he will be followed by matriarch of
Hollywood at industry african-americans
the one and only Cicely Tyson may be
followed by mr. Clive Davis chief
executive officer of Sony Music let's
receive these three and then we will
have Bishop Paul Gordon and Yolanda
Adams coming back with quad I bless you
everybody a to the family I just want to
say my prayer my prayer for you is that
God will allow you to grieve in waves
not that it would come crashing on you
all at once like a tsunami but in waves
gently touching your soul that's the
only thing that got me through my
mother's death it would come in waves so
that I could focus and move on and get
through it and that my prayer for you is
that it comes in waves cuz it's gonna
come you can't work it away I tried that
you can't drink it away I tried that you
got to let it come the way it comes and
my prayer is that it comes in gentle
waves to your soul so that's what I've
been praying for you my mother died in
2009 and it was her who introduced me to
the voice of Aretha Franklin we would be
driving up to the country and she would
have the music blasting and I could tell
what my father had done by the music she
was playing if she was playing respect
or think I knew he had done something
wrong but if she was playing dr.
feelgood he might have done something
right so you can imagine my shock some
30 years later I get a phone call some
of this lady on the phone she says hi
this is a wreath to Franklin I'll say
her she said I'm I love my dear I said
well you know she's not real right she
said I don't care I want to talk to I
said hello
[Applause]
she she loved her laugh she would invite
me to things over the years and we would
sit and talk she'd want me to come back
in a dressing room but I couldn't stay
in there too long cuz in the dress room
she would have the heat somewhere
between 85 and double hell she loved the
hell up warm in there but we talked over
the years when I found out she was ill I
called her up and I was talking like
Madea making her laugh a little bit and
the last time that I saw her performance
at the Kennedy Center Honors said
everybody's talking about I was there I
was up in the box with President Obama
she comes out and she starts singing and
all of these upright stiff politicians
are all over the place and but when
she's saying all of that went away all
that pomp and circumstance and
pretension went away she brought them
all to their feet so they can bow to the
Queen of Soul it was a wonderful moment
and as I'm standing there and I'm
applauding but President Obama is in
front of me he turns to me and said
that's why she's the Queen of Soul and I
started thinking about that when I found
out she was ill the Queen of Soul the
soul the soul the Queen of Soul what
does that mean well the soul is the
spirit created by God which dwells in
our flesh so if she is the Queen of Soul
every what what happened was and we know
that she was the Queen and so what
happened was every time she sang she
sang from her soul she sang from this
special place that was in her soul be it
gospel be a jazz be it Blues be it R&B
it was always from her soul whatever the
music genre was but when Aretha sang
gospel uh-huh something happened
something would shake of the room when
Aretha sang Amazing Grace how sweet the
sound
it never sound in his sweeter than it
did come in from Aretha when Aretha sang
gospel when she said Oh Mary don't you
weep Oh Martha don't you moan I believe
that Mary went some way and dried her
own eyes and Martha went over and
stopped moaning in the corner because
when Aretha sang gospel what happened
was she connected with the Creator with
the creative so there she was calling on
the
of Jesus when Aretha saying gospel
something shifted something happened in
the atmosphere and what I'm glad about
is that I had an opportunity to know
this woman to know that she had this
power to stand in between all these
different genres and touch us in all
these different ways I'm grateful to her
family my prayer for you I want to be
buried brief because I know we've been
here for a while my prayer for you is
that you that the grief comes in waves
and you can make your way through it and
I'm so grateful to God that Aretha
walked this earth I'm grateful to God
that we had the fortune to be on this
planet at the same time as a Reetha
Franklin so god bless you thank you for
asking me to be here thank you for this
moment I love y'all so much take care