Soul legend Gladys Knight jumped at the chance to honour her friend Aretha Franklin at a memorial in Detroit, Michigan this week, because she wanted to publicly respect the late star one final time.
Aretha died on 16 August (18) and Gladys was among the stars who offered up tributes via social media in the days following, telling her late peer, “You have touched minds, hearts and spirits, including my own”, and now she’s down to honour the Queen of Soul with a performance at the memorial.
Remembering Franklin during an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Monday, Knight said, “We were both little girls, and I say little girls even though, you know, we have, like, three or four years between us, but we had that same road to go and over the years I saw her grow and hopefully she saw me grow.
“We were both blessed enough to be working all the time, so if we were anywhere near where we were going to be playing, she would just show up. I would show up (to see her).”
Asked to share something about her late friend that the world didn’t know, Gladys added, “Aretha was very shy. People just don’’t know that about her”, adding, “I love her and I respect who she was and who she is and all of those kind of things. She was amazingly blessed. That’s the best way that I can put it.”
Franklin’s funeral will take place at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, Michigan on Friday. The event, which features performances from Stevie Wonder and Faith Hill, among others, will be aired live online and on television across the U.S.
The star’s body will lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum for African American History in Detroit on Tuesday and Wednesday, ahead of the memorial which is headlined by Knight and The Four Tops.
Meanwhile, fans have already begun to pay their respects in Detroit outside the Charles H. Wright African American Museum, lining the sidewalks to file past the open gold-plated coffin where the Queen of Soul rests in repose. The late Aretha is dressed in a ruby red gown with matching shoes in the casket, as those waiting outside sing the icon’s songs.
Franklin’s body will be moved to the New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father was once the pastor, for a private visitation on Thursday.
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