Source: Monica Morgan / Getty
Your Highness, say it isn’t so! Singer Aretha Franklin told Detroit TV station WDIV Local 4 that after one more album, she’s going to retire! “I must tell you, I am retiring this year,” she told a reporter. She also said “I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now,” Franklin said. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.” Aretha, who was the first female artist admitted to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, plans to do one more album, mostly of original songs, which will be produced by Stevie Wonder and will do “some select things, many one a month, for six months out of the year.” “This will be my last year,” Franklin said. “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it.” She said she can’t wait for the new CD, which goes in several different directions. “It’s kind of multi-(directional),” she said. “We’re not pigeonholed to any one thing.”
Source: Metronome / Getty
Aretha began singing in her father’s church as a child and embarked on a solo career in 1960, at the age of 18. Since then, she’s had 112 charted singles, 20 number one singles and has won 18 Grammy awards. Though her career has been mostly in secular music, she has returned from time to time to her gospel roots with albums like “Amazing Grace,” which sold ove 2 million copies. “Re Re,” as she was also known, was inducted into the GMA Gospel Hall of Fame in 2012.
Source: Gary Gershoff / Getty
Aretha has battled health issues recently, and said also that she plans to spend more time with her family, most notably with her grandchildren, who are entering college this year. She said retiring after her 56 year career, though it’s what she has decided to do, is bittersweet because “it’s what I’ve done all of my life.” We’ll miss you, Queen! Thank you for an incomparable legacy of music!
by Jerry Wells from articles on Billboard.com, clickondetroit.com, theguardian.com and Wikipedia
