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If You Only Knew: Sheila E.

Larry King NowJul 25 '16

Famed drummer Sheila E. plays Larry King’s signature trivia game, 'If You Only Knew,' in which she reveals the music collaboration she wishes to see in the near future and the most starstruck she's ever been.


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Larry King: We play a little game of If You Only Knew. I just throw some… What’s the best peice of advice you ever received?

Sheila E.: My dad telling me to be on time, be courteous, be respectful.

Larry King: Is there someone you still consider a role model?

Sheila E.: My father.

Larry King: Music we’d be surprised you listen to?

Sheila E.: Country music.

Larry King: Really?

Sheila E.: Yes! Country music. I love Brooks and Dunn, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, oh yeah.

Larry King: Wow. Who would you trade place with for a day?

Sheila E.: Oh my god, I don’t know.

Larry King: Okay. You don’t have the answer any of them.

Sheila E.: Shawn King!

Larry King: Thing you’d most like to change about the music industry?

Sheila E.: The way that they treat artists.

Larry King: Something people don’t know about you?

Sheila E.: I love violent movies.

Larry King: You do?

Sheila E.: I like the shooting and the… yeah.

Larry King: You ever play the violin?

Sheila E.: Yes.

Larry King: Most star struck you’ve ever been?

Sheila E.: Obama.

Larry King: Biggest risk you ever took as a musician?

Sheila E.: That’s every day.

Larry King: What’s your proudest accomplishment?

Sheila E.: Proudest one. Probably the biggest moment was playing with my dad at 15, that changed my life, yeah.

Larry King: How old is your dad now?

Sheila E.: He’s… he just turned 81 last week.

Larry King: Still playing?

Sheila E.: Absolutely.

Larry King: A music collaboration you’d like to see happen?

Sheila E.: Maybe Bruno Mars.

Larry King: He’s great right?

Sheila E.: Yeah, I love him.

Larry King: Tell me something on your bucket list.

Sheila E.: I’d like to… I’d like to do a movie.

Larry King: Piece of advice you’d give someone trying to break into music.

Sheila E.: Don’t.

Larry King: If not music, then what?

Sheila E.:Before music I was training to be in the Olympics, I was running track. I'm an athlete at heart.

Larry King: Ran track for high school?

Sheila E.: Yeah.

Larry King: Sheila E. in 10 years.

Sheila E.: Oooo, Sheila E. tomorrow is enough. 10 years, I don’t know, I would say the foundation, the Elevate Hope Foundation that I hope to help to continue to put arts back in the schools, it’s a big deal. That’s really on my heart.

Larry King: What was the toughest thing to learn about playing drums? What was the hardest part in the learning stage?

Sheila E.: The learning stage was not hard because I always watched my dad as a mirror. So anytime I looked at him, like you and I are sitting here at the table, any time he did something I’d just repeat it on my lap. The hardest part about learning wasn’t the music part it was the business part, you know. And what people would say to me because I didn’t know that I was one, if not there weren’t many other girls playing, it was the things that the other guys would say to me that were offensive.

Larry King: Really?

Sheila E.: Oh yeah, absolutely. It all had to do with you’re not good, you’re not great, you're only here because you know Herbie Hancock or George Duke, or because it's you dad or Tito Puente, or you know, I can get you a record deal hey here's my number let’s go have sex, blah blah blah, it was all of that. All of that, yeah. I know.

Larry King: But Prince didn’t treat you that way?

Sheila E.: He wooed me in a different way. He sent me flowers, it was a gentleman-like thing to do. No, he was very sweet. We were friend first, for a very long time.

Larry King: Was he very famous when you met him?

Sheila E.: Not at all, no one knew him. No, I knew him at the beginning stages, yeah.

Larry King: Was it emotional for you to write “Girl meets Boy?”

Sheila E.: Oh yeah. Very emotional and why it’s very personal. You can hear three quarters of the way into the song that my voice sounds different, it’s because I kept crying and I needed to finish it and I had to get through it.

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