Hi, this is Shaka Khan. Shaka Khan. Shaka Khan. Hi, this is Shaka Khan. And I want to welcome you to episode two of Khan Nose. For this episode, we're going to explore my journey towards professionalism, which started actually way before Rufus and before the 70s even. She used to have a freshly-soughty singing much earlier. Or not, that much earlier, but somewhat earlier than 70, 69, 70. I was making money, not much, along to money. It was like that when I worked at the Afarac Theater with a group called Shades of Black. When I was about 14, 13, 14. And it was my sister, myself, and two of our friends. We used to sing African songs. We did Mayor McKibba, let them amputate, and the likes. We used to sing all our songs, of course, phonetically. We didn't know what we were saying, except with Mayor Amstong, we did the lion song. And we know that was about, of course, most people too. I was with a band called the Afro-of-Colise Ferros at a club. I'm 39th and Pershing. It's down in Chicago. And the Afarac Theater was where every weekend, we would prepare for the same people on the bill. But it was a variety show that we had. It was Bobby Get Down Brown. Shades of Black. This is a great dance, our kids, they give our name. Darling, Blackburn. And the Ferros were just an amazing man. The Stadifil on bass. Handy, Charles Handy, and Sacks. Just some great, great, great musicians. I can't think of all the things. I was a kid, I was a kid amongst giants. It was a really, really fun show. So after that finish, that about two years sent, that would bring me up to the point, us up to the point where I ran away from home. I ran around 16. I lived in the commune. Found my father, who I hadn't seen in eight years. Found out that he moved to Ibiza and was there for time for there. But it was his picture, especially if he brought it back. It gave me the bug travel. This is a beautiful still life. I was the one who had to see this. My own eyes. And of course he was very supportive of that. There was a point, I cannot give you a year. But I must have been, it was before I joined Rufus. So I was between 16 and 18. I turn or flew me out to California. I stayed at the Jett hotel, not far from his studios. He auditioned me, he wanted to audition me to be one of the I cats. When I found out what the audition was about, I completely lost it. And I acted like a child and he sent me back home. I totally slipped my mind, just came back. Anyway, that also gave me a bug. I said, I got to get out of Chicago. I got to go, I got to go somewhere. I got to do my, too, what I do. And so I joined the band called Life. And I don't know how we got this gig. Because the hardest gig in Chicago to get, the brush street. It was on the other side of Chicago. As well as tourists would come. It was like maybe three or four blocks. Clubs, pups, the like. And they were called like mothers, lollies. I used to work at a place called Nearow's Pit. And lots of people came to see us. Our work schedule was like, we went from eight o'clock, eight thirty, maybe eight thirty till three o'clock in the morning. And we did one hour shows, 20 minute breaks, from eight thirty till three o'clock in the morning. That's child slave labor. But I remember when this was being a club anyway. They didn't know how that was. They didn't check. But every night, the guys would carry out to the car. Because it was a lot of work. It was cool. But they had not been there. I wouldn't have met Bob Monaco, who truly discovered Rufus on that same circuit. And, um, about respect to Los Angeles to record. And so that actually takes care of the time. My time, my life, up from the time I went home until the time I moved out here to California. It was just now. There's one other little thing I did leave out that I was pregnant. When I did move out here to California, I was really small. I was the first time I came out here I was pregnant. And then I came back home. Okay. The first time I came out, I was pregnant to meet with a baby she had done her records. But Bob Monaco saw the band. One of the guys at the station at the label said, how are we going to record starved out of here if you're going to be having babies? So look. I'm not going to say his name because I respect him too much. I said look man. I'm going to be what I'm going to be with without you under you, over you, around you, or whatever. Okay. So get over it. So he shut up. I went home. On the way home, I thought that, you know, I gasped or something. But I was like in labor. I got off the plane in California and that very same night. When it's asked to live my daughter. She was through that song. I got off the plane with her. They came to California. And I found a place in my whole canyon. And she and a nanny named Sheila moved into its little house. And that's where the roof is. The whole of the saga. Again.