church, legend in detroit and around the world. pastor at this church for 30 plus years and he was her first manager. i believe he was the one who had the good sense to put that young child in front of a microphone and piano and the rest is history. this is essentially where the queen of soul and legend of aretha franklin was born. she worshipped with her father and sisters and brother for many years and then as she became a star, she continued to stay in the church. yesterday we interviewed the current pastor dr. smith who told us while she may have gone on to greater heights and international stardom, she never left the church. and chris, you had earlier talked about the incredible musical catalog that she s going to leave behind for generations to come. the pastor here very proud of the fact that she always remained in touch with the gospel and in touch with her new bethel home here. she used to come back occasionally to hold concerts here and never really left. there s a cornerston
ultimate never left her gospel roots and she any concert, she would break out in gospel song and do a hole hi dance. she didn t care who was there. she was never ashamed of any of her roots and in fact made us all proud. that s part of her legacy. she made us embrace ourselves. i remember that moment so clearly when she came out and i thought exactly that, she has got her sunday church outfit on and she s going to sing praise to the lord and thank the lord for somebody maybe she thought they would never see, an african-american president. absolutely. i remember it was freezing that day i mean, it was one of the coldest days you can remember we all warmed up when she walked out with the hat on her head and sang and put the gospel into that anthem. it was something only aretha franklin could do. roland, i m looking at this video again that we re seeing and you can t help but dance along and move along with aretha. refer ends al there s a picture of you, you re in the
and anita baker and listen to mariah carey, mary j. blige, beyonce, all are working on ground that was initially pioneered by aretha franklin and they owe a debt to her and would be the first to acknowledge that. elton john, tweeting it is a loss for everybody who loves real music, music from the heart and soul and the church. her voice was unique, her piano playing underrated. she was one of my favorite pianists. quincy jones writes in a statement, aretha franklin set the bar upon which every female singer has and did it with professionalism and humility and grace that only a true queen could. you will reign as the queen for ever. we have a photo of you and aretha franklin and eric holder as well, as we said also
here. the idea that i would have aretha franklin in my phone is almost makes my head explode. well, it was crazy because here s what happened, in 2007, she sent an e-mail to my office praising me for my work on cnn. and my agent thought said this is a fake. then they called and he said, dude, this is real. and so i finally got to meet her in february of 2008. for the last 11 years, we would talk and text and so back in december, on christmas day, my parents and my home in virginia and making this gumbo, i sent the queen the video, oh, my god, i ve got to taste that gumbo. we talked christmas day, i ve got to get some of that. and over the last january and february, we would held back and forth and i can read this from you, on march 17th, march 17th,
legendary genius. it was in his legendary verbal womb aretha franklin jess tated. she didn t come from nowhere. she came fully formed it seemed out of the genius of her father. yet i would start with black preaching, the black church, the black gospel tradition, what it gave to this country, what it meant to this world, and then i would speak about what detroit was undergoing in the days in which she came to maturity in the 50s and 60s. i would talk about her relationship to that church and then the tensions between the sacred and secular. i would speak about martin luther king jr. her father, c.o. franklin, linked arms with martin luther king jr. in 1963 before he gave the march on washington speech in washington, d.c. he gave it in june of that year in detroit, marching before cobalt hall, and c.o. franklin was there, a civil rights leader. i would speak about aretha franklin s relationship to dr. king and her love and support of him, and then i would speak about the incredible