Aretha Quotations

I am in love with old school funk and soul music. That's what I grew up listening to, and I want to bring that style back with my music. I love artists like Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, and more!

If you think about it, Aretha did basically the same things that I do.

You knew the difference between Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, straight away. Now everyone sounds like each other, and I don't think that's right.

We're a party band. We do mostly covers we play anything from Aretha Franklin to Jackson Brown to Pink.

Network television, they are always worried about how many times you are going to say f--- on the air. We had a bit of a crisis this morning when they heard Aretha Franklin was going to strip during 'The Star-Spangled Banner.

I grew up loving Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Al Green and Otis Redding, and I just love old-school R&B. It's just music that moves you and grooves you, and it was very important, I think, for music.

It in no way denies the horrible things that happened in the South during the civil rights struggle, ... The KKK and church bombings - all of those things did happen, but at the same time there were people like my father making Aretha Franklin records, these southern white boys who made their living playing on some of the best soul records ever made.

I was determined to create my own identity. My first hits, in fact, were straight-up rhythm and blues. My voice was compared to Aretha Franklin's - though, for my money, no one compares to Aretha.

I think the most-played record in our house was the 'Big Chill' Soundtrack - so Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Otis Redding. I think that's where I got my love for a good hook, a good soul hook - really smooth and warm and from the heart.

My sound comes from my inspiration, which is people like Aretha and Jay Z and Kanye, as well as everyone from the Whitneys and Mariahs to Destiny's Child and Usher. They all inspired me growing up.

I was on tour with Miles Davis, and we had a gig to play at a theater in Los Angeles in 1965. And the opening act was the Aretha Franklin Jazz Trio. She was this young artist and she played sort of funky jazz piano with an upright bassist and a drummer. Then she sang, and she blew the roof off the place. The rest is history. I'd rate her up there with Zeus.

To me, she was as good a singer as Aretha Franklin in her own way, and completely timeless.

You have wonderful artists like Patty Labelle and Aretha Franklin that have opened up the door and been able to let us through,

Being around people like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack. . . had a great impact on me as a singer, as a performer, as a musician.

Aretha is still the best singer in the world, bar none. She finds meanings in lyrics that the composers didn't even know they had.

Aretha Franklin's 'Let Me in Your Life' is one of the few recent R&B albums that places the emphasis entirely and deservedly on a voice. Many R&B producers have been making records on which the singer is outshined by the song, the arrangement and the sound.

Aretha Franklin, she's just the most amazing singer ever. But I think there are so many singers that I just loved and sang along to on the radio. I guess I just enjoy trying out different styles along the way.

The network television, they're always worried about how many times you're going curse on the air. They had another crisis this morning because they heard Aretha (Franklin) was going to strip when she was doing the Star Spangled Banner. But always it will all be worked out in the night. They needn't worry about it. Just calm down more and take life as it comes.

The network television is always worried about how many times you're going to say (blank) on the air. And they were very worried this morning because they heard Aretha was going to strip during the national anthem. But they needn't worry. Just calm down. Take life as it comes.

I liked an Aretha Franklin song and I went into the studio to do a cover to see if I could sing. I basically walked in there and said, 'Let's just try this, and if I can't, let's just walk out of here and act like nothing happened.' You know, I'm pretty brutally honest with myself.

I'm telling the story, and if I can't tell the story, I'm not going to sing it. And if I don't agree with the story, and if I got to sing something that portrays me as something I'm not, then I'm not going to sing it either. I didn't even want to sing Aretha Franklin's 'Chain of Fools.'

Generations of Americans have stood in wonder at the style and voice of Aretha Franklin,