Aretha Franklin is scheduled to make her first Bay Area appearance since the late 1970s this summer.
The Queen of Soul will perform at Oracle Arena in Oakland on August 10.
Franklin has no public aversion to Northern California; in fact, her second concert album Aretha Live at Fillmore West was recorded in San Francisco in 1971. KQED noted that her last local concerts appear to have been in 1976 and 1978, both at the now defunct Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, which was a rare theater in the round with a rotating stage.
Instead, Franklin has been working on pushing through a well-documented fear that has gripped her since the Eighties. Franklin told USA Today that she took classes in 2014 to help combat a fear of flying. She has traveled to concerts mainly via buses in the decades since.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that the star has an album to promote now: Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics, released in October. It's an unpredictable collection of cover songs of artists including Adele, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan and Sinead O'Connor.
Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, who contributes production for the album alongside artists such as Outkast's Andre 3000, will open for Franklin.
Tickets are priced from $42.50-185.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. on March 13.
