Temptations survivor Otis Williams ain’t too proud to talk

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Currently up and running at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre and destined for Broadway, the new jukebox musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life And Times Of The Temptations is narrated on stage by an actor portraying Otis Williams, the only founding member of the Temptations still alive (and still touring with the band). Williams, who serves as the musical’s executive producer, spoke to The Globe and Mail while in town for the opening-night performance in Toronto.

The musical Ain’t Too Proud is obviously about the Temptations, but, to a lesser extent, it’s the story of Detroit. Do you still live there?

I live in Los Angeles. When I go to Detroit now, I enjoy reminiscing. I was speaking with Duke [Abdul Fakir] of the Four Tops recently. We talked about going to see the Funk Brothers in a club, when they weren’t in the studio recording. Detroit was something back then. But when the riots happened, everything changed.

You’re talking 1967. Were you there?

I was. The night it began, I was getting ready to go to a place called the Chit Chat Lounge, which was on 12th Street. I was going to see [legendary Motown bass player] James Jamerson. But something said, ‘Otis, don’t go there.’ So instead of parking my car, I went home. By the time I got there, all hell had broken loose right around the area of the Chit Chat. If I hadn’t gone home, I would have been caught up in the melee.

The city changed and the Temptations changed, moving from love ballads to psychedelic soul. How did your 1968 hit Cloud Nine come to be?

I was in New York with my good friend Kenny Gamble of the songwriting and production team Gamble and Huff. We were at the Warwick Hotel, where I heard Sly & the Family Stone’s Dance to the Music. It was different. When I got back to Detroit, I asked Norman Whitfield, who was our producer, if he had heard of them. He said, ‘No, man, I ain’t heard of no Sly & the Family Stone!’

It was quite a departure from something like My Girl. What was the reaction from the fans?

Our previous single was Please Return Your Love To Me. To go from a beautiful ballad like that to Cloud Nine, I imagine our fans were wondering what the Temptations were doing. The song took off slowly, but it eventually became the first Grammy winner for Motown and the Temptations. I have the Grammy sitting in my home today.

Serious question: What’s your go-to shower song?

I don’t sing in the shower. I don’t. I get in there and I do what I do and get out.

The musical gets into the inner-band turmoil. How tough a decision was it, for example, to fire David Ruffin?

We’re people first. You have to remember, we were five Southern guys. By the time we started making very good money, all kinds of doors were opening up for us. It tested us. Success can be a very strong aphrodisiac. You start to feel a little more independent. There was cocaine. But life is what it is. People are who they choose to be when it comes to temptations, excuse the pun.

With all those great performers and studio musicians and songwriters and producers, what was the atmosphere like at Motown? Was it dog-eat-dog?

Not at all.

But the recording studio was called the Snake Pit, wasn’t it?

Listen, the backbone was the competitiveness. Berry Gordy thrived off of that. Who could come up with the best production? Who could come up with the best song? They would hold quality-control meetings every Friday. I sat in on a few of them, and I can tell you there was no ill will. No malice. It was always clean competitiveness.

I guess if you have to work on a Detroit assembly line, you could do worse than Motown, right?

Exactly. Berry used to work at Ford. There will never be another company like Motown. Never. Berry took us into the studio eight or nine times before we got The Way You Do the Things You Do. Record labels won’t do that today. They might give you a second chance. If you don’t have it by then, they’re dropping you. But Berry believed in us and his other acts. ‘Go back until you get it. Go back until you get it.’ We got it with The Way You Do the Things You Do, and we’re still going today.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Ain’t Too Proud – The Life And Times Of The Temptations runs to Nov. 17, at the Princess of Wales Theatre.