The Four Tops today. Left to right: Michael Brook, Lawrence Payton Jr., Ronnie McNeir, Theo Peoples
By Jason Barnard
Lawrence Payton Jr. is speaking from Detroit, hastily packing for shows in Atlantic City and Westbury while the Michigan winter bites outside. But his mind is already on next summer, when The Four Tops will return to Britain for three dates with The Temptations, culminating in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
“When we get to the UK, it’s like we’re home, musically,” Payton Jr. tells me, his voice warming with genuine affection. “I don’t want to alienate anybody here in the States, but the people over in the UK have a better appreciation for the music. They know all of the background about it. They know who played on what song. There’s a reverence for this music that’s just amazing.”
Here is a man whose family story is woven into the fabric of Detroit’s musical history; his great-grandmother’s basement served as a rehearsal space for Smokey Robinson, The Spinners, and countless other Motown acts, yet he finds the deepest connection with audiences an ocean away.
The Four Tops story began in 1953, when four young men came together as The Four Aims in Detroit. That original lineup, Levi Stubbs, Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson, and Lawrence Payton Sr., would remain intact until Lawrence Payton Sr’s passing in 1997. “The Four Tops never ever broke up,” Payton Jr. emphasizes. “It was just death that separated them.”
Growing up as Lawrence Payton Sr.’s son meant living inside Motown’s golden age. “I was like Linus from Charlie Brown,” Payton Jr. recalls with evident fondness. “Linus would always carry this blanket, but I was the blanket to my father. He couldn’t leave without me. I would be at all of the rehearsals, all of the sessions.”
While his father hoped he might become an engineer or lawyer, the younger Payton was absorbing something more valuable than any degree: watching how four men maintained their harmony both on stage and off.
“I can say this with all honesty, we were very, very good friends,” he says of his relationship with his father. “We had unconditional love for each other. But musically, I hung around him and I picked up. I was there all the time at the Motown recordings, even in LA when they went to MCA and all of that.”
The relationships extended beyond his father. “It was like I had four fathers,” Payton Jr. says. It was his 21 years performing alongside Duke Fakir, after joining the group himself, that cemented something profound.
“We created a bond, man, that’s unbreakable,” he says, his voice catching slightly. “He’s sorely, sorely missed, but he left a lot of patience and knowledge and experience.”
The double bill with The Temptations is a meeting of Detroit dynasties with a relationship stretching back six decades. “We’re a perfect contrast,” Payton Jr. explains with barely concealed competitive pride. “The Four Tops will never out-dance The Temptations, but they will never out-sing us.”
That rivalry, though, comes wrapped in genuine affection. When The Temptations’ lead singer fell ill before a show at the US Capitol a few months ago, Theo Peoples of the Four Tops stepped in without hesitation. The friendship reflects Detroit’s tight-knit musical community of that era, when different groups would share resources, rehearsal spaces, and mutual encouragement. “It’s just like one big family,” Payton Jr. says of those formative years.
While nostalgia tours can feel like heritage acts going through the motions, the Four Tops have something more substantial planned. Payton Jr. reveals they’ve been recording new material, including sessions at the original Motown Studio in Detroit and tracks laid down in Atlanta.
“You’re going to know it’s The Four Tops because you’re going to hear that signature harmony,” he promises, “but it will be something new and something different and beautiful, and the same at the same time.”
Perhaps more intriguing is what he reveals about his personal archive. “In this room that I’m sitting in, I have about 35 masters, unreleased, already recorded,” he says. The prospect of unheard Four Tops material featuring original members, is enough to make any soul music devotee’s pulse quicken.
“It’s a treasure trove,” Payton Jr. adds, and he’s hoping to incorporate one or two tracks into the new project. These recordings represent another dimension of the group’s versatility, their pre-Motown years performing jazz, their studio work behind Billy Eckstine and Count Basie, their ability to tackle any genre with those trademark harmonies.
He points to their version of “Maria” from West Side Story, recorded for a Broadway standards album, as exemplifying their range. “It really showcases the vast talent that they had,” he says. “They could sing anything.”
Duke Fakir’s death in 2024 at age 88 marked the end of the original Four Tops era, but not the end of their story. In his final years, Fakir’s driving purpose was ensuring the group’s continuation, with family involvement at its heart.
“His whole objective was to keep the group going, for all of the family to be involved with the name and the group and what it is that we are and have become,” Payton Jr. explains. “He wanted us to do it the Four Tops way, with a lot of love and respect and togetherness.”
Now Duke’s daughter, Farrah Fakir Cook, and her husband have stepped into leadership roles, bringing fresh energy and business acumen to the operation. “They are operating in Duke’s position and they’re very, very capable lawyers and business people,” Payton Jr. says. “We’re going to take it to the next level.”
With a catalogue spanning seven decades, selecting a setlist presents unique challenges. In the UK, they might include ‘Walk Away Renee’ or ‘Loco in Acapulco’, songs that found particular favour with British listeners. But certain songs are immovable. “We keep the core,” Payton Jr. says. “We can’t get away from ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’ and ‘Shake Me, Wake Me,’ ‘Bernadette,’ ‘Same Old Song,’ ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself.’ We can’t get away from it.”
There’s no complaint in his voice. These songs have transcended their era, becoming part of the emotional architecture of multiple generations. “We went through a period where we did the same setlist for about a year, and it was new every night,” Payton Jr. reflects. The songs themselves have that quality, they arrive fresh each time, carrying different meanings for each person in the audience.
It would be easy to dismiss The Four Tops’ continued touring as nostalgia, but Payton Jr. pushes back against the characterisation. “As we go along and perform shows all over the world, we pick up more and more new fans,” he says. “There’s something undying about this Motown music.”
The current lineup, Payton Jr. alongside Theo Peoples (formerly of The Temptations), Ronnie McNeir, and Michael Brock, are musicians with new material to share and a legacy to honour. “We’re going to resurrect that feeling of having those hit records and the feelings that the group had in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s,” Payton Jr. says, outlining ambitious plans that go beyond simply touring. “We have big plans for the group.”
As our conversation winds down, Payton Jr. wants to make sure British audiences know what’s coming. “We’re honoured to be coming back. We’ve got some surprises for you and it’s going to be one of the best Four Tops shows that you’ve ever seen.”
It’s a bold claim, but there’s conviction behind it. Ask Payton Jr. about performing at the Royal Albert Hall and he becomes reverential. “The joy I get being in the Royal Albert Hall is before we have mics hooked up or anything, you can hear it all over the place during soundcheck,” he explains. “There’s something about the sound there that is magnificent. And then just the amazing amount of talent in the history that’s attached to the place. We always take it up a notch when we’re there.”
Next summer, when The Four Tops and The Temptations take the stage in Liverpool, Bournemouth, and London, the music of the Motown era will fill the air once more. And if Payton Jr. is right, it will feel as vital as it did when these songs first emerged from Detroit over six decades ago.
Further information
The Temptations and The Four Tops perform at Liverpool M&S Bank Arena (30 June), Bournemouth International Centre (1 July), and the Royal Albert Hall, London (3 July). Tickets available from ticketline.co.uk and venue box offices.
