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The Temptations Pt 2: The Tammi Terrell Tragedy · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: story about voices, voices that were meant to sing in
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: perfect harmony, but instead lied and betrayed. It's about believing
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in the lie and burying the lie, and about what
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: happens when the lie can no longer be silenced. It's
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: a story about suits, furs, a pair of Doberman's with
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: gangster names, and a star Tammy Terrell, who lit up
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: every room she walked into and whose voice made Marvin
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Gay cry. It's also a story about the man who
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: nearly destroyed her, a walking, talking, coked up time bomb,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and horn rims and sequins. This is a story about
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the Temptations and the disgrace they never sang about. And
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: since we're talking about the Temptations, of course, this is
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: also a story about great music. Unlike that music, I
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: played a few at the top of the show that
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: melotron called Detroit schlock City MK one. I played you
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Bridge
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, And why would
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of choir Boy Cheese?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: song in America On March sixteenth, nineteen seventy and that
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: was the day that rising motown star Tammy Terrell died
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: at the age of twenty four, a death that instantly
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: cast suspicion on her abusive ex David Ruffin, who it
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: was whispered, was to blame for one of the most
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: shocking scandals in R and B and pop music history.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: On this special part two episode Voices, Lies, Suits, furs, Dobermans,
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  Speaker 2: a coked up time bomb, Tammy Terrell in the Temptations,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I'm Jay Brennan.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: This this disgrace.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Slam February sixth, nineteen sixty seven, the Houston Astrodome. The
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: bell signaling the start of the seventh round rang out.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: The roar of the crowd is deafening. Ernie Terrell lumbered
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: from his corner of the ring, gloves up, game face on,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: but that's all it was at this point a brave face.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: The one time heavyweight champ was struggling. His left eye
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: was swollen shut his legs were wobbly, and the only
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: thing he was about to punch was a one way
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: ticket to his own private Pellucaville. He met his opponent
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the ring, the mat feeling as
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: spongy as a slab of rotted hardwood under his feet,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: A left hook came in like a wrecking ball and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: sent Ernie to the ropes. He clung to them in
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a desperate attempt to stay upright, and for the moment
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it worked. His one good eye watched those two giant
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: fists coming him over and over, raining down on him,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: trying to pummel him into nothingness. And then, in addition
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to the NonStop barrage of punches, came a flurry of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: shit talking from his opponent's mouth, which he was now
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: shouting hoarsely through the teeth clenched around a wet.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Mouthguard what's my name? What's my name?
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  Speaker 2: Ernie absorbed each blow, the physical ones and the verbal ones,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: as he looked up at his a point Muhammad Ali,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: his eyes burning red like hell fire, like the devil himself,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: a manifestation of Ernie's reckoning.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Standing at a sweaty six foot three, a man wasn't going.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: To stop until Ernie Terrell was flat on the map.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Before the fight, during a press interview, Ernie had called
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Ali not by his Muslim name, but by his given name,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Cassius Clay. Nothing disrespected or pissed off Muhammad Ali more
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: for Ernie. It was an honest mistake, at least that's
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: what Ernie was saying. But it was a mistake that
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: he was paying dearly for now. After fifteen rounds, Muhammad
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Ali won by unanimous decision, and neither Ernie Terrell nor
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the world would ever get his name wrong again. Two
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: years early in nineteen sixty five, when Ernie Terrell was
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: still the World Boxing Association champ, his name was the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: one that meant something, or at least it did to
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Thomasina Montgomery, an aspiring R and B singer who had
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: shortened her first name to Tammy and took Ernie Terrell's last.
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  Speaker 1: Name for her own.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: It was rumored that Tammy had married Ernie, but there's
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: no record of this, so it stands to reason that
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the surname was simply a strong recognizable choice for a
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  Speaker 2: little known singer on the come up. But Tammy Terrell
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: shared more than just a name with the WBA boxing champ.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: She shared Ernie's pain in humiliation, and she too got
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: the shit kicked out of her.
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  Speaker 1: Not by Muhammad Ali.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Of course, but instead by the so called hardest working
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: man in show business, James Brown, who hired her as
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: a backup singer and then put those hardest working hands
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: all over her in nineteen sixty five, when Tammy left
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  Speaker 2: James Brown's Review, when she left her hometown of Philadelphia
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and went to Detroit, where the sound of Young America
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: was being created, where there was swinging, swaying and records playing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: She put on Ernie Turell's brave face, but on the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: inside she was a woman fractured, and not just by
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the godfather of soul.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: She'd suffered abuse.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: From men and boys since she was eleven years old.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: But no one could see this woman, or should I say,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: people chose not to see this woman.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: This was nineteen sixty five, after all.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: One year after Time magazine published an article about a
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: study in a medical journal in which doctors, actual doctors,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: described male physical abuse toward women as quote temporary therapy unquote.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: So when most people looked to Tammy Terrell, they looked
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: past the telltale signs of abuse, instead focusing on her
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  Speaker 2: breathtaking beauty.
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  Speaker 1: She walked into a.
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  Speaker 2: Room, she sat down at your table, and all eyes
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  Speaker 2: were on Tammy. Women were jealous and men were ready
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: to rode it all away if she asked them to,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Men like Motown's Berry Gordy, who was so smitten he
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: forgot all about Diana Ross for a hot minute when
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: he saw Tammy perform at a Detroit nightclub, and it
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: didn't take long for Gordy to sign her to his label,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: which he did on her twentieth birthday, April twenty ninth,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five. The timing of Tammy's official signing was fortuitous.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: It happened just weeks after Motown finally crossed over from
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: R and B to the pop chart thanks to a
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: number one hit by one of their most reliable vocal groups,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: the Temptations, My Girl, that had a heartbeat, bass guitar
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: fingersnaps and ascending guitar line and swelling strings in bright brass,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: and of course those striking vocal harmonies, all hallmarks of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the trademark Motown style. My Girl was, by anyone's estimation,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: a monster tune, and it was designed to be so
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: at Motown. One of the steps in Barry Gordy's auto
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: industry inspired studio factory system was quality control. He would
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: play a newly recorded song for a cross section of
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: employees in order to determine if it was good enough
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: to release. Part of this process was to ask the
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: group of people the same bulletproof question every time, if
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: you had one dollar, would you spend that dollar on
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  Speaker 2: this record or would you buy a hot dog? Pretty
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: much every time people chose one of those Detroit style
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: coney dogs over the song. But that wasn't the point.
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  Speaker 1: The point was how long it took everyone in the
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  Speaker 1: room to opt for the hot dog.
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  Speaker 2: The longer the pause, the harder the decision, the better
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: the song. And while My Girl didn't make everyone in
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: that quality control meeting pass on the hot dog, it
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: did make their deliberation an arduous one. And while any
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: song that could compete with basic human sustenance like that
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: was a surefire hit. But the the other thing that
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: My Girl had going for it was that it was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the first Temptation song to be sung by the newest
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  Speaker 2: member of the group. Until this point, David Ruffin had
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: been holding down harmony vocals with Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin, Well,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams got all the glory on lead.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: But Smokey Robinson, Motown's resident Shakespeare and one of my
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: girl songwriters, saw something in David that no one else did.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: David's voice was mellow, but it was also gruff, a
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  Speaker 2: two sided coin that could make the ladies swoon and
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: then make them cry. Smokey called him a sleeping giant,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: so Smokey woke the Giant up. And once the Giant
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  Speaker 2: got his first taste of success, right off the bat,
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  Speaker 2: he wanted more. The finest white boots and softest Sway bests,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the sleekest, loudest bike rolling down West Graham Boulevard, sequins,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: silk pants, and diamond and crust a horn rimmed glasses.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: To underscore his newfound status, he got a pair of
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Doberman's and he gave them gangster names, Bonnie and Clyde.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Because the Giant was not just a singer and a
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  Speaker 2: hit maker, he was a straight up gangster, and like
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  Speaker 2: all gangsters, he wanted the most desirable women in town
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  Speaker 2: draped across his arm. The Giant wanted none other than
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  Speaker 2: Tammy Terrell, and on the first night they met in
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  Speaker 2: a Murder City nightclub, he got her and neither of
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  Speaker 2: their lives would ever be.
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  Speaker 1: The same again.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: In late July, the fourth consecutive day, the racially charged
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: riots set fire to the streets in Detroit.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Over on Woodward Avenue.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: The Algiers Motel became a particularly infamous spot when three
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: white police officers shot and killed three innocent black teenagers there.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: In the weeks and months and years before this tragedy, however,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: the Algiers was already well established as an infamous locale
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  Speaker 2: in town, seeing as it was a magnet for sex
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: workers drug dealers in the Detroit PDEs Vice squad. It's
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: also said to be the first place David Ruffin took
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Tammy Terrell just hours after they met, and their immediate
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: sexual attraction demanded equally immediate privacy and action. A sort
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  Speaker 2: of joint like the Algiers was custom made for moments
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  Speaker 2: like these. It was cheap, it was the last place
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  Speaker 2: too successful entertainers would be expected frequent, and it was
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  Speaker 2: only a mile and a half down the road from
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: where David and Tammy were now both working at Hitsville, USA.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It wasn't long, however, until David decided that he wasn't
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: content to just hide Tammy away at the Algiers. He
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: wanted the world to know that she was just like
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  Speaker 2: the song said, his girl, and he spared no expense
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  Speaker 2: in doing so. He bought the two of them matching
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: mink and sable threads, as well as rings and watches
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: made of gold and diamonds. They traveled in the Stretch
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: limo when they weren't riding on David's motorcycle, and he
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: got them an apartment on the west side of town,
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  Speaker 2: with bear and leopard skin rugs in the sitting room
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  Speaker 2: and octopus and formaldehyde positioned under a lavish glass coffee
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: table in the living room, and a giant painting of
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: a black stallion that he hung over the bed. David
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Ruffin lived as excessively as any of Motown's stars, perhaps
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: driven by a desire to make up for lost time,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: that time being the years he spent living in poverty,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: growing up with no running water in rural Mississippi. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: so as the Temptation scored four more number one R
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: and B singles in nineteen sixty six and two number
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: one R and B albums the following year, with the
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: hit songs Ain't Too Proud to beg and I Wish
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: It Would Rain featuring David Ruffin on lead vocal for
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the Temptation's new superstar Excess became part of the ongoing celebration.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: It was a celebration fueled by cocaine and women. Because
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Tammy Terrell wasn't David Ruffins one and only. There was Jenna,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: the former Go Go dancer that David knocked up and
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: stepped out on. And then there was Sondra, his wife
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: back home, the one David cheated on with the Go
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Go dancer, and who, as David told the dancer, had
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: died in childbirth, but in reality he was very much
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: alive and busy raising his two other infant children. Tammy
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: was oblivious to the existence of these other women, at
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: least for a while, so oblivious in fact, that she
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: said yes when David proposed to her. But to those
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: not blinded by gaudy diamond rings and even gaudier furs,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: to those on the outside looking in all the showy
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: clothing and the cocaine, the multiple women, it painted a
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: very clear picture. Shelley Berger, the Temptation's longtime manager put
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: it this way bluntly, and I quote, I think David
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: dreamed of being a pimp. Even David's older brother Jimmy,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: whose ballad What Becomes of the Broken Hearted cracked the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: billboard top ten in the summer of nineteen sixty six,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: used the word pimping to describe how David used and
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: disposed of the women around him. But Tammy Terrell wasn't
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: one to be played by any of this pimp shit.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Neither was she the type who was going to let
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: herself get tossed by the wayside. She was a Terrell,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: She was a born fighter. The window sash was thrown open,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: and the balmy Detroit air came flooding in. Tammy was
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: already hot, her heart racing, her head pounding, the tears
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: running down her face, and the warm blast from outside
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: did her no favors, just like David did her no favors,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: not anymore, not since she'd discovered the truth that he
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: was a liar and a cheat. She was just another
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: spoil that the giant reaped. She stuck her head out
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: the open window, and then the upper part of her
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: torso followed. She half contemplated going all the way just
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: to piss David off.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be something?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: It would give a whole new meaning to his song
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I Know I'm Losing You, and that motherfucker would be
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: sorry once and for all when he looked down from
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the apartment to see her lifeless body split out on
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: the sidewalk below. As passers by stopped panicking, screaming, and shock,
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: she couldn't help see the irony of her situation. On
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the radio, her duets with Young America's beloved Marvin Gay
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: songs like Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Your Precious Love,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: the songs that were making her famous temptations famous, actually
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: were a stark contrast to the bitter drama playing out
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: in her real life. It's a common misconception that Tammy
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and Marvin were lovers because the classic duets they cut
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: are some of the greatest love songs ever, But theirs
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: was a collaborative musical love. It existed on the microphone
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: and on the records. The love that Tammy had experienced
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: with David, or what she thought was love, maybe what
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: she fooled herself into.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Believing was love.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: That love hurt Marvin's love didn't hurt like that, which
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: made her wonder was.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: It even real?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Right then, David came storming out of the bedroom in
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: his underwear, coked up as usual, squeezing his running nose
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: in between his fingers. Go ahead, he yielded, Tammy, do it.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: He got closer, close enough now that she could smell
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: as sweat and his cologne. It was a combination that
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: she once found undeniable, but now it just made her angry.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: She was also angry that she was failing to elicit
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the desired response. She knew that what David was doing
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: at this moment was exactly what she was doing, trying
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: to hurt him.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, he yelled. Jump. Tammy's head was throbbing.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: She'd endured headaches her entire teenage and adult life, but
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: her time with David it made them even worse. She
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: pulled herself back inside the apartment and slammed.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: The window shut.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Fuck you, David, all you care about is yourself.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Eddie and Otis and the other guys told me all about.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Your bullshit, how you want to change the name of
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the band, David Ruffin and the Temptations like you're Diana
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: fucking Ross bitch, you're not even Mary fucking Wilson.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Why don't you take.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Your stupid country ass and fuck off back.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: To whatever backwater hole you crawled out of.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Or, better yet, go crawl him back to the latest
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: and greatest Horry you just fucked.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know all about that shit, David. It takes
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: too babe. Just like Marvin said, do you want to talk.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: About a real man, David, Marvin's a real man. Marvin's
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: a class act. He's not like you, and he's not
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: like James Brown. He doesn't need to.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Beat a woman to feel like a real man. In fact,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: he's twice the man that you.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Are, and he's got twice the voice too. At that,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: David's eyes went so wide it looked like the horn
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: rooms would pop right off his face. He walked away
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: into another room, rambling, and then moments later was back,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: still pissed off, still in his tidy whities, still coked
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: out of his gourd, Only this time in his hand
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: he held a large and heavy object, and he proceeded
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: to use that very large and heavy object to inflict
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: maximum pain and do maximum damage.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: To the face of Tammy Treu.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Tammy would later tell multiple people that David Roughin hit
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: her in the head with his motorcycle helmet. She also
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: said that after all the previous instances of physical abuse
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: she'd endured well with him, this one, the motorcycle helmet incident,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: that this was the one that ended their relationship for good.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: By the time that Tammy walked away from David, everyone
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: at Motown knew what was going on. Even Studio had
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Barry Gordy knew the score. And this was a guy
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: who Tammy had come to see the way she saw
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Marvin Gay as a man who wasn't like the rest,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: but was something of a protector.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But the protectors had all.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Gone silent and the damage had been done. It was
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: there in the cold light a day written all over
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: her petite body, the welts, the bruises, the golf ball size,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: not that she showed to the temptations.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Otis Williams.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Otis is the last surviving member of the group and
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the only one who read a book. In his memoir,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: originally published in nineteen eight, Otis had this to say
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: about it all quote, David's thing with Tammy was intense
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and quite tumultuous. Their relationship was definitely.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: A Rocky one unquote.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Rocky tumultuous David's thing. Why was David Ruffin's violent and
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: destructive behavior still being swept under the rug two whole
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: decades after the fact. Was it to protect a legacy,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: to protect that squeaky clean money making image. Even the
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: popular Temptations mini series, it was released ten years after
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Otis's book. While it didn't portray David in the greatest light,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: it failed to admit a deeper truth, a truth that
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: was known to everyone who spent any time inside the
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: walls at two six' four to Eight West Grand boulevard In,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: DETROIT a truth that was the first thing on everyone's
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: minds when the worst fate imaginable Befell Tammy terrell the
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: day the deaths came, Calling we'll be right back after. This, we're, We're.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: We're When David ruffin's on and off again, Girlfriend, jenna
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: the Former Go go dancer he'd had an affair with
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: while still married to his first, wife a woman who
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: had given birth to one of his, children heard About
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: david's affair With Tammy, terrell she became.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Distraught she tried to take.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Her own life first by slashing her wrists with a
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: razor and then by drinking bottles of eye drops that
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: contained high levels of. Mercury neither did the, job instead
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: landing around the floor of her, apartment bloody and, sick
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: where a friend found her shortly. After the first phone
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: call the friend made was To David. Ruffin she Expected
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: david to drop everything in hall asked to take care
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: of the mother of his. Child david's, response, however was
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: quite the. Opposite why are you calling, me he, asked
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: call the. Police but When Jimmy terrell collapsed on stage
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: while performing With Marvin gay On october, fourteenth nineteen sixty,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: seven In virginia after the alleged motorcycle helmet incident and
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: after her presumed break up With David, Ruffin david came.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Running he Found tammy back in her hometown in A philadelphia.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Hospital at, first her dramatic collapse was chalked up to.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Exhaustion her grueling tour With marvin performing every, night seven
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: days a, week meant popping aspirin every, night seven days
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a week to keep her persistent. Headaches At bay doctors
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: ran a few tests and sent her home for bed,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: rest but before too, long she was. Back after her
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: dentist noticed that half of her face was. Sagging this,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: time doctors discovered a tumor in the lower posterior part
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: of her. Brain they operated and removed the, tumor but
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: the malignant growth, had for who knows how, long blocked
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: drainage of spinal fluid which had built up around her. Brain,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: this the doctor, said was why she experienced such debilitating.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Headaches so a few months, later a second surgery was
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: performed to insert a small tube in her head to
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: drain the, fluid but then the tube stopped working, properly
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: so additional surgeries were. Needed tammy would go on to
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: have eight surgeries in total over the next few. Years
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: it was a long drawn out, ordeal during which the
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: once stunning beauty would lose her, hair her, sight and
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: drop down to just over ninety. Pounds and when the
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: going got tough For Tammy, terrell, However David ruffin was
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: nowhere to be. Found he left her, bedside he stopped,
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: calling he stopped thinking of. Her in, fact he was
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: onto his next, Mark Barbara Gail, martin daughter Of Frank
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: sinatra's right hand Man Dean. Martin Whether david truly Missed.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Tammyterrell we'll never, know but we do know that at
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: this time in early nineteen sixty, eight there was plenty
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: That David ruffin was. Missing Eddie, Kendricks Paul, Williams Melvin,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: franklin And Otis williams were standing around backstage at The
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Versailles hotel In, cleveland LOOKING fi AND e in their
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: neatly pressed matching, suits all of them wondering the same,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Thing where the fuck Was. David it Was june twenty,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: second nineteen sixty, eight and The temptations were preparing to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: perform the second to.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Last show of a ten night run at The. Versaides
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: for the.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: First time since their, inception all members of The temps
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: were honest to god. Millionaires their latest, SINGLE I Wish
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: It Would rain had recently topped the arm Bea art
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: In march and made it all the way to number
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: four of The Billboard hot one, Hundred but then just
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: a month, later In, april shots rang out in The
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Memphis Sky Martin Luther King junior was assassinated while standing
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: on the balcony outside his room at The Lorraine, motel
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: a hotel that The temps.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Had stayed at. Recently while on.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Tour the gold star glow of success was suddenly tinged with.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: The bloody shadow of.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Fear For, Eddie Paul melvin and otis the simple act
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: of stepping out onto a stage in front of a
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: largely white, audience the lights blinding your, eyes which felt
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: like you were presenting yourself as a. Target and if
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: that wasn't bad, Enough david ruffin the voice of that
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: latest number ONE r AND b, single was once Again.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Mia it wasn't unusual For david to. Misrehearsal he'd been
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: spending more time in la Than detroit these, days and in,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: general his mo was this drive around in his fancy ass,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: car peacock around in his fancy ass, clothes get off
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: with one of his fancy ass, women and make it
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to the show in, dramatic last, minute fancy ass.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Fashion he was.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Big time in them, all putting forth an unsolicited bid
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: to be the leader of a band that wanted nothing
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: to do with.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Leaders what they all wanted was their fifth member here
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: with them right.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Now But david was two hundred miles away In, buffalo
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: watching from the crowd as his latest, flame the Rap Packed,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: progeny tried to get her own career off the. Ground
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: so they went on without, him and halfway through the
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: show it was a. Commotion someone made their way through
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the audience and up onto the.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Stage it Was.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: David he slid right into the dance moves the group
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: was in the middle of his, voice blending in perfectly
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: with them, all as if the first half of the
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: set had just been a warm up for, this For
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: david's triumphant.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Return for the show to start for. Real the audience
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: ate it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Up The, temptations on the other, hand had long since
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: had their fill Of David ruffin they made sure they
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Got Barry gordy's, blessing and when they had, it they
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: told the one time sleeping giant that he was being
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: cut down the. Size david was out and his, Replacement Dennis,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: edwards was. In But david wasn't about to go. Quietly
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: he showed up at the next gig and the.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Next wired on.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Cocaine he made a beeline for the.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Stage he was a man. Possessed he was.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: A man Scorn he was a man who didn't take
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: no for an. Answer The temptations road Manager Don foster
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: stepped out of the shadows and got directly in front Of,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: david blocking his. Path don put his hands up the
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: fuck are you, Doing. David david didn't slow. Down he
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: raised his hand and slapped on hard across the, face
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: And don recoiled backward and the path was. Cleared seconds,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Later david was back on, stage microphone in, hand singing
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: alongside his, replacement and this went on for the next,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Month david's stage bombing and upstaging Until motown hired a
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: bodyguard and placed him at the foot of the. Stage
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: The Big dude took the macho fucko energy emanating From
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: David ruffin and sent it back out into the, universe
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Where david received, it acknowledged, it and finally stopped showing.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Up The temptation's next few studio albums took a giant
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: step away From David, ruffin away from the Tradition motown,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: sound and into the realm of a Post Jimmy hendrick
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Post slyestone psychedelic soul sound full of fuzzed out guitar
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: tones and harder want To Take You higher rhythmic. Edges
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: albums Like Cloud, Nine Puzzle, people And Psychedelic shack represented
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: a bold new phase in the life of one Of
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: motown's most successful vocal. Groups Psychedelic shack in, particular was
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: the number ONE r AND b record In america for
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: four straight weeks beginning in Mid april of nineteen, seventy
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: until it was dethrown from the top spot By Isaac
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Hayes's new Long player On may, sixteen the very same
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: day That Tammy, terrell had been in a coma during
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: The temptation's entire run at the, top.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Died at the age of twenty.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Four Tammy torrell's funeral was held a few days after
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: her death at The Jane Methodist church In. Philadelphia according
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to an article On jet magazine at the, time thousands
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: of mourners were in. Attendance that number would have been much, higher,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: however Had tammy's mother let just anyone walk through the
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: church's front. Doors but not just anyone was welcome that.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Day there was a.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Very specific and very large group of people that were
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: forbidden from Attending Tammy terrell's.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Funeral anyone who.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Worked for or was affiliated With Motown records was not.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Welcome Not Barry, gordy not any of The, temptations and
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: certainly Not David. Ruffin none of those people were welcome
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: except for, one that Is Marvin. Gaye And marvin gay
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: fought back tears as he delivered the ceremony's emotional, eulogy
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: while one of his duets With, Tammy you're ALL I
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: need to get by played.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Softly in the.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Background marvin's speech moved the entire, room and that song
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Of theirs was perhaps never more powerful than it was
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: in that. Moment the fact That Marvin gay was the
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Only motown artist president of the funeral spoke, volumes and
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: it also amplified what was now being heard through the
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: grape vine That David ruffin had in some way played
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: a part In tammy's, death and that the temptations very
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Gordy motown at. Large marvin excluded they were all complicit
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: because they did nothing about. It the grapevine said that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: the Abuse tammy sustained during her time With, david being
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: hit with a motorcycle helmet and perhaps even, worse only
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: compounded her existing medical condition and ushered her faster toward
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: the end of her short. Life If tammy's days were
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: numbered from the, start Then david removed a few weeks
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: here and there from the.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Calendar at, least.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: That was the grapevine talking back In, Detroit David ruffin
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: was holed up in this place On. Parkside the doorbell.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Rang he opened the front door to see us on
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: again off again Girlfriend jenna standing. There he let her
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in and then led her to his. Bedroom If david
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: was in, mourning he was doing a great job hiding.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: It but Then david was always in control of what
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: everyone else. Saw if only he could have kept control
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: of the. Temptations jenna got nosy and started poking around
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: one of the drawers of his, dresser which was slightly
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: open and stuffed inside were photos Of, tammy letters From,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: tammy newspaper articles About. Tammy jenna looked At, David are you.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Going to keep all?
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: These she, asked why do you? Care david, said she's.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Dead maybe it was the thought Of tammy six feet.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Under maybe it Was jenna poking through his, shit or
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: maybe it was Just david Being, david as they used
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: to say around The motown offices Whenever tammy showed up
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: black and.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Blue whatever it.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Was Before jenna left that, Day david broke her nose
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: with his. Fist marvin gave mewhile was dealing with a broken,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: heart that would never be whole. Again tammy's death crushed.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Him it sent him spiraling into cocaine, addiction a path
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: that had been blazed by a Certain David ruffin along before.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Him marvin used coke and LATER pcp to self medicaid
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: and to dull him self to the reality of a
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: world Without tammy in. It it was a world that
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: was beyond fucked, up And marvin didn't recognize it. Anymore
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: far too many people were, Dying and while he never
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: got over Losing, Tammy marvin took that, pain that, heartbreak
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: and put it into his next, Record What's Going, on
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: the First motown album that was more than just a
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: collection of songs and one of the greatest albums ever.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Made it was an album made for a new, decade
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: a New, america inspired by one Of motown's greatest, talents
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: a woman the great label had.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: So wrongly let.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Down and the fact That Tammy terrell didn't get to
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: hear her Friend marvin's.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Masterpiece, well that's just a.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Disgrace I'm Jake brennan and this Is, disgraceland all, right dis,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Goes thanks for listening to this episode Of. Disgraceland our
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: part two episode on The temptations. Listen if you're An
• 33:35
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• 33:38
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• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Stories.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Guys the question of the week THAT i want to
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: hear from you on is Was tammyterrell the most mistreated
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: woman in music. History it's a long, LIST i, know
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: but this, story my, god, damn just let down all
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: over the place from so many different. People six, one,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: seven nine oh, six six sixty three eight with your,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Answers hit me up on voicemaild me a, text disgracelampod
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: at gmail dot, com front email me at disgracelandpod on the,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Socials you're gonna be able to hear your answers some
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: of your answers, anyways on the next episode coming up
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: in new feed The After party episode where we play
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: your answers to our question of the week again With
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Tamu tuau the most mistreated woman in the history of. Music,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: peez that's a tough, ONE i, know get at. Me
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: we'll get into it on the After, party all. Right
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: disgraceland was created By Yours truly and is produced in
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: partnership With Double. Elvis credits for this episode can be
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot. Com
• 34:33
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• 34:36
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• 34:39
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• 35:18
  Speaker 1: He The Bed Down land