Chaka Khan is still going long and strong. The 10 time Grammy Award winning singer is gearing up for an international tour as well as appearing at the Essence Music Festival. She recently sat down for an in-depth interview where she revealed her weight loss secrets, recording new music and remaining a sex symbol.
This is what she had to say:
On Her Recent Weight Loss:
They can say whatever they want. Only I know what’s really going on. My weight loss had to occur, because I was diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes and I also had high blood pressure. And I’ve been on medication for that since last year until the beginning of this year. And I ended up going, “Oh, no, no, no, no, this is enough. I can’t live like this.” And I have a new little daughter to raise [my granddaughter], I adopted her so I have to be here. … She was really my first and major influence to lose weight and get healthy so I can be here for her. What I did was stopped eating and went on a strict unconditional fast for a couple of months. And went off meat, became vegan, stopped all the dairy, stopped all the meat.
On Her New Music:
I’m not playing it so safe. I feel like I have no boundaries, musically, right now. There are none. Any restrictions that I place upon [the music], I place them on myself. The hardest thing right now is to trust that instinct. It’s the same instinct on many different other levels for other stuff. But I think you’ll see something different.
Remaining Sex Symbol:
Well, I’ve always been a sex symbol. When I was fat I was a sex symbol. Some men like it that, you know. But I don’t think about that. That’s so far from my mind right now [Laughs].
