Aretha Franklin: reveals why it took her more than 20 years to return to L.A

Jet, Oct 18, 2004

When the Queen of Soul sings her big hit, So Damn Happy, e means what she sings. Aretha Franklin is so damn happy that she is finding herself doing things that she thought she would never do.

And one of those things is returning to Los Angeles for the first time in 21 years. She thrilled her fans in two sold-out shows at the famed Greek Theatre.

"I am so damn happy with everything, with it all, with everything," she tells JET.

She's been away for so long because she does not fly. She arrived in Los Angeles from her home near Detroit on a luxury custom bus.

On opening night, she sat down at the piano and told the audience: "I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be back in L.A. with you. You know that I am so damn happy," she said as the crowd cheered wildly. And when she sang her hit, Wonderful, she told her fans: "I think you're wonderful. I've come a long way to see you."

Indeed she did. It took her four days to get to Los Angeles. "We broke it up, and we stopped, slept over at key points, which was really cool," she later told JET.

"We got off the bus, we slept over, we were refreshed and ready to ride the next day. And it really was a great ride, because I had some good friends with me. We just had a really, good time, just laughing coming and going."

She stopped flying in 1983 after a bad flight from Atlanta to Detroit. "I was on one of those little two-engine planes that was dipping up and down and dropping and doing everything. We were bouncing all over the sky." Once she landed in Detroit, she said she would never fly again.

She began traveling by her custom bus, but she turned down many offers to appear in places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where she also recently performed, because they were too far to travel on a bus. But now it was simply the right time to return, she says. "It's been 21 years since I was in L.A., so it was time."

Her fans welcomed her to the Greek Theatre with a rousing standing ovation, and many leaped to their feet throughout the show the moment she began to sing such favorites as Think, Angel, and I Say A Little Prayer. She even took them to church on her hit Freeway of Love in which she ad-libber, "Jesus, will meet you on the freeway of love." It was a wild, soul-stirring time at the Greek.

Among those on hand leading the cheers for the Queen were Tavis Smiley, to whom she sang "Happy Birth day." She sang her special rendition of It's My Turn to music mogul Clive Davis, because it's one of his favorite songs of all time. Among the other celebrities on hand were gospel star Kurt Carr, Natalie Cole, scholar Dr. Cornel West, Marla Gibbs, LeVar Burton, Jenifer Lewis, Claudette Robinson and Franklin's ex-husband, famed actor Glynn Turman.

She says she loved her triumphant return to Los Angeles just as much as her fans did.

"It was absolutely, ultra fabulous," she recalled several days after the concert. "The sunset looked a little smaller to me. I remembered the sunset in L.A. being much bigger and wider. It looked a little smaller, but everything else pretty much looked the same. I got a chance to say hello to Arsenio. I met a lot of fabulous people who I hadn't seen in years. The Bel Air, where I stayed, was wonderful, very exclusive, very chichi and all that. I stayed in all of the other hotels in L.A. but I'd never stayed at the Bel Air. My brother and his wife always stayed there. I always wanted to stay at the Bel Air, so that's why I decided to stay there this time. I usually frequented the Beverly Hills."

The week after her Los Angeles engagement, she drove to Las Vegas for two sold-out shows at the House of Blues. "Vegas was smashing, just smashing. It was packed to the rafters and everybody just had a wild time."

Onstage she told the Vegas crowd: "I pondered whether or not I'd ever get back, but God is good, and I'm here."

She explained to JET that she was a little disappointed in the evening weather in Los Angeles. Vegas should have been the opening night in Los Angeles. I am really a little upset with Mother Nature in L.A. because having lived there for the number of years that I lived there, I forgot how cold it gets after 6 o'clock in L.A. There should have been a heater on stage the first night. It was so cold out there and I had bare shoulders and bareback and all that and it went right to my throat and just wreaked havoc on my voice. So I was upset with Mother Nature for awhile there, but someone had some hot tea, honey and lemon backstage and that was actually the only thing that saved my voice on opening night."

But she is pleased with her triumphant return. "Everything was worth it. I got pictures, I got film. I got a recording of the entire happening and the best thing about it all is that I own it. Arista doesn't own this. I own this. I just said, 'Come on Sister Franklin and get down.'"

Her return to Los Angeles has inspired the always-surprising Aretha Franklin to do something else she thought she would never do--fly. Yes, the Queen says she is now ready to fly--and is planning a possible trip this month.