Questlove Talks Earth Wind & Fire Doc, Prince, And More

Roots drummer and documentarian Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson says that becoming one of Black music’s top storytellers is a role he’s proud of.

Fresh off the Roots Picnic, where he and the band backed up Jay-Z’s viral comeback performance, he’s just released the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary Earth, Wind & Fire (to Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World), which premiered on HBO Max over the weekend.

The 70s band hasn’t gotten its due props as the groundbreaking musicians they were in a social media world that believes that Drake is a musical genius and that only artists from a decade ago are relevant in the modern era. But Quest has brought a new audience to examine the significant legacy of the artists that came before, winning an Oscar and a Grammy for his Summer of Soul doc in 2021.

Quest was also behind Sly Lives, a doc covering Sly and the Family Stone founder Sylvester Stewart’s life and legacy, and Ladies and Gentlemen, 50 Years of Saturday Night Live Music, which told the story of the long-running show’s major musical performances.

Quest talked to Variety‘s Jem Aswad recently about his recent work, what’s next, and why he’ll never take on Prince. Here are the highlights:

On the EW&F documentary

“What I enjoy about the process of any of the films I make is digging deeper. And this is one of the rare cases in which the itch I really wanted to scratch would have been to make this an inside-baseball kind of project, where I would have gone through song after song: “What did these lyrics mean? What did that backward symbol mean? Why did you guys go to a 5/4 meter here?” But really, I think the gift of Earth, Wind, and Fire is, and I say this jokingly, how they tricked you into eating your vegetables.”

On why he’s not the right person to do a Prince doc:

“You know what, sometimes you wanna get right into the fire. Prince’s story — I’m way too close; his story is way too close to my existence, and I’m almost afraid that I would make it a love letter, no matter what. And I know his story is very complex. I will also say that I believe that Ezra Elderman has made the definitive Prince documentary, although the estate doesn’t agree.” (The nine-episode Netflix documentary has been cancelled and will likely never see the light of day, as the Prince Estate didn’t believe it was fair or accurate.)

What’s next?

“I don’t necessarily suggest any other creatives or filmmakers do what I tried to do, because at one point I was working on Sly, Earth, Wind & Fire, and the Saturday Night Live music doc at the same time. And there were moments and mornings in which I’d come to work, and I think I’m prepared, but “Wait, we’re working on what?!” So I don’t recommend it.

However, that said, there are three projects that I’m starting right now that are sort of in the same vein. I’m not at liberty to say who they are, but I can hint that 1988 was a very classic year for hip-hop music. So that’s the most I can get into it. But yeah, it’s not stopping.”

Questlove Talks Earth Wind & Fire Doc, Prince, And More was originally published on cassiuslife.com