Is Motown the blueprint of shows like American Idol? Did people really queue up just to get auditioned?
Oh yes. In Detroit we were the big game. But we only accepted one out of every 20. You’ve been a boxer, a composer, a worker at car plants in Detroit. What was it like being 20 and successful? I never felt overwhelmed because I was too busy. If I didn’t have artists to control and stop them from doing bad things, I’d had probably been doing bad things myself. But I’m really a teacher. I taught artists to believe in themselves, I taught them not to sell their dreams cheap. Less than one per cent of people in the world ever reach their full potential. And there are reasons why others don’t. Everybody is a star, they just have to be directed in a proper way. Were you hurt by the way you were portrayed in the movie Dream Girls – as the big hustler and gangster? Of course! That’s not who I am. I’ve never had any affiliations with organised crime. And for a simple reason: I’m not stupid. I don’t need those people or the money. Of course I’ve been questioned by the FBI – simply because they f
