An Aretha Franklin Story You’ve Probably Never Heard

For me, Aretha Franklin is more than a legendary singer. She's known as the Queen of Soul. But she is way more than that. She's iconic and will forever have a special place in my heart.

To hear the news that she is in hospice care has me quite shaken.

Franklin is one of my idols that I have never met. I did get to see her perform at the Jazz Fest in New Orleans several years ago. But I was only one of tens of thousands. I am such a fan of Franklin that I have dropped her name a few times to impress friends and in this particular case, complete strangers.

I'm pretty embarrassed by what I did. But this is a true story. Robert J. Wright and I traveled to Dallas to film a tv commercial for our radio show. After the work was done, we went out for drinks (and dinner) at Houstons. Needless to say, we had several drinks.

After dinner, we went over to the bar for after dinner drinks. I got to chatting with the bartender and that's where my story turns to Aretha Franklin.

Here is Franklin's last performance in Detroit in June of 2017.

And my all time favorite Aretha Franklin performance has to be from the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015.