A big reason why you always saw Aretha Franklin carrying a purse onstage is because she required promoters to pay her in cold hard cash or she wouldn’t sing.

Madonna’s in hot water again for ruining another celebrity tribute at the MTV Video Music Awards. Adorned in jewelry from her children’s home country of Malawi, Madonna presented the Video of the Year Award, and much like her tribute to Prince turned it into a story of herself.

The tribute quickly went off the rails as Madonna told the audience how Aretha Franklin’s song Natural Woman spared her from “being mistaken for a prostitute” living above a crack house in New York City.

Today the hilarious Matt Brown joins us to take a look at the life and music of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin – her infamous feuds with Patti Labelle and Dionne Warwick, her insistence on being pad in cold hard cash and why she didn’t leave a will.

MATT BROWN: https://www.mattbrowncomic.com

Plus,

➤ Designer Luke Song talks about Aretha’s iconic Obama Inauguration hat.

➤ Fausto Fernós makes his debut as a reality TV bear on Camp Wannakiki.

➤ It’s the end of an era: the Feast of Fun car that drove hundreds of entertainers including some of the best known drag queens has died in a small town in Canada.