Aretha Franklin Announces Retirement

Aretha Franklin plans to retire from music later this year, the “Queen of Soul” told Detroit’s NBC affiliate this week. “I must tell you, I am retiring this year,” she said to reporter Evrod Cassimy. Franklin, who turns 75 this year, plans to record a final studio album of original compositions—featuring production help from Stevie Wonder—before taking a big step away from music to spend more time with family. “I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now,” she explained. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”