During her headlining set at Lollapalooza Sunday, Sabrina Carpenter surprised the crowd by bringing out Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Earth, Wind & Fire to perform two of their big hits: “Let’s Groove” and “September.” But according to the R&B group, the entire thing came together in a single day.
Speaking to Vulture, Earth, Wind & Fire singer Philip Bailey says the idea for the collab came from Sabrina’s agent. They were in Detroit for a show on Aug. 2 and had two days off before their next gig, so they were able to squeeze in the Aug. 3 trip to Chicago. But, Bailey notes, “It was one of those kinds of things that happened in 24 hours. We had to really turn this thing around.”
“They sent a private plane for us and our entourage,” Bailey says, adding that the rehearsal was “very quick and kind of sketchy. I was almost concerned about it.”
But, he says, “By that evening, they had dialed everything in, and she did her homework on what verses she was going to take. We went out there and floated on all that energy.”
Bailey tells Vulture Sabrina is “very cordial, very kind, and very approachable. … Her energy and our energy were very compatible.” While the two acts didn’t have a lot of time to hang, Bailey says Sabrina was, as Vulture puts it, “well-versed in the band’s deeper discography.”
Sabrina wrote on Instagram after the show that Earth, Wind & Fire “raised me on the greatest songs of all time, true soul moving timeless music.”
Sabrina isn’t the only chart-topping pop artist Bailey has sung with, either. In 1984, he and Phil Collins teamed up for the hit “Easy Lover.“
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