as we were running out of the hotel, one of the people that we were talking to told me, look, he says, nothing matters more at this moment than aretha getting her respect. he felt like, yes, she lasted six decades. but we forget people who have been here for a while. he said he hopes people take a second to listen to all the music that she has had over the years. you think about the fact that not only did she span those six decades, but what she s meant. she was at president obama s inauguration, clinton s inauguration. then being there at the memorial service for dr. king. you understand what this woman and her music has meant to so many people in terms of a generation and standing strong. absolutely. ryan, stay with me. people there on the street are probably coming up to you and telling you what aretha meant to them as they get the news. back to you, don lemon. getting that statement from clive davis and hearing what ryan said about respect and the impact that song had and aretha
and made it her own. even songs you probably don t really know that much about in the 2000s she did a song an album. i think it was you make me so damn happy. it was the evolution of aretha franklin. i also loved her in the 80s. we re going ridein on the freeway of love in my pink that s aretha. when was the last time i saw aretha or really spent a lot of time with her? i remember it was during when clive davis when his documentary was releasing in 2017, i got a note from aretha asking me if i wanted to attend and come see her.
looking right now at aretha franklin s star on the hollywood walk of fame. you can only imagine those flowers that are sitting there will be become a garden of tributes that will pour in as this morning, as this day continues, as the news starts to spread of the passing of this legend. ryan young is joining me now in detroit outside the aretha franklin family s longtime church. this church means so much to this family. of course, to this city. if you think about it, this is the church her father led for so many years. the father, of course, was a prominent sifr icivil rights le. the street is named after him. we have been talking to people about this church and what it means to them. it stood for not only civil rights but the idea that in here was a person who had a talent that came from detroit. it hasn t rained in a few days here. it s a gloomy day here.
i m absolutely devastated by aretha s passing. she was truly one of a kind. she was more than the queen of soul. she was a national treasure to be cherished by every generation throughout the world. apart from our long professional relationship, aretha was my friend. her loss is deeply profound and my heart is full of sadness. clive. so you ask me about the personal woman. what you saw on camera, it was the same. in real life, yes, she was aretha franklin in real life. but she was very personal. she didn t always love to take pictures. she wanted to be the center of attention only when she wanted to be the center of attention.
sometimes she would get back immediately and sometimes it would be days. i remember texting during the inauguration. she felt how she felt about that. we won t go into that. she would tell me she was doing her thing. she said, i m going to be in the city in early march, have lunch at the plaza and kick it, ha, ha, ha. that was one of her text messages. tell her about the phone calls. the phone calls never lasted longer than four minutes. you didn t know every time there was i won t say it was a 248 area code. because it was a detroit area. i would say, that must be aretha. sometimes it would show up as aretha franklin. sometimes not. sometimes the number i had for her before, i would call back and it wouldn t be there. i would have to call her asis tanl assistant. here is the new number. she didn t keep a number one she had for a long time.