Aretha Franklin (57 page)

Since the event is held outdoors in the coldest month of the year, everyone attending had to be bundled up in very warm outfits. For this occasion Aretha commissioned a stylish grey wool overcoat and matching grey hat—which was decorated with a huge grey bow sitting atop it. The hat in question came from Mr. Song Millinery in Detroit, and was created by Luke Song, who has been designing ladies hats for twenty-five years. The bow was decorated with Swarovski crystals and cost Miss Franklin $179.

Aretha made such a huge sensation with that iconic hat, that it was one of the most memorable aspects of the entire event. People were standing around water coolers at work that week discussing “Did you see that hat Aretha Franklin wore at the inauguration?” It was such an attention-getter that Aretha sold it to the museum collection at the Smithsonian Institute, for an incredible—reported—$2 million. Not bad for a $179 investment. Again, the Queen of Soul had conquered, in a fashion sense, and financially as well!

Throughout 2009 Aretha kept busy making personal appearances and concert engagements. On May 2, she got the chance to wear another one of her hats, this time around at the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky. Amongst her most notable concerts that year was a visit to the Hollywood Bowl on June 26. That night she not only performed several of her signature songs—from “Respect” to “Freeway of Love”— but she also tackled the perfect Hollywood-themed song—”As If We Never Said Goodbye” from the Andrew Lloyd Weber Broadway musical
Sunset Boulevard
. On October 30, 2009, Aretha was one of the performers to take part in the
25th Anniversary Concert for the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame,
held at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden. Also on the bill during that two night all-star concert were Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lou Reed, Annie Lennox, Sting, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, John Fogerty, and Stevie Wonder. Amongst the highlights of the concerts and the resulting DVD was Aretha's duet with Annie Lennox on the song “Chain of Fools.”

As the holiday season came along, on December 2 Aretha was in New York City to help officially light the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. For that occasion she wore a huge fur coat, complete with a strange-looking fur hood that seemed to bury her. It was so odd-looking that it was lampooned on
Saturday Night Live
, where comedian Seth Meyers commented that it looked like Aretha had been engulfed by the coat. While a photo of Aretha in the huge fur coat flashed on the screen, Meyers satirically explained, “This Wednesday the Rockefeller Christmas tree was illuminated. However the occasion was marred when Aretha Franklin was caught in a bear's mouth.”
(17)

One of the sad things that happened in 2009, was the death of Aretha's half-brother, Vaughn Franklin. Vaughn had been the son of Barbara Siggers, but he was adopted by Reverend C.L. Franklin shortly after he married Barbara. At this point, all of Aretha's siblings were deceased, and she was now the oldest member of her immediate family.

In February 2010, Aretha turned the tables on everyone and presented the most humorous performance of her entire career. Rarely does she so blatantly show the public her sense of humor. However, in a 30-second TV commercial for Snickers candy bars, Aretha and Liza Minnelli poke fun at themselves for being temperamental “divas.” In the context of the commercial, four college-age men are amidst a “road trip” in a cramped car. In the backseat is Aretha in a yellow dress, complaining about the air conditioning. The young man next to him offers diva-like “Aretha” a Snicker's bar, and she takes a bite, then instantly turns back into the character of “Jeff” who is wearing a yellow tee-shirt, admitting that he feels himself again, thanks to the candy bar. Then the cranky person in front of him complains about knees poking him in the back of his seat, and it is another diva in need of a Snickers candy bar: Liza Minnelli.

Although the locale of the exterior shots make it look like the commercial was filmed in California, the interior shots of Aretha and Liza were shot in the Detroit area—in Farmington Hills, Michigan— at Grace & Wild Studios. The hysterically funny commercial proved to be so popular that it was actively shown on television over the next two years.

During this era Aretha continued to make personal appearances at hotels, concert venues, and casinos. On April 30, 2010, she was booked to perform at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Blues Festival. The day of her appearance, she canceled, giving the very unhappy promoters less than ten hours notice. The group Earth, Wind & Fire were quickly contacted to perform in her place. This was the second year in a row that Aretha had “stiffed” the “Jazz Fest,” as she had also been booked for the same festival in 2009, and likewise she had canceled at the last minute.

On May 24, Aretha Franklin received another honorary music degree, this time from Yale University. Although everyone hoped that she would grace the commencement ceremonies with a song, she didn't sing that day. The closest the crowd came to a concert that day came when the band played a few bars of the song “Respect.” However, on-stage Aretha Franklin was fittingly honored by Yale President Richard C. Levin, who conferred upon her the honorary “Doctor of Music” degree.

According to Levin that day at Yale, “We know royalty when we see it, and you are, without question, the ‘Queen of Soul.' … From gospel to pop, from blues to hip-hop, your voice expresses our feelings.”
(18)

“Dr. Aretha” was on a roll! Aretha's most high-profile 2010 concert performance came in Philadelphia, on July 28, when she appeared in concert, on the bill with former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, an accomplished classical piano player. For Miss Franklin and Miss Rice, the event was a special one-time-only concert, held to raise money for arts and for the Mann Center—the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Ann Midgette of
The Washington Post
wrote of the evening, “Putting Aretha Franklin and Rice together on the stage had a kind of goofy brilliance. It was evidently Franklin who decided that the two should perform together; she may have sensed, with the same stage-animal instinct she demonstrated throughout the evening, that Rice would provide curiosity value to augment, or even showcase, Franklin's entertainment value.”
(19)

It was a chance for Rice to show off the fact that she was actually an accomplished piano player, and for Franklin it was a chance to show off the fact that she actually has ten operatic arias in her repertoire. Aretha had been studying with Mary Callaghan Lynch, a Detroit classical soprano. It was Lynch who first coached Franklin when Pavarotti enticed her to sing “Nessun Dorma” in 1998. Rice showed off her talents during the first act of the evening, tackling such classics as Mozart's “Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466.”

After the intermission, Aretha presented a one-and-three-quarter-hour, sixteen-song set. Franklin had been working on classical arias for over twelve years. She had started with “Nussen Dorma” from Puccini's
Turandot
, the year that she ended up substituting for Pavarotti on
The Grammy Awards
telecast. Now she was ready to debut some new arias. So, for the first time in public, Aretha sang “Che faro” from Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice
.

Reported Midgette in her review of the evening, “In ‘Che faro,' the result was a bit of a train wreck as Franklin struggled to free herself from the regular beat of the orchestra. But she produced a cover of ‘Ombra mai fù' from Handel's
Xerxes
, to her own piano accompaniment, that came from the heart.”
(19)

For her classical portion of the show, Aretha wore opera-length gloves. As though she was doing a bit of a strip-tease, she removed them one finger at a time. Then she sat down to play and sing her own classic: “Dr. Feelgood.” On the non-classical side of Aretha's show, she performed several of her own hits in her sixteen-song set, including “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and a duet version of “The Way We Were” with Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers.

Naturally, the show had to have at least one duet performance between Rice and Franklin. It came on the song “I Say a Little Prayer,” with Condoleezza on piano, and Aretha handling her trademark vocals on the Burt Bacharach and Hal David composed song. Playing with the audience, Aretha laughingly joked, “You didn't think she could play it, right?” Reportedly, the crowd of approximately 8,000 concert-goers was thrilled by both the classical and the rocking proceedings that evening.

The second half of 2010 found Aretha Franklin all over the media, and the majority of the press coverage that she received was mainly about her various health issues. It started in August of 2010 when it was reported that Aretha fell in the shower and fractured three of her ribs. According to a statement by her publicist, “Due to fractured ribs and pain in the abdomen, it was necessary for Ms. Franklin to cancel and reschedule the two concerts.”
(20)

In the same press release Aretha claimed, “I was very much looking forward to being in Brooklyn and having a foot-long hot dog at Coney Island. Hopefully I will get it before the end of August.”
(20)

Since Aretha was scheduled to sing at politician Charlie Rangel's eightieth birthday party in New York City amidst that same trip, her statement also announced, “I will really miss that nice slice of cake from Congressman Charlie Rangel's birthday party and singing ‘Happy Birthday' to him.”
(20)

In his witty gossip column in
The Village Voice
, Michael Musto cited the press release about the Coney Island hot dogs and the birthday cake comments from Franklin, and subsequently entitled his article about it, “Aretha Cancels Concerts, Will Miss the Food.” Claimed Musto, “Our hearts are with her, but it's obvious that the woman hasn't become that unglued by this cancellation, seeing as she's still thinking about the food ops [opportunities] that are being lost as a result of it.”
(21)

In their September 20 issue,
The National Enquirer
put Aretha and other stars on its cover story entitled “Hollywood's Deadliest Diets.” The magazine claimed that Franklin now tipped the scales at nearly three hundred pounds, although she only stands five-feet five-inches tall.

Also in September 2010, Aretha issued an elaborate press release proclaiming that the actress she would most like to portray her in a projected film about her life, would be Halle Berry—who is admittedly gorgeous, and weighs approximately 120 pounds. Franklin also stated that she would like Denzel Washington to portray her father in the film if it is to be done. The statement claimed that Denzel “was very interested in the role,” and said that she “also had a very positive response from her in-person conversations” with other actors on her wish list.
(22)
She also claimed that she wanted Terrence Howard to play young Smokey
Robinson in the film. However, it was the crazy idea of Halle Berry playing Aretha, that caused the story to spread like wildfire on the internet.

While all of this was taking place, Aretha's son, Eddie, found his name splashed all over the newspapers, when it was disclosed that on September 21, 2010 he was “allegedly” attacked by three people, reportedly at a Detroit area gas station. According to the news coverage, Eddie was hospitalized for his injuries, and released. There is a lot of conjecture and confusion regarding the event, as there was no gas station at the exact location of the reported attack. Eddie mysteriously left the hospital abruptly, and very conspicuously avoided talking to the police.

Mike Helms in
The Detroit Free Press,
reported, “Gwendolyn Quinn, a spokeswoman for Motown legend Aretha Franklin, issued a news release Tuesday morning saying Eddie Franklin, 52, was attacked by two men and a woman late Monday and underwent emergency surgery. She said no other information about the attack was available. Police said they have been unable to confirm details of the attack or talk to Eddie Franklin. What's more, Franklin was said to have been attacked as he left a gas station in that area, but Sgt. Eren Stephens, a police department spokeswoman, said there is no gas station in the area where the attack took place. ‘He has not yet made a report,' Stephens said. ‘Right now, we're waiting on him to make a report so we can find out what happened. A spokeswoman for Sinai-Grace Hospital confirmed Eddie Franklin was treated and released from the hospital but said his treatment did not require surgery.”
(23)

Also, according to the article, “Eddie Franklin was a suspect in a fall 2002 fire at a $1.6 million Bloomfield Township mansion his mother used for storage, but an investigation by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's office later cleared him. Lost in the fire were Grammy Awards, dresses and other items Aretha Franklin had intended to donate to the Smithsonian Institution or similar groups.”
(23)

The whole story about the attack on Edward seemed very suspicious indeed. Edward claimed to be attacked at a gas station, where no gas station existed, and when the police wanted to question him, he avoided them. Then Aretha threw herself in the middle of the story. Karu F. Daniels in
BlackSpin News
reported, “Franklin claimed the cops ‘gave the media the impression that [her] son was not being cooperative.' Police said they
failed to take a statement from him in the hospital. ‘After observing my son on Tuesday, it was clear that he was unable to communicate with anyone after such a traumatic attack and with his jaw wired,' Franklin told
The Detroit News
newspaper. ‘The officer probably would not have been able to give a statement if he had been attacked by three men the very next day, either, and it was totally unreasonable to expect Eddie to do so as if he were not being cooperative.'”
(24)

In November of 2010, Aretha was heard on the debut solo album by Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers, entitled
Mr. I
. The duet that she sang on Ronald's album was the Carole King song, “You've Got a Friend.” It was so well received that it was eventually nominated for a Grammy Award, although it did not win it.