Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed away in her home on August 16, 2018 at 76
years old after a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer.
Franklin's music career spanned nearly six-decades and set innumerable records.
The first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Franklin sold more than
75 million records and was nominated for 44 Grammy Awards, taking home 18 of them... but
her accomplishments don’t stop there.
At 52 years old, Franklin became the then-youngest person to earn a Kennedy Center Honor; and
in 2005, President George W. Bush honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Obviously, there are plenty of reasons to R-E-S-P-E-C-T Aretha Franklin - but here's
what you may not know about the woman Rolling Stone praised as the "greatest singer of all
time."
Ties to Martin Luther King Jr.
Aretha Franklin's father, C.L. Franklin, was among the most famous preachers of his time,
complete with recorded sermons and his own radio show.
According to The New Yorker, Aretha was surrounded by music and film legends growing up, including
Nat King Cole, Della Reese, Duke Ellington, Smokey Robinson, and Diana Ross.
In addition to the era's greatest entertainers, C.L. was also close with one of the most famous
and influential men of all time: Martin Luther King, Jr. Aretha even went on tour with the
father of the Civil Rights Movement and sang at his funeral after his assassination.
Trials and tribulations
In Respect, a biography of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, the author reveals that the
singer got pregnant when she was just 12 years old.
Not long after giving birth, Franklin became pregnant again, this time with a man named
Edward Jordan - described only as a "player" in the book.
Both children kept Franklin's last name and were raised in the Franklin family home.
At age 19, Aretha Franklin married Ted White, a man with a highly controversial reputation
who was reportedly abusive to the superstar songstress.
In fact, Franklin's close friend, Ruth Bowen, claimed that Franklin was so miserable in
her marriage to White that she turned to food, cigarettes, and alcohol.
Thankfully, the star reportedly got sober in the 1980s and quit smoking cigarettes in
the 1990s.
Legendary diva demands
Diva is as diva does!
Aretha Franklin reportedly wouldn’t get on stage for any reason unless she was paid
a cool $25,000 up front in cold, hard cash - and that's only a small portion of what
she got paid per performance.
The Smoking Gun reported this to be the reason for Franklin always lugging around a giant
purse - sometimes, even on stage!
But that’s not all.
Franklin's tour rider reportedly required the air conditioning in each venue to be turned
off an hour before her arrival, five-star hotel accommodations for her and her entourage
that did not exceed the fifth floor, and canapés in her dressing room.
But the best of all her demands?
Franklin had a special clause in her rider specifying that she would not perform to a
segregated audience.
Now that's a diva demand worth celebrating.
She hated flying
Franklin was terrified of flying after a turbulent trip on a small aircraft in the early 1980s.
According to TIME, she didn't fly for decades following the incident.
As a result, she even turned down an offer to perform for the Queen of England to avoid
the flight overseas.
However, in 2016, Franklin told The New Yorker that she was taking anxious flyer classes
and planning to take a short flight to get adjusted to the idea once again.
She'd reportedly grown sick and tired of long trips in a tour bus, noting a particularly
grueling ride from her Detroit-area home to Los Angeles.
Said Franklin of the insufferably long road trip, "That one just wore me out.
It's a nice bus, but it took days…
I'm thinking about making the flight from Detroit to Chicago.
Baby steps."
The Queen of Shade
Mariah Carey is famous for her pipes and her epic shade, but damn - Aretha Franklin could
hold a grudge better than anyone.
In April 2017, five years after Whitney Houston's death, Franklin lashed out at Dionne Warwick
via the Associated Press because she was furious that Warwick had told the public that Franklin
was Houston's godmother.
Franklin said that was a lie.
Said Franklin, "There's been so much going on around Houston … I didn't want to add
anything to that and I didn't want to be a part of that."
When asked if she'd accept an apology from Warwick, she replied, "I don't care about
her apology.
At this point, it isn't about an apology - it's about libel…
We've never been friends and I don't think that Dionne has ever liked me."
Franklin also subtly shaded Taylor Swift in a 2014 interview.
When asked to share her thoughts about the country star turned pop sensation, Franklin
didn’t have much to say - at least not about about her music.
"Taylor Swift?”
“Okay -- great gowns.
Beautiful gowns.”
A beacon during hard times
Despite her many highly-publicized accolades, perhaps the most powerful elements of Aretha
Franklin's legacy are less tangible.
For example, Franklin told NPR that veterans have confided that her music helped them endure
the Vietnam War, saying, "On occasion, I hear that some of [the songs] helped them get through
the service - and I'm delighted by that."
Doug Bradley, co-author of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam
War, included Franklin's "Chain of Fools" among the list of "Top Ten Vietnam War Songs,”
saying the tune, quote, “took on special meaning in Vietnam."
Some veterans related the track to the chain of command.
Others said it helped them cope with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
According to Bradley, Franklin's voice was among the music that "helped soldiers [and]
veterans connect to each other and to life back home, and to cope with the complexities
of the war they had been sent to fight."
Though the incomparable Aretha Franklin has died, her voice will clearly continue to sustain
others in countless ways for generations to come.