Retirement, Aretha-style: Go home and open a club
Plans revolve around her beloved Detroit and, of course, music
Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul and beloved icon of Detroit, says she plans to close out her career where it began, in her beloved hometown.
In an exclusive interview last week, Franklin said she plans to move from her longtime home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., into a residence in the city and open a nightclub where she will occasionally sing.
Franklin, 75, who announced her retirement this year, says she had been talking about the idea for a couple of years — and she has mentioned it in news interviews — but she’s tired of thinking about it and is ready to move.
“I’m interested in doing a small nightclub downtown, and he (Bruce Schwartz, Detroit relocation ambassador for Bedrock Real Estate Services) and I have been talking about this,” she says. “In my retirement plan, I’d like to
have a small club here in Detroit.” The name, she says, is easy: “It would be Aretha’s!” “From time to time I would sing, and of course, I would have special artists come in to perform
for the city that people in Detroit like — Detroit favorites,” she says.
The move would be a new phase of a 57-year career that has seen Franklin record more than 100 singles that hit the Billboard
charts, including 17 top 10 pop singles, 100 R&B singles and 20 No. 1 singles. She had the most Billboard Hot 100 hits of any female artist until Nicki Minaj passed her this year (76-73, al- though Franklin is not done yet). Franklin had held that record for nearly 40 years.
The singer told WDIV-TV in February that her new CD, executive-produced by Clive Davis and with several tracks produced by Stevie Wonder, was nearly finished and that this would be her last year of live concerts.
She said that she would do “some select things, maybe one a month, for six months out of the year” but that 2017 would be her “last year in concert.”
“This is it,” she told WDIV. As for her move, she says she’s getting ready for the return to the city where she grew up.
“I’m cleaning house. I’m going to be moving back into Detroit, and I’m just getting things ready for that. My granddaughter just went to college, so I’m spending time with my grandchildren.”
“From time to time I would sing, and of course, I would have special artists come in to perform for the city that people in Detroit like — Detroit favorites.”