Mary J. Blige has lifted the lid on what it was really like to work with the late Aretha Franklin.
Blige, 55, performed alongside Franklin in 1998 for the VH1 Divas Live TV special, before collaborating with the Queen of Soul a year later on her song Don’t Waste Your Time.
Recalling her first time meeting Franklin with host Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live this week, Blige admitted that both she and producer Babyface were ‘scared’ when Franklin arrived to the recording studio to work with them.
‘Aretha came in a hoodie, a sweatsuit, one pant-leg rolled up, like she was coming to fight or something,’ Blige told Cohen.
‘She had on this long trench coat and the hoodie and she was like, “How you doin? Hey, what’s up, Choppy?”
‘I thought [Choppy] was like an insult, but someone said that she was admiring me, like saying that I could sing,’ she explained.
Mary J. Blige lifted the lid on what it was really like to work with the late Aretha Franklin during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live this week
‘But everything just felt so … Babyface was even scared!’
Blige also said that the recording studio ‘was like a thousand degrees’ because Franklin hated the cold.
The Be Without You hitmaker added that Franklin got along with her mother, Cora Blige, but that she ‘didn’t stop being mean’.
Despite the friction, Blige went on to play jazz legend Dinah Washington in the 2021 Franklin biopic Respect, which starred Jennifer Hudson in the lead role.
In addition to her incredible voice, Franklin, who died in 2018, was known for her sharp tongue and shady comments.
Over the years, Franklin famously threw shade at Toni Braxton, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Diana Ross, and Dionne Warwick.
The music icon died from advanced pancreatic cancer on August 16, 2018, at age 76.
For her funeral, her body arrived in a shining gold casket at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in her Detroit, Michigan, hometown for a two-day public viewing.
Blige is pictured with the late Queen of Soul at an event in 2003
Blige, 55, famously performed alongside Franklin in 1998 for the VH1 Divas Live TV special
Hundreds of fans lined up to see Franklin’s body, which was dressed in a red frock and matching heels.
Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Owens, told The Associated Press that she and others who helped plan the public viewing wanted to give the Queen of Soul a send-off that ‘would match her legacy.’
The diva sold over 75 million records throughout her career and was regularly ranked as the greatest singer of all time by multiple music publications, including Rolling Stone.
After her death, a dispute between three of her four sons was sparked in court over which of her two handwritten wills would determine how her estate would be handled.
Franklin did not have a formal, typewritten will in place, despite years of health problems and efforts to get one done.
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Mary J. Blige reveals what it was REALLY like working with ‘mean’ Aretha Franklin