Kelly Clarkson has a limitless amount of r-e-s-p-e-c-t for the Queen of Soul!
Though it seems as if the American Idol alum, who won the crown on the singing competition’s very first season, is a natural woman when it comes to taking people’s breath away with her sound, she admits she was once painfully shy — and credits Aretha Franklin for breaking her out of her shell.
“When I was a kid … I know it’s hard to believe, but I was actually shy when I was little,” Clarkson, 36, said while paying tribute to Franklin on ABC’s 2018: In Memoriam. Hosted by Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts and executive-produced by ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, the show will air Monday night on ABC.
“Very hard to believe, I realize that! You can ask my mom. When I was little I just had such a hard time communicating, which is actually why I started to write before I even could sing. It was just to get my emotions [out], and because I was afraid to let down walls because so many crappy things happened,” Clarkson continued.
“Aretha was the one singer that reached real down in me. Then it was like, ‘It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to like be mad at something, it’s okay to get through something.’ It’s really weird but there [were] very few voices when I was a kid that [could] really do that.”
Franklin died on Aug. 16 of advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type at age 76, but Clarkson knows her light will continue to shine on.
“It’s one thing to be a singer — it’s another thing to connect while singing and break down your walls,” the “Piece by Piece” singer says about Franklin’s powerful voice and stage presence. “[To] be okay look[ing] stupid or being vulnerable and [sharing] a message that you might regret later but it really feels like you should be the vessel for.”
“I feel like she’s the reason why I’m not so shy. I was terribly shy when I was a kid … just afraid to do anything because I was afraid to be embarrassed,” says Clarkson. “And now I’m the complete opposite. Music really did give me that confidence and she really did stir something inside me that broke down those barriers that I had built up as a child.”
While it’s hard for Clarkson to play favorites with Franklin’s greatest hits, she admits “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” is the one she loves to “wail” on.
“It’s just a really killer classic song, and every vocalist loves songs you can wail on,” she says, singing the hit.
Earlier this year, Clarkson paid her respects to Franklin when she sang the Queen of Soul’s classic “Respect” at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas, and she was also honored in a touching In Memoriam segment during the 2018 Emmy Awards and American Music Awards.
