Aretha Franklin ‘Retirement Plan’ to Include Opening Detroit Nightclub
Aretha Franklin is planning to move to downtown Detroit to open a club where she will perform occasionally, The Detroit Free Press reports.
“I’m interested in doing a small nightclub downtown, and … have been talking about this for a couple of years now,” Franklin said. “In my retirement plan, I’d like to have a small club here in Detroit.” The venue would be named Aretha’s.
Franklin added, “From time to time I would sing, and of course, I would have special artists come in to perform for the city that people in Detroit like – Detroit favorites.”
The 75-year-old soul singer is exploring the idea of partnering with Bedrock Real Estate services on the club. In a statement on Thursday, company president Dan Mullen said Bedrock “would love to work with Aretha, and we look forward to hearing her ideas for a club downtown.”
In Februrary, Franklin announced that she planned to move away from live performance. “I am retiring this year,” the singer told Detroit’s WDIV Local 4. “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it.” But she said that she planned to stay busy even in partial retirement. “I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing,” she added. “That wouldn’t be good either.”
Franklin moved to Detroit as a child; she currently lives outside the city in Bloomfield Hills. The singer is at work on a new album, tentatively due this fall, which is set to include contributions from Stevie Wonder.