Aretha Franklin is heading to the DTE Energy in Detroit on July 12th. But if you happen to see her in your local superstore, try not to get in the way. The Queen of Soul is exercising. Her way to stay in shape is simply to walk the aisles of large stores, presumably without buying any fattening foods along the way.
“I walk Wal-Mart all the time, K-Mart, Meyers, any of those big superstores. I walk those all the time. What I do is walk the whole store from the front door. But I do brisk power walking. But I change aisles if people get in the way, because I don’t like to break my stride. [People] want you to stop for an autograph and that’s OK but I have to do it after I finish walking. So I just tell them to meet me at the front door.”
Franklin does have security with her, for any overzealous fans. She says she walks 3 days a week and like everyone else, when she’s preparing to go out of town, she’s got to do a little washing.
“I am everyday people,” Franklin says. “I do the washing, I do the cleaning. I don’t have a housekeeper.”
Franklin is getting out on the road this year, and she’s still working on her new CD with Babyface and Andre 3000. She says she’s about six tracks in but says she’d love to work with Stevie Wonder. Surprisingly, she and Stevie have never made a record together.
