is otis williams still alive

For decades now, Otis Williams and Shelly Berger have started every morning, every day of the week, the very same way: with a telephone call.

Berger, the Temptations' manager of 56 years, is usually the one to punch, checking in with the singer and grouping helm fifty-fifty when there's cipher to discuss across: "Well, we both woke up. So we've got another shot."

Occasionally, like on a morning time after a Temptations road gig, Berger will try to hold off an extra fifteen minutes. That'due south when his phone will ring with Williams on the line: "Ha ha, I beat you!"

Berger, 84, is a concern partner and support organization for Williams, 80, who founded the Temptations in Detroit more six decades ago. They share an energy and their bail is tight, seen in the finish-each-other's-sentences rapport they built through years in the trenches.

The ii were in Detroit final week for the homecoming of the Temptations musical "Own't Too Proud," which is playing the Detroit Opera House through Aug. 28. Williams and Berger are executive producers of the show, which grossed $84 million during its Broadway run and is now touring Due north America. The musical volition make its London premiere early on next yr, then tour Europe and eventually Commonwealth of australia.

The pair sat for a conversation with the Free Printing at Dearborn's Henry hotel amid a bustling few days of festivities.

"Our relationship has gone way past creative person-manager," said Berger. "I mean, I'thousand closer to Otis than I am to my brother."

"It'southward a constant love, a constant understanding," said Williams. "Prove business is such an up-and-down business. Depending on who yous are and what y'all're made of, y'all can swing, and sometimes that swing can exist bad. But every bit far every bit Shelly and myself are concerned, it's been a good thing."

Such longevity for an creative person-manager squad is uncommon in the music world. One of the other rare examples, also close to home, is Bob Seger and his manager of 57 years, Punch Andrews. Like those ii, Williams and Berger have operated together through the decades on just a handshake deal.

"We can talk in shorthand because of all the things we've been through together. Nosotros never lost faith. There were many, many times we could have packed it up and said, 'Hey, look, this is just too hard,'" said Berger. "Simply no. With Otis' leadership and the Tempts' drive and Berry Gordy'southward total, total backing, there was nix nosotros couldn't accomplish."

Bruce Resnikoff, president and CEO of Universal Music Enterprises, has worked closely with the duo for years.

"What they have is what every successful union has — the aforementioned passion, the same goal, a common respect. And they have a family: The Temptations are their family," he said. "I retrieve one of the things that keeps them together is they're mutually aligned. They're all virtually the Temptations. It's non nearly Shelly. It's non about Otis."

Berger was a gregarious 27-year-former with an acting background when he was hired in 1966 to run Motown Records' Los Angeles function, charged with landing TV and film opportunities for the label's artists. He was soon appointed to manage two of the company's A-listers, the Supremes and the Tempts, and later oversaw the careers of acts such as the Jackson 5.

Later 15 years at the label, he launched his own direction company in 1981, and Williams hopped right aboard.

After initial skepticism from the Tempts in '66 — their new manager at Motown was white?! — the group embraced Berger. For Williams especially, something clicked. There was a trust, an ability to level with each other.

"We take our disagreements, but that don't mess with the love. That's simply human, you know?" said Williams. "He and I take been hanging similar wet clothes all these years. And I'm very thankful for that kind of thing, like in boxing, where you weave and bob and dial when you take to. He and I accept that kind of human relationship."

"Because I tin can't take a punch," Berger said with a express mirth.

"Nor can I," said Williams.

Another reason information technology's worked, they said, is because they take a common philosophy, demanding the best out of each other. It's an ethic they said they share with Berry Gordy.

At 92, the Motown founder hasn't ventured out much since the COVID-nineteen pandemic hit. But he popped by when Berger historic his 84th birthday earlier this calendar month, and a planned 10-minute cameo turned into a three-hour visit.

"With the three of us, it was just so glorious," said Berger. "I felt most ten years younger just seeing him and feeling the three of us together."

In 1995, with the death of Melvin Franklin, Williams became the last surviving member of the Temptations' classic lineup. Equally of this year, 27 singers — "some of the baddest brothers in the business," Williams said — have served time with the quintet. The latest of them, Detroit-born bass vocalizer Jawan Jackson, joined the group in June.

The current iteration also features Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks and Tony Grant, carrying on the legacy started in 1960 with a lineup that soon jelled into the "Classic Five" of Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams and David Ruffin.

From 1965 through 1975 — from "My Girl" to "Shakey Basis" — the Tempts racked up xiv No. 1 R&B successes, and the group continued to churn out hits well into the '90s.

Through it all, said Berger, Williams has been the glue keeping the motorcar together. Berger long ago stopped viewing himself as managing director of the Temptations; rather, he was in the Otis Williams business organization.

"In 2022, this group is yet playing the A-level venues, and there shouldn't be any rhyme or reason for that," the managing director said. "I hateful, the Temptations were supposed to be out of business thirty years ago. But Berry Gordy will tell y'all too: Otis is the glue."

Universal's Resnikoff said Williams and Berger take excelled by approaching the Temptations every bit a larger cause.

"Otis and Shelly have always known that they're a piece of a bigger thing," he said. "And that's really unique. There are enough of phenomenal artists and plenty of astounding managers, merely I don't think I've seen that kind of talent come together and work and then well in tandem for and then long."

Recent years have been invigorating for the pair: They launched the Broadway show, embarked on the group's 60th ceremony campaign and released the anthology "Temptations 60," which put Williams in the producer'southward chair for the outset fourth dimension.

"People don't even know who's in the Temptations, but information technology doesn't thing. Otis has ever kept a level of excellence where suddenly the names didn't mean anything," Berger said.

Williams nodded and expounded on his manager's point.

"I've always believed it's more than just the talent," he said. "Sure, that helps y'all do what you lot have to do. Just I tell people — and I might get a niggling racy hither — if y'all're an asshole of a person, you're going to negate the talent. You've got to know how to bargain with information technology because this business organization can leave yous thinking you're more than than y'all are."

That point is driven home in "Own't Too Proud" when Ruffin's ego grows toxic and threatens the Tempts' cohesion. Berger, played onstage by Reed Campbell, is left with the task of firing the gifted just troubled singer.

It's the sort of tragic showbiz trope that has kept "Backside the Music" in business organisation for a quarter-century. But Williams, with his willingness to "fight from behind," has avoided those pitfalls, said Berger. He may have founded the Temptations, but the second tenor didn't muscle for spotlight.

"Otis Williams has never thought that way for one minute. It's always: 'We're moving forrard, we're moving forward,'" Berger said. "As brilliant as he is, he's always fix to say: 'Hey, allow him accept the lead, or let him take the lead, and that's OK, because I know what I've accomplished, so I don't take to worry about being out at that place in front.'"

Williams admits in that location are moments he feels "long in the tooth." Dorsum in the day, he was charged up and champing at the bit, packing for a road trip three or four days ahead. Nowdays, he said with a laugh, he waits until the minute information technology'southward fourth dimension to leave.

"Simply once nosotros striking the stage, it'due south magic fourth dimension," he said. "When nosotros walk out at that place and see 'em from the young all the way upwards to our age, that'due south special."

Still, there's a hard reality afoot. None of us is going to be here forever. Will the Temptations keep going when Williams is no longer on the stage?

The answer is maybe … and maybe not.

"We've talked about that. Because I'm real with myself," Williams said. "I know in that location's going to be a fourth dimension I have come up off. Y'all know, 80 years former ain't similar 20."

"Non when y'all're doing what he does and what the Temptations practice," added Berger. "I mean, there are guys who can keep till 85 or 90 because they stand onstage and sing. The Temptations are a unique situation."

The managing director paused.

"We'll make a stab when Otis is ready to come off the stage considering he has worked too long and hard to permit it go just because he'due south not at that place."

Williams nodded in agreement, and Berger continued:

"Simply I don't know. Considering Otis is the anchor. Otis is the Temptations. So all these disparate people who come in are living on the shoulders of people long gone," Berger said. "They didn't make whatsoever hits. The reason people are applauding and continuing up for them is based on what somebody else did.

"Without the anchor, just left upward to their own devices, I don't know that it could carry on. The only reason we've continued on to this signal is Otis Williams. I've never tried it before without that. No thing who else was at that place, I've always had Otis Williams."

Contact Detroit Costless Press music author Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

'Own't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations'

Through Aug. 28

Detroit Opera Firm

1526 Broadway, Detroit

 $35 and up

broadwayindetroit.com

Source: https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/brian-mccollum/2022/08/14/otis-williams-shelly-berger-motown-music-manager/10311168002/

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