of nowhere, it seems. this is not for aretha. this is for us. if you leave here today, register to vote, you wouldn t dishonor aretha. if you don t feel something with all this signing, there s something wrong with you. parkinsons is in trouble. i have the faith. the doctor said parkinsons will knock you down. it will. but there s a god. there s a doctor of doctors. don t fear these diseases when you change your clothes and move into a different transition. i can say now with a level of
was in a coma. had not been able to wake up or move in some days. i was with i was there early. i said wake up, baby. wake up. she opened her eyes. i rubbed the wounds of her hand one more time. it was a hard good-bye. we came back that night and had another prayer meeting with her. her father s music playing in the background. shakespeare said when she said bye, took her happened to the starts and make the heavens so fine, all the world will be in love with the night.
people, i think, to a large degree know that she did play piano. now we get to be reminded as we open the treasure chest of all the music she left behind. she was an amazing pianist. president clinton was talking about that today. he said aretha franklin, the last time he saw her perform, she sang for 45 minutes and went to the piano to remind people that she s still good at that stuff. she was amazing. trace: so when you see this, people talk about the generosity and what a great mentor that she was for people. they opened up 1,000 seats for this. one of the reasons it was late, by the way, they opened 1,000 seats for this funeral service today so the public could get in so it took them awhile to get in. that was befitting of the queen of soul. yeah. she wanted to make sure there was room for everyone. famous, not famous, friend and
the tone a change in the way she approached her music? yeah, as she got older, she found ways to still bring the truth musically. she always she never lost her fire. there was a crispiness in her voice when she was younger. it translated into a huskiness later. but it never lost a fire or the passion. trace: we heard smokey robinson sing aretha franklin s eulogy. it was amazing. you think smokey robinson has adjusted the way he used his voice. it s one of those things that plateaus that you reach in music, correct? yeah, absolutely. it s an adjustment that every, you know, master artist, you know, comes to terms with. but they handle it. she certainly did. trace: it s amazing. final thought. final thing that you remember most about the queen of soul.
aretha had the power to make film directors cry. she touched all of us in a deep profound way. as she got sicker, we would talk more and more at night. she said are you coming? yes. went to four or five hospitals. she was fighting this cancer thing. to cap off singing and service, she went to new york knowing that she had pancreatic cancer. she was there in a bus to help aids victims. a signature moment in her life, all of us had our own situations. yet she was there. she asked me to give her our