In a short and shaky YouTube video from 2009, Beyoncé leads into an intimate performance at a cancer ward by taking questions from the young patients and introducing her all-female band, Suga Mama, and her backup singers. A boy raises his hand and asks why Beyoncé's 10-piece band is all female. Everyone laughs, but Beyoncé takes the question seriously: "I had an idea to have a lot of women on stage playing instruments, so hopefully young girls can see that, and it inspires them to play instruments."
Add this to Beyoncé's triumphs. Since the band first performed together a decade ago, the women of Suga Mama have also become musical role models for the millions of little girls who have watched and listened to the singer.
To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their first performance with Beyoncé, we spoke to six members of Suga Mama about how they came to work together, what it's really like working with Queen Bey, and their legacy for young, female musicians.
"Why would Beyoncé be looking for a bass player, and why would that be me?"
Summer 2006: Beyoncé announces auditions for an all-female band in preparation for the release of her second album, B'Day.
Bibi McGill (guitar, 2006–2014): Being in the music industry, I had heard that [Beyoncé] wanted an all-female band for Destiny's Child, so I wasn't surprised when she announced the auditions. I wasn't really interested and wasn't going to play music anymore. But I kept getting calls from people who wanted me to go audition. Eventually, my dad, who is a barber in Colorado, called me. I decided I was going to go just so I could call my dad and tell him that I went.
Nikki Glaspie (drums, 2006–2010): I heard about the auditions on the radio. I thought it was cool, but I didn't think anything of it. Then 50 people hit me up on Myspace telling me about it, and I kept telling them that I didn't have time. I had left college and moved out to New York. I was trying to pay my bills, and I had a Monday and Tuesday gig. The audition was also on a Monday. I had 50 bucks to my name and I had to take a ferry for the gig. But something told me to go to this audition.
Kat Rodriguez (tenor saxophone, 2006–present): I heard about the auditions, like, a week before they happened. I had just had my son. [Creative director] Kim Burse told my husband at the time that there was an audition. I had worked with her before on a Destiny's Child recording.
Divinity Roxx (bass, 2006–2011): At first I thought it was a publicity stunt, and that if she was really looking for a bass player, she would pick up the phone and call anyone she wanted. A few friends came over and they said they weren't leaving my house until I promised to go. I'm stubborn, so I said, 'Hey, there's the TV, there's the remote and there's the refrigerator. You guys can kick it.' But eventually they got to me. I agreed to go to one of the auditions in Atlanta and prepared the 'Work It Out' arrangement from her Live at Wembley DVD. I was broke.
Marcie Chapa (percussion, 2006–2010): I remember thinking that it was going to be a reality show. I decided to go to the audition even though I was preparing to take my last class to graduate college.
"There were times when I was like, Am I going to be able to pull this off?"
Summer 2006–early 2007: After a week of auditions, the band members are selected. The women start rehearsing for The Beyoncé Experience Tour.
Bibi: Rehearsals were really exciting. We were the top of the top, and were going to play with the top of the top. My self-confidence in playing and being competent, I never second-guessed it. However, there was definitely a time when this was like.... You're going to have to be on all the time. This is hard.
Nikki: Beyoncé is a perfectionist. We had to adapt and come with it because she was coming with it. It was a lot of hard work—I had no idea what I had got myself into.
Kat: I knew I was supposed to be doing this. I had worked for this. The only thing I was self-conscious about was that I had just become a mom—I was really thick and all of the other women were so much smaller than me.
Divinity: At first we were playing "Déjà Vu" over and over, and then we got into tour rehearsals and then production rehearsal. Production rehearsals are about lights and cameras. They would say, "Play this song." And we'd play a little and then they'd be like, "Stop, we're going to fix this light." And then you just sit there for two hours while they work on that light. Days of that, for 14 hours a day.
Marcie: A couple weeks before, I remember having a moment with God and saying I didn't know what I was doing. I was about to graduate college and I was performing a lot, at least five times a week, and also giving private lessons. I felt like there was more for me. This was where I was supposed to be.
Crystal Torres (trumpet, 2006–2014): When I got back from the tour I was on, I saw the girls on Good Morning America. I had this feeling that I was supposed to be there. A few months later, I met Tia Fuller, the saxophone player. I told her if they ever needed a trumpeter to keep me in mind, and when the trumpeter they were working with couldn't do the tour she called me.
The rehearsal process was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I hadn't been given any preparation materials and I came in during production rehearsal, after the band and the dancers and Bey had already had time with the music. I had two weeks to learn what took everyone months to learn. But I don't quit. I'm not a person who quits. I communicated with Bey that I hadn't been given any preparation materials and she was always patient and willing to get it together. After that I felt like I could do anything.
"There were so many nights when I cried."
April 2007–November 2007: The Beyoncé Experience Tour begins
Nikki: I was 22 when The Beyoncé Experience was going on. I really wasn't going into it thinking about the little girls' lives that would be changed by seeing me perform, but I understood when it happened, because I was that girl when I was 8 and watching my idols.
Kat: There were so many nights when I cried. I had just had a son and I was on tour. My parents didn't go for their dreams because they had me, so my parents really helped with my son. My mom called and told me he had just said 'Mama.' We were getting ready to do this show and I'd just got my makeup done and then I started bawling. I looked like Jack the Ripper or something. It was so bad. But I got to travel the world and experience things I had never experienced with these women. We were making history.
Divinity: We were always tweaking the show. I spent a lot of time in my hotel room learning and I would go to sleep with my bass on my chest. I was always feeling like I was trying to catch up, and then to be made co–musical director was an honor.
There were times when I would look up and we would be playing in some foreign country and I would look around—from the tech people to the light people to the stage manager to the production manager to the people running the box office, and I would think, Wow, there is one woman who is employing all these people right now. One little 5-foot-6 woman. Her little self is doing that. Those moments taught me how to be a strong Black woman.
Marcie: Percussion players are typically just part players—rarely do we ever get input. So, for [Beyoncé] to always give us solos and room for us to collaborate or even attempt to was nice. And as a band, we really got along and knew how to connect. I started learning to take risks and not be afraid to put my foot down, and that it was okay to speak my mind.
Crystal: There was this moment the first night when all of a sudden I remembered a recurring dream I used to have as a little girl. In the dream it looked like people were stacked on top of each other and they were all screaming loudly, and there were colors everywhere. In that moment the first night, I was about to do my solo. I opened my eyes and looked into the crowd. In that moment, I realized that what I had seen years ago in that dream, I was seeing right now. It was the same color scheme, it was all of the people.
"I was depressed for two weeks"
2009–2010: After an 8-month break, Beyoncé and the band prepare to tour I Am ... Sasha Fierce.
Bibi: At this point we were definitely tighter. Things flowed quicker. We rehearsed for maybe five or six weeks and we knew what to expect. There was huge growth coming into this because we knew each other's personalities. Bey was strong enough to push me into the spotlight and give me and everyone more solos. I had so much freedom to write my own parts.
Nikki: When we got off The Beyoncé Experience, I was depressed for two weeks. I had created a family bond and then to not see my people? I wanted more. I wanted to do it again. All of the songs that we played on the I Am ... Sasha Fierce tour were ours. It was a new album and new music that we got to make our own. Lots of drummers had played "Crazy in Love" before and "Baby Boy," but no one had played "Single Ladies" or "Smash Into You," which became the band's song. It's our anthem.
Divinity: The I Am ... tour was difficult for me because my sister had lost her baby right before. I was at the hospital holding this newborn baby that was dying, and then I had to leave the next day. Bey had also just gotten married, and there were just a lot of transitions.
Marcie: We got the I Am … album and we knew it was going to go to a higher level. Certain songs like "Smash Into You" make me emotional because they are our songs. These women really got me in touch with my feminine side. I used to be tough because I thought I had to be tough and I never used to hug people. I hug people now.
Crystal: We would go sightsee together, like the Great Wall of China or the pyramids in Egypt. I appreciated those group moments. These were things I didn't imagine as a little girl from North Philly borrowing instruments from public schools.
"During rehearsals, I'm trying not to catch Beyoncé on fire, and meanwhile she's telling pyro she wants it bigger."
2010–2014: Beyoncé works on her fourth album, 4, which is released in 2011. Two months later, she announces she is pregnant. She returns to the spotlight in 2012 for a comeback concert, a Super Bowl halftime show, and The Mrs. Carter World Tour. Her fifth album, Beyoncé, comes out in 2013.
Nikki: I played on 4 and it was an awesome learning experience to be able to record with her in the studio. We got to share a lot of music and we were creating, working from a blank slate. But I reached a point professionally where I was like, I can't go any further than this. Two world tours. Three DVDs. Recorded on an album with her. I gotta get back to my roots and take all this information back with me. I had dropped out of college, so really Beyoncé was undergrad.
Bibi: When it came time to do the Super Bowl I was surprised that I got a solo. My guitar tech called me and said he was going to need me to send my guitars to be set for pyro, and I was confused. I was like, 'I'm going to have a guitar solo and my guitar is going to catch on fire?' I was blown away. During rehearsals, I'm trying not to catch Beyoncé on fire, and meanwhile she's telling pyro she wants it bigger. Her work ethic hadn't changed, and it was really beautiful to see her as a mother. When that moment came and we were live and she's like, 'Ladies and gentleman, give it up for Bibi,' I walked out there with so much confidence and poise.
Kat: After 4 we took a long break. I had toured as a mom so I knew what it would be like. I started to think about going back and being a teacher, but then she called me back for the Super Bowl and The Mrs. Carter Show.
Towards the end, we were invited to go perform with Bey for Michelle Obama's 50th birthday. After private performances we usually pack up and go, so after our performance we're in the green room about to leave. Barack knocks on the door and he goes, 'Why are you guys leaving? You guys are invited—come to the party.' So we all went out and had fun with everyone. It was Oprah, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, those types of people. It was so amazing to be in that environment with all these people who achieved so much.
"Our band empowered so many people."
2014–present: Suga Mama join Beyoncé and Jay Z for the On the Run Tour. In 2016, a scaled-down version of the band work on the Formation Tour. All 10 original members of the band plan to get together for a 10th anniversary concert at Boston's Berklee College of Music in March 2017.
Bibi: Our band empowered so many people. It taught me that somebody is always looking up to you. I wasn't able to attend the Berklee show, but it has been a family. It wasn't easy in the first years, especially for me. But we're a family and there is nothing but love and a family vibe.
Nikki: To leave and say I'm going to the next level in my life had people saying I was crazy or insane. We have all gone our separate ways and done different things, but it was so nice to get back together. I got the gig when I was 22 and I didn't know anything, but I learned a lot. We have all grown as people and as women.
Kat: Before we even knew the Formation Tour was going to happen, everything went upside down in my world. My dad died and I was getting a divorce, and I knew I wouldn't be able to tour, so it kind of just worked out. But the women that played with Bey on the Formation tour are like 10 years younger than us, so when they were looking at her 10 years ago, they were looking at us. And there are girls who are watching them and are going to be them in 10 years. It's amazing to see that we are part of that cycle and that it impacted so many people. We played together for so long and were just able to get right back into it at the Berklee show. We're talking about maybe doing something and forming a real band. We'll see.
Divinity: All of us have this bond. We have been through some things together, and we are one and connected to the universe. It's a beautiful energy to be playing with each other. It's so beautiful to have these young women out here and have them recognize us from the DVDs and have them say that we are the reason why they play. We're definitely talking about doing something together but it's so hard because we all live in different cities and are all super busy. But whatever we create, it's going to be beautiful.
Marcie: It's a male-dominated industry and now there are so many more women that are killing it just as bad as the guys. We, as women, really got along and we knew and still know how to work together and to connect. Some of the girls I talk to every day, some once a week, and some once a month, but that magic was back.
Crystal: I learned that there's no one right way to be a strong woman. You can be soft and feminine and strong at the same time. You don't have to box yourself in. With my sisters, we've remained friends. Reuniting felt so good because we have grown so much. I didn't realize this new wave that we created with Bey until recently. We always got messages saying that we were inspiring people, but those people we inspired are now in college and high school, like my student, Arnetta Johnson, who plays trumpet for Bey now. It's come full circle.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
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