The 1998 Grammys were the most action-packed ceremony in the show’s soon-to-be-60-year history. Aretha Franklin pinch-hit for Luciano Pavarotti at the last minute on a performance of aria “Nessun Dorma,” often ranked among the greatest in award-show history. (Photo: Stereogum)

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday at age 76, delivered countless stunning television performances over her more than 60-year career, but one of them came later in life: her Grammy Awards rendition of “Nessun Dorma” in 1998. And it almost never happened. Luciano Pavarotti was supposed to sing the aria, but when he canceled at the last minute, Franklin stepped in, stepped up, and saved the day.

Grammy telecast producer Ken Ehrlich recalls the chaotic but ultimately historic moment fondly.

“Pavarotti had come in, rehearsed with us the day before, and I had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be in the show,” Ehrlich tells Yahoo Entertainment. “So, we were well into the show. Not that at that point I had realized that he wasn’t there. But my assistant Ron Basile came running up to me — I live underneath the stage during these shows, because that’s where I can see and talk to both the artists and the presenters — and he ran up to me with a torn off little piece of paper with a phone number on it and said, ‘Would you please call Mr. Pavarotti? He wants to talk to you.’ Which of course seems strange to me, because he should have been in the building.

“So I called him, and I’ll never forget it. It was a brief conversation: ‘I am sick and I cannot come and sing for you. I will come and sing for your next year.’ Which I said — to myself, not to him — ‘That’s great, but what the f*** am I going to do now?’”

Ehrlich, rushing to fill a “four-and-a-half-minute hole with a 65-piece orchestra, 30 singers,” considered asking Steve Wonder, who was on the show that year, to step in. He also thought that Sting, who had been slated to present Pavarotti’s performance that night, could serve as a replacement. “And then, I remembered that two nights before, Aretha had sung ‘Nessun Dorma’ for Pavarotti at MusiCares.”

Franklin, who had famously performed “Think” in 1980’s The Blues Brothers musical comedy, was set to appear on the Grammy telecast to promote that movie’s sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 — and she was already at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, where the 1998 Grammys took place. Ehrlich went into crisis-control mode.

“I ran up two flights of stairs. I grabbed [Pavarotti producer] Phil Ramone, who had produced MusiCares’ [Person of the Year gala] that year. I ran up to this cramped little broom closet of a dressing room. We knocked on the door, walked in. And she’s sitting there. Frankly, sitting there eating fried chicken, which did not surprise me, because I had often shared food with her. And I just said to her, ‘Look, we have a problem. How would you like to sing twice tonight?’ And she sat there and one of those ‘Aretha looks’ that I would get from time to time, like, ‘What are you saying to me?’ And then she said, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”

Still, some adjustments had to be made. “She said, ‘But Ken, what about the key? Three keys. I think he sings it three keys different from me.’ So we scrambled, and we got Pavarotti’s conductor, who was there and had learned at the same time that Pavarotti wasn’t coming. And we found a boom box — we always recorded rehearsals and things, but this was in the days of cassettes, you know — we put it on the counter in the dressing room. And she spent the next 45 minutes working with Pavarotti’s conductor. We tested the key and she said, ‘I can do it. It won’t be easy, but I want to do this.’”

Later, when Franklin saw the set with the massive orchestra ready to go, she told Ehrlich, “This is gonna be fun.” Says Ehrlich, “And it was. It was amazing.”

Ehrlich actually made a rare departure from his home base underneath the Grammy stage to watch the moment firsthand. “I stood at the side of the stage; I wanted to see the audience reaction when she finished,” he explains. “And honestly, there was a stunned silence for a minute — and then all of a sudden, the applause erupted.”

Recalling the performance itself, Ehrlich marvels, “You can almost see it in her [when you watch video of the performance] — she gains confidence during this number. I didn’t realize that until I watched it a few times. She’s not tentative, because Aretha’s never tentative about anything, but as she sings the song, she just gets more and more confident in that. At the end, she ‘Aretha-fies’ the ending, and it’s like, ‘I now own this.’”

Ehrlich and Franklin didn’t reconnect the night, but they spoke on the phone the next morning, both now realizing the significance of what had transpired.

“It was an incredible moment where you realized that you have affected someone’s life and that in the end it really means something to them,” he says. “You know, with all of the things that she has accomplished in her life, for her to say to me, ‘This is one of the highlights of my life; I’ll never forget last night,’ it was really something. As close as we had been, because we had done a number of shows together before, that was a bonding experience that we were to share the rest of our lives.”

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Entertainment.

Producer Ken Ehrlich speaks onstage at An Evening With Ken Ehrlich at The GRAMMY Museum on January 14, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/WireImage)

Musicians of all genres have been extremely vocal during these political tumultuous times, and with the 59th annual Grammy Awards right around the corner, it’s likely that some of the winners, presenters, and performers will want to use their stage time to proselytize or protest. Grammys telecast producer Ken Ehrlich doesn’t have a problem with that.

“We’ve always thought about the show’s ability to be responsive to what’s going on in the world… We respect and encourage artistic freedom,” Ehrlich tells Yahoo Music. “I’ve always felt that the Grammys reflect more than just what happened in music — and that people watch the show because they believe that they’re going to get more than just a nice splashy concert with a bunch of awards. So, why not give them that?”

While Ehrlich stresses that the Grammy ceremony “doesn’t often take an advocacy position,” he does proudly recall “certain times when we have supported causes.”

“A few years ago, with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, we did a wedding that encompassed [both homosexual and heterosexual couples],” referring to an historical 2014 Grammys moment that included Madonna as the wedding officiant and lesbian singer-songwriter Mary Lambert crooning the duo’s “Same Love”/”She Keeps Me Warm” hook. “I was really proud of that. That was really important.”

Ehrlich is also proud of Katy Perry’s anti-domestic violence “By the Grace of God” performance from 2015. “That song that was kind of masked, but it was really about rape,” says Ehrlich. “The segment started out with a message from the president [Barack Obama stated, “It’s not OK, and it has to stop”], that led into a [spoken-word] message from a woman [Brooke Axtell] who had been a victim of rape. We were very supportive.”

Ehrlich expects there may be even bolder statements at the 2017 Grammys. “As far as this year goes, with the political climate, I don’t think there’s any question [that artists will speak out],” he says. “We’re in a very turbulent time in this country, and people want, or actually have the need, to express their feelings about where we are. And while I think [the show has] a responsibility to keep those feelings and expressions valid, we respect the rights of artists to express themselves.”

Ehrlich, who has produced the Grammys for the past 37 years, actually sees the ceremony as part of long pop music tradition of protest and advocacy. “I’m an old guy,” he chuckles. “My youth was in the ‘60s. I sat cross-legged and listened to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and Phil Ochs, the protest singers. That was my music… I watched and fully believed that the ‘60s — and the music of the ‘60s — mobilized a generation and changed America. And I think we have gone through periods where I questioned whether or not music can continue to do that — but there was always somebody. There was always a troubadour. There was always a Springsteen. Every generation has had its conscience through music. I encourage that.”

This year’s announced Grammy performers include Adele, Bruno Mars, Metallica, the Weeknd with Daft Punk, Carrie Underwood, John Legend, Keith Urban, Maren Morris with Alicia Keys, and A Tribe Called Quest with Anderson .Paak and Dave Grohl. The 59th annual Grammy Awards will air Sunday, Feb. 12 on CBS.

This year’s Grammys, airing Monday evening on CBS, may be the most tribute-heavy in the awards’ 58-year history, with segments dedicated to the late B.B. King, Natalie Cole, the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, and of course, David Bowie. Five of these legends died in just the past month and a half. And while longtime Grammy Awards producer executive Ken Ehrlich is no stranger to last-minute memorials (as evidenced by the tasteful retooling of 2012’s ceremony after Whitney Houston died the night before), he tells Yahoo Music that “honestly, 75 or 80 percent of this [year’s] show was laid out as of Jan. 1” – the day Cole’s death was announced – “so it slowed us down. All of these passings, with the exception of B.B., happened within the last month or so. And I worked with all these people; I knew all of them. It’s more personal to me than anything else, so I almost have even more of a stake in it.”

Ehrlich, sitting backstage at Los Angeles’s Staples Center right before the dress rehearsal for Lady Gaga’s Bowie tribute with musical director Nile Rodgers, says it was important to find the right balance between loving homages to the past and a celebration of the biggest music of the current era. “I’ve been asked a couple of times: ‘Isn’t this show going to be a downer?’ No, it’s not,” he insists. “Music is celebratory. We’re saying goodbye to these people in a way that celebrates who they were when they were living. And if it brings a tear to the eye because it reminds you – music does that; it reminds you of something sad, something happy, something that makes you angry, something that pisses you off – well, that’s what it should do! All we’re doing is teeing that up for you, to experience it in your own way.”

Adds Rodgers: “Emotionally, it’s really tough for me, because it’s no secret – I’ve said it a million times – that David Bowie changed my life. He may have had almost as much an effect on my career as my [Chic] partner Bernard Edwards… But for me personally, this is wonderful, because this is my opportunity to say goodbye through music. To me, music is a celebratory medium, and I get to celebrate the life of a really amazing artist who happened to be a great friend and great collaborator.”

Without a doubt, the most anticipated tribute of this year’s Grammys will be Rodgers and Gaga’s celebration of Bowie’s legacy: a gloriously theatrical but respectful 10-song medley featuring Lady Gaga transforming into Lady Stardust, in full Ziggy-inspired glam attire, against a psychedelic backdrop of dancing starmen, flanked by Rodgers and “Fashion”-appropriate modern dancers. However, when it was first announced that Gaga would perform the tribute to Bowie, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s all-time most important and influential figures, some naysayers wondered why the segment wasn’t being led by one of Bowie’s peers, like Iggy Pop or Brian Eno.

“That’s a very legitimate question,” Ehrlich admits. Says Rodgers: “We called everybody! I could show you all my emails! I think in Iggy’s case, he just wasn’t available. People didn’t know that we were going to do a Bowie tribute at the Grammys, so what happened was, actually it was Gaga’s idea: She had me reach out to, say, 15 different people. Everybody was available, but by the time we linked up, Iggy wasn’t available, and to me that was important [to include him]. But when you see this [Gaga performance], you’ll get it. It will make sense.”

“It’s subjective, but there are probably many people who look at Lady Gaga as a modern-day incarnation of Bowie,” says Ehrlich. “She’s outrageous – it’s about clothing, it’s about musicianship, and there’s this left turn that she’s always been. Not that David was that controversial, but he was controversial, like she is.”

“I don’t want to speak for Gaga, but I’ve had a huge number of conversations with her about David, and she says – I’m paraphrasing her here – that he was probably the single greatest influence on her life, in terms of where she was coming from artistically,” says Rodgers. Rodgers also stresses that Gaga helped figure out the daunting task of distilling Bowie’s five-decade, multi-genre, multi-character career into just a few minutes. “As musical director, my concept was to musically make that statement – to tell this historical, linear journey,” he says. “That was a little bit tricky, but Gaga’s idea was to do it chronologically, and we for the most part do it that way. But then at the end, you’ll see we do a finale that’s almost like a ‘tribute to the tribute,’ and it’s going to be very interesting.”

Below, in Ehrlich’s words, is what to expect from the other tributes at this year’s Grammys.

MAURICE WHITE

“I’m an old guy, and the first series I did was this little local show in Chicago called The Marty Faye Show. And the house band was the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which was Ramsey Lewis, Maurice White, and Cleveland Eaton. Maurice was the drummer. I met Maurice in 1968 in Chicago, before there was any Earth, Wind & Fire! But we stayed in touch and would see each other, and over the years we had him on Grammy shows. So this [death] was very personal to me. But more than that was this kind of fateful coincidence that Earth, Wind & Fire were being honored with a lifetime achievement award this year. So we started thinking about how to something appropriate – so we’ve asked them to present the award for Record of the Year. And there’s one other surprise we’re doing for them… but you’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

GLENN FREY (tribute by surviving Eagles Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Timothy B. Schmit, and Joe Walsh, plus Jackson Browne)

“I’m very close with Irving Azoff, the Eagles’ manager. I never thought the Eagles would want to come and play for Glenn, because I figured [his death] was way too fresh, too new. But I just kind of posed the question very gingerly to Irving. I was hoping it would happen, but it was still a surprise when I got a call from Irving a week or so ago saying the guys would like to come and do ‘Take It Easy’ for Glenn. And I think they were very comfortable with the addition of Jackson Browne, who co-wrote ‘Take It Easy.’”

LEMMY KILMISTER (tribute by supergroup Hollywood Vampires; intro by Dave Grohl)

“I’m not a real metalhead, though over the years I’ve listened to a lot of it. I had already booked the Hollywood Vampires – Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Matt Sorum, and Duff McKagan – so that made sense automatically [to have them do the Lemmy tribute]. Then Dave Grohl called me and said, ‘What are you gonna do about Lemmy? Could I introduce it?’ So Dave’s going to set it up. And there’s going to be this lovely imagery to go with it.”

“We wanted to have Chris on the show this year. We knew we probably weren’t going to out-sensationalize the CMAs with Justin Timberlake, so we had to go another direction. So I was on the phone with Chris, talking about what we might do, and I had seen on YouTube that he had done ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ and it was really good. I said, ‘I have an idea. You obviously love B.B. King. You love the blues. Maybe we can build a blues segment and do something different than what you’ve done on other shows’ – which is what we’re always trying to do on the Grammys. He said, ‘You’d let me do a tribute to B.B. King on your show? I’d love to do that!’ I think we suggested Gary Clark Jr., and then about a week after we were thinking of having someone else someone that would bridge the generations. And I love Bonnie Raitt. I’ve been in love with her for years. So Chris said, ‘What about Bonnie?’ And I said, ‘You’re not gonna get an argument out of me!’ And of course she wanted to be involved. They’re going to do ‘The Thrill Is Gone,’ the three of them, and that’s the perfect way to do it.”

NATALIE COLE

“Natalie was the first [of 2016’s deaths]. That really hit me right at the first of the year. I knew her very well and had done many shows with her over the years. We started thinking about what we could do [to honor her]. I always loved the song ‘Miss You Like Crazy,’ which is appropriate, but then I looked at what we had done on the Grammys when she won Record of the Year [in 1992] for ‘Unforgettable’ – we did this beautiful performance with her and her father [Nat King Cole], and it ended with this kiss being blown from her father to her on video, and then live onstage her blowing a kiss to her father, and then at the end her turning front and blowing this kiss to the audience. And what we decided to do with that right from the beginning, no hesitation, was that’s the way to end our whole In Memoriam segment. I suspect there will be people that will say, ‘Why didn’t you do a live performance?’ But the reality is, when you see this, it will be just an incredible moment. Not only will it speak to Natalie being gone, but it will sum up the 40 or 50 people in the In Memoriam segment.”

This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.