Excerpt From Chapter 3 Of ‘THE SOULFUL DIVAS’ by DAVID NATHAN
ARETHA FRANKLIN: A ROSE IS STILL A ROSE…
I was calling Aretha Franklin from a telephone booth at a subway station in Queens, New York. It must have been around 9 P.M. A promised "liaison" had gone awry, and I was on my way back to my Manhattan apartment, unfulfilled. There had been no "sock-it-to-me" action, and even though we both knew "who had zoomed who," no one had "rocked steady" that night. I paused at the station to check my answering machine, and 10 and behold, my spirits were lifted. Miss Aretha Franklin had called to confirm that she and I were going to get together on August 11, 1980, for a one-on-one interview for Blues & Soul at her Los Angeles home. Aretha, then newly married to actor Glynn Turman, had just signed a recording contract with Arista Records at the end of a twelve-year association with Atlantic Records, where she'd racked up more gold records and Grammy Awards than any other black female performer.
Aretha wanted to talk, but I told her there was one condition. "You know, I've always heard so much about your cooking," I ventured bravely, "and I want to know when I get some of it?" Aretha giggled, "Well, I'll cook something special that day!" True to her word, that August evening, after I arrived at her Encino mansion and her son Teddy opened the gates for me, I was in the kitchen chowing down on the best peach cobbler I ever tasted! Aretha Franklin, the singular "Queen of Soul," had given me so much through her music through the years and as much as I loved her for it, I loved her even more for that melt-in-the-mouth, better-than-ever, to-the-bone, righteously soulful peach cobbler! As I had my second helping, I mused that Aretha obviously put as much soul into her cooking as she did into her singing.
Much has been both written and said about Aretha Louise Franklin over the thirty-plus years since she became a bona fide international superstar and, with the passing of time, a musical legend and African-American icon. I know, because I've written more about Aretha than anyone else in my career—or hers! I am truly thankful that our interviews have led to some serious milestones in my career: as a result of our meetings, I got my first cover story' in Blues & Soul, my first feature in Billboard, and my first USA Today article. I did my first VH-I show with Aretha, and I take much pride in having written more about Aretha and her music than any other living journalist.
Between the countless articles for Blues & Soul, Billboard, and various other publications, as well as liner notes for the reissues of almost all of her music, my name has appeared multiple times in association with my appreciation of her enduring contribution to my life and the lives of literally millions of people all over the world. remember asking Aretha during that August, 1980, interview if she ever thought about the impact she'd had on so many people with her music. She smiled, almost embarrassed. "Hey, i just do my thing," she replied. " . . . I'll never stop singing because that's what I'm here to do."
Of all the divas I've met or written about, Aretha has been the one woman who always evokes questions from peers and fans alike who want to know more about "the Queen." Whether these are comments about her music, her private life, or her fashion sense, Aretha has been the topic of more conversations I've had on the subject of artists I've interviewed than anyone else. From buddies like Josh Pridgen who used to sit with me at the rehearsal studios in Manhattan where he worked and talk endlessly about Aretha, to artist manager Sid Johnson, to my Washington, DC, friend Johnny Butler's pal Clinton, a true Franklin devotee, chats about Aretha have become a staple in my life!
I tell people that even with all the interviews we've done, which date back to the late 1960s, I don't "know" Aretha outside of the professional but personable relationship we've had. That said, over the years, we've shared some funny moments and some really good times. I can attest to her sassy sense of down-home humor, her quick wit, and her ability to get down with the pots and pans.
I can also say that this is a woman who knows what she wants, is clear about who she is in the world of music, and has survived all manner of trends and fads to take her rightful place as a true original; she is an artist who literally began paving the way for a whole generation of female singers from the time she recorded her first ground-breaking album in 1960. She is also, as far as I know, the only recording artist whose first record hit the charts back in 1960 and found herself still on the charts in 1998!
If I were to sum up exactly what has made Aretha a pioneer, I would go back to 1960, seven years before she became a household name, to that first Columbia album entitled simply Aretha. I would go back there because it is within those twelve songs that an eighteen-year-old girl with the life experience of a woman twice her age brought to the studio a totally unique skill. She was, without a doubt, the first black female to bring the essence of her gospel roots to a range of tunes that spanned Billie Holiday ("Who Needs You"), The Wizard of Oz ("Over the Rainbow"), Porgy & Bess ("It Ain't Necessarily So"), blues ("All Night Long"), and soul ("Won't Be Long").
Aretha's phrasing was unlike anyone else's: she fused the emotion of the church with a touch of jazz and added a heavy dose of blues. The result made her a lasting original. Even if she'd never made another album, that 1 960 record would have marked her as a once-in-a-lifetime artist. And even though it became popular to criticize her work for Columbia after she became a musical superstar with Atlantic, her early records for that label speak volumes about her remarkable artistry.
As I sat listening to those early records in my room in London as a teenager, I never dreamed that I would get to meet, let alone interview, the amazing woman behind the music. But life, like love, is strange, and I've been privileged to check out the artist whose music—through everything from "Skylark" to "Baby, Baby, Baby,” she touched the very depths of my own soul. But describing the personal side of the woman who, for years, people in the music business called "difficult" because she most decidedly sets her own rules and works on her own schedule is no easy task.
At different times, Aretha definitely had a reputation within the industry for unpredictability, although this has changed with her self-generated increased visibility over the last five years or so. I've never seen the brooding "lady of deep sorrow," as a longtime producer described her. And if there are moments when she expresses personal sadness about events in her life—such as the loss of her father; Cecil, her brother and longtime manager; and Carolyn, her younger sister, all in the space of a few years—her reactions are no different from those who have undergone loss and grief. True, Aretha will seldom proffer any deeply private information: in all the years we've talked, she has never made any direct reference to the men in her life. Also, a kind of coolness becomes apparent once you enter territory she considers off-limits.
One time, during a memorable 1978 interview session in Encino, at what was then her home in Los Angeles, I summoned up the nerve to comment on her dress sense, tactfully noting that her onstage attire sometimes gave rise to adverse comments. Aretha bristled, sat straight up in her chair, and gave a no-nonsense response: 'I l like what I wear, and I design a lot of the clothes myself," she replied stiffly. "Sometimes I test things out for my family . . . and yes, I have tried a few things that didn't work so I didn't wear them in public." From that day on, I figured any further discussion about Aretha's taste in clothes was a no-no, even though her occasional penchant for cleavage-revealing gowns has given her multitude of fans much cause to talk throughout the years!
But the "lady next door," as she has described herself, emerges when she feels comfortable enough to "dish the dirt," or, as she did during another interview session at the home she had in 1985 in the suburbs of Detroit, share photographs of some of the people who have been part of her life. She proudly pointed to one picture of a guy "who I had a crush on way back in school!" This was someone she'd subsequently had a chance to meet again since returning to the city during the time her late father had lapsed into a coma after being shot during a burglary at his home in 1983.
After fixing me a plate of spaghetti with a meatless sauce once she discovered I was a vegetarian, we relaxed in the kitchen, exchanging comments on some of the music of the day: "I like the things Tina Turner is doing," she commented, referring to "Private Dancer," Tina's comeback album, "but Patti LaBelle's ‘New Attitude’? It's 0-k-a-y," she ventured….
© 2025, David Nathan/Blue Butterfly Entertainment Ltd, All Rights Reserved
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