those things exist back then? I had a take later

But no I was When I was playing the clubs in the Bay Area With the different bands I put my drum set Timbalis and Congas in a volvo Myself Load and unload And set everything up

And then do the same thing every night So you transport it in a car In a car Backseat and truck Those are hills where you live Like how did you get those Like how did you transport? Yeah

They were healed. But no, I had a vulva. And so I put all my gear in a vulval. Not unless I used, at one point, mom's got a van. But I never hardly used a van. So I was my own tech, absolutely. Sometimes I get help. And then later on with George, he did have a tech.

So he did do a lot of the work as well. Okay. Yeah. After George's Duke was, did you do a stint, I don't know if you did a stint with Al Jaro or not, or I don't know if he was just opening or. Well, we played on the same bill, yeah. So we all jammed together.

Yeah, we did shows together. I wasn't officially in this band what we played together. Damn, okay, because I thought that you would have been on the live in your look to the rainbow. It's one of my favorite albums of Walter. And someone else asked me that, and I'm not sure, I have to listen to it

because it could be me. We were in Europe doing those shows a lot together on the same bill. So I don't know. it's all a blur. I'd have to listen to see. Oh, it could be, no, I don't know. I was going to say, it could be Paulino.

Okay. I don't know. Were you on a lot of George Duke albums, or did it just part of his, oh, you were? Yeah, I did a lot of time. Brazilian love affair and Master of the Game. Master of the Game. Fall the Rainbow.

And about four, after that, I just don't remember the names of him. Yeah. Yeah, I'm on the verge of, going headlong into him i've been putting out for a long time he's amazing incredible yeah yeah oh you love it yeah i'm coming in through the jazz way actually yeah like no habadilla's stuff is based on like george stuff so you you you would you love it instantly so uh i know that you did stents with uh you're dying of ross period was that in the 70s or in the yes it was in the early 70s do you know

if that are you part of the I know that she had two live albums out in the 70s one was there was one in 77 which I know there's multiple percussionists when you're doing these shows are you the lone percussionist on a majority of these shows

are you sharing with were you and your brother in a package or no those shows well with Diana Ross that's a different story I didn't even make the record because I quit after the second gig Okay, I was going to say client-wise, pre-pre your solo career, who was a client that was easy to work with?

I mean, I don't mean the complexity of the music, but just a comfortable environment that you enjoy that you like the music versus high-end, yeah, versus high-end politics of either a band. a band leader not being cordial or being hard on you or whatever or just because a lot of times you know I know that

with the artist like even if the artist is wrong they're right yeah wait that's throwing me off that's not the one and you know

blaming you easy to point you out yeah so well that was Diane Ross that's why I quit um she came to play Circle Star Theater which was one of the

the dopest places to play in San Francisco at the time and everyone played there. Shaka, Rufus played there. I mean everyone. Oh, J's, it didn't matter. So all the artists would come and play that play. So they hired me to play. And it's in the round, so it turns, the stage turns throughout the show. So half of the stage was pit for the orchestra. Right. And then she's on top of the main floor. And so, you know, I told everyone in the Bay Area,

shoot, I'm playing with Diana Ross. And all my people. came well she didn't like people screaming at me shame oh no cousins oh god you can get a one-off like okay I won't do it the second time yeah it was uh you know I mean and they announced the people in the band and everything and then but you know she was very angry and so then she said well I'm getting too much it well she didn't tell me that she told them musical director she's getting too much attention and she needs to cover up from her neck all the way down. Wow. Wait, what?

But they told me to wear black. I mean, I just, I had like a sleeveless blouse on. It was black. Everyone should wear black. And I was like, okay. They said, well, she wants you to cover up your arms. I said, I can't because I'm playing and, you know, it's like this. It's going to get in the way.

She wanted you to cover that pretty face. She couldn't say that. Barker. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's okay. Oh, yeah. So only two shows?

Yeah. I played the one night, and then he said, Miss Ross wants to talk to you for tomorrow's show, but she wants you to cover up. And I was like, well, you hired me for my musicianship, right? He said, yeah. I said, well, I'm doing what you need me to do, right? He said, yeah.

I said, I can't play with the sleep. It's going to be too hard. He said, okay, well, she's. She was like to speak with you. Okay, so I stood out the side of, stood at the door of her dressing room, and she could see me in the mirror. She was just staring at me, but she was talking to her friend. Principal's office. Yeah.

Make you wait in the hall. Uh-huh. So I'm standing. And she's just talking. I'm standing her. She could see me. And five minutes, ten, 15, then 20, then almost going on 30. Uh-huh.

And I said, oh, I'm leaving. So I turned around. And her friend saw her because Diana kind of, you know, looked to the side. and her friend turned around. She said, oh, my God, you were amazing. I loved you. You were so amazing. And, and, and, I mean, oh, yeah, that's our percussionist, blah, blah, blah.

So I walked out of the room. And the guy said, well, you know, I just want to make sure when you come tomorrow that you're going to be covered. I said, no, that's not going to happen because I quit. He's like, not, we, and the two shows that night, so there was the two shows, but the next night I didn't even show. I said, no, I'm not coming. He goes, no, no, no, wait.

What? You're quitting? And I said, oh, absolutely. I said, that's just wrong. I know what she's doing. And then I got really angry. She made me wait there in the dressing room right. She looked at me purposely and like dog me and like, hit you on delay. So you weren't afraid of, no, no, no, I commend you for that. But at that time in your early career, you weren't afraid of burning a bridge. No, she was wrong. Hey. Hey, I'm loving. So that makes. the We Are the World session. Super awkward. What was the time in between?

Wait, what's the time between We Are the World? There's a lot. And it was different. That's the only time. There was never breakups after the makeup's to breakups. No, it was, I was Sheila Skavito when I played with her. And then I was, she let me at We Are the World. Did you talk to her at all during the We Are the World sessions?

Oh, baby. Come, baby. You come, my baby, Julie. You sit right here. Mama, come on. But did she know it was you? Yes, of course. And I bet you was playing with sleeves by then, too.

Like, oh, I can do this. Because I swear some of them suits, it was some sleeves. It was some sleeves, Sheila. No, it was all good. After that, I laughed. We didn't say nothing, but we laughed. You're like, you come sit over here. You know, hey, it's all good.

Okay. That's my girl. Okay. I love me some Diana Ross. So I got to know. I know that you were on the middle. like midnight love tour okay just to make sure okay so the the the the 1980 um the documentary no no the the the the 1980 uh macho jazz festival that is not chila

playing uh but i thought it was he has a was proud gero no no this i'm talking to marving gay now oh marvin i'm sorry oh i you never seen it i don't think i have okay i thought this whole time I thought it was you and I looked this morning. I was like, that's not Sheila. When did you, you've only joined for the Midnight Night Love Tour. Yeah, the very last tour. In 82, his very last tour. I saw, it's not much footage is online, but I know of a promoter that had a really good, at least a, there was a Radio City of Music Hall show that he did. And it's, it's there and I'll say that of all the Marvin shows that I saw, it was a little weird.

I don't know if it's based on the newer material or whatever, but I mean, there's a point where, like, even when he does sexual healing, like he does a strip tease thing down to his underwear. And just for this particular performance, he didn't look comfortable. And then when the promoter told me, like, yeah, this is like one of his,

I think he's like, yeah, there's like his, he would only have 11 more performances left and then there's like his last 10 performances of his life. What was it? You did the whole duration of that tour? Yeah, the whole tour and my brother and one of our friends. So there was three of us playing percussion. Three of you?

Mm-hmm. And we had duplicates of each, three pairs of timbalis, three pair of congas, three pair of bongas, chimes, yeah. What was it like to do that tour? just knowing what you know of what happened to his life and stuff. I mean, not to get super personal in his life, but what was it like? Because even when I watched it, it just...

It's weird because I thought we started at Radio City. That was the first gig, wasn't it? Well, maybe, I don't know when it does, but he said like, yes, this is the last 11-something, maybe it was 11 months or whatever, but I know that... Because we were out for... That was his last tour.

I definitely know that much. Oh, it was the last tour. Definitely, because after we got home was when he passed away. He started in New York? No one starts in New York. I think we started at Radio City. That's crazy. I could swear.

No, no, I mean, he could, but I'm just saying that usually like agents like to start you off in a Kansas or somewhere where you can. Yeah, I don't know. And maybe we did. I just remember because some stuff went down at that gig. So, yeah, it was pretty interesting. He was amazing. I mean, it was weird. I mean, of course, the women loved, you know, him dropping his pants into some boxers with some designs on him.

Right. But, man, there were times when he was singing, I almost missed my cue because I was a fan going, oh, my God, look at him. I mean, I was tripping. He's at the piano, like, really, when he got into it, he got his rhythm going as far as knowing what songs were coming up. It was amazing. He just blew us away. Sheila, how often did those moments happen?

That's interesting that you would get distracted because you worked with so many great people. Exactly. Now, this was kind of at the very beginning because it, you know, I mean, I grew up listening to Marvin Gaye and all of a sudden I'm in the band and that was one of the dopest

conga drum beats. Everyone wanted to play doodoon kak, dunka duncat. With the extra reverb on it. Mother, mother. Right. So playing that Kanga beat, it's like,

I'm playing it with Marvin Gay. Like, this story, I don't know if I told you this before, but the story when we were in rehearsals, like my brother didn't have the gig, Peter Michael. So I'm playing. And I kept telling him, come to rehearsal. You know, I think I can get to the gig. So he kept showing up. So Marvin thought he was in the band. So for real.

Like during rehearsals, no one, he didn't even know. And so he's playing. He's thinking that there's three of us playing. So I'm playing at, we're all playing at rehearsal. and everyone's kind of just sitting down playing, you know, chilling. So the three of us, we start doing like the Michael Jackson Five dance day. Right. We start, oh, shoot. Yeah, the two-step.

We started doing that and we start getting into it. So then the horn players look like, oh, we can dance too. So then they start throwing down. Then the singers are like, well, we can do something. So that's how everyone just started dancing because we started dancing first, and especially playing what's going on. I mean, you can't help but not. dance. So I'm playing that beat and it's really, it only consisted of that boom, boom, fack,

dunca, duncuh, da, dunc. Well, it got good to me and I hit that low drum. I went, duncac, you know, I hit that low jump. Right. He's a very soft spoken man. How you doing, Sheila? Yeah, he whispers when he talks. Right. His back was to us. He's singing that song. I hit that extra drum beat. There were 24, uh, uh, at least 24, 26 people in the band. He put his hand up and yelled with his back to us. I'm like, hold on, stop! And it was a trip because I don't think anyone had heard him yell.

Yeah. And all you hear is, you know, sticks falling and, you know, like, what the heck does happen? And it was like, you know. You know. Right. And then he turned around and he had to, and he had. has his mic in his hand he said somebody played an extra beat and i'm like oh my you could hear my heart pounding i was so scared i was like my heart's going to pop out of my chest i mean i'm frightened and then

all i could think it was to blame it on peter michael so so i i just went like this i was like i better say something before no one's okay uh sorry mr gay um that was my brother peter michael so I did. Not with the hand raised. Yeah, I raise my hand. Excuse me, I'm sorry, but I'll make sure that he doesn't do that again. And then Peter Michael put his hand at it and he goes, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So he took it and he's like, oh, okay.

So at the end of all of this, Peter Michael is rehearsing with us for a couple of weeks or whatever. We get ready to leave and Peter Michael's walking to go home and he says, I'm going to drive back to Oakland. Because we're rehearsing here in L.A. I'll drive back to Oakland. And the road manager Wilber says, hey man, go get your suit, your tuxedo, get fitted for your tuxedo. And he's like, for what? He goes, you're going on tour.

He goes, uh-uh, I don't, I'm not in the band. And then he said, yes, you are. He said, yes, you are. And Marvin said, yeah, you go get your suit. And he didn't know that Peter Michael wasn't in the band. He's like, make sure you get your suit and you look nice. And so he got hired as he was leaving because Marvin thought he was in the band the whole time. But wait.

Do you know who the MD was at the time? It was his cousin, nephew. What was his name? If you told me his name, I'd say it. Yeah. He wasn't like, well, wait a minute. Nobody said. What the hell is he doing it in the first place?

There's that many musicians? Yep. Okay, you brought up a point, even when you said with the Azteca, you mentioned at least 17, 18, 19 people. How did y'all get paid? We did. Really? We got paid. Well, I mean, Azteca was opening for Earth, winter fire and Stevie and temptation.

So they were making money. And back in that day, you know, they were getting paid. So you could still make a good living as a... Absolutely. As a side person. And at no point during this part of your journey are you thinking, hey, I got to be out in the front. I got to be my own artist. And I got to...

You were just fine. being a team member. Oh, absolutely. I love being a team member. And the crazy thing about it, even being a team member with Marvin, he would still say, Sheila, I want you to go take a solo. I'm like, okay. So he'd go change.

And then the three of us would do this drum thing that we made up. And I'd take a timbali solo. We'd throw the sticks up and do this whole thing until he'd come back in a new outfit. Okay. And I'm always going to refer to the solo because it's very important. when you bounce the stick on the floor you throw up in the air

and you turn around do the pirouette and you catch it behind your back has it ever dropped and I still need to know how to you yes it has dropped

but here's the thing is when I was You play it off well or something or like what I've no see here's the thing I'm going to give away

some of my secrets please thank you it's a ball yeah so here's the thing it's when I realize every time I wanted to make shows like, you know, you can't freak out. I don't want to drop the stick and I was like,

ugh, you know, I don't want to drop the stay every time I throw it up. So, um, most of the time I caught it once in a while I'd miss it and you'd hear the audience go, ah, well, you're playing in front to 20,000 people and I threw the stick up one time and I missed them like, shoot, you know, and you hear, ah, and then I threw it up again. I said, I'm catching a second when I missed it. I was like, seriously, but the awe got louder. Oh, man. And then the third one, they're like, Oh, Sheila, come on.

And then I looked, oh, they want me to win. So the fourth one, I picked it up and, I mean, I threw it up and I caught it.

And they were like, the roar was louder than the first roar because they, they wanted to be with me and cheer me on. I was like, I get it.

I get it. See, you're making me feel bad for not taking more risk. I did that once. Once. Once was all it took. I did a solo.

And, no, I was watching you did the thing when you bounced to stick off the floor and whatever and the shit

hit me in the face and I was like no, I'm never again. I'm good. You got that. Yeah, that hurts and this happened before.

I used to try it in like in band class in school and just stay on the floor. Yeah, like I never knew how you perfectly... So there's a science to the bounce.

That's what I said. It says, ooh. Between watching her and Jerome Benton do it, I wanted to know how to do it. Do it with ease. And they would bounce up

the floor spin and catch it like it was nothing. Yeah, I practiced that thing for at least 37 minutes. Backstage I was the man. 37 minutes. Because backstage, as marble floors, it's nice and bouncy. Oh, right, yeah. When your drum sets on a rug, that's something I didn't think about. You got to make up your own move.

That's Sheila move. A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey, from basketball to college football or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends,

Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed.

I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft.

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What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but.

I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know. the cat just hang in there yeah it would not be right it wouldn't be that there's a lot of luck listen to thanks dad on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast all right so i know that you moved to lionel richie right after marvin correct i was actually uh touring with marvin playing chills at night and flying back to l a during the day to rehearse with lino for that next tour wow the you the the line of the first line over chee album tour not certainly uh technically well it's it's it's a four canceled yeah cancel because you're i forgot you're in uh uh running with the night video

yes she's the leader running with the night video oh no she's baiting for the afro i get to be fonte i get to be fonti you're not here right now i finally know something important That's you Wow Yes Sheila is the lead And running with the night video And so you did the Canceladown tour

Yes Yes it was canceled Yeah Yes she did Yep that's me Okay Afro and everything No I'm sorry

I'm just amazed that I knew something That Fonte wasn't here To steal my shine Or my own show Thank you for once So were you on the album too? I don't remember I don't know if I came in

Before Holy shit does Sheila E Yes it is Oh man, you got to her before I did. Wait a minute. Speaking of Were you there or were you not there? Can you settle

the debate of if you are or if you're not on Don't stop until you get enough? Ooh, good question. I've heard that you confirm that you are and I heard you I heard it was a rumor.

I don't. Is that a rumor? No. That's not a rumor? No, it is. No, is it fake news? Okay, look, what happened was Quincy called me and said he wanted me to play something on this song that Michael had written with some kind of,

he didn't know what percussion thing it was going to be. So I don't know, I want to say it was Westlake. I can't remember West two, he was in L.A. Westlake? Yeah, I think it was Westlake. So I go there, and I'm one known for not using normal percussion instruments. I make up stuff. I use different things, spatula,

hairbrushes, chopsticks, you know, just whatever. A bite of an apple. Sample, it put on a snare. I'm telling my secrets. Yeah, uh-huh. I know you're going to rewind that one. I'm typing right in. I'm typing right now.

Wait, bite of an apple? Don't worry, man, we're recording this. Yeah. We have our own radio show. But, so I go into the studio and it's like trying to figure out, okay, what, What works here?

What they're trying to tell me? He needs something. So I took water bottles and I real bottles, not plastic. We didn't have it, but water bottle and I tuned it to the song and I used that metal piece for the triangle that I play the triangle with. I used that for the sides and went

ding-k-gink-d-d-d-d-d-k-d-d-so. So I tuned it to the... To the song. Wow. And that's it. So what happened was they kept changing and who's going to play on what, you know, that thing went on forever trying to get it done. And they forgot I played on it.

And they're like, no, I think it was Paulineo. Maybe it was like, what? Well, you're not the first person to get gagged on this long. Hello, Greg, filling games. Right, right. Exactly, I was just going to say, filling gains, too. So I'm waiting for the record to come out. And the record comes out.

I was telling me what I played on Michael's first record, blah, blah, blah. So I go to Leopold in Berkeley and Michael's doing a science. So he says, I'm going to be there at Leopold. I want you guys come. Okay, we go to Leopold. We meet him there. And I get the record. And I was like, my name's not on the record.

He's like, huh? My name is not on the record. Man. So I just have to tell the story. Damn, Michael. Who did the credits for that? I did because I always forget people. That's funny because he did it in store at Leopold's.

Because I believe there's footage of him. the same day that he did that in store at Leopold, there's footage of him visiting an Oakland nightclub that very night. And the DJ plays don't stop till you get enough. And he gets on and, like, he grabs the microphone and dances a little bit in front of it. Like, it's that night in Oakland, that same period.

Wait a minute, he let you guys know. I know this is weird because you played with everyone, but I'm kind of freaked out that, like, you were even on speaking terms with Michael Jackson. I thought it was just me but I thought it was maybe

I was like this something to people because that's kind of uncommon right? Well she said I got excited I was like wait so did y'all talk about each other and did he say did he and did he ask you well he and why are you talking to him? But he wasn't he wasn't Michael Jackson

I mean he was Michael Jackson he was still Michael Jackson but yeah but I met them when they were I met them with George Duke in the 70s so I met the whole family when they were playing in Europe. So they were still approachable? Yes.

Okay. Absolutely. They wanted me to teach Randy how to play percussion. So I went to the house to try to, and then the parents were like, we don't want no Mexican. No, I'm just kidding. But something tells me you're not kidding. But I'll let it go, but I don't think you're kidding. No.

I'm just kidding. I really, no. They wanted me to come and, you know, teach them how to play. So, yeah. Can you teach someone how to play? Yes. Because people ask me all the time. No.

I say yes. I say yes. Man. Yeah. I've seen it. Every one of their mom asked me and the most I'll do is I'll do play. I do not know how to or I don't know if I have the patience do, but there's another secret.

When's the last time you gave a lesson? Sheila, can you teach them to know how to play? Okay. Yeah. I've done some. I don't mean like when you're going to a school and whatever and you're like, okay, you hold the sticks and it's like, I mean like a real, okay, I'll be there at four o'clock. and then I sit down and

another Randy Jackson should have been you're paradiddling me to death and Oh God not paradiddles. I don't know any paradigils So I don't Um Paradittal. Yeah I don't know a lot of that stuff Anyway, you know I

I taught um like people at some of the women conferences and stuff and we talk about my book or whatever then I'll say but I can also teach you how to play drums very simple. It's really simple and everyone's going nah nah nah I want to play and I don't know how to play. I was like, so I have a drum set in the room for these conferences. And all I do is this is the trick right here. And because it's mind over matter, you sit down, you're going,

my feet and my hands are going to, how am I going to separate my brain to do? Well, if you're walking, you're walking opposite like this. Your hand and your feet are walking opposite of each other. So if you walk like that on the drums, hi-hat, kick, high hat, kick. I can do it like this. And if you just walk on the drums, immediately everyone plays doong got, do got, doon, got. It happens in three seconds. I'm so upset. Wait, why are you having? I'm going through some emotional things in the corner because my dad is a drummer and for all my, the first 10 years of my life, I wanted to be a drummer and he just never taught me and I had to look at you on TV and then I had to look at Arceo and look at Terry. And now that was, he could have at least just

showing me that. You know, all I got shown was the way to hold the sticks and it's still hard. Yeah. We've known each other for... You went teaching. What you were saying? You said, I was just back asking.

I was just going to say. Did you hear what he said? He don't teach. You never asked. I mean, I wouldn't have done it. Yeah, I wouldn't have taught, but at least give me the honor to reject you. Oh, okay.

A mirror, you teach me how to play the drums. Wait, but I just had an epiphany. And I'm dead serious. You are going to be my percussion teacher. I do not feel like I'm a complete drummer until All right So you take your bottle of water

We're here You Get your bottle of water Bill, hand him a lot of water You just bill You're sorry to me I don't know we're about the wizard Wait not all you grabbing bottles of water

I'm thirsty You heard me coughing on me? I'm not thirsty but I got to get rid of this I don't want to destroy Electric Lady's studio right now. No, you don't. But you have to drink some of it because it's too full to make a sound. There you go.

You're not supposed to do that part right. This is going to be on the next route to I. Watch. For those that are listening at a home, they're breathing or they're, let me say breathing. Is this a Voss water commercial right now? They're using bottles of water. Are you trying to play the water? But she didn't do that.

She's not, she didn't. Will you encourage me, woman? Yes, no, you're doing good. You're doing good. I just mean that. This is a mere failing right now Away from the mic first of all Okay

Yeah You got to do it away from the mic Is this why I can't whistle in the mic When I'm Yeah because you're gonna hear nothing but error Oh you're right No no no no You do it like this

Shut up Get away from the mic They're just mad at you You just This is pressure No it's not We're not looking Go ahead

You said you don't like it When other people are looking No don't make a sound first just make a sound with the bottle. Yeah, you did, Bill. Okay, you won't. Bill, don't make him stupid. Stop trying to do headhunters and just

just to run the blow. All right, can we talk to prince years now, please? No, we got so much in between. You have to hit a different note than the note in the bottom. There you go. There you go. Oh, like some Bobby McPherson type magic. There you go.

Good job. Are you dizzy? Yes, I am. Damn. Now that we've edited half of that out. No. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

It's okay. Well, thank you, Sheila. Yeah, I do feel lightheaded. That's your first lesson, how to get high. Y'all, that's interesting, no, Sheila, because you talked, like, Amir already talked about carpal tunnel and stuff, and you seem to have very healthy hands and wrists. You told me about the rice trick. I did that.

You did? What is that? She told me to go to trade. Joe's to a place that has like just one of big ass industrial size rice bags, put it in my freezer and then put my entire arm in it and exercise. Exercise. Oh. Do you warm up before you go on stage?

I do a little bit now, 15 minutes and just back and forth with the sticks on a pillow or couch or a chair or something. And that helps? Yes. Absolutely. thought in tune with our James and too many Miles Davis stories that that would kind of be like eating before you get to the restaurant or that sort of thing. Warming up, you thought?

Well, I learned the hard way like maybe you have. I mean, I never warmed up before I played. So I've got injury after injury and it's like, okay, you need to stop and you need to warm up. So, yeah, I mean, my wrist was messed up. I couldn't pick up a toothbrush to brush my teeth, my elbow. So I had a PRP done, which, yeah. Does that work? Oh, my God.

Look. I'm doing a PRP in like a month. Oh, do it. Does it work? I'll tell you, who, wait, who's, well, we can talk out after. I'll give you my PRP. Yeah, but I'll tell you, no, I have the dopest doctor here. He moved here.

New York? Yes. He did mine and everybody. Is he in Brooklyn? I think so. What's his name? You know what? I think we see this.

We see, okay, there's a doctor in Brooklyn. I see your photo is up in there. Stevie Wonder's photo, like. Then it would be him. He's like, is he an African? No. Is he African? No.

What is he? He's not African. I think he's like the opposite, the way she looked in like. He's Caucasian. Yeah. No, no, I mean, this is a doctor's office. So many doctors are there. But PRP is, I guess, in a way to describe it, is when they,

take your blood out of you and then feed it back like they have to spin it first again like diacists well no no they spin it and clean it and then they get the good blood as it spits out in like three or four four or five different bags automatically in this machine and then they take the good blood and then they mix it and they shoot it back in the area and you end up growing new tissue that's what it does so i grew new tissue my elbow and my wrist i did have it done twice because sometimes you do I just want to tell you take a pain pill before you do this because I'm

I'm used to, no I'm not scared I'm not scared. That's fine. I am. Okay, that's the simple part. I've been putting it off for a year, but good. No, the pain is that your blood going back into that area is it hurts like I can't even explain. I filmed my whole thing. I have it all on film, yeah.

If you can't watch it, you can't do it. Well, I only know about it because at the Tonight Show, a lot of those camera guys there. Oh, yeah. It's wearing tear for them to do that a lot. So at least four or five of them have gotten PRP. How are you going to do this when you need at least three weeks off? That's, I'm waiting for Christmas. Yeah, you have.

Our Christmas break to do it. And you literally, you can't do it. Where are you having it done? I'm doing it in New York. No, no, no. I mean, is it your wrist? I'm doing it on my knee. Oh, yeah. That's good. My mom had it done underneath too.

Same for our same guy. So you're so important. And so important. You're talking about blood and everything. I've never heard of people. But it's important because really in order to sustain what we do for real, we get, I have a, I had a torn in my shoulder, all this stuff. My back went out in 1990 from wearing heels.

I wanted you to talk about that because, yeah. Wearing heels and it shortened my calf muscle. wearing heels playing for years and years and years my back gave out and when it gave out I was partially paralyzed for like two months sorry two weeks and then it took four months in three doctors three or four doctors

to get me to walk an entire block like I had to start learn how to walk all over had a cane must have been determined I was in pain pain pain and I didn't want to take Advil you were a trailblazer in pain because there was nobody else that you could probably vibe with because nobody else is wearing heels playing Cungas bongos

and Exactly Yeah that's what I was Freaking out On some women's shit Yeah no it messed me up Yeah Closest person

It would have been friends Right but he didn't His surgery was after yours right Like you had yours before he did Well I didn't have surgery Oh you didn't No they wanted me to have surgery on my back And I said no I think I'll

Let me try to walk on And do this Health-wise You know By myself And with the doctors and it worked. Yeah.

It took a long time now. With those, I'm sorry, I started with Lionel and then we got off and said. I don't know what happened. Health and operations. Good information though. Were those, was that a good tour for you or did you? Marvin? Who?

No, no, after. Oh, Lionel. Wow. After, was it night and day or, I mean. Was it a good tour with Lionel? Yeah. Oh, amazing. For me, it was the first time.

realizing when someone makes that much money what that really means and so then you start touring on a private plane hot cookies when you get on the plane blankets drinks chicken right and you were worried I was worried I wasn't gonna I was scared to eat fried chicken in front of you I didn't you first impressions by the way can I just add in this this video with the Lionel Ritchie video just a quick Quest Love Supreme One degree of separation. Michael Peters.

Michael Peters, who is prodigy's godfather. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Peters. Yeah, I was going to say how long did it take for you guys to Yeah, he told the story about Disneyland

and how he used to take him to Disneyland. Yeah, okay. Yeah. The rapper prodigy from Mob Deep. That's his grandfather. He passed this year. Yeah. So, yeah, I was going to say,

how long did it take for you guys to, I mean, were you throwing off about being the lead lady or? I didn't want to do it because Blind was like my brother and he says, okay, and Michael Peter's not there. They're like, okay, she'll have to learn this dance step. And I'm like, okay, what are we going to do?

And the dance steps at Michael Peter, I'm like, who does that? Michael Peters. Like, yeah, like, how am I going to extend the arm with the leg and then look at Lionel like we're in love? That's my brother. So we kept laughing. In between takes, we couldn't even get it together. And Lionel's like, don't look at me like that. I'm like, it's your fault.

Don't look at me like that. Did Bob Giraldi direct that video? Yes, he did. Wow, man. It was dope. Damn. You must have been in the all night long video, too. There were like 5,000 people.

You're saying we all look alike in that video. I'm going to mess with you. Thank you very much. No, actually, I thought, initially I thought, who was the lead in hello video? She was on all my children. Oh, yeah. I forgot the name. Crap.

The blonde girl, yeah. That wasn't the same chick from Thriller? I thought he always thought it was no no no okay why do I know this her name was Lori Carrington why do you know that because because I stalked her much in the 80s her and Ola Ray like those are the names they were the original video joins yeah you know what I'm no but I thought when I saw the running with the night video I was like yo she grew her hair out a lot like I thought it was a continuation like oh they were dating now off the college campus and now she got her sight back what right exactly but that album that album was very Latin

leaning yeah no uh the can't slow down can't slow down there were a lot of there was some there was a lot of percussion on the album yeah there was some i played percussion on one or two of lino's records and i don't remember if it was that one or not but uh which i do have to look and see um but he did he loved having percussion in the show and the cool thing about lino again Again, that was so different from the Marvin Gay Tour, but musically and then what they were doing, I mean, they had all these people putting together the show. It's like a big major thing, you know, and, you know, private planes and cookies. Cookies, yeah. Warm. Chicken. Chicken. And, you know, you've got clothes made for you and everyone's, you know, everything is coordinating. You're going, wow, this is huge. Yeah, it's the big time. Yeah, it's the big times. My first time ever experienced in that And I was like, oh, this is what it is.

Okay, I think I want this. Yeah. Okay, Sheila. I think I may roll with you for a while instead of this guy. Let's do that. Warm cookies and shit. Okay, okay, let's throw me under the bus. So.

Hust of prayer wasn't enough for you. Yeah, I was going to say. Sorry. Yeah, I love, side joke. Can I tell a little story? Bean pies are dope. Can I tell us a story? I love bean pies.

Church with the food investment. His name is sugar. All right. So Steve basically, we're here in Electric Lady Studios because... This is a good story to tell. This is where... No, I'm trying to make it succinct and fast as possible. Okay.

Watch, watch, watch. Okay. Are wasted 12 minutes right there? Okay, so we're in Electric Lady Studios because for five years, this is where we recorded D'Angelo's voodoo, which Steve was one of the engineers. It felt like 10. Yeah. Trust me, we spent a lifetime with DeAngelo.

So after the voodoo record, and I guess, you know, you started the beginning of... Half the Black Messiah out. Yeah, you worked on Black Messiah, which took 14 years to me. But by that point, you know, everything fell off the rails and he became my full-time engineer. And I think Steve is probably the first white person in history to have diabetes. He basically... What? I'm not the first white person in history that diabetes.

It's how you got it. It's how you got it. It's how you got it. Yeah, true. Because of my soul food diet. Oh, Lord. I moved to Philly. He moved to Philly.

He moved to Philly. He ended up eating every meal with him. Yeah. And I got diabetes. Yeah. We ate soul food every night and then he got diabetes. Yeah, there was a church down the street that, what was the name of church? The House of Prayer.

House of Prayer. Yeah. House of Prayer. Yeah, it's the House of Diabetes. Yeah, it's the House of Diabetes, definitely. Oh my goodness. Do not feed your white person too much black food because that will happen to you. You're saying they're like gremlins and that food after midnight.

Exactly. Okay. So I know you're asked this a billion times. So I want to take a different approach. Can you tell me a random normal print story? No. Like a very normal story. But what is normal?

Oh. That time that. our Volkswagen broke down in the middle of the 405 and we had to trip to the supermarket when he ran out of toilet paper and that time that we made

Wait a minute What did he do? Let me get this Sorry Wow No I'm pretty sure that the world Half your fans know how you met Prince At backstage at a show Right

In the 70s or the same place where I play with Diana Ross Okay, the same theater. Yes, sir. Same show? No. Okay. It was an Al Jaro show. Wait, what was he doing, going to see an Al Jaro?

Well, we were both at the Al Jaro show, Greek theater in Oakland. Yeah, we're not. And Berkeley, yeah. I'm impressed that. That's when we first saw, look at each other and went, ding, ding, ding. So you were there to see Al Jaro? You were there playing with Al Jero. No, we were both there to see Al Jero.

But I think I was playing with George then, but we were both there watching Al Jero on stage. See, across from each other. And we locked eyes, and there was. over. Prince didn't strike me as a cap that was like, yo, I gotta see Al Jaro. He's going to Cleveland Mac and- He loved all that music. That's weird to me because, at least from what I know, like,

I feel like if, from people I know that you're either a total student or a total leader and oftentimes leaders aren't too, they're more aloof or not aware of. I totally disagree. Let me tell you why. That's why I want a normal print story. because you can be both. And that's what makes it awesome. I'm going to continue to be a student-lived life forever

because I'm never going to learn everything. Every single day I learn something. So I'm always a student. Prince was the same way, and I'm a leader. Prince was the same way. He was a student, he wouldn't say it, but he's a student because every time we came in with something different, he's learning stuff

he had never even heard before. So, I mean, he became a student if he's in a situation with other people that he's not played with or, you know, we bring in music that he's never. I mean, when he first met my family, he's like, what kind of music is this? Latin jazz. Dang, this is dope.

So that's the first time he heard it or? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. So he was always a student in a way. Never had to really say it, but he was always learning, which is why he, every time you can tell if he was hanging with this group of people or that group of people, his music changed. The influence from being a student.

I think he was always a student. And he was also a leader. And I think you can do both. That's my take on it. No, I never thought of that. It sounds like we all should be both. Yes. We?

We, yes. All of people. Just checking? Okay. I love Al Jereau, too. Me too. Oh, my God. Me too, Steve.

After all. Wait, really? Okay. We're in this love to get alive that lasts forever. Oh, so wow. Okay. Laya, you're fired. So you locked eyes with Al Jiro and then what happened?

No. No, it was with Prince. I was just kidding. We know that. I got that, Steve. So in meeting, how long did it take for him to really convince you that you should be your own artist? And. For him to convince me?

Yes. Oh, it was. Assuming that he was the one that told you. You need to be your own artist. Well, he wasn't the only one, but I had been writing a lot of my own music when I was a teenager. And whatever money that I made at clubs or whatever, I would take that money and go buy a piece of gear. And I said, I'm going to learn how to record. I'm going to be an engineer.

I'm going to learn how to produce. I'm going to learn how to write songs. So I started with a two-track. Then I started with a four-track. you know and you keep duplicating like then you hear more hissing and more you know until you get that point what is what am i listening to um so i kept buying gear and so i had tons of tapes of songs that i written um when i was with Marvin gay prince um prince was i forgot what record he was doing then 1990 1990 right yeah um so 1999 uh during the Marvin gay tour he was doing he was

was sending me flowers and then, you know, coming to some of the shows, Lionel Richie in 83, then he started coming and hanging out. He's like, man, you're always backing everyone. Same thing, you get a solo with everybody. Every time I see you're playing with, you know, don't you want to do something? I said, yeah, I do, but I'm, you know, when the time is right. And so during me playing percussion with Lionel in 83, then towards the end of Lionel's tour, he said, you want to do a record? I said, sure. He said, okay. let's do one. I said, okay, that was it. Just like that.

And we went into the studio and a week later, we were finished with Glamourish Life record. Wow. You recorded it in that, in less than two weeks? There's only like six songs. I get it. Yeah, but you also have to be focused. We didn't sleep again.

And you remember Prince was doing a song a day, so you got six songs on the record. That's six days. And we had two studios going at the same time, so we had senses sound. Yeah, I admire his, especially in hearing the output between 82 and 87, his kind of bull's-eye, like ability to. I mean, you know, again, when I'm, you're younger, you just think that, oh, this magically happens. But it's like the, the rareness of something. one to write something effective. I mean, I got to go through

30 songs before I think like ones have decent to use. This is someone that's just like Well, he really believed that every single song, every single song that he wrote he believed was a hit. And it wasn't. But he believed that, so he just kept writing. So it didn't stop him to go, well,

this is not a great song. So you know, but again, you're writing songs and it just kept going in the archives. I mean, I think Even if they weren't singles. I mean, they were still great songs. Correct. Just the ideas and some of them weren't all great.

I know some people are not going to be having me saying it, but it's the truth. They weren't all great. Uh-uh. No, some of the ones him and I recorded, just him and I, that are in the vault, about 200. Oh, yeah, I can think of one that I don't really like. I'm sorry. I'm, you're real. One, for instance.

No. No, I'm just like one of the She-Ler record. I wanted to get to that later, though. Okay. No, but I mean, but that was so, this is the incredible, this man was an incredible songwriter, and he never wanted,

sometimes he would, but like he never wanted to use the same sound all the time. He would just experiment. There were no rules, and that's the thing is musicians tend to, we put ourselves in a box, you know, and say, well, we need to mic the drum set this way. No, we don't.

We need to use this mic, because I heard that this is the snare mic. Well, you really don't. You know, well, let me. me, I used the kick drum mic and I'm going to sing a lead vocal on it because it sounds different. You know, go ahead. Can I ask for the Sunset Sound Sessions doing that tenure? Do you remember what brand the drums were there?

If I could get the answer that, my life would be super complete. Drum machine. No, no, no, no. I don't mean the lindrum. I'm talking about, you know, the occasional songs that you did. did cut that that had live drums on them oh that everything i used there was yamaah okay all right the maple custom maple okay yeah that's and piety symbols that's half my battle right there and pinstripe heads drum heads really yeah pinstripes yeah not coated white uh-uh

why do you prefer a pinstripes i mean did it matter to you was it just like oh it's there or was it like i changed i changed i changed i changed them out sometimes but most of the time it was pinched because it had a funk thing it it you know with the pinstripe and then sometimes putting the pillow inside the kick drum and then putting a little bit of tape or something on the snare is just tight even on the snare mm-hmm it never occurred me once to use the pinstripe snare do you remember how they mic the lindrum you are in red for those that are scratching their heads at home you can't really mic you can't you have to explain it actually that's not even fair to

to the people. A lot of people put things like that through an amp and then make it. I was just kidding. That's what I want to get to. To get, I know that the dryness of the lindrum, the dryness of the lindrum naked sounds very dry. How many,

do you know, what was the effects process of getting all that reverb? Yeah, just the sound like those patches. You got to, please tell me. This is the closest. This is the closest

I'm ever going to get this answer. Just let me off the hook, please. Like what? What reverb stuff did Prince use? I know all of it. That's what I want to know. Well, you've talked to the other engineers as well, have they told you?

I mean, Femmy. Just say yes. Look. Oh, Femmy, no, I'm talking about back in the day. You have to go to Susan. Susan, you talk to Susan? Yeah, I've yet to talk to Susan. I'm certain that she'll reveal it.

But you've got, Sheila, you're right in front of you right now. Just for the sake. of that sound being preserved. Here's the other thing with the Linn drum machines, because we have both of them, the big, I call it the mothership, the big one and then the smaller one. But we had the Linn drum machines modified.

So we had A and B switches to do different stuff on the Lid machines, which I still have. What? Customized, modified? Do those have effects on them? Rever? Yeah, we got her. Oh, Cheryl, I'm going.

It must be in the... Okay, so those claps. It's those... Those claps are dope. Yes, yeah. Yeah, how did you build those claps? Oh, man. She slowly sips water.

Jesus Christ. Or tea. Sheila, come on. You know I'm a student, man. Money, money, money, money. Hey. Oh. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Save it for the books. Just let me off the hook. She'll tell you offline. Yeah, I'll tell you offline. You want, seriously? Yeah.

That's cool. Just the headclaps. That's the only thing I'll ask about the drums. Is she going to tell you off the line? That is the key to. Yes, it is. Like, you really want her to give the secret out to everybody. I can tell you that.

Yes. But she's going to tell you. Have you heard music lately? Yes, so she's going to tell you. I use the same clas. I use those same clabs right now in my show. I should hope so. Like those are very iconic.

They are. But louder than hell claps that can't be achieved. Okay. I'm going to get this from another angle. You have to have the recipe. I'm going to get this from another angle. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger.

than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment.

And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft.

And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make, to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

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As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman, says, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell.

Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through. And I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. and he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. So when you're doing this live, which I know this is a nightmare, at least to duplicate, to duplicate, how many drum machines are you guys taking on the road with you in case one breaks down or in case a button is missed?

You mean right now or before? No, before. I'm talking pre-pro tools, pre- you guys invented pro tools in my mind. We did. For real, we did. So what I did was I had a Yamaha drum set. I had 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, Tom,

and I had two 20-inch kick drums. I had a piccolo snare of 14-inch. And then I had a 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 crashes with a couple of splashes, a 16-and-a-14-inch pang and a 20-inch ride and a 60-inch right. That real big one. I don't even know what size that thing is. And with each tom that I had,

I put triggers in each tom. So that I could trigger any sound that I wanted, not just on the snare, but on all the toms. Then I had switches put on each tom that had an A switch and a B switch. So in case a trigger went out, I just click it, I'm not going to lose anything because I got my B plan. I always got to have a B plan. So the way that triggers are sensitive and the way that monitors are,

your monitors really can't be that loud or have that much vibration because it might offset the triggers, correct? Yes and no. We didn't have that problem. They modified that for me. How loud were your monitors? Were you using in-ears or? We didn't have any of us then.

Oh, damn. We have monitors. I tried triggering once. Yeah, you got to trigger everything. I do something once and then that's it. You give up too easy. Well, no, it was just a nightmare because, you know, at the time when I was using monitors before in ears, anytime I hit my kick drum, it would set off the entire drum set. I know what you're saying, yeah.

It was just a nightmare. And I know, like, even with the way that Rob had those lights going. Oh, yeah. Surely like if like you must be bull's eye and no to press like what if you missed the 1999 cue to press button number eight right no no I have I had triggers on each drum and then I had pads it might have been a rolling I don't know it might have been Yamaha but I had modules in a rack then I had a different trigger on my snare and with the trigger there was an on and off switch for the hand claps that I triggered on my snare. Those claps are on my snare.

So I triggered there's an on and off switch for that. Then there's an on and off switch for the Lynn machine. And everything that I just told you that I built that my text built, but this is what I needed to make this happen. We built a duplicate one just in case that one went down. So then I had another switch that would then switch all the programs. Every time I went to the next song, they weren't switching. I was switching it. So I had like 10 pedals. on the floor. One was off and on switch just for the snare to have handclaps or not. One was a switch to change all the programs. One is to turn the entire Lynn drum machine off. And then I've got two double pedals because they didn't make a double pedal then. So I had two separate pedals. Then I had a hi-hat. Yeah. There were so many pedals down there. And it was like me playing

an organ. Yeah. Yeah, it was. So on assuming that everything wasn't 100% perfect. I mean, what's your panic level if something gives out? Like, okay, it's time to do half thing. And you press the button and it doesn't start. Well, you would naturally play it on drums. I'm being hypothetical.

Right, right. Well, that was why we had a B plan. So if that machine didn't work or didn't trigger, they just automatically switch to the secondary entire rack of everything. Okay, for those that are listening right now, this might be is this going over your head right now?

I had a question, a follow question. No, no, I'm not leaving the subject. I've already forgotten it. Some people might not understand. I'm just saying that what she's described to me right now, like I'm not breathing right now because just the- Sound like a lot of pedals.

Breathe, dog. No, just the level of I don't know if I can handle that pressure. No, it was definitely was a lot, but that was what I came up with to do because I was his MD and it's like I was there most of the time just him and I

as he recorded a lot of stuff and it's not like we have Pro Tools we had 150 tracks so we had 24 tracks and if we slaved another one we'd have 48 maybe but you know so where it says bass and he's playing bass he just put another sound

in the middle of something and I'd have to grab that little sound for one or two bars or a phrase and take it and sample that so I can play it on the drums because it was on the bass track but no one would know that because they weren't sitting there with him.

Oh. So I was punching him in like stuff that he couldn't punch himself in as far as playing guitar solos or lines or whatever. If he couldn't do it, I was his engineer for a lot of the stuff. So you would sample stuff from tape that he had played and then...

Before he plays over. And then assign it to a drum and then play some other thing. Wait a minute. Even in overdubbing, he would play on top of pre-existing tracks because

I'm spitting out what you just told me yeah so even if like there's a keyboard part that says keyboards left and right but at the same time he would just punch in some other weird sound instead of going to another track he just punch it in the middle and there were tons of that

throughout a song so when you hear stuff coming in and out it's because he punched it in there and it's only going to happen at that place, at that sound, and you'll never hear it again because... It's my life's dream just to sit and analyze one of those tracks in the vault just to see how things are mixed or just to either... I mean, that's like Rubik's Cube level of confusion. Because, I mean, again, now we have technology in our computers

that you can have a gazillion tracks, but... Yeah, I think what she's saying, he was doing was like when you run out of tracks, you have to go to a track that already has something on and find a space where that thing isn't playing. Like the piano's only in the verse. He didn't find the space. That's what I'm saying. He just punched right in. He would punch me. That's what I'm saying. He didn't have to. Not even go over the Sempty track. Let me guess. We didn't believe in Sempty back. Oh, right. Right. If you got to, if you're locking up the machines. And I'm sorry if we're getting too technical on some stuff. No, this is

what this is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. Okay. End up And upcoming him. And up becoming. Oh my God. Okay. I have a question. So you were talking about all the pedals and stuff and the triggers and all that. How forgiving was Prince of technical screw-ups, you know, if something went wrong?

Like, did he get mad at you or who, did he get mad if something, if a Lind drum didn't get triggered? Or impatient. Yeah, we're impatient. Yeah. Absolutely. Like, but, like, did he see it as your fault? Like if it was if it was if there's a short in the job machine. Yeah like if it was a bona fide technical like if something was wrong with the machine.

Sometimes he would just say whatever's going on if somebody fix it, walk out of the room and come back. And hopefully it was fixed. Yeah. I see that. We're still not breathing. Yeah, it was I'm telling you it was a lot for me. And then at the same time, not just on, you know, some of the times I had to press either. either the limb machine to stop on the end of before the down so I could hit the down with the

kick. I mean, I was, I know you got to hear it in all of this, but, but at the same time, taking the, you know, the claps off where they needed to be in the middle of a phrase sometimes, and it was always on the up while I'm still playing and singing. And doing choreography. And hills. I just, I don't want. You're like a, okay, superwoman. That's what's up. Okay. Sheila is a superwoman. Super genius. So this is where, I don't know if you're, aware of this. So there's a term, speaking of Black Messiah, that D and I always used, and well, the term was Michael Angelo. Oh. Okay, so I don't know if I ever told you the story. So basically, there was a law period in our relationship where, you know, we didn't

rap with each other for like a couple years and he was still working on his record. So we We amended our relationship, and I came back to the studio, and he's like playing me cuts of what he's been working on so far, like all three of them. And by this, no, I'm playing. By this time, like, he'd gotten James Gatson to drum on these joints. And I was sitting, you know, part of me was like trying to be, like, encouraging, like, oh, man, it's really fun. You know, because, again, it was incredible-ass funk I was listening to. But in my mind, I was... I'm not on this.

Yeah, in my mind, I was seething with rage, like, damn, I'm not on this shit. And for me, in my head, I was like, damn. The only songs I'll be able to play on are the Michael Angelo songs, which in DeAngelo speak, because the way that Romance 1600 is sequenced. That would be Sheila's second solo album for those listening. For those that are listening. lie of you. I know that.

Okay. A Love Bazaar is such a monstrous song, the way that is positioned on the album, that there's really no way for me to separate and make Dear Michael Angelo its own song without thinking that Dear Michael Angelo

is just a three-minute movie preview to what's about to come around the corner. Kind of like the first half of Slyland Family Stone stand. Like, okay, this we know this part of song, but we know the part we really waiting for is the last minute of the song where they start funking out. But whenever I sequenced the record, I always used Michelangelo to love bizarre.

It's almost like an alleyup setup shot to the slam dunk. And I thought, well, damn, I can't get Jimmy Gatson off this record. But at least I can try to work on all the Michelangelo's, the set up songs. And so that's where the charade song on Warren Black Messiah comes in the play. Like that was our tribute to dear Michael Angela. Wow. Because, you know, I was not on Sugar Daddy. Wow.

Salty about that. Wow. But, yeah, so that, no, that song means a lot to us. I don't know if you hear that often. I've never. No, thank you. That's awesome. It's also hard to figure out where the one is.

I got to ask for Toy Box, because I know that humor is a big part of the presentation, but how easy or hard is it to do skits or that sort of thing, like in front of, like as you're recording it. I mean, it's one thing to hear and like, oh, okay. By that point, we're used to the comedy skit or the comedy section of a certain song, but how hard is it to do, like, and map and plan? Because it's like you have to take a 64 bar break to, to insert this in the song. Like, are you guys mapping it out one by one, like all the lines of you're just... No, we're just going for it. Okay. Yeah. Just going for it. I see. A lot of times it wasn't playing.

We're just playing and whatever ended up happening is what it was. And then you built it around there? Yeah. I see. Yeah. Okay. All right. And for songs like Mercy for the Speed of Mad Clown in the summertime.

Yes. How many, is that a band effort? Like who's playing on that? The whole band. Okay. That was recorded live like Love Bazaar was. And yeah. I'm trying to get everything else, so I want to get to crush groove right now.

You better hurry, because I got to go. I know, I know. Can she tell us where the pink jacket is, though, from in my closet? Okay, thanks. Crush group. Yeah. Bill. Do you, oh, I thought you.

No, helping you move along to crush groove. Oh, okay. Crush groove. Crush groove. Body moving. So, yeah, Michael, how did Michael Schultz, choose you like were you

I was out on tour on Purple Rain. I have no idea management said at the end of Purple Rain we had been out for a year or something and it's like

we want you to go to New York and audition for a part in the movie and I'm like what? Okay so they said we just want to see if you have chemistry

with this up and coming actor Blair okay so of course I would was exhausted. I had just cut my hair because we had been on tour. I was like, I'm so tired, but I'm going to come here and do try it. I came here. I was stressed. And it's so dumb because

I've seen it somewhere. I don't know. I think it was on YouTube or maybe it was in my archives of stuff that I have. But we did a, what do you call it? Testing audition? Testing audition. It's on YouTube? I think I saw it there. If it's not. I'll hit it. I have it. Okay. If not I have it, but I thought it was on there. But if you see it in my profile, because I was stressed out, this big pimple. Is it?

It was a thumb growing out of my nose. It looked like, I was so nervous. That bothered me more trying to act like, please don't look at my nose while we're auditioning here. But anyway, we did the audition. It was fine. And they said, we want you to come back. And so we kind of worked it out. and it was interesting still

because in the middle of the filming of this I quit and I usually don't quit but I quit. You quit the movie? I quit the movie. In the middle of filming? Yes, sir. Wait, what happened?

Sleeves, sleeves. More, too much, too little. The sleeves have haunted you. How long did it take the film? I don't, I don't, I, it, I don't know, four months, three months. It didn't seem like it was that long.

Was it a, is it fine memories of it? Like, oh, the good old date? Or was it just like whatever? Oh, no, it was messed up. It was totally messed up. No, what happened was while we were filming it, I guess there was an East Coast, West Coast thing happening. I didn't know anything about it, you know.

Early? Wow. I had been on tour and I came in and it's just like, who's this West Coast wannabe rapper coming in is what I was told. Because you're a rap. Okay. Yeah, because. I'm just saying, that's how it went down.

It's like, wait, what are you? And I'm saying, what are you talking about? I don't even know what you're talking about. Well, we're here in New York and you're this want to be rapper. And I'm like, no, I'm a musician, you know, so a lot of them hadn't heard. Kind of like, and then plus being out on tour, I came in with, and again, you would call it entourage now. But, I mean, I had road manager and the wardrobe people. We were just on tour.

So everyone came with me making sure everything was cool. And, you know, I'm used to being on tour. And wherever we go, it's like wherever I lay my head is my home. So, you know, like we're sitting in this room, you got to have vibe, you know, lamps and, you know, pictures, my family. They'd never seen that before. No. It seemed high end to them. Very.

I mean, you know, the fat boys were in other room with some cafeteria chairs and a, table and I came in with the rug. I need some white roses. I mean, again, you talk about the writer. I mean, it's like, I want a popcorn machine and I want to, for real. And they're like, wait, and they peaked in my room like, what's the, they were cool. But some of the other rappers were so mean to me. And then not only that, the fans, not even the fans, because they weren't my fans.

The extras in the movie while we were shooting Love Bazaar. at the club at the fun house or not the fever the fever yes at the fever yeah we're we're we're we're we're we're filming that part and everyone's like you know yeah kind of halfway moving and it's like whatever and I'm singing love bazaar and then at the end they're supposed to go yeah yeah you know she's they just stood there like this nobody clap and the extras nobody clapped you got it man new york new york is they were it was so messed up they're very and they're very catty and... Yeah, so they just...

The directors had to say, wait, cut, hold on. Do you guys know we're shooting a movie? Like, for real, you guys got to clap. We're shooting a movie. So, anyway, it just got crazy. Was it the scene for the Holly Rock scene too? That was a little bit weird, too.

Because actually I had Prince come for that. And so he was there? Yeah, he was there for that for a second. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, I didn't know that. It was. And then at the end, when we were shooting the part where we were all dancing at the end of the movie, yeah, at the end of the movie, it was kind of crazy because some of the other rappers were pushing us off the stage and everything and moving us out the way.

And it was just dumb. I'm like, they were just hating on us. And I was like that. But the fat boys were nice, right? Fat boys were cool. What was on their rider? Damn, I feel bad for wearing this L.L sweater now. No, no, LL was cool.

No, LL was cool. I'm wearing me sweater that L.O. Cool J had on in Crossgrove. But you know in retrospect, now I'm sure the next project they did, they upgraded their writer. Because they was like, oh, we can get this? I had no idea. Disorderlies? Yeah. There we go.

Disorderly. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Damn. I'm kind of disappointed that that wasn't a good filming experience because that film meant everything to us. Yeah.

No, I mean, I came back and, you know, it was cool. But it was weird. I mean, and the other ones that were really mean to me, who are well-known people now and what they do, and it's like, wow. Does their name rhyme with fun PRB? No, no. No, no. Oh, that's funny.

I got that one. Curtis go? No, Curtis was dope. Curtis is cool. No, he was really cool. And he turned around to address everybody's like, come on, y'all, you know, we're supposed to be shooting a movie. Come on, what you're doing?

Now, he was really cool. Well, yeah, for the great. good. I appreciate you doing that movie. I had a good time. I mean, all in all, I had a good time. Was that your first East Coast, West Coast situation? Not for nothing, but I was always curious about the West Coast Latin jazz scene

versus the East Coast Latin. Right, and that was a whole other issue. Yeah, the Latin jazz and jazz and then salsa. The East Coast against the West Coast. Big, huge thing happening, absolutely. That was also a rival with it. The East Coast said the West Coast, us Latin jazz artists and

musicians don't play as well as the East Coast. Plus it's different countries we're talking about too in situations. Oh, kind of, but I mean, it's really, it all goes back to this rhythm called the clave. And in layman's term is really like the two and the four where we're clapping on the funk, but this is called the clave and that's their clock. And so it's how you play it. So, yeah, pretty interesting. Okay, I'm trying to move past the purple period to your sex symbol post sex symbol

a period of your career where you're totally out of the fold or left. What was it like to make the decision to really leave and explore music that you wanted to do without the tutelage of what you came to the world as, at least in our eyes? What was that like for you? Having to do Prince's bid? Yeah. Well, I mean, after a while, it's like I didn't like the direction he was going in. And I didn't like all the cursing.

And I just, the music was getting crazy. And I'm like, no, I just, I'm not having fun. If I'm not having fun, you know, I need to leave. Did we forget to ask about a monocity? No, no, no, we did. But actually, I just wanted to ask, did you have any problems with singing Scarlet Pussy? No. Okay.

Because I was wondering if that was, if that might have been something that, you know, kind of. No, no, no. When I did that, that was supposed to be on my record. And it turned out so good. That's right. That's actually, just a segue. I wanted to ask about the record that didn't. come out. Yeah. Can you tell me anything about the song, Three Nigs watching a Kung Fu movie?

Because that title has just been stuck in my head for forever. Prince called me when I was in Oakland and three Nigs United as in West County. Yeah, that was on the black album, but there was, I guess a sequel that was coming beyond. Yeah, that was me. He called me, goes, I don't have a title for a song. I said, okay, three Nigs United in West Compton or whatever it was. And it goes, okay, that sounds good. So he literally made the black album Just to have party music at your birthday celebration That was

Yes and no I mean we were we were recording You know that music at mostly at his house In the studio at his house And then one day he's just like We can't let this go We can't release him like It's a dope his record you Are you kidding me? He just stopped the truck

No we can't and of course you know One of them trucks got through or I don't know how many trucks. Sure did. Yeah, a lot of people got the record anyway. We sure did. Yes. I know how many you have, but yeah, okay. Okay, we'll move on. But yeah, leaving it, I mean, you felt more of a sense of independence and...

Well, again, not, no, it's not that. It was more of, I felt something was missing musically. And so something missing musically for me means, well, why am I doing it? That passion was dwindling away because I wasn't excited about showing up, you know, and playing. It's like, I don't like the direction. I don't like what's happening. So I said, I got to leave. Well, this led her to something that we do really have in common.

You were a late night band leader for the Magic Hour. How was that experience, at least as a late night band leader. It was actually pretty dope. I mean, I was ready to do it. To me, again, you're going to be a musical director for television. It's all about timing. So it's like, to me, I thought it was a no-brainer. I just visualized what I needed to do.

It's like, okay, well, it's common sense, what has to happen. And I was cool with it. And your brother, too. I enjoyed it, yeah, brought my brother and my band. And now he's, because right, your brother was a music. director for a TV show as well. Martin Short and Wayne Brady. Yeah.

Yeah. Wait a minute. Peter Michael. The Martin Short. Mario and Martin? No. No, no, not that one. You scared me.

I was like, wait a minute. Peter Michael was under my... No. It was on my floor and I didn't know about it. What the hell? No. Okay. Dan.

No, but I'm just going to say the magic hour thing. I mean, it's interesting. It didn't last that long. I mean, magic had problems trying to, you know, figure out how to be a host. That's a hard gig. That's not easy at all. Amir had some troubles with that. Hosting this show.

The first few episodes are kind of rough. Yeah, the first few. The first 50 episodes are kind of rough. This is probably our roughest episode right now. It is not. This is a good one. Okay. So I have two more questions.

Okay. I'll let it go. The co-ed project, will that happen in the future? You want to explain what Coed is? Chronicles of Every Diva. Well, explain it to us, but what's the co-ed prop? Co-ed Project. Well, let's let Sheila explain it.

Could you tell us what the co-ed project is? Well, we got there, though, didn't we? Don't you know how we do the Magic Circle, Harnacle, and see that and that to do it? Oh, okay. Chronicles of EveryDiv. Yeah, we were, me, Kat Dyson, who plays good time. Rhonda Smith, who plays bass and Cassandra, who plays keyboards and Cassandra O'Neill. And we would have different guests' artists playing and performing with us.

That was the idea, and let's just go out and play and put an all-girls band together, which is something I always wanted to do anyway. So I don't know if we're going to do anything. I had to disband it because all the things that I didn't want it to be and how women should be supportive of each other and we get along and, you know, write some good music. It just kind of got funky. And it's like, this is what we said we weren't going to be.

So it became a diva situation? Not. Sorry. I just put a label on it. It's just loud, too. It's such as, yeah, it was loud. Very loud, yeah. That is so wrong.

Sorry. Sorry. No, it's, no, it wasn't a diva thing. It's just really, just not all on the same page of what we wanted to do musically. You know, we all have to be on the same page. Okay, I lied. I knew you were lying about those two.

There's two point five questions. No, because you are a band leader. Yeah. How, and I've heard maybe a rehearsal or two where you and Levi maybe had some words. That's how nerdy we are here. Oh, my God. You have rehearsal tapes.

Oh, please. No, I know what you. We believe that, yes. Yeah. So, oh, you heard it too? No, but the thing is, is that I was impressed that you won the kind of the debate or whatever. But how hard is it for you to put your foot down, plant your flag, and really make people respect your gangster as far as, you know, this is our plan? because this leads to

what you organized for the BT tribute I know that must have been the hardest thing in the world for you to do I mean just mostly I know it was absolutely but just from a technical aspect for you to really take it there I know that you had to draw the map

draw the blueprint and I did execute it how hard is it to band lead and to be the bad guy to be a bandleader you got to be the bad guy And I hate being the bad guy. I want to be everyone's friend. Right.

So how hard is it to do that? Right now it's not that hard. It wasn't that hard when we did the BET to put that together. I have such an amazing group of musicians and people around me that we love what we get to do. There's no drama anymore. And man, what a great place to be. I have to say there's no drama. There's no arguments and stuff like that.

It just doesn't really happen anymore. If it does, it's once in a great while, but hardly at all. And putting together the BET thing, you know, first trying to understand how I was going to do it and figure it out and then say, okay, then who can do this with me? I knew my band was going to do it, but who else was I going to bring into play? Well, some of the people I did ask were already booked for other things because it was the last minute. You know, this was unexpected, first of all. Right.

And then, you know, some people just said, no, left me hanging like they didn't even call me back. But you got to admit, it's because it was the timing, no one knew, you know what I mean? No, it was horrible. It was, no, but it was a brave thing for you to do. And I don't know if I'd even texted you or after, but yeah, that was a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're about to let her go.

Do you have one last question? This is our last question, I swear. You're going to go home. You've accomplished quite a bit as a musician, and I've been reading your book, The Beat of My Own Drum, which is in stores now. And you talk about how when you were a child, you actually had some aspirations of being an astronaut.

And you were quite an athlete, too. Which of those two do you think you would have gone into had music not worked out for you? Oh, definitely athlete. Athlete. Yeah. Athlete were you? I saw the Olympics and you had Olympic hopes.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. My mom is a tomboy in all her brothers and her sisters. They would, you know, compete all the time. So all of them doing that, they just, you know, I learned all of that from my mom competing and being an athlete. She wanted to start, her and her sisters wanted to start their own women's basketball team and baseball team. And so my mom's always like, you know, you can do whatever you want to do.

And she's that person's like, don't tell me, I can't do something kind of person. So I wanted to be, I was in track and field, and I was breaking a lot of records in junior high and high school running track. And then I also played on a women's soccer league team for five years undefeated. We were undefeated. And trophies for the most goals and stuff like. You couldn't even catch me. He just couldn't catch me. That was just how it was.

Running with the night, huh? He was quiet for 20. Wow. He gave it to me. I love it. Okay. But yeah, that's what I would have. I would have, I always tell him when it was like I wanted, I wanted to be the first, well,

girl on the moon and then astronaut. And the second thing was to win a gold medal in track and field in the Olympics. But I got a gold record. And I'm like, I'm cool with that. I've got something. They're on your neck. Yeah, and been around the world. Yeah.

You know, like, when you're talking to someone and you're trying to keep the conversation going on, like, you hang up. You hang up, you hang up, you hang up. Okay, it's time to hang up the phone. It's felt funny because it's like this. Sheila Escovito, I, yeah, trust me, there's like nine more hours of technical questions I have about drumming. I mean, but I know that you have to come back. We didn't get to talk about gone country. What are y'all doing?

Crap. And then we got like a pair of drums behind us. I don't know what we're doing. You just, you have no finesse whatsoever. I don't. I don't. You have zero. I wanted you to get there before she was like sleeping.

You have zero finesse like, yeah. Take a while to get this. No, no, no. I'll take my on time. That's what you come back. I'm like I'm not passing the message. She's sending me over to a minute. Oh, okay, my bad.

I'm sorry. We are communicators. Yes, you're right. Exactly. Anyway. No, I'm like to probably say goodbye. Sheila, I thank you. Thank you for having me.

Thank you. Don't forget to go by Iconic. Yes. By Iconic. Available now. Yes, it is available now. Okay. Sort of go off script with the show instead of playing our theme.

Can we just have a 30 second dance on drama off? That's all one. 30 seconds. Dance? 30, just let me. Sorry, I'm shutting up. Can we shut our mic off, please? Sheila, for 30 seconds.

Can we do this, please? Do what? Dance on. Yes, can we have a dance on drum off for 30 seconds? What's a dance on drum off? I love that you have such an illustrious history with drumming that you don't even remember your classic. Oh, the dance on?

Yes. It doesn't even have to be that. I can't do that because the triggers. It's the sound. Oh, you don't have to be technical smirk? Yes, I do. No, you don't. It's not going to sound the same.

We don't need a glass break. and all that stuff. Just for 30 seconds. All right, can we do this? Can you play it first? Sexual suicide. Can we do that? Ooh, can you play it first? Can you play it first?

Yes, all right, let's go. Let's go. So everybody, Amir is going to go behind the drink of it right now. This might be the last episode of Quest Love Supreme. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. This has been an amazing episode of Quest Love Supreme.

On behalf of the entire Supreme team, I'll see you guys later. And I'm going to go died now. Thank you. Until next time. Good night. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care where I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators,

and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast,

it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Everyone, I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, just hanging. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Ellen's, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same. thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.