At 73, Chaka Khan Has Stories — and She Is Telling Them
Chaka Khan was feeling generous — and, even better, she was in a very good mood. The living legend sat down for an ultra-revealing, funny and unexpectedly intimate conversation on Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show, and the result is exactly the kind of long-form celebrity interview we still crave.
Because when you have eleven Grammys, six decades of music and a life that includes the Black Panther Party, Prince, Etta James, Billie Holiday and nearly becoming a nun, there is quite a bit to chat about.
Khan goes all the way back to her beginnings, recalling running away from home at 16 and singing in Chicago clubs for twenty dollars a night. She also reflects on her time with the Black Panther Party and why awards — despite having plenty of them — were never really the point.
Then come the stories only Chaka Khan can tell.
She speaks candidly about her friendship with Prince and says she still has conversations with a painting of him hanging on her wall. She recalls the life-saving advice Etta James gave her the very first time they met, and explains how her grandmother’s record collection helped begin her lifelong connection to Billie Holiday.
There is also convent chatter, Whitney and Aretha talk, thoughts on self-expression, the secret she credits for still looking fabulous in her seventies and, naturally, the important questions — including her ideal height for a man.
And present-day Chaka sounds pretty wonderful too. These days she has a farm in rural Georgia with her own well water, while a psychic apparently deserves at least some credit for leading her there before she had even stepped inside the house.
She also has new music on the way: Chakzilla is set for release on September 18, 2026. So this is not simply an icon looking backward. Chaka is very much still Chaka — living, laughing, working and telling the stories in her own gloriously singular way.
Get into what a true icon is up to today. There is only one Chaka Khan, and thank goodness for that.
Watch Chaka Khan on Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show
The Sept. 2 episode runs about 40 minutes and finds Khan opening up about Etta James, Prince, Billie Holiday, her early life, career, Georgia farm and much more.
Source: Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show.
