Sheila E. | Part 1

Hi, everybody. Sheila E here. Oh my God. You cannot believe it. I am here with Sean Stockman's on that. No, please watch it because this man is incredible. I love him. I've always loved him. He's the nicest human being I've ever known today. Well, just today, but maybe tomorrow too. No, I'm just kidding. Listen, there was so much to talk about. We have part one part two. We got to do a part three. I got to come back. I love you. Watch the episode. We'll see you soon. Bye. Welcome everybody to another episode of on that. No, this is the place where we speak a language we all understand. And that is music. I am your host, Sean Stockman and boy, am I excited today? You know, this is this is the perk of having this job. Uh, you get to meet not only your your idols, people that you looked up to. And this young lady is both, but she's also a triple. She was also one of my little childhood crushes, but we'll we'll talk about that. You know what I mean? Like because we're adults now. And you know, it is what it is, but anyway, my guest today is an East Oakland native who's become a pioneer in her own right. She's played alongside a few struggling artists whose names you might have known, you know, like a Herbie Hancock, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Ringo Starr, Gloria Stefan, Beyonce, Prince, all struggling artists, you know, just guys. It's just trying to make it in this business, you know, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. But we wish them the best. Um, just to name a few, since she stepped on the scene, she's made a footprint that has not been able to be duplicated, at least not yet. I haven't seen anybody. As long as since you've existed, there's no one like nobody. Big facts. Like, am I right? There's there's nobody like it is no one walking the earth that has personified what you have. Okay. I'm just we get flowers here, by the way. Okay. Okay. So I'm just just kind of giving you, you know, I understand it. Since she stepped on the scene, she's made a footprint that has not been able to be duplicated yet. There's been no one like her anywhere on earth. Since birth, she has truly moved to the beat of her own drums. See what I did there. Da da. Yes. She is a big sister, a daughter, a goddaughter of the legendary Tito, Plente, an author, philanthropist, legendary drummer, percussionist, multi-platon recording artist, trailblazer, a ferocious and electrifying performer, even though she still gets butterflies. That's where's my drawing. You still get butterflies, right? Of course. That's like your, that's if they go away, I need to quit. Right. That's a forever feeling. That's a body check. Yeah. Okay. It's really important because that's to me, that's God telling me this was the gift I gave you. So it's still exciting. I'm playing for the first time ever. Yeah. In the words of Terry Lewis, he said, when it's not being fun, quit. Yeah. That ain't going to happen. Yeah. I don't think so. No. I don't see that in your future. No. That all. Okay. That's good. That's good for us to know. Hollywood Walk of Fame recipient and 49er. Yeah. Bang, bang, baby. Let's go. Bang, bang. 49ers. I saw that. She from the band though. Yeah. Well, that's true. But you know, you could go either way, especially back then. You could be a leader. You could be. I would see her hanging out with my guy Barry Bond. So you know, that's my brother. That's my home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's double kudos for her. Ninety-fame. All day. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for. Wait. One more. You told me that, well, you told us in your book that depending on who you're around in your family, you have many nicknames. Yeah. What are some? My nickname. Oh my gosh. Give us some because I always give I give the names before I give the name. OK. So. Cho-cho-son. Cho-cho-cho. Cho-cho. Tisheela. Tisheela. Ak. Shailer-ray. Ak. Nanari. Ak. Ak. Anything else? Yeah. That's that's that's enough for now. OK. find enough, the queen of percussion, I got my nicknames for you. The charismatic, the beautiful Sheila Cecilia Escavado, AKA Sheila E. No. Wow. Thank you. I'm a you. What an introduction. I'm gonna, I need to copy that. I'll play before every show. Did it? No. You're more than welcome. You're more a matter of fact. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Miss Sheila E. Now you can use that. Oh, that's awesome. Just give us a call. Clip it. It's all done. How you doing? Good. How are you? Great. Thank you for having me and reaching out and saying, can you come? I'm like, yeah, I can be here. Yeah. Thank you so much. I mean, anything for you. Oh, anything for you. Well, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, I, again, starting off with the cameras, you know, cut on. I told you, I'm a fan. And the thrill of doing this podcast is me being able to have actual discussions with people who I looked up to and always wondered what they were thinking. And, and, you know, in their creative space. And the choices you made, that's why this, this show I think resonates with people, not just because of beautiful guests like yourself, but I think people get it kick out of watching me fan out because I do. I, my approach is to ask the questions I believe people would want to ask you. Yeah. So, and so I don't really take this as like, this isn't an interview to me. This is like a conversation. Absolutely. That's why we have a couch instead of a desk. That's like, you know, we, we want to be comfortable because we want you to feel at home. There's no gotcha moments. Let you know that there's no nutted at stuff. We don't do that here. This is all about positivity and fun. Beautiful. And we're going to talk about music and we're going to talk about your life and all those good things that happen to it. So, you good? I'm good. Okay. Cool. So we're going to go back. I like to start the segment. Part of we're going to go back way back, back in the time. 1967. I believe you're 10. All right. I don't. Yeah, I'm, I was 10 in 67. Okay. Cool. I mean, you know, I'm sorry. When he said go back, I didn't think he was going to go that far. But yeah, we start from the gate. Or you should have started a little earlier than that, but go ahead. Okay. You want to? You know what I'm about to ask you? No, I don't. So ask me for. Okay. I picked this age mainly because it's the formative age that takes us from. And we're not as young as we were. And we're kind of growing into our development age. And around that time, that's when our music music tastes really. Kind of take shape as far as like what we like then. We'll probably always like. So that's why it shows that that's scary around. I like that. So take us in to the Eskivado House. I already know is hella musical. I'm sorry, heck of musical. No, hella is right. That's the area. Okay. All right. So he said it right. Okay, cool. But you say heck in your book. Yeah, but the name of my, my album is hella funky. Okay, all right. Just, you know, trying to be respectful. Oh, I love that. Okay. So all right. So let's go back. Hella music. In the house. In the Eve family house. And you give me certain. Artists certain sounds that when you would wake up in the morning. Would just hit different than maybe other music that was being played by the in your neighborhood or anywhere in your house. Give me some artist names songs of outside of my house. Inside and out. Well, it would be my dad at first, first because he would practice every single day. Shout out to Pete, shout out to pops. That's it. Oh, day still playing too. Yeah. No, he was like the influence, you know, he was everything playing the vinyl every day. And his collection was, you know, him being a Latin jazz artist self taught. Plain the vinyl means his vinyl collection was pretty awesome. From just not Latin jazz artists like Tito Pente, Mogo, Santa Maria, Eddie Palmieri. Then he's playing Miles Davis, Coltrane. She she. And then we've got Motown because that was the time of Motown. And so it was a mixture of all that Latin, Latin jazz funk. And so the that music, all of that very young at 10. That was what we heard. And because of the influence of the Bay Area, there's so many bands and artists. The Bay Area. That come from the Bay is just insane. It's crazy. Yeah, I was insane. So, you know, my dad playing with different artists as well as playing with his band. So the influence is coming from the outside of the home besides my dad. And all of what he brought in the home on the outside. And you're looking at Sly, you know, Santana, grateful dad. Treyful dad, yeah. Yeah. All of those band tower power. And then later on, pointed sisters like the list goes on. There's so many. And then to be able to at that time, well, not at that time, but a little bit older, I would. My brothers and I would go catch the bus because we would hear about, ooh, Sly's getting ready to rehearse. You know, on this at this community center. And so we'd go catch the bus. We steal some money from my dad's little wallet thing. Takes, takes some change and get on the bus. And we'd catch the bus, get off at the corner. It was a liquor store across the street. We'd go into the liquor store and we would get twinkies and a seven up and sit on the curb of the right there outside of the community center. Just listen to survival pack. Yeah. Just like enjoying live music. Yeah. But again, it's interesting because at that time at 10, I was nine to 10. I was in the third grade, I think. Even with all that music, my dad saw, pop saw that I was interested in playing Congress or just playing percussion in general, because I watched it play every day. And he's like, I want you to play another instrument. And I'm like, yeah, I get to play drums. I was excited. Wow. And he's like, yeah, I want you to learn how to play violin. Yeah. Like, what? I was mad. Yeah. Because first of all, we lived in the hood. I can't walk around with a violin. I'm going to get beat. It wasn't gangster. Violin wasn't gangster. Not even close. Yeah, yeah. I mean, to be honest, kids though, violin can be gangster. It is gangster now. But to some, yeah, back then, it wasn't considered. It was considered too posh. If you're older and you understand the music, then you understand how gangster or violin is. Yeah, violin is pretty good. And I was like pretty intense. And I'm like, violin, godly, but I'm glad that I did because I love classical music. Yeah. You know, I ended up unfortunately not learning how to read music because growing up in an environment of music in the house every single day, I just, whatever you played or whatever I heard, I would try to emulate it first time. Yeah. So playing violin is like playing something. I not just play it instantly. And I was first violinist for like, you know, three, four, five years. So even though you didn't want to play, you were pretty damn good at it. I was good. I was, I have to say I was good. First violinist and don't read music. That's pretty sick. I didn't read music and then the teacher caught me and I was like, oh shoot, I'm in trouble. And she's like, how are you first violinist and you're not reading the music? I say, well, if you play it, I'll just play it right back. You should have said, because I'm dope. Because I'm a hell of a funky. I'm a hell of a funky. What else you need to know? That part. Get that sheet out of here. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, you remind me actually of a gentleman who I used to go to high school with. Because first of all, let me say, I don't know why, but there's some weird connection between the bay and Philly. I don't know what that's about. I don't know why. I feel like there's like some connect there. Like we have a lot of the same culture because Philly's hella heavy with the music culture. You can say hella a lot in Philly. No. No, you say you've been an L.I. We say other stuff. But yes, like there's a gentleman got arrested so he passed away a few years ago. His name is Joey DeFranchesco. He was a piano player. One of the baddest, like at 15, like he would play like herbie. Wow. Like, I mean, not comparing him to her, but you understand what I'm saying. And he didn't read us a lick of music. None of it. Yeah. It was just all genius. I say that to say, that's genius. To be able to hear something and to go, oh, I got that. And I got to read it. And plus there's there's a level of rigidness to reading something on a ship to some degree. I think there's a lot of good in learning how to read. I'm not discrediting. I think it's really important because there. My dad wanted me to play violin so that he said I later on he told me this not at the beginning. But he's like, I don't want you to be a percussion player struggling. Like I've been struggling my whole life. And playing percussion is a hard instrument. Like who hires percussion players. They'll hire violinists, you know, for the orchestra's, you'll be able to play in the symphonies. Possibly do scoring and or playing for movies. Like, you know, you could actually make a living doing this. And I'm like, okay, but, you know, it's you have to know how to read to do all that. You really do. And I'm saying it because, you know, it's important to read music to do all of that. There's a lot of importance in reading. I missed out on some of that. You know, I figured out a different way to survive, which is fine. But I think it's really important. At the same time, there's a not so great element of people that read so much when they're off a paper, when they're off the copy. They have no feeling as to how do I play without reading it. Dearing headlights. And that part comes from here. And if you don't have that, it's a it's a given take. And you're right. Reading music is it could take you to other places. It can present other opportunities. And that's great. But there's a level of book smarts that you have to kind of sit down because street smarts is what makes you survive throughout most of life. For sure. So musicians are musicians. So musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. musicians are musicians. music, right? But I'm learning now. And that's fine. That's cool. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. Right. But let's put it this way. Your innovation will be studied in schools. You understand? Because you didn't follow a particular curriculum. You created one by not reading those notes, which are important. We say it again. It's important. But you changed how those notes are interpreted because you felt them a different way. And that's just what music is. First, it's feeling, yes, Beethoven, Mozart, they wrote all those things down for other people to then interpret and play. But they felt it first. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They just had to make it understandable for everybody else on what they felt. It comes from a feeling. Oh, it does. Absolutely. It's, you know, it's just like a language. Like, you know, I'm learning Spanish. That's awesome. Give us a sentence. What do we learn for our show? Joop Indy and Dois Bano. Poco a poco. And what does that say? I'm learning Spanish little by little. That's beautiful. Is it pretty accurate? So, so with that, like, I, I, I learned Spanish so I can talk to people that speak Spanish. Right. What inspired you to do that? When I live in LA, that part of Los Angeles, basically, guys is Mexico. That's real. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's Mexico. So you, you can't go anywhere, whether it's a McDonald's or a home depot or whatever without running to somebody that speaks. But you did sing in Spanish recently, wouldn't it? I did, but the problem is, is that like, I forgot all of it. But this time, I'm trying to actually retain it. But anyway, well, even if you sing in Spanish, you don't always know what you're singing. Like you have a really, and that's trying to get the feeling about melody when you're singing in Spanish. Is that why? Say it again. You're more worried about the melody when you're singing in Spanish. Is that why? And the pronunciation and make sure that it sounds right, that it's believable. So you're saying it, but you're not thinking about what you're saying all the time. I mean, that was my issue, you know, with singing in Spanish. It's like, you know, we didn't grow up speaking Spanish. Yeah. So to sing in Spanish, like, oh, we're singing this. What does it mean, pops? I don't know. It's something like, you know, he did. Right. Right. And but again, you would never know based off of seeing her performances. Like, it's a feel. You know, it's a feeling. Like, you know, like, you don't have to know. Because if you're hitting the right emotion, just like, you know, we've done Spanish albums, and people swore we spoke Spanish. Wow, that's awesome. Because we understood. Right. The feeling. Yeah. No, the feelings is everything. Feeling is everything. It really is. So when you go, all right, so let's, let's go back to like you said, let's go way back. Right. Your dad said, and I quote, you were kicking in time to the percussion inside your moms, Juanita. I want to eat it. In her belly, he tell you with a chuckle. Like, so even before you came out, you was here. That's what he says. So that just leaves me to believe that it was just in you. You were, yeah, you were music personified. You are music. So proof positive is when you were five years old, can you please tell us that, that that that wonderful time, that moment where pops took you on stage at five for the first time. Yeah. Can you please tell us that story? So my dad was playing with his brothers, Coke, and who played percussion as well, and my uncle Phil played bass, upright bass. And they, they had a band called the Escavito Brothers. And in Oakland, there was a place called the Suites or the Sands Ballroom on Broadway. And that's where a lot of the famous bands were going play. So I was a big deal that my dad was playing there with his brothers. I was at her parents from my grandparents house, the Creos. And we're sitting there and, and mom's like, we're going to go see your dad playing. You're going to play with him. I was like, oh my god, I'm so excited. So we didn't have a lot of money. You know, we had the food stamps and those other licking stamps things that I don't know. I can't remember. Me too. Yeah. So, you know, mom's needed to get me a new outfit. So she got me an outfit for this. And I remember getting dressed like I was excited. I'm getting this new dress five, like five years old. I remember a new dress, these black patent leather shoes that don't bend. Yep. The ones that hurt. That hurt. Yeah. And the little white, little frilly socks. And I was really excited. So we get there. And we're, you have to walk up the stairs to get there. So you're walking up the stairs. My mom's holding my hand. And I can hear the music from outside. And it's getting louder as we get to the stairs, the top of the stairs. My dad sees us at the front door. And it was packed. I mean, to me, it looked like thousands of thousands of people. And he said, I want to introduce my, my wife, Juanita's here with my daughter, Sheila. Sheila's going to come back to play. So it's funny because then the crowd just kind of moved. I always say it was like the party to the red sea. We're just walking. I'm like, wow, this is cool. My dad picks me up and puts me on stage. And he, he, he stands me on the stool that they had for me to play Congress. I don't remember playing the lick. I remember the most important thing to me at that time was fashion. I was going to get a new dress. It was all about these black pants. It was about the dress and the black pat and leather shoes. And I was getting dressed up. He said, I play, they both said I played great. I don't remember playing. It was like, I, I fainted or something. I don't know. I don't remember the moment other than looking in the audience and everyone's coming to the stage. And I don't remember the music other than the whole, you know, before the performance. So my dad said it was great. He said, I played great. I wish I could remember that moment. But I don't, I tried to go, come on, God, just let me just, I don't, I don't remember any of it. It was for your parents. Yeah, it was for them. It was for them. That's beautiful. Now, it was that a moment where you said, you know what? I think I want to do this because there were times where you know, you wanted to do a lot of things. You wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist, a track star. Right. Oh, that was a given. Yeah. That was going to have to run really fast. Yeah. Like you couldn't, you couldn't catch me if you wanted to. No, it was that good for, I'm not kidding. Really? Like I would like high school. No, elementary school. I was fast. Yeah. Because we lived in the hood. No, because we lived in the hood. And I back then had supposedly the good here. So I would get beat up every day. So I would run to try to get home as quickly as I could before some of those other kids and the gangs would come and get me. Sure. So that was why I was like, when you run for your life, it's a different kind of room. Ask whooping will, will motivate you big time. No, for real. And it got to the point where I was so fast. And then I was, I started running track and elementary school, junior high. I was breaking all the records. I was beating the guys like, and I'm like, I'm going to the Olympics. I'm training being the Olympics and I'm going to win a gold medal for sure. Like it's a given. And then early on I was playing on a all women's soccer team. We were undefeated for five years. I got trophies for the most goals. Like you couldn't catch me. Wow. No, I was fast. That's crazy. So. So that moment I that it wasn't early on. It was later on. I was later on later on. Yeah. But I my goal was to just get the gold medal. I already knew I was going to the Olympics. It was a given. Yeah. No one could tell me otherwise. We're going to speak about that confidence. Well, because there were when I was going up, I was saying five or so. There were only two things. One was to win a gold medal and the other one was to be the first astronaut woman on on the moon. That was the thing you wanted to be. You wanted to be an astronaut. I did. I loved space. I love looking up looking at the stars, looking at the moon. Like everything about space, science and all that and art. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your dad painted, right? He does. He still does almost all our family. Would you go to space now? Like another time I'm making these like trips, right? Like Elon. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's a good. Yeah. Elon is, I guess, creating these aircrafts where you can actually go to space. Right. Would you do it? No. Yeah. Let me tell you what. It's different now. See? That's a real answer. No, you got these cars that when something happens, they don't work in your stuck. I'm not going to be in space and that thing don't want to work. Yeah. Elon has not doing well on the ground. That's what I'm saying. You can't, you know, get freezing temperatures and the cars don't want to work. No, thank you. It's true. No, I'm going to pass on that. That's that's a very good answer. One of the reason why I got rid of my Tesla. Yeah. Let me tell you. Well, you had a very loving family. You have a very loving family. And your mom and dad would make food for the whole neighborhood kids. Like so you're what I've learned in your book is that the Eskivado House was the place to be. I mean, for everybody. Yeah. Everybody. It was the place to like, there's music every single day, no matter what there was never not music playing, whether it be on vinyl or my dad practicing or jam sessions or his band in the living room. Like there was music and people coming by and playing. We would play games. We're always very competitive. So any kind of sport and my mom because her parents on the Creos, they would gamble. So they they had these gambling things. So we would bet trying to make money all the time, hustling all the time. Yeah. It was a place to be and everyone would just come hang out. So, you know, even though we didn't have a lot of food, you know, moms would make things work no matter what. And like moms do. Yeah, like moms do. She made things work and they basically just kept the door unlocked. Like people would just come in and hang out and you know, sometimes we wake up in the morning. There would be people sleeping on the floor. We don't even know who they were. Wow. No, it was just like go to moms and pops his house. That's so beautiful. Yeah. And they're still like that. I have to force them to lock the doors. Wow. But not only neighborhood kids would stop by. Pretty famous heavy hitting performers and artists would also come by this could be the house too. Like, can you talk about that? Well, yeah, Carlos Santana would come by. I mean, just pop up. Wait, wait, wait, what year is this? He's just going to. You know, he's Santana's at the door. Okay. Let him in. Yeah, let him in. You know, yeah, Carlos, um, Lou Rawls, the whispers, like the whispers used to babysit me. I mean, the drummer James Levi would babysit us. Destiny that he was going to be. No, great. The soil was too. It's like real, man. That Kwame. Like, yeah, like it's crazy. It's crazy. Like, who else? Please tell me, I'm sorry. I know I'm a Tito point. They, you know, yeah, just legends. Stop by to have lunch. You can have lunch. Yeah. Have some lunch. Can't get you. You know, hang out. And they also, yeah, you also used to rehearse there a little bit right sometimes, right? Um, they would come and do a jam thing, you know, just, uh, you know, not the not like full on their band. Right. No, it was my dad's band. Yeah. My day. Yeah. Did you know what the time like, were you like aware of how great these people were or were they were just family friends? No, I didn't have a clue. I mean, later on, Carlos, yeah, because my dad and my uncle was in his band. So they were there at kind of at the same time. And then, well, my uncle, coca was there first, then brought my dad, then coke left, and my dad was there. And then my dad and my uncle started their band called Asteca, which was a huge band. And part of Carlos's band went with my dad's band. And yeah, so it was all, you know, everyone playing with everyone jamming, sitting in all the time. Speaking of Asteca, um, there was a moment, another one of those golden opportunities for you, um, with your father's group, uh, the percussionist, uh, at one point, couldn't make it, couldn't make it to the show for it. Get fired or did he leave? Maybe you were sick. You were sick. Yeah. And little Sheila, uh, 15, um, it's like that, that, that. I can do it. I can do it. Again, that competitive, I can do anything spirit. Like she's always had it. And dad was like, no, no, no, no, too young. I don't want to tell you story. Just continue. No, keep going. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you know, again, please, expound on on how you felt. Like what was the urgency that I felt when I was reading those pages? Like you really knew that you can do this. I really knew that I could do anything. I don't care what it was. I don't care if I had never tried it. I'm going to tell you I could because that's from my mom. Moms is like that. She's like, you tell her something. Have you ever tried this mom's note, but I bet I can beat you. But why are we competing? Why are you going to go there? Come on, put some money on the table. Mom, are you for no, she's like that. That's where I got that from from moms. She's like, you can do anything. Just yet, you can do it. But the thing is, I was very confident in a way because growing up, I always ended up being the lead. Sheila, you tell everybody, Sheila, let's get everybody. You call it, why does it have to be me? And it just became a, why is it me kind of thing? So I was the one to always kind of like bring people together. And that's again with moms. And she would always do it in popsicle moms. Get everybody, you know, it was just that nature. I got that from moms. Case in point, you begged dad. I can do it. Let me beat a percussionist. I can skip classes. I can skip school. And I knew all the music. I was like, I know, I know by heart. I'm like, I know the horn parts. I know everything. How long did it take for dad to finally say, okay? About two seconds because I went to moms and said, pretty easy. I went to moms and said, moms, daddy won't let me play in the band. And she walked over there and said, honey. Yeah. And it goes, all right. There was no rehearsal either. I just played the show. Wow. I didn't need to rehearse. Where was the first show? It was San Francisco at, I believe the Moscone Center in San Francisco. And it was for 3,000 people the most I had ever performed in front of. So that was the first show with my dad like that. 3,000 people. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. Off the cuff. Just on the fly. That was awesome. You just walked into the lion's danon. Yeah. I mean, you know, watching them play and being a fan of my dad's in a sense as well, like that Bannas Tekka was so amazing. And the songs that they had were about peace and war. And, you know, they had making statements, you know, and telling stories in about the world. And so I love the music and the arrangements. And because there were so many writers in that group, it was a mixture of a lot of different stuff. So, you know, just I love the album. I knew everything by heart. And I'm like, that's no big deal. I can just go play. I mean, I got this. And, you know, and I stood there and I mean, I sat down, was playing sitting down. My dad was to the left of me. He's playing Tim Bolley's on playing Congress. And you remembered this performance? This one I remember. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty interesting because you, you think, okay, yeah, I can do this. I can do this. And I had already been playing with other bands and sitting in and jamming with other artists. But, you know, it's your dad. And I've played with him before, but not with this band. This was a bigger band. This was a bigger deal. And you've got a team piece band. And you kind of sit up a little taller like, okay, all right. You know, you kind of adjust. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 18. Usually flying out of that stage. Do you remember every part of that 18 piece band? Oh, absolutely. What was it? Just people at home. That's kind of an, that's a big band. Oh, it's a bit. Yeah. Because they had three keyboard players. They had a guitar player, bass, drums, four or five singers, four or five horn players. Yeah. A couple, yeah. A couple or because, yeah. No, it was like pretty, it was intense, but it was so dope. And that's a thing is growing up in the bay, listening to music, live music, all your life. That's all I know is live music and, you know, like horns. Like horns are important to me. Like my dad had, every band has horn players. Yeah. Like these lead lines that the trombone players player, importantly lead the line into the next section of it. Like it all means something. Yeah. And so, you know, I knew all of the parts of what everyone was going to play and I knew the music. And so, you know, I stood up a little bit taller and he counted it off. We started playing. And I was like, this is, I was so happy, so excited. Like, you know, was I loved competing. I loved running track and winning and our games, undefeated team. Five, like it was all like, let's go. Let's do that. I got this right of problem. No, no big deal. Okay. So you're, you're playing, right? Doing your thing. He dad looks over to you. He says, hit that solo. Take a solo. Exactly. Yeah. How'd you feel right there? Like what? What? I was like, I got you. Not a big deal. I could play and I started playing. I closed my eyes, started playing the solo. And you got 18 people singing and playing on the same stage. It's already intense. Already intense because you're like, it can't get any better than this. Right. And when I closed my eyes, that was the time that I just left my body seriously, spiritually. Yeah. I literally left my body and that's never happened. And I say that to go back and forth because competing, what I push my body through to make sure that I tried to win every time I ran. The competing means the training that I had to do to even the technique, all of that to get to win. So what do I do for this? It's like, well, I closed my eyes and I know the music. So I'm just going to play what I feel because that's all I know. And that emotion of man, 18 people playing it, I'm going to play. And what happened was when I closed my eyes, I literally left my body for real. Like this is not a dream. It actually happened. I didn't think of it. I didn't read it. This really happened. I looked down at myself. Like, wait, why am I up here? And I'm looking at myself playing. That's crazy. Like, wait, wait, and it scared me. Yeah. But I see myself with my eyes closed. I'm still playing. And right now, now I hear nothing. Now it's complete silent. And what I'm looking at, I see me playing. I see the band. And it was this way. I came this way. This was crazy. I came this way. The band is facing the audience this way. So I came to this side. And I'm looking down at all these people. And I'm like, I don't understand what's happened. Like, this is weird. This is scary. You know, and I'm like, what is happened? Like, what's going on? I don't get this. And then finally, at some point, I started to open my eyes. And I guess I came. That's how I'm explained. I came back into my body. I didn't hear any music. I heard nothing for a second. And all of a sudden, I could hear the music, but it was really low. And it just got louder and louder. Like, oh, wait, I'm waking up. And I can hear the crowd. And they're screaming and yelling, like, giving me a standing ovation and it's like screaming and yelling, like, what? And that's what I hear. And I'm going, wait, what? And then I finally open my eyes. And I'm still so lonely. And by this point, I don't, I realized that I left and came back. But I was shaking. And I looked at pops like this. And he's playing going, like his mouth is open. Like, what just what happened? And the band is just on fire. And everyone's playing. And I'm shaking. And that just tears rolling. And I'm like, and my whole body, when I was done, my hands were like this, I was shaking, trimming, trembling. And he just looked at me at standing ovation. It was just crazy. And I'm like, I don't, I have never like in competing, all of the things that I've done, I never experienced, first of all, anything like that. But because it was spiritual, that was a different thing. I'm like, how does that even happen? Yeah. I don't, I don't understand it. So after the, after the next song or two, whatever we were done. And I go backstage to pops. And I'm just yelling and jumping up and going, daddy, daddy, this is it. This is what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life. I'm supposed to go out on tour and be a percussionist. I'm going to go out on tour with you. And he's like, what? Like, what? He looked at me. He goes first of all. And we just talk, we talked, we both cried, we grabbed each other, we cried like babies. Like, what just happened? And he's like, I can't deny you what you know. He said, I had no idea. Yeah. And I said, well, the thing is, daddy is like, I think I went to heaven. And I did. I went to heaven. And I looked down and I'm like, I saw what I was supposed to do. God showed me. And he said, this is it. Because if that's what heaven feels like, that's what I'm supposed to do. Because that's what I want to feel like being in heaven every single day. That was the change of my life. Like, I dropped everything. Nothing else mattered. And I said, daddy, I'm going out on tour with you two weeks later was a beginning of my tour life. Never been on a plane. That was a beginning and never look back. Music is definitely a godly transmitter. Everything that the young lady just said is no bunk. Like, I can tell you there are moments where you're on stage and you're performing. And I ain't got a lot of sometimes there are certain notes I don't like to hit it a certain way because it makes me cry. You know what I'm saying? Like, it does something. I just had a moment where you cried on stage. 100%. Yeah. Do you remember it? No. No. But you don't you don't cry that much to remember because I cry all the time now. Yeah. See, I I just because I can't help it because it's too because that connection knowing that God gave me this. Yeah. That connection. That it's just a thankful moment of thank you for like what you just did. Like sometimes music is all you need. Like at certain times it's all you need. Like, you don't need food, sex, water, any of that. Like, it transcends all of that. So to be on stage is almost like you're feeding your spirit everything. So so when you're singing and you're hitting the song and it's it's it's just a constant oscillating energy from the people to you to the people to you and so on and so forth. So everybody's a concert and a performance is probably one of the only places I believe that world peace could exist. Because when you when you when you look around and I'm sure you see it too in your crowd. You see black. You see white. You see Jew. You see Palestinian. You see you see young. You see old. You see all of these people and for that moment they're all singing the same song. Doesn't that sound godly to you? Well, that's what I tell everyone for every single show that I do. At there's a specific moment that I stop my keyboard player, you know, like we're in church. And I say to the people that you are all here because you love the word love really. You love music. You hear because you love music. I said this is one of the special entities that allow that happen that you're not even thinking about it. But all people come. You didn't fill out information where you had to fill out a form that says this is how much I make financially. This is where I live kind of car I drive. Love about all this stuff. No, you came here because you love music and love surpasses all all of this other political whatever it may be you're here because you love music. And that part of it is this is the blessing that we give to you and you give us back the love. And there's so many people in the world right now every single person probably in this room is going through something. And if you're going through something, you know how you know you you you spent the 75 minutes with us and we appreciate it. But someone might have forgotten to tell you today if you haven't heard that you you are loved that we love you. And so I just want to say that I love you because somebody needed to hear that. So I have everybody to turn I turn the house lights on. And everyone has to I said this might be awkward. But I want you to turn to a stranger. Not the people you came with and no turn to someone you don't know and say I love you to a stranger right now. And the whole room just changes. Yeah. It changes the atmosphere. It changes the everyone is just like you see some people going. I said no turn to somebody. You know and the stories that we hear every single show of I said listen you never know what that blessing might be. But I'm going to tell you right now because you told a stranger that you love them today. This very moment you might have saved somebody's life. And that's all we're doing. As saving someone's life. That's it. And that love and that's what I'm saying. It's a spiritual thing. It's like it reaches people all ethnicities, genres, all it doesn't matter your political views financial none of that it matters. That's why I hate when I hear people either young or squander the gift of music. I'm just saying I don't kind of control what they do. Yeah you do. Oh man. Yeah. You actually do. You do. You control everyone's emotions at that point. And you can almost make the crowd do whatever you ask them to do. I do something similar but I do it in the beginning of the show where I say Los Angeles. Look to your left. Look to your right. They said if you do not know the person sitting or standing next to you. I said be a neighbor introduce yourselves. Say hello. Make a friend. You stand next to them. Myzwa will introduce yourself. You know what I'm saying? You're going to be here for the next two hours. You know what I'm saying? Get comfortable and you know, enjoy each other's scent. Good or bad. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. It is that power that like I say I attest to everything that you said because it is true. It is a spiritual walk. It is one of those things that people don't understand until they understand. And again, it's the only place where people can congregate and say yo, I dance next to this Indian person that I never met before. And we sang the same song and we we rocked out and we smiled and that whole thing. That's the beauty of music. That's the power of music. Really? Yes. All right folks. That was part one of the amazing conversation I'm having with the legendary Sheila E. Part two is coming up and you'll hear a lot about, oh, I guess you could say her challenges of being a girl playing a man's instrument. What? We're going to get into those details in part two. Hey y'all and that was on that note. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And if you did, here's a couple more videos for you to check out. Do not forget to like, comment and subscribe.