Pete Davidson has been open about his struggles with substances. The Saturday Night Live alum addressed how drugs and alcohol have contributed to him doing things he’s not proud of in his new standup special Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli. One moment he regrets is his behavior at Aretha Franklin’s funeral. The Queen of Soul died on August 16 at the age of 76 due to complications from a rare type of pancreatic cancer. Davidson was one of many celebrities who were lucky enough to get a seat at her funeral services, which were also broadcast for her fans to see. He was in attendance with his then-girlfriend, Ariana Grande. The service lasted more than six hours with 18 performers and more than 15 speakers. One of the performers was Grande, whom Davidson was engaged to at the time. She even performed a tribute rendition of Franklin’s hit, “You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Apparently, it was too long of a service for Davidson.
“It’s embarrassing when you’re not on ketamine anymore, though… I’m embarrassed,” he says in the special. “I was out and about like that. That’s not cool, you know? I was at funerals like that. That’s f**ked up, right? I was at Aretha Franklin’s funeral like that. Yeah, I have to live with that. You know what I mean? She’ll never know, but still, that’s not the point. You know what I mean?”
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Onlookers and social media users were perplexed by Davidson’s appearance at the funeral. In his special, he jokes that Franklin herself would probably have wondered why he was at her funeral. Moreso, he regrets a “joke” he says he made to her family while at the service.
“It’s embarrassing,” Davidson recalls. “I was so high, I thought it’d be a good idea to go up to her family and go, ‘Hey, I’m just here to pay my R-E-S-P-E-C-T…s’” he says, noting one of Franklin’s biggest singles of the same title. Franklin won two GRAMMYs for her 1967 recording of the song, and the song’s name later became the title for the 2021 biopic starring Jennifer Hudson.
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