Four peaks of performance in 2014 in Leeds (Image: Getty)
“My last trip abroad. “Music has taken me all over the world,” adds the Tamla Motown star. “But my favorite trip has always been the UK. We’ve made a lot of friends here over the years. I’m so happy to be back.” How would he feel taking his last bow?
“I will be in tears. I know I will miss her dearly because the British people have treated us in such a royal and loving way over the years. From where I come, it feels like a fairy tale.”
And what a tale. Born in Detroit, Duke’s amazing career dates back to 1953, when he started Four Tops as high school friends—”young hoods,” he says with a smile—from the same slum in Michigan’s Motor City.
There was Levi Stubbs, only 17 years old, whose thunderous leaden voice defined their voice; Lawrence Payton, the golden-toned teenager; Rinaldo “Obi” Benson, Deep Ocean Bass for the Quartet. And Duke, along with Honeysuckle, was the last surviving original member.
Duke’s father, a Muslim factory worker, came from northeastern India, what is now Bangladesh. His American mother was black and Christian. He learned important life lessons from both and then forged his own way.
By the time the Four Tops hit the world stage in 1965 with their number one US hit, I Couldn’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), they had already endured a decade of failed singles and false starts.
Then they were saved by Berry Jordi Jenner, the visionary behind Motown. Their days as a supper club act, often playing in front of separate audiences, were long gone.
“Blacks had to stand on the balcony and everyone on the floor was dancing and having fun,” Duke recalled. “It was Berry’s sister, Esther, who canceled the separate tours and said we wouldn’t be back until everyone could enjoy the show together.”
Since then, “it’s just been such a fun experience in every city, everyone dancing and singing together, jumping and clapping.”
This was followed by a string of hit songs worldwide including Reach Out I Will Be There – #1 UK debut in 1966 – It’s the Same Old Song, Walk Away Renee and Standing In The Shadows Of Love.
All of these classics will be heard on their current main tour with fellow Motown stars The Temptations, culminating at London’s O2 Arena on October 11.
“I can sing as long as I’m alive,” Duke says. “The most amazing thing to me is that they still love those songs from 50 years ago.”
But he admits, “I had to cut my steps in half. That’s the only thing, I can’t dance like I used to, but I can still move. I’m on the verge of paralysis, but I’m still there!”
With a total of 29 British charts entered, the four peaks found themselves at the center of Motown’s history-making stable – the Supremes, Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and, most excitingly, the Jackson 5 featuring 10-year-old Michael from the age.
“We felt like we were part of something. It is as if God planted a musical seed in that part of Detroit and it just blossomed into a world-loving flower.”
Race has never been an issue for the mostly young, mostly white audience who bought Motown recordings.
“For the first time, no one cared what color we were. This was something we had never known in our lives.”
He intends to spend as much time as possible with his wife of nearly 50 years, Piper (Image: Getty)
The four tops found themselves performing in colleges. “The class is starting to disappear — from people’s minds anyway.”
In conjunction with the civil rights movement, Duke feels that mainstream embrace of Motown acts like the Four Summits has “softened the blow” of Martin Luther King’s speeches and protest marches.
We were so proud to be a small part of the civil rights movement. This is probably the greatest thing I feel we’ve done.”
In 1967, the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, staged their first British show.
“Brian set it up and made it possible for us to be accepted into the UK. He promised something and made it come true. I will never forget it.”
However, this wouldn’t be a true story of pop music success in the 1960s, if it didn’t also include its share of turmoil and despair.
Broken marriages, struggles with sobriety, their agonizing departure from Motown after the label moved to Los Angeles in 1972, all appear in Duke’s Father of Seven Memoirs, I’ll Be There: My Life with the Four Peaks, published earlier this year.
He admits: “I wasn’t an angel. I smoked pot, drank cocaine, and did all that kind of stuff.” But he shrugs, “Everyone did that time.”
It was during the Four Tops’ Las Vegas residency in the ’80s that Duke finally assessed him.
“The real orgasm I got was always from being on stage, it wasn’t from drugs. It took me a long time to realize that, but that’s when I gave it up – all in one night.”
He remembers as if it was a dream, ‘Something said, Duke, that’s not you. Whoa.’ I had friends come over to party and drink and smoke and all that. I said, ‘You all go home.’ Take all these things with you. Good-bye’.
“After the show, I got on the plane all night, went to my church and got on my knees and thanked God for helping me. Now I’m celebrating because I gave up on it. Not many people could give it up.”
But none of us evade the final appearance. The first person to stop spinning was 59-year-old Payton, who succumbed to liver cancer in 1997. The 69-year-old Obi’s voice was also silenced by cancer in 2005.
When 72-year-old Stubbs passed away after a long illness in 2008, Duke had already been at the top of the updated Tops list for several years.
“I lost my three best friends,” he says, and his natural enthusiasm waned momentarily. We were like brothers, we loved each other, we respected each other, we depended on each other.
“We said we’d write a book together one day, but they’re not here to do it so it was up to me to tell the story.”
The current squad includes Larry Payton Jr. in his father’s place, and Ronnie McNair, the multi-talented MD who has been brilliantly directing Stubbs since 1999, with a much-needed vocal boom from Alexander Morris, who joined in 2019.
“Because we learned how to entertain before we learned how to record, our concerts are just fun,” Duke says. “When we sing the classics, it’s like the roof is opening. It’s amazing to me, honestly.”
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So what does the future hold for him?
“I haven’t figured out when I’m going to stop completely, but it won’t be long. Sometime in ’23, I’m almost sure of it. I can feel it at that time.”
He intends to spend “as much time as possible” with his wife of nearly 50 years, Piper.
To be sober, “I got help from God and I had a determination. I prayed to restore myself and I did.” He insists, however, that what has kept him on the road is Piper.
“She’s been keeping me disciplined, and making me loving. She’s the best doctor I’ve ever met and just so happens to be the woman I love.”
As with many gold records and awards, not least when the Four Peaks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and Duke’s Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
“We’ve been doing this for 44 years and have been four hats from the street,” he says. “But that music changed us.
“The songs were what made people happy, made people want to dance, made people want to hug someone and whatever else came after.”
They still do.
* The Four Tops & The Temptations tour tickets in Tickline.co.uk or directly from the stadiums.
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