On The Road With Aretha Franklin

On Friday night, Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul” will be getting lots of “Respect” when she is honored as the Music Cares Person of the Year.

Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson caught up with the legend as she motored across country to the Grammys.

“How long has it been since you’ve actually been on a plane?” Shaun asked.

“Well, my god — ’83,” Aretha said.

“Do you remember the flight at all?” Shaun asked.

“Of course I do! Just this [turbulence] all the way from Atlanta to Detroit. I said, ‘Well, I know what the Pope is doing when the pope kisses the ground, I know just where he’s coming from,'” Aretha said.

Aretha hates to fly so much, that instead, she hits the road.

Very few people have seen the inside of her tour bus. It’s nothing posh. Aretha rides simple. But is the bus “Idol” bound?

“There was talk about you appearing on ‘American Idol.’” Shaun noted.

“’American Idol!’ Each time we try to set that up,” Aretha said. “I usually come to LA in September, they go on hiatus in September, so we just haven’t been able to put it together.””

But maybe this year!

Aretha is cutting back on touring, but she will be playing the Nokia Theatre in LA on Valentine’s Day and she has a special valentine of her own – longtime boyfriend Willie Wilkerson.

“Did you go get hitched on me?” Shaun asked.

“No, we didn’t do that,” Aretha said.