Brenda Franklin Corbett on Growing Up With Aretha Franklin | Living for the City Full Interview

Brenda Franklin Corbett is Aretha Franklin's cousin, raised in the Franklin family home in Detroit alongside Aretha, Carolyn, Erma, and Cecil, and one of Aretha's longtime background singers as part of the trio Aretha named the Prima Donnas. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Brenda talks about singing with the grown folks in the choir at New Bethel Baptist Church by age six, in her own robe and her own chair, and the parade of legends who passed through the Franklin house on Oakland and East Grand Boulevard, from B.B. King and Cab Calloway to Mahalia Jackson. She gets into what it took to hold a note behind an artist who wanted the sound, the routines, and the look all perfect.

She also gets into the move to Los Angeles to help raise Aretha's children, her role advising the film Respect, and the day of Aretha's funeral, when she turned off the broadcast to catch a flight and landed three hours later to find it was still going.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Born Into the Franklin House

06:41 - Learning Her Voice

09:27 - Chasing the Dream to New York

12:17 - Singing Behind Aretha

17:49 - Los Angeles and Raising the Kids

22:33 - The Future of Gospel

25:15 - Guarding the Legacy

30:06 - What She's Most Proud Of