Jesus you got a friend in jesus youve got a friend youve got a friend youve got a friend in jesus [ applause ] tell it that neighbor you got a friend. At this time coming to give remarks and reflectens, the one and only tyler perry. He will be followed by matriarch of hollywood, that industry, the one and only cicely tyson. Then followed by mr. Clief davis, chief executive officer of sony music. Lets these three and then we will have the choir. God bless you everybody. To the family, i just want to say, my prayer my prayer for you is that god will allow you to grieve in waves, not that it would come crashing on you all at once in like a tsunami. Like in waves it was the only thing got me through my mothers death. So i could focused and move on and get through. My prayer is it comes in waves. Its going to come. You cant it work i tried that you cant drink it away. You got to let it come. And my prayer is that it comes in gentle waves for you onto your soul. My mother died in 2009. And it was her introduced me to the voice of Aretha Franklin. We would be driving up to the country and she would have the music blasting. I could tell what my father had done by the music she was playing. If she was playing respect or think you knew he was doing something wrong. But if she was playing doctor feel good he done something right. You can imagine i get the phone call from that lady saying hi this is Aretha Franklin. I said who . She said i love my deer. I love my deer she said i dont care i want to talk to her. She said hello. She loved to laugh. Invite me to things over the years and we would talk. She wants me to come in the dressing room because in the dressing room she would have the heat between between 85 and double hell. She loved it warm in there. We talked over the years. When i found out she was ill i called her up and talking like madia and making her laugh. The last time i saw her performance. I was there up in the becomes with president obama. She comes out and starts singing. All of these upright stiff politicians are all over the place and but when she sang all of that went away, all that pomp and circumstance and pretension went away. She brought them all to their feet to bow to the queen of soul. It was a wonderful moment. And as im standing there and im applauding, president obama is in front of me and turns he said thats why she is the queen of soul. And i start the thinking about that when i found out she was ill, the queen of soul, the soul, the soul the queen of soul. Well the soul is the spirit created by god which dwells in our flesh. So if she is the queen of soul every what happened was we know she was the queen of soul what happened was every time she sang she sang from her soul. She sang from this special place that was in her soul, be it gospel, jazz, blues, r b, always from her soul. Whatever the music genre was. But when aretha sang gospel, uhhuh, something happened. Something would shake the room. When aretha sang Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, it never sound any sweeter than it did coming from aretha. When receipting aifr sang gospel said mary dont you weep. Martha dont you moan, i believe mary went and dried her own eyes and martha went over and stopped moaning in the corner. She connected with the contrary with the created. There she was calling on the name of jesus. When aretha sang gospel something shifted, something happened in the atmosphere. And what im glad about is that i had an opportunity to know this woman, to know that she had this power to stand in between all these different genres and touch us in all these different ways. I am aggravateful to you. Family my prayer i want to be brief because we have been here for a while. My prayer for you is that the grieve comes in waves you can make wore anythrough it im grateful to god that aretha walked the earth. Im grateful to god we had the fortune to be on planet at the same time as Aretha Franklin. God bless you. Thank you for asking me to be here. Thank you for this moment. I love you all so much. Take care. [ applause ] [ applause ] why dont we all stand. Mother cicely tyson is i believe 91 years young. God knows we have been blessed. I thought i would start by saying good day. But i dont think that that is necessary. We all know what a great day this has been, and how blessed we are to be here [ applause ] on this day. I want to offer my condolences to the family. What a triumphant you have given the world, that they have been able to experience, no matter how, this moment in time with us. Sabrina, you are and will always be in my heart. God bless you. Aretha was the sum total of her lifes experience. And she shared that with us through the soul songs she sung. She spoke to us through her soul. And everything she experienced. And thats why, no matter what she was singing she moved every single person. And so with apologies for lawrence i said, grand, stop that noise, miss lucy. Put that music book away. What do you keep on trying if you practice until yourography you cant no notes a aflying like the ones that rants and rang from the kitchen to big woods when aretha sings. You aint got the natural voice for to make the sound come right. You aint got the turns and twistings for to make it sweet enough. Im going to tell you one thing now mr. Lucy, im telling you for true, when it comes to real right singing it aint no easy thing to do. Is enough for folks to holler looking at them lines and dots when there aint no one can sense it. And the truth comes in in spots. But for them that loathe your singing just scratch your heart and keys, just you stand and listen with me when aretha sings. Aint you never hearin aretha . Bless me. Look here. Aint you joking honey . You dont know what you lost. All them things. They stand back and hide faces when aretha sings. Fiddlein man. Silly. Put the fiddle on the shelf. Mocking bird stop whistling because he is so ashamed of himself. Folks playing on the banjo. Bless your soul forgets a move on when aretha sings. She just spreads her mouth and hollers come to jesus whoo. The sinners steps and voices timid like. And then she turns to oh, sends to you cross you claim. And you you are dropping when aretha sings. Hush your mouth. I hear that music as it rises up and mounts floating over the hills and valleys. I telling glory to the very greatest of god. Oh, its sweater than the music of an educated. And dearer than the star in the lan. Holier than an evening when the solemn church bells rings as i sit and calmly listen while aretha sings. Tarzan quit that barking hear me. Make that child keep still. Cant you hear the music from the valley to the hill . Oh, well let me listen. I can hear it. Through the breast of angel wings, soft and sweet swing low sweet chariot when aretha [ applause ] our final speaker before we go into Bishop Paul Martin and yolanda is the collaborator and guardian of arethas music for the last 40 years. Need i say more, the legendary clive davis. [ applause ] what a truly memorable day. What an incredible celebration of an incredible life. Aretha aretha loved detroit. She loved the life in detroit. She loved her family. And detroit, you led the world in loving aretha. [ applause ] when i sat down in her kitchen, when i had dinner with aretha in 1979, she she already was of course the queen of soul. She had given the world respect, natural woman, chain of fools, i never loved a man the way i loved you, rock steady, Amazing Grace, think and so much more. We talked we talked into the night about the next five years, five years of recording, when aretha would be over 40 years old. Much of music had changed. Could she still compete . Well, there was no doubt in arethas mind and frankly there was no doubt in my mind. I signed her to arister records and five years turned into more than three decades. [ applause ] we were committed to show all the budding musicians how long a career can last. For aretha was indeed a true genius of american music. Every time every time i was with her, whether professionally or personally i was conscious that she was and would always be a significant part of history. And over the course of my life ive been blessed with the opportunity to spend time with president s of countries, president of successful trend setting companies, spent time with many successful artists, writers and movie makers. Most of these individuals have affected the world in some way. But aretha is in her own very special category. Arethas voice will be heard arethas voice will be impacting, arethas voice will be influencing others literally for centuries to come. And so we got to work, year after year, well into her 40s, yes well into her 50s and beyond. And we had hits like jump to it, get it right, who is zoomin who, freeway of love. I knew you were waiting for me. Sisters are doing it for themselves. A rose is still a rose. Aretha would once again have number within records, gold albums, platinum albums and several new grammy awards. She relished she really relished and cherished every moment of it. And i was so privileged, so privileged to be there and personally witness the magnitude of talent of this singers singer, this musicians musician. And let me add for you, that behind her godgiven natural talent was the drive of a total perfectionist. After we decided on the material for an ensuing album she would go into aretha mode. And she would privately rehearsed. She would practice, she prepared and by the time she came into the studio she literally owned the song. Everyone in the studio would be in awe of her mastery when she stepped up to the microphone. It was a real rarity if she ever were to be doing if she were ever to do more than two takes. She was in control. And she was to nail it. Plus aretha was electrifyingly intuitive. We were about to go to washington, d. C. For her to perform at president clintons inauguration. We brain stormed the song and chose i dreamed a dream from lemis. Receipting aire took command of that song in her mind. Flash forward to the performance. And she was really totally in command right from the beginning, hitting the soaring notes as only she could. Everyone everyone in the audience was transfixed as the performance kept building. And then the one and only aretha on her own spontaneously change the lyric from i dreamed a dream to i have a dream. And that instinctive switch to the Martin Luther king mantra made the cliemgs chillingly unforgotable to this day. Aretha was being aretha in a class by herself. So today today on this very special day, permit me to talk of aretha the person. Yes, as youve heard, indeed aretha was indeed kind, thoughtful. And when she loved you she really loved you. She was genuinely funny. Occasionally with an on the money toppingle sarcasm. But she had a keen wit. She had a great sense of humor. But what stood out personally to me was that she really defined loyalty. If i were to ask her to perform at a special event, she was there. Yes, she traveled the country by bus. And in the winter roads are not friendly. But she would be there. One year i was getting a Lifetime Achievement award at new yorks waldorf astoria hotel. And she was telling me that she had begun seriously studying something totally new she had never before tried. She was studying ballet. She refused to tell me anything about the performance to come. Other than clive its going to knock your socks off and everybody in the audiences as well. Frankly, i couldnt at all imagine what it would be. And no one there will ever forget it, least of all me. The night came. The curtain went up. The orchestra started playing. And then aretha came on, straight faced in a tutu. Yes, a tutu. There was the queen of soul accompanied by members of the City Center Ballet company. She doing wellrehearsed pierrettes and dancing with most impressive agility and dignity. It was wonderful. My friend aretha was going to extraordinary lengths to make sure the night would be a night always to be remembered. And hopefully this reveals to you the incredible wide ranging quest for knowledge that aretha had. She studied Classical Music at juliarkd. And of course her performance at the 1998 grammys. You all remember that. Never forget it. That truly will always show that there was nothing that aretha could not inimtable master. And of course a as you heard all afternoon her commitment to political activism as is her quote. I have the money i get it for black people and i want to use it in ways that will always help our people. Listening there to clive davis longtime collaborator with Aretha Franklin weapon we have more coverage coming up. Jennifer hudson, Stevie Wonder they are going to perform. Please stay with us. To keep you both comfortable. And now, all beds are on sale. Its the last chance to save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Ends labor day. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Theyre the moderne stone age family. From the town of bedrock. Meet george jetson. His boy elroy. With instant acceleration, electric cars are more fun to drive and more affordable than ever. Electric cars are here. Plug into the present. Electric cars are here. Plug into the present. 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Coming up Jennifer Hudson and Stevie Wonder will perform tributes. We will bring you that when it happens shortly. But i want to turn now to our breaking news in the politics lead. President trumps attorney Rudy Giuliani telling cnn that he is already preparing a rebuttal to the potential findings of the special counsel Robert Mueller. Giuliani says the document will focus on suspected collusion by members of the Trump Campaign with russia. The firing of National Security adviser Michael Flynn as well as strou obstruction of justice allegations. Trumps legal team maintains its still considering a president ial interview with mueller but say they have yet to receive a response to their most recent proposal for such an interview. This comes as we learn that the former british spy behind the trump dossier said that russian intelligence officials believe they had then candidate trump, quote, over a barrel during the campaign. Lets get to cnn sara murray. Sarah,allny said he wants mueller to wrap up his investigation by tomorrow. Thats cheerily not going to happen so he is making other plans thats right it seems that julie made the calculation that if mueller is not brapg up by the beginning of september he is getting out in front of it, a strategy that seems at least as much of a pr and mr. Political strategy as a legal one. With little sign the russia probe is wrapping up Rudy Giuliani is hatching a backup plan. The president s lawyer telling cnns dana bash the legal team is halfway through preparing a report to rebut a number of possible findings from special counsel Robert Mueller. Its slated to include sections on everything from collusion with russia in the 2016 election to fired National Security adviser Michael Flynn, to obstruction of justice. The report all part of giulianis strategy to dull the blow of whatever mueller makes public. Ill be hear my version of the report and theyll have their version of the report. And the American People will decide it. Once adamant that mueller must wrap up the investigation before the 2018 midterms. It it isnt over by september then we have a very serious violation of the Justice Department rules that you shouldnt be conducting one of these investigations in the 60day period. Giuliani now admitting to cnn he has no idea what muellers time line is. Its customary for the Justice Department the prosecutors to go quiet for 60 days before the election. You but its up to the u. S. Attorneys to be sure they dont take overt steps impacting the election. As the investigation stretches on trump continuing to rail against the Justice Department. People are angry. People are angry. Especially one of his favorite new targets. I think bruce ohr is a disgrace.