Otis Williams, the last surviving original member of The Temptations, has shared how Black artists were exploited in the 1960s, comparing contracts they signed to a form of slavery. 

The Temptations were formed in Detroit in 1961 by merging members of two rival vocal groups, The Distants and The Primes. Founded by Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and Al Bryant, they signed with Motown as The Elgins before changing their name to The Temptations in 1961.

With their signature dance moves and perfect harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts, creating an astonishing 42 Top Ten Hits with 14 reaching number one, their website says. They eventually became one of the most successful vocal groups in pop history. Despite earning acclaim with hits like “My Girl” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” they were being hurt financially by the industry.

According to The Telegraph, the group signed “punitive contracts that took advantage of their age and naivety” as was common with most young artists at the time.

“In 1964, a single sold for between 70 cents and a dollar. The Temptations were being paid just three cents – between them – on each record sold. (If this seems shocking, consider that artists generally earn between $0.003 and $0.005 on Spotify, which translates to roughly $3,000-$5,000 for every million streams),” the outlet wrote.

Along the way, as the group’s contract was up for renegotiation, they were advised by Norman Whitfield, with whom they had worked on hits such as Cloud Nine and Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, to hire an entertainment attorney named Abe Somer.

“He called me and said, ‘Otis, these are “let my people go” contracts. Slavery.’ I never will forget being told that,” Williams recalled to The Telegraph.

“I love Motown,” he continued, “but I’ve got to tell it the way it is. Business can be cold-blooded sometimes. And Abe Somer said, ‘We’re going to fix it so you get a better royalty rate, front money, a whole lot of other things we should be getting’ – because we’d been getting hit records. That’s part of the reason Eddie Kendricks and myself would get into it. We all got paid the same money. But he’d be cussing and carrying on, and I’d say, ‘Eddie, we have to wait until we’re in a much better position.’”

Even though Williams founded the group, he was not the owner of the Temptations name. Motown founder Berry Gordy owned it. “Eddie was saying, ‘We should strike!’ I was saying, ‘Eddie, we can’t strike. Berry would just say “Fine”, and put somebody else out as the Temptations.’

“That was the beginning of the end of Eddie and myself,” Williams recounted.

Kendricks left the group in 1971 to pursue a solo career. Ruffin, a cocaine and alcohol addict who seemed like a man without much regard for his co-singers, had also been kicked out of the group and lived the rest of his life struggling to regain the prominence he once had. Ruffin died of a cocaine overdose in 1991 at the age of 50.

Kendricks also passed away from cancer at the age of 52 in 1992. In 1971, Paul Williams also left the group due to ill health. Two years later, he was found dead in a car in a Detroit alley, with a gunshot wound to the head. In 1976, Gordy handed over the trademark of the Temptations name to Williams and the fourth member of the group, Melvin Franklin. Years later, Franklin also died, at age 52, in 1995.

Williams, the only remaining member of the ‘classic five’ (as the original members of the group were called), still performs with a version of the Temptations today.

“I don’t want to get too sanctimonious, but I’ve gotta say, God left me here for a reason.

“I learnt about myself, that I was put here to do what I’ve been doing, and to hold this group together through 30 different, strong, singing young men. And I’m the last man standing,” Williams said, adding, “I never would have imagined.”