ITV's This Morning covered a beautiful segment this morning, interviewing a true legend, Gladys Knight. To quote them "We call Aretha the Queen and you the Empress.", Gladys laughs at this and agrees with the titles.
During the segment they discussed Aretha Franklin's life, music and personality. "To me her specialty was... when you heard her sing, you felt it" Gladys remembers. She talks about how honoured she was to be able to pay her respects at her funeral and perform in her honour.
Gladys Knight also praises new and upcoming artists calling them "earthy" and recognising how "they talk more about their personal life through music" and she loves it. Music is constantly evolving and the shock value, the crazy dances and raunchy lyrics will always seemingly shock people before they are deemed tame by the next generation.
Proms in the park is where Gladys Knight will next be preforming. Gladys speaks about how she adores the British crowd and their love for true live music. Holly and Phil ask her which songs she will be performing... specifically if she'll perform 'midnight train' one of her most classic hits. Gladys opens up about the struggle of always needing to perform her greatest hits and shares humorous anecdotes about closing her show prominently on curfew as to not pay out more money and run over the allocated time slot "just to perform that song"..."midnight train isn't worth it!" Gladys jokes.
It was a wonderful segment about an extraordinary person, plugging her concerts at the Royal Albert Hall that are coming up soon, she leaves us by reminding the audience that tickets go on sale Thursday!