Chaka Khan has an issue with Rolling Stone’s ranking of the “200 Greatest Singers of All Time”.
The issue is that she was ranked 29th.
In a conversation with Los Angeles magazine’s “The Originals” podcast, Khan said she did not know anything about the list. When she was told she ranked 29th and Mariah Carey was No. 5, she suggested something was amiss.
“That must be payola… ,” Khan, whose real name is Yvette Marie Stevens, said during the podcast.
When the interviewer told her Adele was ranked 22nd, Khan replied, “OK, I quit.”
But when Khan heard that Mary J. Blige appears on the list ahead of her, at No. 25, she suggested the Rolling Stone staff “… need hearing aids…These must be the children of Helen Keller!”
Khan, 69, said the poll had it right with Aretha Franklin in the top spot and Whitney Houston as No. 2. And the “Aint Nobody” and “Tell Me Something Good” star said she was also on board with a No. 8 ranking for Beyonce.
She did say, though, that she doesn’t like it when singers are pitted against each other.
“I refuse to be in a space where I look at my fellow artists and they’re pitting us against each other,” the singer said.