MOTOWN

 

Diana Ross and Berry Gordy Jr. met when Ross was still in high school. The first time Gordy Jr. heard her voice, he was stopped dead in his tracks and asked her and her group to perform their song again. He would have signed them then and there had they been done with high school, but instead told them to return to audition again after they had graduated. Ross began to hone her skills as a musician and vocalist more and more from that point on, returning with her friends to help in the studio every day. 

 

Things were not always so rosy, however, and there eventually came a time when Ross and Motown would part ways. When Ross was considering leaving Motown, she called Gordy to ask him whether he would be willing to match the offer that she had received from RCA Records which was worth 20 million dollars. Gordy was unable to do so, but begged her to think it over. She decided to leave and signed with RCA, confirming the deal on May 20, 1981. 

 

The pieces below serve as reflections of Ross and Gordy on the above situation.

DIANA ROSS:

 

I think I’m going to do it. I think I’m going to leave Motown and Berry and all that has brought me to where I am today. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and so I hired an attorney to look into what I could do and whether it was a good idea. When he found out that I only had 300 grand to my name after all the money I had made for the label, we decided it was time to see what else was out there.  After everything Berry and I had been through, this was hard, but I know that I need to do something different.

 

RCA is offering me 20 million dollars to sign with them. That’s far and away the most lucrative offer that anyone in this business has seen to this point. So I called Berry and I asked him if he would match it; I didn’t think it was worth losing such a great relationship and such great people, but when he told me he wouldn’t be able to – even after he begged me to stay – I just couldn’t go back there. I didn’t feel like it was right.

 

All of the great things we had done together had also come with their own issues. I can think of so many times that Berry had pushed me too far – like when we were working on Mahogany. He kept telling me I wasn’t giving him what he needed. He kept telling me again and again and again until I had had enough and so I left then too. Lo and behold, Time magazine tells the world that he had wasted one of the world’s most precious resources: me.

 

But that doesn’t make this any easier. It doesn’t mean that I wake up every day knowing that I made the right move and that we needed to part ways when we did. I hope that we can work together again one day, but perhaps it’s for the best that we parted. Berry has been a great friend, mentor and confidant to me, but for now, it’s on to bigger and better things I hope.

BERRY GORDY JR:

 

Diana left today. And now that she’s gone…I just don’t know. I had it all put together…or at least I thought I did and now it feels like everything’s fallen apart. We had broken down so many barriers and we had done so much together. And that was just musically.

 

What she meant to me otherwise I can’t even put into words. I can’t even begin to fathom what this is going to be like. When she called, I asked her to just think about – just consider – staying with me at Motown, but the money must have been too much. I mean she was taking home pennies in comparison to what we were putting together and though most of what I had started making I was reinvesting into the company, we’ve grown so much that I haven’t had to do things the same way…

 

I’m in pain. Really, truly guttural pain, but I understand that she had to leave. One day, I hope she’ll come back and I know that we’ll be friends through it all because our relationship means so much more to me than the business, but it’s hard to think that I’m not going to be seeing her at Hitsville any more. I still remember the first time I heard her voice. She hadn’t even graduated high school yet, but now…it’s over. I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe that her and I seem to have written our last chapter together musically…but who knows. Perhaps we’ll find a way to work together in the future, but only time will tell.