Aretha Franklin still gets 'Respect' from music lovers after nearly 30 years

Jet, Oct 7, 1996 by Clarence Waldron

It's been nearly 30 years since Aretha Franklin first told the music world that what she wanted was "just a little respect, and what she had to have was "just a little respect."

And today, some 30 years later, she is still getting a whole lot of respect from her fans and music critics worldwide.

Her signature tune, Respect, recorded in 1967, remains her most re quested song. She sang it for President dent Bill Clinton at his birthday salute in New York. She sang it again at a free concert in Chicago that kicked off the recent Democratic National Convention.

And in a world where singing stars come and go, Aretha still reigns as the "Queen of Soul." She is busier than ever these days with all kinds of projects in the works.

She is putting the finishing touches on an album tentatively set for release later this year and has begun writing her autobiography, in which she promises to do "a lot of talking."

She's also producing a cooking video which will feature her favorite recipes. And in the midst of all this, the "Queen of Soul" is busy fulfilling concert engagements throughout the country.

Referring to her autobiography, she tells Jet: "We had a couple of points that they (the book company had not agreed to, but they have now, so we should start talking in the next three weeks to a month. It's going to take about six months."

She says fans can expect the book to hit stores next spring.

There will be "a lot of talking, she reveals. "My tongue will be smoking when I get through," she laughs. But she quickly points out, "no, I'm not telling everything. I'm not a tell-all kind of person, but some things should remain private, just as a matter of principle and a matter of good taste. I'm not a kiss-and-tell person,, but I'm going to tell some of it, a lot of it," she promises.

She says she will look back on "a combination of different happenings and share various anecdotes that people will get a big kick out of, I think. It's going to be very education in other ways."

But above all, she promises again, "It's going to be real dish; it's going to be like deep dish Aretha,'" she laughs, "like deep dish apple pie. It's going to be deep dish Ree."

Her cooking video looks like another solid success for the soulful singer.

I like to do my thing," she notes. "I have a great, big, beautiful kitchen, and we're going to put it together like Julia Childs put her project together, but only mine will be different She did all breads on one tape, all soups, all of the entrees on another. But I would like to do mine as the complete dinner. So you have it from your beverage to dessert and the entree and the breads, all happening together as a meal, a complete meal, rather than on separate tapes."

She is collecting recipes from family and friends, which includes her grandmother's recipe for chicken and dumplings. "I had a family friend named Lola, and I'm calling it `ribs a Lola,'" she notes.

And even though she still has not conquered her longtime fear of flying, she remains in great demand on the concert circuit and often travels to engagements in her customized bus - complete with all the comforts of home - a kitchen, TV, VCR and sleeping quarters.

She believes she's close to ending her fear of airplanes. "I've been listening to a lot of anxiety tapes and things like that, and attending the fearless classes again. I'm not going to jet off tomorrow, but I am expecting to soon. All things in time. When it's time for me to fly again, I will. I must say with all of the recent tragedies we've had, it makes you wonder. My brother used to call it an occupational hazard.' It's a very, very sad thing that those kinds of things happen, but I'd still love to fly again. I would really love to fly the Concorde to Europe, but it goes awfully fast. I don't know if I want to go that fast.

The singer says she has conquered her longtime chain smoking habit. "I haven't smoked since 1991 that's why I've gained so much weight," she reveals. "I feel excellent about it because I'm not going to get any bad news like you will get if you are smoking. I don't want to get that kind of news that people do get sometimes, unfortunately, like lung cancer. I'm really happy that I don't smoke anymore."

Her next challenge, she says, is losing weight. "If I can just lose this weight, that's really the hardest thing for me to do. I can not believe that I'm not even burning anything. For some reason my metabolism is not burning the way it should. I get enough exercise to lose more weight than I do."

She says she sweats so much during a concert performance that "I lose three or four pounds, but I don't see it on the scale. So it has to be inches because it's certainly not pounds."

A top-selling recording artist for 30 years, her hits include You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman, Ain't No Way, Chain of Fools and Freeway Of Love. Her collection of recent hits on the Arista Records label, Aretha Franklin Greatest Hits (1990-1994). has sold a million copies.

The key to her longevity, she says, is that she loves all kinds of music from classical to Brazilian to today's young, R&B, hip hop sound.