December, 2004, Khaled came to Los Angeles to put the final touches on the U.S. release of his album Ya Rayi. He sat down with Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow for a lengthy interview, over three hours of thoughts and recollections. As a mid-summer feature, hot on the heels of the Khaled and Friends tour, we now give you that interview in three parts. The first installment focuses on Khaled’s youth. The second on his early career and varied opinions on a wide-ranging set of topics. The third and final segment deals with Ya Rayi, and the changes he made to it for the U.S. release.
 Banning Eyre: Let’s talk about the work you doing here in Los Angeles. Let’s start with “Love to the People,” the new song that you have just created with Carlos Santana and K.C. Porter and Dawn Elder. What is the story of this song? Khaled: The story of this song is that I think the whole world is in love with Santana. Ever since the 1960s, I've been in love. Another guy I have loved since then, a big guy who I got to meet before he died when we did a big concert together in Rome, was Ray Charles. That gave me great happiness. It had been my dream to meet him, and we met, and we sang in the Coliseum about peace in the world. Why do the people of the Middle East, my home, love Ray Charles? Because he's one of those beings who opens things up. Like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, these big personalities. Bob Marley. I went to his studio. His wife sang with me. There are many great people that I have wanted to meet in my life. For me these are important people, people who have fought for things, to pass messages, people we need to honor, because they have honored us.  With K. C., I can say I have always talked about Santana. With all the problems that pass in the world, Santana said something when he was on tour in Europe that really touched me. He was talking with a journalist one time, about love and life, and he said, "Me, I'm a musician, but when I go on stage with my guitar, I don't go up there with a Kalishnikov to kill people. No. I kill people with music. And I shoot people without killing them, because music reinforces life. It nourishes it.” Afterwards, Dawn, my manager, came to France and to a number of concerts. Don Was is someone I've worked with in the past. We started with "Didi,” and we didn't do bad work after that. He's a big personality for me. He became my big brother. We're not just friends. We are brothers. When I was young, and I saw people like this on television, I thought these are not people I could ever approach. Now that I'm a star, people come up to me and they are afraid to come up to me and say hello. I know what they're feeling, because when I was young, I couldn't approach people either. You know, when I was young and I want to have the autograph of the famous singer in Algeria, I was terrified. That's why when someone comes to me for an autograph, I was say, "Come, come." I don't want a wound people, because I've tasted that.  As I told you the music I grew up with in Oran is from Spain. It’s Latino. We had lots of Latin music, and it has always been my dream to find someone you could help me make music like that. I also wanted to make music with Americans. I have done work with Don Was, but I thought that was not enough for the United States. I'm not really very well known in United States. I thought it would be good to do something with a big personality, someone who is really respected the United States, someone who is universal. Someone you could help me become known to a bigger public. I asked for nothing. I knew that to make this opening, to work with an artist of a different religion, someone who is not a Muslim someone but who has the goodwill, the smile, who comes to show himself, that he also suffers, that he also feels things, that he also has problems in his country, that he also has seen people die in his country, that he also has seen injustice. I talk about my people in Algeria, because I grew up with these people. I spent 26 years in my country, and those are 26 years of happiness. After that, things changed in Algeria. Things changed in the world. Things have changed in ways that no one expected in their lives, like these terrible things that happened in New York. Once again, I extend my condolences for the people who lost their lives in these events. And also, I respect the people who have been killed in Algeria. I sing for them. I sing for Rachid, who honored me, because it was through him that I found the drum machine I spoke of earlier. I sing for all those people who have lost their lives—lost their lives for us, for me, for my children, the people of today. I sing also for the people of America, and of the world who fought and died so that I could live in peace and Liberty in this world. My freedom. Excuse me for saying this, what is happening in Iraq, what is happening in Palestine, what is happening in the world, me, when I see that, people always ask me, "What do you say about that?" I always say the same words, for the GIs, for the military, for the Iraqis, for everyone. I am not a terrorist. Nobody likes the terrorists, and nobody likes death. Nobody on the earth like these people who do evil. Nobody on the earth likes that. Nobody. It's not only me. Everybody in the world does not like that. So, what I always say when people ask me this, because I'm not a politician, I said, "The poor mothers. The poor mothers who are crying.” I will tell you this. For me, the honor goes to the women who are crying, because they have lost a child. That child has lost his life, and because of that, my children can live freely, peacefully on the earth. That is what is beautiful.  I can't say, "I hate this country because it attacked this other country." No. I'm sorry. Never. Excuse me. Because the entire world is watching, and nobody likes people who do evil. This is why I want to make this album, today, that is called Ya Rayi, and to reinforce it with a new song I created with K. C. Porter and Santana. The words of this song say, "Sing love. Sing love to the people. Right now. Sing love to children. Right now." We sing for the children of today. And we Sing love for the people of today. Because I think people of today also have need of a little bit of love, and respect. And out of respect, I also say hello to Quincy Jones who is now preparing “We Are the World 2,” which is called, "We Are the Future." When you see all the big stars in that, wow! These people don't need to do that. They don't need to. They make music for the children in Africa, my home, and Africa, in Tunisia, children involved in the drug trade in the arms trade. It's worse than what's happening in Iraq. We made a song, and we said, "We are the future. It is we were passing the message of love." And I'm very honored that Quincy Jones asked me to assist in this project, and Santana assisted in this project. I think that today, the world has need for this, for people like me, like Quincy, like Stevie [Wonder], like Don Was, like K. C. Porter, like Santana, to sing love and pass a message of love, and beyond that, to evolve in life. So for me on this album, to have K.C. Porter, and me with Santana is really something fantastic. And I hope that this song comes through America's front door, and pass is a real message of love. In Algeria, they have already heard on television that Khaled is making a song with Santana, and everyone is waiting impatiently. For me, that is the evolution of music. You have always make marriages. You should never be closed. This one is there, and you have to profit from the sunlight and profit from life. 
BE: There are some other marriages of styles on this album too. To tell us about some of the others. BE: That’s freedom.  BE: So how is that expressed in these new songs? Khaled: Take “Mani Hani (I am not at peace when she is away).” It's very melancholic, very sad. And for the first time, I sing like a real crooner. This is the first time I have done that. I really wanted to return to the fifties, not the sixties, the fifties. The time when rai music was song in Arab and French. And why did I call Maurice El-Médioni? It was to show that I am a Muslim, and he is a Jew of North Africa. He is there also on “H’Mama,” along with the guitarist, M’Hammed Blaoui. “H’Mama” is the dove of peace, la colombe. Blaoui and Maurice El-Médioni had not seen each other in 40 years, since independence. One had gone to France, and the other had stayed in Algeria. As you can see in the DVD we made, I brought them together again in Paris. For me, when I watch that, I cry. One day, I told my wife that the pleasure of reuniting Maurice Médioni and M’Hammed Blaoui was better than selling 100,000 records. This was just an idea that the good God gave me. When they saw each other, Blaoui fell over. I was afraid he was having a heart attack. Afterwards, it was, “Oh, my friend. Oh, my God!” It was beautiful. And do you know why I did that? It was to show to these people who know nothing about life that Muslims and Jews can make music together. They are brothers. BE: You have a history of doing that, don't you? You worked with Jean-Jacques Goldman, for example.  I wanted to sing about this before we have another catastrophe. This is why I chose to sing about children with Santana. Sing love to the children. Sing love to the children. Because we have fear about the future. Maybe it will be Muslim fundamentalists terrorism next time. There will be another kidnapping of children, another problem. We want to sing about this now. Wake up! Where is the world going? Where is the world going? We don't know. But stop. It's enough. Stop. We don't have the right to take children hostage. We don't have the right take women hostage. For me it is this man who make war. They are the Warriors. If they go after presidents, politicians—I don’t know. They should go after the barracks, where people have guns. Why come to civilian buildings, filled with innocent people who haven't done anything. The poor. They have no arms. They can't defend themselves. Why kill these innocence? I look at what happened in Algeria. Why kill innocents? You want to change the government? If you are capable, go to the government. Show that you are a man. If you have a dream of a new government, the defeat a president by showing that he is a bad precedent. Okay. This is the sort of thing I want to show with my albums. I want to show people encountering, meeting, white, black, everyone. We are all kif-kif, as we say in Arabic. Kif-kif is “the same thing.” 
BE: Let's talk about some of these other news songs. How about “Zine Zina”? [Note: This song appears on the European edition of Ya Rayi, but not on the American one.] I love my country, and I defend my country when it has problems, even if I'm not a warrior, even if I did not want to do my military service. I did not do that to betray my people. They said to me, "You must be like Elvis Presley. You must do your military service.” And I said, "But why? I don't want to. I don't want to kill anybody. It's not for me. I can't express it. It's not me." And they said, "No way.” They kept saying Elvis Presley. And I said, "But I'm not Elvis Presley. I am just little Khaled." [LAUGHS] 
BE: This was why you left Algeria, right? And for a while, you could not return there. Khaled: 1986 I left the first time. Then I came back, and I had problems. They wanted to put me in jail. That was in 1988. After 88, there was someone who helped me. I left and that was it. If I returned, I would have to go and military.  Khaled: Until 2000. But that is what may be stronger, because when I returned home, I met with a commandant, and he said, "Welcome. Come, come. You're going to see Algeria from the sky. We will go and an airplane and you will see that the good God has done only beautiful things." So I went in the cockpit. But what I didn't like, and what made me stronger, was when I was in the cockpit looking out at my country. Ahhh! But when I got out, I felt badly. I was afraid. I got back to my hotel, and I saw poor people sleeping outside the gates. There were security guards. But I was afraid of the security guards or going to kill me. I didn't understand what was happening in Algeria. Afterwards I said, "My God. This is my country. This is a country where I always walked alone, free. And now I returned to my country and I'm under threat." I felt terrible. It is my home and I feel bad. I didn't want to stay. I wanted to leave. I looked at my watch to figure out how soon the morning would come so I could finish with the journalists and leave, return to Paris. Afterwards, little by little, I got used to it. But that was how it hit me at first. My God. Freedom… [WHISTLES] It costs too much. It costs too much, a life of freedom. Truly, it costs a lot. But for me, as an artist, that gave me a chance to really think, and to become wiser, and to make music that would really honor people, and to write well. This is the where I can show myself, because I don't talk much on stage. I sing. I don't talk. I don't express myself. Also I'm afraid. With journalists, I don't talk much. I'm afraid I'm going to say something that won't sound good, or that people will not understand what I'm saying. When people don't understand your words, they deform them. They distort the subject. That's what I'm afraid of. Even when I talk with you here, now, about music and everything, I have a certain fear that a Muslim from somewhere, could be anywhere, will see what I have said and think, "Ah! What is this guy saying?” You understand?  BE: You are always taking that risk. Khaled: Always. Always. Even if we talk about love. Even if we talk about life, we risk our lives. It's not obvious what I'm saying. It's not normal. For me, it is not normal. I will get into politics with a big journalist from Algeria, a great man who has spoken a lot. He said, with all the honors he had, this great man, he said in Algeria in the past, when we were having the problems with terrorism, he said, "In Algeria, if I speak, they will kill me. If I don't speak, they will kill me. So what can I do? I must speak." So they killed him. He’s dead. Yes. But this was a person who spoke. He said the truth. He risked his life. There were many like that. Many journalists were killed in Algeria. Many. They become statistics. Nobody talks about them. Many children were killed there. In atrocities. And I ask why? But I take that political lesson. You have to speak. But you have to know how to speak also. You can't just say anything. You can't add to things. BE: If you're going to take that risk, you have to be careful. Khaled: I will tell you honestly. Back home, they send you letters. They say things like, "You….Pffft. Tomorrow, you're dead. You have your warning." Sometimes people get a letter with a piece of white cloth, and some soap. Because when a Muslim dies, they wash you and wrapped you and white cloth, to prepare you to be buried. So the white cloth and the soap is a way of saying, "Prepare yourself." Is a real menace. And people are really stressed out. Terrorized. So they become quiet. "Okay, I won't say anything. I won't do anything. Because no one will defend me." 
BE: Even though you sing about love, not politics, but still, you are engaged. Algeria now. [SIGHS WITH RELIEF] We are in the process of building our country. We are on the road to peace. We on the road to reconciliation. And we are on the road to saying, "That's enough. They killed us, but it's okay. We pardon them." Bouteflika has pardoned people. He's in the process of calling people down from the mountains, so that they will return. But the return is what? It's for the people who did not kill, who were recruited, but who did not kill. They are pardoned. And they can come home. 
Khaled: They must be judged. It's normal. But not killed. Judged. That's wise. Pardons exist in the world. God created pardon. We can't put everyone in prison. It is some of our brains that need to be put in prison, or killed. BE: Let's talk about the song "Lemen.”  When you die, when you leave, you don't take your clothing with you. You leave the way you came. Natural. What counts is the soul. This is just the carcass. The soul? We don't know where it goes. We don't know. That's what I talk about in this song. The soul, life. We leave with nothing. We must profit from life. You should not be influenced by others. For example, their people who might come to me and said, "Khaled, come here. Kill in the name of God, and Paradise awaits you." I could respond by asking this person whether he has seen Paradise. It he has seen Paradise, if he has gone there and come back, then I can do that. BE: Pretty hard to have confidence in that. 
BE: What about “Ya Galbi?” BE: The heart is the master. 
BE: What about “El-H’Mam?” BE: What about the words? 
BE: The sort of animal that goes away and returns to the house. BE: Let’s talk about “Yema Yema.” 
BE: What about “Ensa El Hem?” BE: And “Hagda?” 
BE: And “El Ghira?” It is like if we see a beautiful lady, a bomb, and she walked past, and you say, "Oh, she is so beautiful.” I say, "That one? I went out with her. She is not beautiful. She doesn't know how to make love.” And in fact, I don't even know her. I say that in the song. [LAUGHS] Why does he say she is not beautiful? Because she is better than him. So I play with the words. You see? Voila. Songs are always like that. 
BE: The songs have different levels of meaning. BE: We’re not here forever, eh? 
BE: The maryule, again. [The bon vivant Khaled spoke of earlier in the interview.] BE: Khaled, my last tape is ending. Thank you. This has been fantastic.
Khaled-2004-Part-3Interview by Banning Eyre Los Angeles,2004
          
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