Grieving Sheila E promises '99.9 percent' Prince songs at Orchestra Hall tribute

She talked in a hushed voice. Sometimes words didn't come easy. A couple of times Sheila E fought back tears.

The drummer extraordinaire, best known for her 1980s hits "The Glamorous Life" and "A Love Bizarre," was on the phone from California to talk about Prince and her tribute to him on Sunday at Orchestra Hall. The benefit concert will continue his legacy of giving back to the community, with proceeds supporting his various causes, including music education.

Sheila, the daughter of Santana percussionist Pete Escovedo, met Prince in 1978, drummed in his band from 1986-89 and remained friends with him forever. They were romantically involved and even engaged at one point in the '80s.

Like Prince, Sheila is charity-minded. She founded Elevate Hope Foundation to help abused and abandoned children in Los Angeles and Elevate Oakland to provide access to arts and music education for public school students in Oakland, her hometown.

In an hourlong interview this week, Sheila, 58, discussed the various ways she's been paying tribute to Prince — with a new song, a tattoo and the Minneapolis concert.

Her role in the post-Prince world

"People are walking up to me and they just want to hug me," said Sheila. "They're just crying. There's no opportunity to say 'Hi, what's your name?' Even out of nowhere. They say 'I'm so sorry for your loss.' As soon as they say that, I start crying. We're all weeping together. It's all been really positive. Sometimes you're not prepared for strangers just grabbing you. I'm getting used to it. And I am a hugger."

Sheila said the outpouring from fans was not expected. "They're calling me 'the First Lady of Paisley Park,' " she said. "It's very cute. I've never seen that before. People are praying for me. They're sending e-mails to my website. Not just saying 'I love you.' They're sharing their stories. I read every single one."

Her emotional state

"Everybody thinks everything is fine. I try to post things on social media and continue to bring light. But I don't always feel like that. There's good days and bad. It's not been easy. I'm not trying to shake it. I just have to go through it. It's hard, especially hearing certain songs."

Her new tattoo

"It was painful," she recalled. In more ways than one.

The tattoo on the inside of her left forearm features Prince's glyph with a butterfly — her symbol, given to her by Carlos Santana when she was young.

"I've never gotten a tattoo before," she said. She ended up going to a tattoo artist recommended by Mayte Garcia, Prince's first wife.

She got the inked memorial so she "could carry him not just in my heart but so when I look at my arm, I know he's with me."

Her new single 'Girl Meets Boy'

Three weeks after Prince's death, she collaborated with the guitarist from her band, Mychael Gabriel, for whom Prince was godfather and Sheila godmother. At 2:30 a.m., she tried to record her vocals. "I couldn't finish singing the song. It was too emotional thinking back to when I first met him. ... During the third verse, my voice is stuffy-sounding. I kept crying."

She was in the process of recording a dance album but couldn't release it following Prince's death. So now she'll offer a vinyl album with the "Girl" side featuring dance material and the "Boy" side featuring songs she's written since Prince's passing.

Plans for her Prince tribute at Orchestra Hall

It will be "99.9 percent his music," Sheila said. She's planning on parts of 27 songs performed by her band augmented by her father; singer Ashling Cole from Larry Graham's band; ex-Prince backup singer Elisa Dease, and dancers Mayte Garcia and the Twinz, who also toured with Prince.

"We're not him. No one will ever be him. No one will replace him," said Sheila, who hasn't performed some of these tunes since 1987. "We can only play his music. As much as he loved it, we loved it."

Her Prince tribute on the BET Awards in June

"I was hesitant when BET asked," she remembered. "I couldn't look at a picture. I couldn't listen to his music. I couldn't watch his videos. For two weeks after he passed, I became very secluded. I didn't want to be seen. I needed to shut down but I wasn't given the opportunity to do so because the family wanted me to talk to the press. I was still trying to process this whole loss. Once I said yes to BET, it was about who was available [to join her]. I didn't want to make it sad but up-tempo songs and to kill it like I know he would. And end with 'Baby, I'm a Star' like we always did."

Her return to Minneapolis

"It's beautiful," she said. "I've been back twice. My heart hurts. I'm sad. And I'm grateful for it [she starts sobbing]. The time we spent there creating this wonderful music. It means a lot to come back. It feels like home, my second home. It's a warm feeling. It's hard to believe he's not there."

Her last visit to Paisley Park

When she attended the memorial service the weekend after Prince died, she and her father walked around every inch of Paisley Park for two hours — except into Prince's vault.

"That was hard," she said. "I'm glad I did it. This was before they started fixing it for the tours. It was untouched. There was stuff everywhere — lyrics he was writing, some jewelry he bought was on the desk. His clothes. My name was on tapes. 'Escovedo songs.' There were reels of tapes. We did hundreds of songs. A lot of them are not finished. We just jammed and he recorded it and sometimes it turned into songs."

Shortly after Prince died on April 21, Sheila helped his siblings get started on organizing a tribute concert in Minneapolis. When the date was moved to Oct. 13, she couldn't participate because of a previous booking in suburban New York City.

Without prompting, she did offer her opinion on the tours of Paisley Park, which began Oct. 6.

"I still feel like it's too soon to have tours," she opined. "It doesn't feel right when things aren't settled. It feels like people are rushing through things. The stuff isn't even cataloged yet."

Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719