This year, the Minnesota State Fair is doubling down on Motown.
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Diana Ross, the queen of Hitsville U.S.A., and the Temptations, Detroit's most glorious and enduring vocal group, will make separate grandstand appearances at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.
Ross on Sept. 3 will revisit all those Supremes hits as well as her solo smashes "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Upside Down." Last fall, she released "Thank You," her first album of new material in 15 years and something of what could be a farewell.
The Temptations have a new album, too, fittingly titled "Temptations 60" to commemorate their 60th anniversary, to go along with "My Girl," "Cloud Nine" and all those '60s/'70s classics.
The Temps have had plenty of momentum of late on the impetus of the popular Broadway musical, "Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations."
The show, which played to standing ovations this summer at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, is based on a 1988 memoir by Otis Williams, the group's cofounder and last surviving "classic" member. The book was also the basis for a 1998 NBC miniseries.
Having seen "Ain't Too Proud" about a half-dozen times including in Detroit, Williams said it's about 90% to 95% true. "It's accurate," he told the Star Tribune. "They only took a few bits to make it ebb and flow."
Before rehearsal in Los Angeles last month, Williams, 80, talked about recruiting new singer Jawan M. Jackson from Broadway — the 27th member of the Temps — and sharing a bill at the State Fair with the Beach Boys on Aug. 29. Here are some excerpts.
Q: Have you ever been on the same show with the Beach Boys before?
A: We've been traveling off and on with the Beach Boys for the last few years. In fact, we just came off a cruise with them a month or so ago.
Q: Besides being big in the '60s, you have something else in common with the Beach Boys: having only one original member and having experienced times when there were two versions of your group on tour at the same time.
A: We definitely have something in common.
Q: How did you get ownership of the Temptations name?
A: We're still working on that. [Motown founder] Berry Gordy did give me [permission]. It's something we're glad we're able to get and still work out certain differences.
We got a lot of fake Temptations. I was over in Hong Kong years ago and a group was calling themselves the Temptations and it was just four [guys]. Anybody that knows anything about the Temptations, it's always five. If they don't see me onstage, it's not the Temptations.
Q: Which is better: "Ain't Too Proud" or "The Temptations" miniseries?
A: I like both. It took me a minute to see the miniseries. The reason I was so hesitant about seeing it was because it shows a scene where I lost my son. So I had to deal with [that] when I saw the play in New York City. They showed me the first part, but the director said, "Otis, we need you to go because it's getting ready to get heavy. It's about losing [classic members] David [Ruffin], Eddie [Kendricks] and your son."
Q: How have the Temps survived with the drug and alcohol abuse, egos and personality clashes?
A: Some things in life you just learn by [experience]. A young man who was my road manager saw what I was going through with the guys and said, "Don't let these guys drive you crazy. Always stay facile of mind." I said, "What the hell is that?"
I learned to weave and bob like a fighter. That's how I was able to learn how to deal with strong personalities. I'm still able to move the Temptations forward.
Q: Why have the Temps survived all those personnel changes?
A: I never would have imagined that 60 years later and close to 30 strong personalities to deal with, that I'm still here. Still love what we're doing. No one's stopping me except the man upstairs. I've lost some of my best friends like [cofounder] Melvin Franklin. We know that we are really loved by our fans through the many changes we've gone through. Our music can touch people. It just gives me incentive to continue on.
Q: What's your health regimen to stay in shape for touring and doing all those steps?
A: I was working out until this pandemic shut us down. I have yet to get in touch with my trainer. I try and watch what I eat. I'll do some pushups and some crunches and try and get as much rest as I can. I don't drink. I don't do all the craziness.
Q: How do you pick new Temps?
A: Sometimes it comes to me. My manager had mentioned Jawan Jackson, who is the bass singer for us now. He was in my play on Broadway, he played Melvin. Now he's singing what Melvin used to sing.
The guys come in so many different ways. There's no set way to recruit people.
Q: You and Melvin pledged to stay with the Temps forever. Will they go on without you?
A: That's a good question. I don't know. It might be kind of hard. I don't think it would have the same value with the kind of money we make. But you never know.
Q: The songs are timeless. They'll never stopped being liked.
A: I told Eddie Kendricks before he passed: "We did something that will outlive us all." He said, "Sho' did." This is a loved group in spite of ourselves. We have shot ourselves in the foot so many times we should be footless. We've done more damage to ourselves than any outside things could do. Yet we continue to roll on.
The Beach Boys and the Temptations
With: Tower of Power.
When: 7 p.m. Aug. 29.
Where: State Fair grandstand.
Tickets: $37-$50, 1-800-514-3849 or mnstatefair.org.
