Paradise:Paul
Paul Williams
Paul Williams was born July 2, 1939 in Birmingham, Alabama to Rev. and Mrs. Sophia Williams. Williams and childhood friend Eddie Kendricks got together and went through a series of teenage singing groups before dropping out of school. The two left Birmingham when Williams was the age of 19. They settled in Cleveland around some of their relatives and formed a group called the Cavaliers. Music manager Milton Jenkins heard
them sing at a party and offered to handle their careers if they came to Detroit where the music scene was on the move.
There Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks and another singer performed together in a threesome called The Primes. Milton Jenkins also managed Otis Williams' group The Distants. As fate had it, the two groups ran up against one another at various gigs. Eventually, the two groups merged into The Elgins. Once signing with Berry Gordy at Motown, The Elgins evolved into The
Temptations, where Paul Williams was one of the primary lead singers before David Ruffin joined the group. He was also the groups first choreographer and taught the group their first dance steps. Paul was
affectionately known as the "soul" of The Temptations. Paul was also credited with creating the groups onstage persona of being business like and professional.
In Paul's personal life he had been a star football player, he was married and had five children, two of them adopted. He was torn between his marriage and an extra-marital relationship which led to many of the
emotional problems that later proved to be overwhelming. Although Paul didn't appear to have had health problems, he had heart disease and Sickle Cell Anemia. His health problems, relationship problems and
alcohol addiction soon led to depression. He was also depressed about not having group leads as often when David Ruffin joined the group in 1968 and took most of the leads. Williams left the group in 1971 due to
depression, health and alcohol problems. Paul Williams died August 17, 1973 of a gunshot wound.
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