Post by tempfan on Mar 26, 2006 19:12:27 GMT -5
BEHIND THE WHEEL WITH THE TEMPTATIONS OTIS WILLIAMS
A look back with Otis Williams of the Temptations.
By Otis Williams
Reader's Digest, April 2006 Issue
It was 1964: Things were happening for me and my group, the Temptations. We had our first hit, "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and I was finally becoming financially independent. So I thought it was time to be independent another way -- by learning to drive.
Growing up, I never had any interest in driving because the guys I hung out with all had cars. But that year something changed. My good friend and fellow Temptation Melvin Franklin made it possible. We were performing at the World's Fair in New York. Between shows, Melvin and I took the group's Cadillac Fleetwood out to the parking lot. "A car will go where you want it to go," Melvin would say to encourage me.
I took my road test and passed. Soon I bought my first home and car, a Lincoln Mark III. It was some wonderful time, moving on up the ladder of life. Still, I hadn't yet ventured onto the freeway. Eddie Kendricks, another Temptation, kept at me: "C'mon, man, follow me on out to my house; get on the freeway -- you can do it." I was nervous at first: Back in Detroit they were zooming! But there was nothing to it; I just settled in and followed him.
Melvin and Eddie are gone now, and I miss them a lot. But every once in a while, when I'm behind the wheel, I think of their patience and encouragement, and how much of them still drives along with me.
The Temptations' latest album, Reflections, was released in January.