DETROIT -- Aretha Franklin has won more Grammys than any other woman and was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She owns grand homes in Detroit's posh suburbs and has earned millions from recordings, concerts, films and book contracts.
So why won't she pay her plumber?Or her florist? Or, for that matter, her caterer, dentists, accountants, lawyers, songwriter, music arranger, moving company, landlords, dressmaker, limo drivers, tax collectors, landscaper, home inspector or even the guardian for her mentally ill son?
Since 1988, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed against Franklin in Michigan's Oakland and Wayne counties by people seeking payment on bills. In most cases, Franklin paid only after being taken to court, most recently in January.
Franklin, her lawyers and publicists declined to be interviewed for this article, though one noted that Franklin gives generously to good causes.
And that's the puzzle: That a woman who regularly contributes her time and talents to charity, a beloved star with roots in gospel music, can show such disregard for those to whom she owes money.
Franklin and her aides tried to avoid some suits, turning away process servers from palatial homes in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township. Some creditors gave up. In other cases, Franklin ignored court judgments, forcing them to seek liens on homes or assets.
"I made it as easy for her as I could," Dean Pitcairn, former owner of Hilton Limousine in Ferndale, Mich., said of his lawsuit to recoup nearly $1,900 from Franklin in 1991.
"I think it was the type of thing where they felt if they prolonged it long enough, we would forget about them. It just made me mad because everyone thinks she's a big hero, and she doesn't think twice about stepping on little people."
While some creditors dismiss Franklin as a spoiled diva, those who have known her for years say the answer is more complicated -- that her lapses may be explained by a distrust of outsiders and deep personal loss.
"She's a wonderful artist who shouldn't be handling her own business, but she does," said Wayne County Circuit Judge Harvey Tennen, who represented Franklin in the 1980s and believes she is overwhelmed by her financial affairs.
"She just doesn't have time for it, and she doesn't realize the kind of bad press she gets from not dealing with things like that. She needs a manager, she needs a lawyer, she needs professionals. But she usually doesn't talk to them until it's too late."
Franklin's reputation as a mercurial and enigmatic personality is a common, if hushed, topic in the music industry.
In 1988, Franklin failed to show up to sing for the second of singer George Michael's concerts in Detroit. Four years earlier, she backed out of a Broadway musical based on the life of Mahalia Jackson, for which a judge later ordered her to pay $230,000 to the show's producer.
"That was her style. She was above all the mundane activity of paying bills," said David Greenbaum, Franklin's accountant until 1992, when his firm sued Franklin. "She was an artist."
Tennen and others say Franklin, 56, won't delegate her business affairs because she finds it difficult to trust others. It's a wariness, they say, born of a failed first marriage -- which reportedly included physical abuse -- and exposure to the music industry at a young age. "People have taken advantage of her her whole life," Tennen said.
Others say Franklin assumed more control of her finances after the loss of her father and brother, who served as protective and guiding figures in her career.
The Rev. C.L. Franklin died in 1984 after several years in a coma. Aretha Franklin, who returned to Detroit from Los Angeles to be with him, is said to have spent more than $300,000 on his care. Brother-manager Cecil Franklin died in 1989.
Speculation over Franklin's failure to pay bills has become something of a parlor game among the people who have sued her. Her creditors are like a loosely constructed support group; they make condolence calls to new members and swap stories about efforts to collect from the singer.
It's not unusual for celebrities to be magnets for lawsuits from plaintiffs looking for a big payday. But the majority of cases against Franklin are for less than $4,000.
And in interviews with more than 20 people who have sued Franklin, some said they were reluctant plaintiffs. It was not merely the expense of litigation that bothered them. Many said they were fans of Franklin and admired her contributions to music and to Detroit.
Frank Winton, who owned Mark of Excellence Catering in Southfield, Mich., sued Franklin in 1988 over a $2,300 bill for four parties, including one for her birthday. He put off suing for months and hesitated to mention the debt at social functions.
"She did a lot of charity work, and I didn't want to embarrass her," he said.
Other creditors waited years.
In 1994, Franklin booked seven rooms at the Westin Hotel in Detroit for a scholarship dinner. When her credit-card company wouldn't pay, the hotel sent invoices to Franklin.