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The Temptations: Fame, Drugs, and Paranoia · 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. Disgraceland is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about the Temptations
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: are insane. They are one of the most successful and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: beloved R and B groups of all time, despite the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: fact that group members were tragically corrupted by fame and drugs.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: David Ruffin in particular, battled a twenty plus year cocaine abbott.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: His ego was so huge that he rode in a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: private mink lined car and hired his own manager and bodyguard.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: He was so volatile that it's been long rumored that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: he was responsible for the most tragic death in Motown history.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And he was so paranoid that he believed the death
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: of a fellow Temptation was not an accident but a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: warning to those like him who dared disrupt the flow
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: of Motown's famed factory line. The Temptations made great music,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: from their classic five line up with David Ruffin to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the psychedelic soul made with Dennis Edwards. Great music unlike
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that music I played for you at the top of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the show. That wasn't great music. That was a preset
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: loop from my melotron called Milk Milk Promenade MK. One.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: rights to the Morning After by Mareen McGovern. And why
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: would I play you that specific slice of Nony New
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Year's Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on August seventeenth, nineteen seventy three,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And that was the day The Temptation Paul Williams was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: found dead outside his car in Detroit, a death that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: would raise many questions and so any conspiracy theories. On
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this episode, cocaine, tall egos, mink lined cars disrupting motown's flow.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: In The Temptations, I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgrace Land.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: The dollar bill was old, It smelled like oil and sweat.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: David Ruffin rolled it up with his fingers and then
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: used it to do a line off the table. He
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: tasted iron at the back of his throat. If his
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: nose is about to gue or blood all over the place,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: so be it. It would take his mind off the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: things he didn't want to think about. There was plenty
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: he could stand to forget. Like his third solo record.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It was finished, but Motown Records wasn't going to release it.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: David Ruffin had once been a surefire moneymaker, but his
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: solo singles as of late were a series of diminishing returns,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and the venerable Detroit labeled in pump cash and resources
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: into diminishing returns. Back when David Ruffin was a member
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of the Temptations, he was a star. Otis Williams may
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: have been the leader of the group, but David Ruffins
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: stood out, not just because he was tall as shit,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and not just for his trademark Hornward Glasses. David Ruffin
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: had a gravelly, gruff voice imbued with sadness longing in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Sex on Fuego, Daryl Hall of holl And Oates would
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: later describe the voice behind Ain't too Proud to Bag
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: My Girl and I Know I'm Losing You as crying
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in tune. David Ruffin's voice was so robust it made
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: other singers like Marvin Gaye want to up their game.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: When David replaced original Temptation Al Bryant in nineteen sixty four,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: his voice was just the thing the band had been missing,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and although the Temptations had their syncopated dance steps down,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: including the high stepping signature move called the temptation walk.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: David always took it one step higher. He tossed the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: mic in the air, spun around in the three sixties,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: sweet dropped down to his knees and rebounded like an
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: elastic band as a temptation. David Ruffin was the star
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of the show. And to be the star, you had
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: to be ready. You had to be ready for the attention,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the applause, the fame. If you weren't ready, then you
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: had to get ready. The green sharkskin suit gave you
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: some confidence, but even better was the pre show chin
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: in soda. Make it the double? Are you ready now?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Fee five foux FuMB baby better? Best fucking believe it.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: You're ready. And then after you kill the show, when
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you walk backstage all sweaty and you're still riding that
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: high of adrenaline, an applause, and the way those women
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: stared at the bulg shifting around inside your tight pants.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: You want that feeling to go all night. So cue
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the cocaine. Coke kept the high, real high, and you
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: were number one on the R and B charts. Big
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: fucking deal, You're number one. Tonight every night up on
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: that stage at the after party, in the hotel room,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: between the sheets, fiddly d fiddly dumb on the fuckers.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: The last, but not least, after the coke had worn
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  Speaker 1: off and the first rays of the sun peeked out
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: over the horizon, the pills were clutched. They made your
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: eyelids heavy and your slumber deep, and the next day
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you'd do it all over again. But that was nineteen
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: sixty seven. Now it was nineteen seventy, and David Ruffin
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: was no longer a temptation. Hadn't been for two years.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: These days, the gin and soda just got him drunk,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and the pills no longer had an effect on his
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: sleep patterns, and the cocaine, the cocaine just made him paranoid.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: David looked across the table of his Detroit apartment. At
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Eddie Kendrick's, he passed the old rolled up dollar bill
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to his former bandmate. Eddie had been a temptation long
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: before David was hired. He'd been there when the vocal
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: group first auditioned at Motown under the name the Elgins.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Eddie had the smoothest voice in the Temptations, the one
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that people would always call a falsetto, even though technically
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he was a natural tenor. That's his voice, leading smash
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: hits like the way you do the things you do
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and get ready, and unlike other members of the group,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Eddie stayed in touch with David even after he'd been
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: canned in nineteen sixty eight. Eddie knew he should be
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: angry at David David big times, the whole band. When
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the Temptations got famous, they found themselves with more money
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: than they never laid eyes on, and naturally they spent it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: They bought nice clothes, nice houses, and nice car. But
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: David didn't just buy any car. He bought a stretch
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: El Camino convertible with white mink seat covers and white
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: mink floor mats on the inside, with his name and
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: face plastered on the doors. And then he hired his
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: own manager, And then he hired his own bodyguard. When
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: he saw how Diana Ross managed to get the official
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: name of the Supremes changed to Diana Ross and the Supremes,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: David tried to pull the same shit Forget Drugs Man.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: It was fame that fucked up David ruffin at least
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: at first it did. And when David became too important
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to even show up a concerts, that's when the decision
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to cut him loose became a very easy one. Still
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in Eddie's mind, time healed some, if not all, wounds.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Plus David had insight into the interpersonal dynamics of the Temptations,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: plus what it was like to go it alone in
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the Motown machine. That was valuable intel for Eddie. Eddie
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: was at a crossroads with his career. Should he continue
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: being a temptation, should he strike out on his He
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: needed the unique counsel of someone like David Ruffin. Plus
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: David had the good dope. Eddie's issue was this, he
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: didn't think the Temptations were being treated fairly. In fact,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: he was pretty sure they were being fuck six ways
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to Sunday by the Motown brass. But Eddie was the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: quiet temptation. He rarely spoke up, kept on trucking, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: stayed in line until now. Look at Stevie wonder Man.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: He turned twenty one in May, refused to renew his
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: bullshit contract, just walked away, and then Barry went groveling
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: after him and paid Stevie millions Stevie got his, Why
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: can't we get ours? David Ruffin looked through his thick
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: horn rimmed glasses straight into the eyes of Eddie Kendricks.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: You're right, man, one hundred percent. David hoovered some more
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: blow it kept talking shit. Man, We were earning something
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: like ten grand a night. We didn't see that money,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: did we. Motherfucker's tossed us five hundred a week if
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: we're lucky. But where did the rest of that money go.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Here's how it's gonna shake down, Berry. Gordy's gonna work you,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: work you, and work you, and then once you're too
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: weak or too angry, or you become too unpredictable, he's
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: gonna toss you out. He'll leave you with nothing. He's
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: gonna have Otis help them. You think Otis is on
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  Speaker 1: your side? Look at me, man, Why do you think
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  Speaker 1: I'm no longer a temptation? Because Otis threw me under
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the goddamn bus when it was convenient for him. The
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: same thing is gonna happen to you. You're next, brother.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: David collected his thoughts as the cocaine invigorated and nauseated
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: him all at once. But if you complain about it.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Look what they did the flow. Flow talked all kinds
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of shit about what was going down with the Supremes,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and Barry was all about Diana because Barry was fucking Diana.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Diana and Mary threw Flow to the wolves. Pretty soon
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: she couldn't fit in those tight dresses anymore, and that
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: was that the Barry cut her out of the picture
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: faster than James Jamison could lay down a baseline. And
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: then Barry blackballed her Man industry wide. She went to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: another label and her records went nowhere. Literally, they weren't distributed,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: they weren't promoted. Who the fuck does Barry Gordy know
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to make that shit happen at another label? What kind
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: of guys is you working with behind the scenes, because
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: you know that Gordy made that shit happen. David snorted
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: another line and waited for the burn to subside. He
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had some big solo hits in the last two years. Well, okay,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: one hit, really my whole world ended the moment You
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: left Me went to number nine on the Billboard Hot
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: one hundred. One hit was far from the glory that
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the Temptations enjoyed from nineteen sixty six to nineteen seventy one,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: they'd released twenty one singles, all of them hits, and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: most of them number one or number two on the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: R and B charts. The Temptations were Motown Royalty, with
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: or without David. Ruffin was the shelving of David's third
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: solo album, A bad omen of Things to come? Had
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Motown chewed him up? Was Barry Gordy preparing to spit
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: him out? David couldn't help, but wonder He also couldn't help,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: but wonder if finding a way back into the Temptations
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: could stave off the inevitable, revitalize his career, bring him
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: back from the pasture. He was being ushered out to shit.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That's how he became a temptation in the first place.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: He weaseled his way in. He ain't too proud to
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  Speaker 1: beg But the Temptations were a quintet. In order for
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: David to return, one of them would have to leave.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: David narrowed his eyes. He passed the dollar bill to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Eddie once more and began to talk. And then again,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: It is a dog eat dog world out there, brother,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And you got a good point about Stevie. Maybe the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: tide is changing maybe it is time you may stand.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Paul Williams was insistent they had to get back on stage.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: They could all hear the crowd from their dress. The
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: audience was still roaring and the place was electric, but
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the Temptations had already given three encores. They were physically exhausted.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: That was Al Bryant's reasoning for putting his foot down.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Unlike his bandmate Paul Williams, Al was done for the night,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and if he was done, then the rest of the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Temptations were going to be done too. Al's reasoning was
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: only partially true, and the rest of the guys knew it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: They knew that Al was mostly just pissed that he'd
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: been upstaged that night, not by any of them. He'd
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: been upstaged by David Ruffin, the skinny guy with a
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: huge voice who'd recently moved to the Motor City with
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: his brother Jimmy and was spending a lot of time
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: waiting in Motown's wings for his big shot. David was
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: always around. If he wasn't working over Barry Gordy for
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a record deal, he was endearing himself to the Temptations
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: own Melfin, Franklin and Otis Williams. On this particular night
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: in October of nineteen sixty three, he had Chappy's Lounge
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in Detroit. David Ruffin had grown tired of waiting in
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the wings. His big shot was right there on stage
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: for the taking, so he took it. He literally sprung
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: from the crowd and joined the Temptations on stage. He
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: didn't leave, and no one tried to make him leave either.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: He sang the songs, he did the moves. He made
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: it look easy, He made it look like he belonged there.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: The fucking nerve of David Ruffin, motherfucker was trying to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: bully his way into the Temptations. It infuriated al Brian
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to no end, and it infuriated al even more when
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: no one else seemed to give a shit. Backstage, Paul
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Williams kept trying to convince the guys that they were
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: obligated to perform a fourth encore. Al Bryan popped the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: top on a beer bottle and guzzled it. He knew
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: there had been tension in the band for a while.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: He knew he drank too much. He knew that he
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: was difficult to work with. He knew that the band
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: knew that he drank too much and was difficult to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: work with, like three encorees, David ruffing in his stupid
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: fucking glasses. Come on, man, fuck that. Al Brian stared
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: at Paul Williams and took another swig, his eyes seethed
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: with anger and humiliation. Paul kept pleading his case. They
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: were performers and the audience deserved to get their money's worth.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Al emptied the rest of the contents of the bottle
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: down his throat. Fucking Paul Williams, he thought, talking big,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: like he can tell me what to do and not
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: to do. Al lifted his arm in the air, Paul
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Williams is going to rue the day and ran his
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: mouth at al Brian and the empty beer bottle felt
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: light and powerful in Al's hand. With a vengeful thrust,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he brought the beer bottle down on Paul's head. At
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: least he intended to hit Paul's head. The bottle caught
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Paul on the nose, and the glass shattered into Paul's face.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: A shard narrowly missed his eye. Blood spurted from Paul's beak.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: That's settled it. The temptations were not going out for
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a fourth ncore. It also settled al Brian his fate,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: though his tenure as a Temptation didn't end that day.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: It wasn't long after, in nineteen sixty four, that al
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was voted out of the group and David Ruffin was
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: more than ready to take his place. Fiddley d Fiddly Dumb.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: The classic five era of the Temptations with tenor David
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Ruffin produced a string of hits so strong that it
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: made the group, along with the Supremes, the standard of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: excellence for Motown producers fought over the privilege to work
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: with him. Norman Whitfield, a writer and producer who had
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: been grinding it out at Motown, sometimes on Lowly tambourine
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and other times in the quality control department, even went
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: so far as to challenge Motown genius Smokey Robinson, who
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: had been working with the group since their start in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six. Smokey was about to release his latest
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Temptations track, get Ready, Norman made a bet that if
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: his new Temptations track ain't too proud to beg charted
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: higher than get Ready, then he earned the privilege to
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: be the group's primary collaborator. Both songs hit number one
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: on the arm Be charts, but A Too Proud to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: beg went higher on the Hot one hundred all the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: way to Lucky number thirteen. It wasn't exactly luck for
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Norman Whitfield. It was an artistic coup, and it would
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: soon pay out massive dividends for him. Motown and The Temptations.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: There were two major events that helped set the stage
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: for the lucrative phase two of both Motown and The Temptations. First,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Detroit caught fire, literally for five hot days in July
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven. The city rioted. It all started when
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Detroit p D's vice squad, most of them white, raided
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: an after hours bar and arrested nearly ninety black patrons.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Tensions between the white Cobs and black neighborhoods were already high.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Buildings burned, gunshots rang out. National Guard tanks rumbled down
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: streets that resembled a war's home. The iconic Hitsville, USA
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: building at two six 't foury eight West Grant Boulevard,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the one that Barry Gordy had converted into a studio
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: when the Motown Record Corporation was founded, remained unharmed during
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the chaos, but the social unrest happening outside did make
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: its way inside, most notably when a new Motown artist,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: an islam convert named Abdullah, who aligned himself with the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Black Power movement, attacked Ralph Seltzer, a white Motown executive,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: with a letter opener. Historically, Motown didn't do politics. Motown
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't about confrontation. And yes, it's true that Barry Gordy
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: did release Martin Luther King Junior's famous I Have a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Dream Speech on wax in nineteen sixty three. But when
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: it came to the social revolution that was percolating coast
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to coast, Motown was Switzerland and Barry Gordy's eyes, black
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: power was right there, and all the green dollars he
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was raking in Motown was a business, and rocking the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: boat was bad for business. Norman Woodfield disagreed. He thought
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that Motown could pivot to socially conscious music along with
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a more contemporary sound. He saw Motown's future not in
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: genteel dinner theater music, but as a hybrid of rock
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and soul, more sly in the family Stone than Johnny Mathis.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: The other major event that set Norman's plan in motion
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: was the departure of Holland Doser Holland, the juggernaut songwriting
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and production trio that had defined Motown's sound for years.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: They walked out over surprise money disputes with Barry Gordy
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and left a whole lot of talent just standing in
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the shadows. This was Motown's greatest moment of crisis. If
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the label had continued operations as normal, as if the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: world wasn't changing around them, would it still be around today?
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Norman Woodfield looked into the future and had his answer.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: He also saw his window of opportunity step up and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: step in, just like David Ruffin had seen his window
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: of opportunity when the Temptations had been with al Bryant.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: It was an opportunity that would change the course of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: musical history. But first Norman Woodfield had to stop history
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: from repeating itself. Because David Ruffin was quickly becoming al
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Bryant two point zero. David didn't prove to be a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: solution to the Temptations problems. Instead, David just brought his
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: own problems, just like al Bryant had before him, and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: his own baggage as a child in Mississippi, David Ruffin
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was routinely abused by a father who wielded an eight
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: inch raw hide leather whip. According to one of David's girlfriends,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: he was also sexually abused when he was younger, a
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: story that has been corroborated by at least one other friend.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: By all accounts, David Ruffin's life was extremely fucked up
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: from the get go. As an adult, he regularly mistreated
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the people who were supposed to be the most important
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in his life. He needed his ego fed constantly. People
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: told him he was the Temptations, so that's what he believed,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and in turn he treated the rest of the band
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: like shit. He treated Tammy Terrell even worse. Tammy Terrell
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: had an unforgettable voice that came from an unforgettable face.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: By the time she got to Motown, she had already
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: endured physical abuse from her previous boyfriend, the hardest working
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: man in showbiz, James Brown, and it only got worse
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: with David Ruffin. David had been corrupted by fame at
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: this point, diamond studded glasses and white mink interior convertible
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and all that. He was also corrupted by cocaine, And
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: now the temptations weren't without their temptations. For David it
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: was coke. For Paul Williams, it was two to three
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: bottles of Cavasier each day. Money changes everything, Otis Williams
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: once said about the messy trajectory of the group. But
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: for David Ruffin, it's not like the money changed him.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Money just allowed him to continue to be an asshole
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to everyone in his orbit, but to do it with
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a budget. He asked Tammy to marry him, but failed
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: to divulge that not only was he already married with children,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: but he had another girlfriend with whom he also had
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: a child. And when Tammy got real famous, that's when
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: things got real bad. Tammy sang on a series of
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: instantly iconic duets with labelmate Marvin Gay, and pretty soon
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: she was a household name. David Ruffin, by contrast, was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: just a temptation. It bugged the shit out of him
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: that a woman, his woman, would dare to be more
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: famous than him, so David took it out on her.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Tammy showed up at the Hitsville, USA Building with bruises
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and black eyes barely concealed. Earl Van Dijke, keyboardists with
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Motown's in house band known as the Funk Brothers, witnessed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: David physically attacked Tammy in the studio. Tammy even confided
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in Otis Williams that David had once hit her on
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the head with a lamp, A fucking lamp. She showed
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Otis the lump. David and Tammy's relationship was so toxic
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and so volatile that even the craziest rumors seemed like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: they could be true, and most of those rumors involved
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: David hitting Tammy on the head with something a lamb
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: his motorcycle helmet. The worst rumor of all, however, was
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: that he had hit her on the head with a hammer.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Some said the rumor was true, some said it was
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: on brand behavior for a guy with a violent past
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and a bruised ego, and thus must be true. And
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: some even went so far to say that when Tammy
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: died tragically just a few years later at the age
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of twenty four, it was more than obvious who was
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: to blame. We'll be right back after this word word word.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Eddie Kendricks decided he'd had enough cocaine for one day.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: He'd pushed the old rolled up dollar bill, the one
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: that smelled like oil and sweat. Back over to David Ruffin,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: David looked like shit. His apartment was a mess. Eddie
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: wondered if David's whole world had ended when he was
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: kicked out of the Temptations. David filled Eddi's head with
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: so much information that day, so much conflicting information that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Eddie didn't even know where to begin. Should Eddie push
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: back on Barry Gordy? Would he be committing career suicide
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: if he made a fuss? Should he just shut up
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and work himself to death? Did he want to end
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: up like David ruffin his solo albums, collecting dust on
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a shelf in Motown's office while his former band soldiered
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: on without him. One question he didn't ask himself was
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: whether or not David was playing with him, just like
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: David played with everyone else in his life, in order
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to insert himself back into the Temptations lineup, not that
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the group was ready to take him back. In the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: years since David had left had been some of the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Temptation's best and that's not a slight on the David
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: ruffin years, But with tenor Dennis Edwards stepping into David's
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: empty shoes, and producer songwriter Norman Woodfield at the Helm,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the quintet made some of the most unique and impactful
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: music of their career. The stretch from late nineteen sixty eight,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: when David left nineteen seventy three would come to be
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: known as The Temptation's psychedelic soul period. Lifting heavily from
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: non motown groups like Sly in the Family, Stone and Funkadelic,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the Temptations created an acid soul hybrid that was both
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: funky and far out. It was new territory for motown
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: in so many ways. First was the aggressive and trippy
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: musical style, not to mention a way in which many
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: songs had multiple lead singers instead of just one. The
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: lyrical content of tracks like Runaway Child, Running Wild, Smiling
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Faces Sometimes, Ball of Confusion, That's what the World is today,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and Pubble was a Rolling Stone reflected a country and
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: constant upheaval racked with paranoia, confrontation, and betrayal. And with
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Dennis Edwards's gruff and intense voice, the tone of The
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Temptation's material became more urgent than ever. Less urgent were
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the song's need to end quickly, again, breaking with Motown tradition.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Many album tracks pushed well into the six, seven, even
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: thirteen minute mark. Norman Woodfield had successfully seized his opportunity
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to refine Motown records when it was at its most vulnerable,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and while the attempts were blazing these LSD trails, David
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: soloac ordered on quaint nostalgia. Sure, he looks dynamite in
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the Summer of Soul documentary and his performance classic, But
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to be singing My Girl in nineteen sixty nine was
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to be singing a song of innocence that was five
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: years old, an eternity ago in the fast paced cultural
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: revolution of the nineteen sixties. By comparison, the Temptation's music
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: wasn't just successful creatively. The group continued to score high
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: on the R and B and popped during this era,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: including number one on both charts in the summer of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine for the killer track I Can't Get
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Next To You. In that same year, Norman Woodfield and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the Temptations scored Motown its first Grammy Award with the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: song Cloud nine. It was an accomplishment that they'd never
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: achieved either. With David Ruffing or Al Bryan, and therein
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: lay Eddie Kendricks's problem. The Temptations were more popular and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: more successful than they'd ever been before, and Barry Gordy
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: was still screwing them over. Eddie appealed to Otis Williams
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and the other guys in the group. They needed to
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: stage a strike. No singing, no touring. They wouldn't put
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a goddamn vocal on a goddamn track until Barry made
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: things right. Eddie was overruled. The Temptations were successful, sure,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: but they didn't have the clout of a Diana or
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a Stevie or a Marvin. It was best to just
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: keep working hard, day in and day out, making what
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: money they could, and hope that things would continue to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: work out in their favor down the road. Bullshit. Eddie
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't satisfied with the position his group was taking. Frankly,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: he was pretty fucking unsatisfied. Eddie Kendricks marched down to
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the Donovan Building at two four five seven Woodward Avenue,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the sight of Motown's business offices. He hadn't calmed down.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: His head was full of the coked up conspiracies of
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: David Ruffin. Eddie could be next. Any of them could
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: be next, and they were being cheated. The time was
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: right fuck dancing in the streets. It was time to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: get paid money. That's what I want. Eddie marched right
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: through the front door, practically snapped the thing off its hinges.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: The other temptations fall closely behind him. Come on at
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: he chill out, They said, let's all chill out and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: take a minute and figure this out. You're gonna blow
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: your stack in there. You're gonna regret this. Brother. Eddie
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: didn't listen. He was done listening. Barry Gordie was going
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: to listen now. That was where it was at. Eddie
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: blew past the secretaries, who asked if they could help,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: blew right into Barry's office, and Barry looked at Eddie
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: with a grin, smiling faces sometimes man. Eddie exploded, This
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: motherfucker was ripping us off. He yelled and pointed his
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: finger at Barry. Gordy, do you know how many shows
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: we played and not gotten paid? We sold out Shay
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Stadium didn't see a motherfucking dime. I'm sick of this shit.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Eddie Kendricks looked like he was about to jump on
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: top of Berry Gordy's desk, like a replay of when
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Abdullah jumped on A and R Man Ralph Seltzer's desk.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: The berry Gordy didn't tremble, didn't back down. The calmer
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: he stayed. The more Eddie raged, and the more Eddie raged,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the more things remained the same between Motown and The Temptations.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Eddie was fighting a losing battle. As far as the
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: rest of the group was concerned. There was no battle,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: but it drained Eddie Kendricks and pretty soon still bullshit.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: He quit the Temptations, so did Paul Williams, the group's baritone,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: who had taken a beer bottle to the face back
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three. But Paul didn't quit and sawid
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: with Eddie's money drama. Paul had his own damn problems.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: His voice had been destroyed by alcohol, so at his
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: liver he suffered from sickle cell ambia. On how to
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: use an oxygen take he had to take off the
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: oxygen mask every time he lit up a smoke, which
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was often. He owed the federal government back taxes to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the tune of eighty grand and he was currently shacking
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: up with a girlfriend seeing his wife had recently kicked
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: him out of the house. All these facts led the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: police to believe it was suicide. When a stranger stumbled
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: upon Paul's body in the early hours of August seventeenth,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. He was on the pavement directly beneath
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the open driver's side door of his Ford Maverick, the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: kind of car that David Ruffin wouldn't be caught dead in.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: The pavement was bloody beneath Paul's head. Cops found a
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: smashed bottle of booze nearby, and a gun and two
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: bullets missing from the chamber. A single gunshot won't the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: left temple close range killed him instantly, self inflicted, open
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and shot. Otis Williams was devastated when he heard the news,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't shocked. Paul had been in a bad
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: way for a long time, and not everyone was so
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: sure that Paul Williams had taken his own life. Paul
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: was right handed, and the investigation determined that Paul did
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: in fact fire the gun with his right hand, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: he had been shot in his left temple. How could
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: he have done that? But why didn't he just shoot
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: himself in the right temple instead of twisting his arm
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: around to the other side of his body, And what
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: about the broken bottle on the ground. There was also
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the fact that the gun had two bullets missing, despite
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the other fact that Paul had been shot only once.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Had someone else been there? Had there been a struggle?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Was Paul Williams murdered? To Paul's family, these questions were
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: valid and required answers, and the answers were never good enough.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Speaking about the tragedies of people like Paul Williams and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the super Creame's Florence Ballard, Marvin Gay said those people
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: were victims. The business turned them inside out. They couldn't cope.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Back at his apartment, David Ruffin did another line. His
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: paranoia reached a fever pitch as the powder hid his bloodstream.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: He worried that he had said too much to Eddie Kendricks.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: According to the Pretzel logic going on inside his head,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: he had offered counsel to Eddie, counsel that ultimately meant
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Eddie's ejection from the band and thus gave David the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: upper hand to rejoin. And that plan had backfired and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: it had somehow gotten Paul killed. David knew it was
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: it just his imagination, you know, running away with him.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: In David's paranoid mind, the fantastical truth was staring them
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: all in the face. Motown had murdered Paul Williams to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: serve as an example to guys like David and Eddie.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Or so, when David's fucked up, thinking what becomes of
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the broken hearted? At the broken hearted try to fight
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: back against Motown to get off.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: That's what becomes of them.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Whether or not that was actually true, there was one
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: thing in David's mind that was indisputable, and it was
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: something he had said to Eddie.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Any of them could be next.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Tammy Terrell took Marvin Gaye's hand in hers as they
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: reached the climax of Ain't no Mountain high Enough, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the spotlight was as locked on them as their eyes
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: were locked on each other. They weren't lovers in life,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: they were lovers in song, and the audience in Hampton
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Sydney College could hear it in their voices and see
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: it in their faces. But then Tammy's face changed. Tammy
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: felt dis She looked at the microphone in her hand,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and it suddenly looked like a fussy square and the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: room spun. The sound of the band playing behind them
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: became cavernous, and the music echoed in her head. She
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: looked over at Marvin, who was doing his best a
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: soldier on despite the obvious fact that his duet partner
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: was panicking. And then Tammy fell and the mic dropped
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: to the floor. Marvin was there on the double just
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: as fast as he could. He caught her in his arms.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: The white stretched limo came to a stop, and David Ruffin,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: sitting in the backseat, came out of a daze. He'd
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: been thinking about Tammy again, who was nineteen ninety one,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: more than two decades since her death, and David was
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: still thinking about her. He hadn't been there on that night,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty seven when she collapsed, but he
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: heard the story of what happened moments like these, Riding
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: in the back of a barrow, half stoned out of
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: his mind and on the prow for the next fix
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: to get him stoned the other half of the way,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: he replayed the story in his head. He thought about
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: going to see Tammy at the hospital right after it happened,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and the doctors said it was a brain tumor. Tammy
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: didn't tell the doctors about all the times David had
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: hit her in the head, but David heard the rumors
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: around Motown that Tammy was in a bad way all
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: because of him, and no one dared confront David about
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the rumors. They didn't want to be next. As the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: surgeries piled on, and then the chemo started and Tammy's
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: hair fell out, and she lost her eyesight and became
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: partially paralyzed, David just stopped showing up. He'd moved on
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to the next woman well before Tammy passed on in
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: March nineteen seventy. Now, on June first, nineteen ninety one,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: David Ruffin was fifty years old, but looked and felt
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: at least fifteen years older. He'd been addicted to cocaine
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: for about as long as Tammy had been dead, probably
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: even longer if he was being honest. He used his
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: cokepipe as a bonding mechanism with Eddie Kendricks and Dennis
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Edwards when in nineteen eighty two he and Eddie at
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: long last rejoined the Temptations for a reunion tour. In
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: an album their Routine of Days Gone Past, Jin and
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: soda followed by cocaine followed by pills was now replaced
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: with all hits from the pipe all the time. You
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: can only imagine how quickly that reunion went off the rails.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: He and Eddie felt the warm glow of the spotlight
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: one more time when they played support to Haul of
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Oates on their nineteen eighty five album Live at the Apollo,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: even taking the stage with the Blue Eyed Soul Brothers
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: at Live Aid and cracking the top twenty with a
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: medley of the Way You Do, The Things You Do
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and My Girl that same year. But that was a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: brief ray of sunshine and a long line of cloudy
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: days for David Ruffin. After he did time and rehab
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: in the late eighties, David still couldn't quit the coke.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: He was thrown in jail for possession, did a year
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: on the inside, and now a former rehabber, a former inmate,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and former temptation, David Ruffin wasn't holding He needed to score.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: It was after midnight he gazed out the window at
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: a three story house at the corner of Iola in
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: North fifty second, Philadelphia, PA. He was in Philly because
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: that's where the plane had landed. He'd flown back from
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: London after a Quasi Temptations reunion tour he'd participated in
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: with Eddie and Dennis. He carried a briefcase filled with
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: money he made on tour, forty thousand dollars in British
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: travelers checks. Like most of David's money, he knew it
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: wouldn't last him long. The three story house outside his
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: window was an oasis in an otherwise shady part of
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: town for junkie luminaries like him. A crackhouse to the stars,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: a crackhouse palace. The place didn't just have the best shit,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: it had sofas and TVs and stereos so that you
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: could make yourself at home while taking a trip to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Cloud nine. According to the limo's driver, Donald Brown, he
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and David walked inside shortly after midnight and proceeded to
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: smoke between five and ten vials of crack. Three hours later,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Donald Brown frantically pulled the white stretched limo up to
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the entrance of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and laid
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: on his horn. David Ruffin was summed in the backseat unconscious.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Attendance from the hospital rushed outside and carried David into
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the er. Less than an hour later, he was pronounced dead. Some,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: like the surviving Temptations, were dismayed over another senseless tragedy
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: that took another member of the Motown family away before
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: his time. For others, like David's family, there were unanswered
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: questions like where was the forty thousand dollars in travelers
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: checks that David was carrying. At the hospital, he was
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: found with a meager fifty three dollars in his pocket,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: and the forty grand had up been vanished? Was David
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: set up? Had he been fed more drugs and he
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: could handle so that it would make him an easy
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: target to rob? The questions drew parallels to the supposed
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: suicide of Paul Williams two decades earlier. Similar conspiracy theories
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: began to bubble to the surface. How strong was the
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: long arm of the Motown law. Was there a temptation's curse?
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: It was hard to know. Many of those questions would
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: go unanswered, maybe forever. But the death of David Ruffin,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: just like the deaths of Tammy Terrell, Florence Ballard, Paul Williams,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: and Marvin Gaye before him, did make one thing clear.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: It's a doggyat dog World out there, and that ain't
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: no lie. In fact, it's a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: in this disdisgrace Land. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
• 39:13
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  Speaker 1: and ROLLA He's a bad, bad man.