NEW YORK — Yes, British singer James Bay’s favorite music T-shirt is of the Rolling Stones, but the one he wishes he had? Aretha Franklin.
“Somebody asked the other day, ‘What’s your greatest influence of all-time?’ … I can’t see how it’s not Aretha,” Bay said while shopping at a vintage store with hundreds of music T-shirts plastered around the walls. “Since I was 16, I religiously listened to Aretha Franklin. And I feel (expletive) inspired by what she does.”
Instead of calling her the Queen of Soul, the rocker calls the late icon “the Queen of Music.”
“People talk about greatest singers of all-time (and) people talk about Frank Sinatra (and) Frank Sinatra’s phenomenal, but honestly, how does he hold a flame to Aretha?”