Aretha was private. I respected this and she trusted me. Linda Solomon met Aretha Franklin in 1983 when she was just beginning her career as a photo journalist and newspaper columnist. Franklin’s brother and business manager arranged for Solomon to capture the singer’s major career events-just as she was coming back home to Detroit from California-while Franklin requested that Solomon document everything else. Everything. And she did just that. What developed over these years of photographing birthday and Christmas parties in her home, annual celebrity galas, private backstage moments during national awards ceremonies, photo shoots with the iconic pink Cadillac, and more was a friendship between two women who grew to enjoy and respect one another.

The Queen Next Door is a book full of firsts as Solomon was invited not only to capture historical events in Aretha'smusic career showcasing Detroit, but to join in with the Franklin family’s most intimate and cherished moments in her beloved hometown. From performance rehearsals with James Brown to off-camera shenanigans while filming a music video with the Rolling Stones, from her first television special to her first time performing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to her last performance with her sisters at her father’s church and her son’s college graduation celebration. In the book’s afterword, Sabrina Garrett Owens, Franklin’s niece, honors her aunt, a woman who wasan over whelming supporter of civil rights, women’s rights, and fundraising campaigns that helped to benefit her hometown. There was a time in her career-when Franklin was more in demand than ever before-when she insisted that if someone wanted her to perform, they had to come to Detroit. During this time all of her majorconcerts, national television specials, music videos, and commercials would happen in Detroit. Aretha Franklin showed her respect for the people in the city who championed her from the very beginning when she started singing as a young girl in the church choir. Franklin used to say,
I am the lady next door when I am not on stage.

The Queen Next Door offers fans a personaland unseen look at an extraordinary woman in her most natural moments-both regal and intimate-and highlightsher devotion to her family and her hometown Detroit- forever and ever.