--- title: Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom' | TIME description: At Aretha Franklin‘s funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, many of America’s foremost celebrities and politicians turned out to pay their respects — including former President Bill Clinton. canonical: https://time.com/video/MyWr1cLF/ og:title: Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom' og:description: At Aretha Franklin‘s funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, many of America’s foremost celebrities and politicians turned out to pay their respects — including former President Bill Clinton. og:url: https://time.com/video/MyWr1cLF/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/MyWr1cLF/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom' twitter:description: At Aretha Franklin‘s funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, many of America’s foremost celebrities and politicians turned out to pay their respects — including former President Bill Clinton. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/MyWr1cLF/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom' > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom' [Watch (HLS stream): Bill Clinton Plays 'Think' Off His Cell Phone at Aretha Franklin's Funeral: 'It's the Key to Freedom'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MyWr1cLF.m3u8) (2:45)  _Published 2018-08-31. At Aretha Franklin‘s funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, many of America’s foremost celebrities and politicians turned out to pay their respects — including former President Bill Clinton._ --- Jul 28, 2023 12:29 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. Delivers Controversial Eulogy at Aretha Franklin's Funeral Service ](/video/lFBljY6w/) ### Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. Delivers Controversial Eulogy at Aretha Franklin's Funeral Service [FIRSTS Aretha Franklin ](/video/bRK5VWpS/) ### FIRSTS Aretha Franklin [10 Questions with Aretha Franklin](/video/xRZCitbW/) ### 10 Questions with Aretha Franklin --- ## Transcript We, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Started out not as a president and a first lady, a senator, a secretary of state, we started out like Aretha groupies or something. It's one thing I want to say to all the young people in the audience. Yeah, she had the voice of a generation, maybe the voice of the century. Yeah, she was born into a musical culture, yeah she sat on the steps. In her home and listened to Ark Tatem, maybe the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived play. But, she also worked for years and I mean years springing out of the church and the gospel music. To the RMV clubs, the JF clubs, the places where soul was being born, the places where rock and roll was being played. When nobody was paying particular attention. I went back and reread her autobiography And the other day and I said my God when she was making her way she actually open a jazz club for John Coltrane and he did this after her. Why I'm saying this? This woman. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Got us all here in these seats today, right? [ APPLAUSE ] Not because she had this breathtaking talent, which she did. Not because she grew up as Edgar J Hoover said at least, a princesses soul because of her father, her mother, her relative. But because she lived. With courage. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] That's the best I can do. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] It's the key to freedom, god bless you Aretha we love you. 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