Aretha Franklin: Alcohol, sex, and (a lot) of food after religious services

• Death: the disputed inheritance of the queen of 'soul'

• Life: The Dramas of Aretha Franklin

She was maniacal, suspicious, and had an emotional shell that prevented the people around her from knowing exactly what was going on in her head.

But he managed, perhaps better than anyone, to

.

That is why, in his voice, 'soul' music took on its original meaning ("soul") and one forgot about the body and the person who sang it.

But no matter how hard she tried to hide it, Aretha Franklin had a torrential life.

, collaborated with her in the late 1990s to co-write 'From These Roots,' a sweetened autobiography in which Lady Soul dodged the many rocky points of her story. .

Determined to bring to light what she was trying to hide, she published her version in the middle of the last decade, which is now presented in Spain by

under the title 'Aretha Franklin.

Apology and martyrology of the Queen of Soul '.

The book did not sit well with the singer.

"Aretha and I had a monumental fight in 2013 after I decided to go ahead and publish this biography," explains Ritz from Los Angeles.

"The truth is that

They never made peace.

"He had been diagnosed

in 2010 and the previous year he had announced that he was retiring from music," explains the biographer before recalling

: "It was devastating. Possibly it was

who described in a way more moving what she meant to all of us: 'Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice we could feel our story, all of it and in every tone: our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our search for the redemption and our hard-earned respect. '

Ritz insists that, in Aretha's case, "everything is intertwined: her lifestyle and her career are part of the same thing."

Her father, the Rev. CL Franklin, was a progressive Detroit pastor popular in the African-American community in the US whose wife left home,

.

Spiritual music ran through his veins, Ritz declares: "He had witnessed it all at home before. And he had even seen his father's girlfriends,

, pave the way for him. Soul, in all its forms, he was at the very center of all his musical projects, whether in the company of a jazz quartet, a pop orchestra or a church choir. "

Promiscuity and teenage pregnancies

Although of Jewish origin, Ritz came to embrace Christianity after working alongside Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, and Aretha herself.

That's something you can understand by watching 'Amazing Grace',

concert

of Aretha's 'gospel' recitals.

"Every piece of music that was part of Aretha's world comes from sacred music, and that leads you to appreciate those moments of ecstasy, joy and trance," adds Ritz.

The author notes that "the absence of her mother and the fact that neither Clara Ward nor Mahalia Jackson really replaced her made this very difficult to overcome" for the singer.

"I don't think it gave him any moral problems, but

on Aretha's early years."

For example, in sexual experiences during your adolescence.

.

"She never felt comfortable talking about it, not even in her autobiography. But there are sources that clearly indicate that this was part of the festive ritual after the service."

The effects were known:

.

"Being raised in such an unorthodox way, even by the standards of her own community, did not make her proud, much less make her feel comfortable," explains Ritz.

"The mere desire to try to hide such unorthodox behavior and its consequences in her autobiography speaks for itself. It was not the story she wanted to hear about her idealized upbringing, and it was certainly not what she wanted to be remembered for."

Nor for his addictions: "Alcohol ended up becoming a big problem, the effects of which were extremely damaging to his health and an increasingly worrisome problem too many times during the last years of his career."

And not only that:

in that sense either."

The portrait of Ritz is completed by another of Aretha's great conflicts: money.

"Her endless problems with the tax authorities and the fact that she was repeatedly unable to leave a will are an example that she always had a problem with this matter. And yet she

Today Aretha is an icon of female empowerment, especially for turning Otis Redding's 'Respect' upside down and making the song a feminist anthem.

Also a reference for the black community for his country, as was evident in his performance during the inauguration of Barack Obama as president, in 2008. In the 12 years that have passed since then, the

movement

has been replacing that 'Obamian' optimism.

And Ritz celebrates it: "There are too many abominable cases and nothing is being done to change things. I couldn't agree more with the need to make this visible and, once and for all, address it here and everywhere."

Even if that puts you in the spotlight, as a white writing over blacks.

But he is not afraid of being accused of cultural appropriation: "The history of music itself is the result of mixing traditions, rituals, sounds, instruments, harmonies, rhythms from all over the world ... Thinking in terms of acculturation and appropriation It is improper not to understand what music is.

or even of its instruments ... And the same applies to music. pop music from Europe ".

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