Chaka Khan told Stevie Wonder she didn't like the songs he'd written for her funk band, Rufus.
The 74-year-old music legend asked the “Ain't Nobody” hitmaker to add her own twist to “Come and Get This Stuff,” but she refused and asked if there was anything else she could do.
Speaking to The Independent, the usually outspoken star recalled: “And I said to Stevie, 'I don't like it. Is there anything else?'
“I don't like your song, but what else do you like?”
The 71-year-old singer acknowledges that telling the truth often “makes people angry.”
She continued, “I don't think he's ever heard anything like that.”
“But I didn't think about that. I just always tell the truth and there's nothing I can do about it. Sometimes it upsets people. But if the truth upsets you, there's nothing I can do about it.”
However, the “Superstition” hitmakers weren't offended and ended up offering them “Tell Me Something Good,” which coincidentally became a Top 5 hit in the US in 1974.
She recalled, “Stevie said, 'What's your star sign?' Aries. I said, 'Oh, I've got a song for you…' And he started playing, 'Whack-a-whack' on the keyboard, and bam! There it was.”
Meanwhile, the “I'm Every Woman” hitmaker admitted she never got over the heartbreak she suffered when her record company changed “Rufus” to “Rufus and Chaka Khan”, adding that she and her bandmates still don't speak to each other properly.
She said: “The record company renamed us 'Rufus and Chaka Khan.'”
“It caused a huge rift in the band's perception of me. I was completely against it and made that very clear, but the label said, 'Live it or forget it'. Of course, I had to take responsibility for everyone's sake, but it hurt that people felt less than me. We were all equal. But something beautiful died during the making of our second album, Rags to Rufus, and people are still recovering from it. I love them, but we can't really talk to each other like we used to.”