JUDY WOODRUFF: A legend is gone. Aretha
Franklin died today at the age of 76. Her doctor said the cause was pancreatic cancer.
One of the best-selling musical artists of all times, she sold over 75 million records
worldwide. Franklin was showered with honors over the
years and I was fortunate to be at one of them, three years ago, with my late NewsHour
partner and co-anchor Gwen Ifill, when we emceed an event at the national portrait gallery. Here now is part of the interview Gwen recorded
with her that night, and a look at her amazing legacy. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JUDY WOODRUFF: Only one Aretha Franklin. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) JUDY WOODRUFF: And so it was fitting that
the "Queen of Soul" was honored with the First Portrait of America Award and this painting
that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. ARETHA FRANKLIN, QUEEN OF SOUL: We were
ladies and gentlemen, and we weren't overnight stars. It was gradual. And, for me, I just try to keep my head out
of the clouds, keep my feet on the ground. (MUSIC) JUDY WOODRUFF: Franklin was honored not
only for her soul singing but for jazz, rock, pop, classical and gospel as well. Aretha Franklin grew up in Detroit, along
with other music icons like the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson. Throughout her life,
she remained very faithful to the city, which had given birth to Motown. In 1960, at just
18 years old, she went to New York City to be courted by several labels including Motown
and RCA, ultimately signing with Columbia Records which released the album "Aretha"
in 1961. (MUSIC) JUDY WOODRUFF: Six years later, she recorded
the single "I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You." When the album of the same name
was released, the first song "Respect" reached number one on both R&B and pop charts, winning
Aretha her first two Grammys. Franklin's chart domination soon earned her
the title "Queen of Soul" and she became a symbol of black empowerment during the civil
rights movement. Performing at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther
King in 1968, spurred by Mahalia Jackson's death, Franklin returned to her musical origins
for the 1972 album "Amazing Grace." But that decade saw her career slip before returning
to the top of the charts in the ‘80s to with an album featuring "Freeway of Love." She was the first woman inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and went on to sing at the inaugurations of both Presidents
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2005, she received the nation's highest
civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And here she was at the 2015 Kennedy Center
Honors, in typical Aretha fashion in a full length fur, paying tribute to Carole King,
drawing a tear from President Obama. A capstone to her career was an invitation
to perform for Pope Francis when he visited Philadelphia in 2015. Gwen sat down that fall with Franklin to talk
about her life and work. GWEN IFILL: Tell me, how do you think of
yourself? ARETHA FRANKLIN: A lady next door. GWEN IFILL: But nobody thinks of you that
way, none of your fans, none of the people in that room tonight. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Sure. Yes. Yes. GWEN IFILL: They think of you as much more
than that. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Well, no, they don’t
see me in that setting, right. GWEN IFILL: Yes. So, then, how do you handle the weight of
the diva-ness of this all? Because, I mean, there’s a little bit of that in you. You
have a lot of flair. ARETHA FRANKLIN: I love to sing. It’s
just a natural thing for me. GWEN IFILL: So, is part of you, you know,
always going to be Reverend C.L. Franklin’s daughter? ARETHA FRANKLIN: Absolutely. GWEN IFILL: I’m a preacher’s kid, too,
so I -- ARETHA FRANKLIN: I knew you -- P.K., OK. GWEN IFILL: But I -- I am a P.K. But I
don’t sing quite like you. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Oh, well, we don’t all
sing. (LAUGHTER) GWEN IFILL: We have other gifts. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Yes, you have other gifts. GWEN IFILL: I want to ask you about that,
because one of the things that comes up with people who are immensely successful about
what they choose is what brought about the success, who urged you, or who didn’t stop
you. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Well, my mentor was Clara
Ward of the famous Ward gospel singers of Philadelphia. And my dad was my coach. He coached me.
And just my natural love for music is what drove me. GWEN IFILL: But when did you cross the line
from gospel to pop? ARETHA FRANKLIN: I didn’t cross the line.
Gospel goes with me wherever I go. Gospel is a constant with me. GWEN IFILL: So when people hear you sing
-- ARETHA FRANKLIN: So, I just broadened my
musical horizons. GWEN IFILL: Yes. So when people hear you
sing "Pink Cadillac," there’s gospel in that? ARETHA FRANKLIN: No. So -- (LAUGHTER) ARETHA FRANKLIN: No, that’s secular. GWEN IFILL: That’s secular. ARETHA FRANKLIN: That is secular, yes. GWEN IFILL: Will you ever consider stopping? ARETHA FRANKLIN: No, not ever, no. I’m
not ever going to retire. That’s -- that wouldn’t be good, for one, just to go somewhere
and sit down and do nothing. Please. No, that’s not moi. GWEN IFILL: It’s not moi. ARETHA FRANKLIN: That is not moi. (LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Aretha Franklin last performed
in her hometown of Detroit in June of 2017. Thousands showed up at an outdoor festival
where she ended her concert with a plea to keep me in your prayers." (END VIDEOTAPE) JUDY WOODRUFF: For more on who Aretha Franklin
was and what she meant, I am joined by Chris Richards, music critic for the "Washington
Post." And Grace Bumbry, an American opera singer,
who now lives in Europe. She first met Aretha Franklin in 1978, when they both performed
at the first Kennedy Center Honors Program here in Washington. They remained close
friends ever since. She joins us from Vienna. And we welcome both of you to the NewsHour. Grace Bumbry, to you see first. We're so
sorry for the loss of your friend. What did -- what did Aretha Franklin mean to you
personally? GRACE BUMBRY, OPERA SINGER: Well, you know,
Aretha was five years younger than I, but we had one thing in common, and that was Marian
Anderson. So that was our jumping-off point. Then came many other things, many other personal
things. You know, she did not like to fly. I don't think she ever flew at all. I even
invited her to my home in Switzerland, and she said, no, she would like to come, but
unfortunately she said she can't quite make those airplane flights. But the thing that I liked about her and loved
about her, what we had in common was music, our love of music, and I think the love of
perfection. Aretha was more of a musician than people give her credit for. And this
is because -- the reason I say that is because she could sing and took advantage of the fact
that she could sing opera. She -- I remember one time she even stepped
in for Luciano Pavarotti when he stepped out of a performance of "Nessun Dorma". No one
wanted to take it except Aretha, hopped in and said, yes, she would do it. Now, who would -- who else would have the
nerve to do that? Nobody except somebody who was a grand opera buff. And she did
it beautifully. JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Chris Richards, that
really does -- that says something about Aretha Franklin. She could cross from rock and
pop to gospel and even opera. What was it about her voice, her music? CHRIS RICHARDS, MUSIC CRITIC, THE WASHINGTON
POST: Yes, when we're talking about the most influential singers of the 20th century,
we're talking about Aretha Franklin. We're talking about the most pivotal voice I’d
say. You can really divide American popular music into before and after her. The thing about it was that it was able to
convey so much emotion in the voice, able to put so much feeling, to be able to load
so many different notes into a single syllable. She had this incredible ability to surface
her humanity. And I think it's made her a legend, and it's part of the air we breathe
now, it's so influential. The way we sing at karaoke night, the way
we sing at our community talent shows. Not just Beyonce and Mary J. Blige and all these
artist that she’s influenced. The way we sing as people has so much to do with Aretha
Franklin. GRACE BUMBRY: May I say something to that
point? The point is that she always spoke the words. It was about text. It was about
soul. It was about feelings. And this is what I tried to import upon my
students. That you have to listen to people like Aretha Franklin. They can give you
so much. They tell you so much. It goes to the heart, the heart is what's
important, not just a beautiful technical way of singing. And Aretha showed the world
how she could sing and what she -- what it meant to her to be able to sing that well,
to give the audience. You know, for me, singing is about communication.
It's like communicating with the people sitting in that auditorium. And she knew that, and
she worked on it and she showed the whole world what it meant to be a great singer. JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Chris Richards, you
could almost hear her heart when she sang. You were also telling me that she took control
of her career. She wasn't passive entertainer. CHRIS RICHARDS: Right. She's an incredible
arranger of these songs, even when she was covering a seasoning like "Respect", a song
that Otis Redding was popularizing until Aretha Franklin came along and made it her own.
She was able to control those arrangements. And she was an incredible piano player, very
much in control of the music that she made, and then very in control of her career. In the studio, she had a lot of great collaborators.
Jerry Wexler, her producer at Atlantic famously. Later on, she made incredible music with Curtis
Mayfield and Luther Vandross. But as Luther Vandross said, you know, late in his life,
that, you know, she was running the show in a lot of way, a commanding personality who
had incredible control, not only over her voice but her art. JUDY WOODRUFF: Grace Bumbry, she did have
a somewhat difficult childhood. Her mother left her family when she was very young.
Did that shape her in some way? GRACE BUMBRY: Well, I would imagine that
shaped her tremendously. The loss of your mother no matter from which angle and the
fact she had to stand up and take over. I think that's why you have that deep -- that
deep longing in her sound. A sound that nobody else has except for Aretha, and that
is because of that pain. And, you know, you get -- you get special
sounds through negative situations. But I remember when I lost my mother, and it was
very difficult. The voice changes. The voice changes. It's an emotional change
in you life. And for Aretha to have lost her mother so
early on goes without saying that it changed her. It made a big difference to her sound,
not only negatively but also positively. It made the sound that she had. JUDY WOODRUFF: Just finally, Chris Richards,
what would you say her influence is if it's possible to put it into words? CHRIS RICHARDS: Sure. Well, the yearning
that Ms. Bumbry just mentioned, that became America's yearning. Her music broke through
at the height of the civil rights movement. It became a soundtrack for that. It became
the soundtrack for feminism. And then after that, it just kind of became
the sound of the virtuous America that we want, that we’re still struggling to be.
We don't have equality for women in this country right now. We don't have equality for people
of color. That yearning is in Aretha Franklin's music and we hear it not only in her singing
but in the singing that's all around us today. I think that's a beautiful thing. JUDY WOODRUFF: Chris Richards with "The
Washington Post", Grace Bumbry joining us from Vienna. The operatic great. Thank
you, Ms. Bumbry. And, Chris Richards, thank you both. CHRIS RICHARDS: Thank you. GRACE BUMBRY: It's my pleasure. Thank
you very much. JUDY WOODRUFF: We're so grateful to both
of them and wonderful to be remembering our own Gwen Ifill tonight and her interview three
years ago with Aretha Franklin.
