The Queen of Soul thinks we should reserve comments about the King of Pop’s drug use until after the full coroner’s report is released.
Aretha Franklin – who lived next door to the Jackson family in Encino, California, in the late 1970s and early 1980s – says: "Those are natural questions, but in fairness to him, we should wait for the coroner’s report and stop speculating."
The 67-year-old says she befriended Michael Jackson back in 1970 when she and her two sons met the Jackson 5 backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Franklin says of the singer, who was about 12: "I thought: ‘This little boy can really sing.’
"He liked James Brown and Jackie Wilson, especially his rendition of Doggin’ Around.
"He kind of emulated that. But when you listened to his albums, you knew he was an original and had things of his own coming from his heart."
Franklin lived next door to the Jacksons from 1979 to 1982 before she returned to Detroit.
She found the talented family to be "very intelligent and well mannered". Jackson, who was in his early 20s at the time, was, "quiet but still very precocious".
Franklin treasures those days with the superstar family, including a picture of the singer and his baby sister Janet taken under a tree in her garden when they came over for a swim.
She says she and her sons had a "super time" visiting Disneyland with Jackson. "He was very playful that day," she says.
"My son told me he kept sneaking up behind me like he was going to run into me."
