A few years back, I shared office space with a co-worker who is much younger than me. We both liked to listen to music out loud while working, and so we had to find some common musical ground.
Our tastes were completely different except for one thing: classic Motown: The Temptations, the Four Tops, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, all the iconic artists of that ’60s era.
We immediately launched our collaboration with The Temptations’ classic “My Girl.”
I was thinking about that story as I reached out to Lawrence Payton Jr., the bass-baritone singer for the Four Tops. The Tops and The Temptations perform at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium Oct. 17, and I began our conversation by telling him the tale and asking if there was a universality in classic Motown.
Payton, the son of original Tops tenor vocalist Lawrence Sr., immediately said yes.
“You hit it dead on the head,” Payton said. “It’s very universal. There’s just something about that Motown music. You have to remember, when they were making that music, there was a lot going on in the country. We were being integrated in a way that we hadn’t previously. There was the Vietnam War, there were movements for equal rights. This music was set to that era, and it brought us all together.”
Payton originally played drums for the Four Tops, backing his father and the other three men who remained the Four Tops for decades. The group’s lineup remained the same until the elder Payton died in 1997. The group’s final original member, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, passed away earlier this year.
“I’m really still mourning,” Payton said. “But Duke spent nearly 70 years onstage doing what he loved.”
Payton himself had no initial intention of joining the Tops as a vocalist, but the first time they sang together, he knew it was meant to be.
“We just started singing automatically, man,” he said. “It was like going back in history. They started smiling. Levi (Stubbs, the group’s fiery lead vocalist) was very excited. They said, ‘This is like your father’s here.’”
As for their tourmates, Payton said that as much as they love and admire the Temps, there’s also some friendly competition going on, so Upstate Motown fans are in for a treat.
“We want to blow them off the stage and they want to blow us off the stage,” he laughed. “It’s friendly, but there’s definitely a competition.”
Want to go?
Who: The Temptations and the Four Tops
When: Thursday, Oct. 17
Where: Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium
Tickets and info: crowdpleaser.com
