If the internet is to be believed, The Temptations have performed approximately 3,300 concerts over their remarkable 65-year career. “It could even be more than that,” Otis Williams says with a smile. “After a while, I stopped counting.”
As the last surviving founding member of the Motown legends, the 84-year-old has been at every single show, guiding one of the great catalogues of American music – “My Girl”, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, “Ain’t No Time to Beg” and “Get Ready”, to barely scratch the surface – that defined the Motown glory years of the 60s and 70s.
“I look back on them with favourable thoughts,” he says of the concerts. “And some of it not so favourable. You’re going to have some clashes and misunderstandings. But then there are times when we shared and cried together. So it’s a potpourri of a lot of different things when it comes to reviewing my life story with The Temps.”
That story is one of triumph, trials and tribulations. The Temptations are one of the most successful vocal groups of all time, selling over 20 million albums, with four of their 37 top 40 Billboard hits reaching number one; they won the first of three Grammys in 1969 and in 2013 were handed the Lifetime Achievement Award; the group were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The “classic five” lineup – Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams (no relation) and David Ruffin, younger brother of soul star Jimmy, who replaced the volatile Al Bryant in 1963 – brought class and sophistication to R’n’B and soul, with immaculate tailored suits and smoothly choreographed moves such as the famous “Temptations Walk”. But there was also pain and tragedy: break-ups, addictions, racism, lawsuits, suicides, and early deaths.
