Former Spinners singer aims to deliver message of 'unity and love' at Oct. 19 Motown concert

QUINCY — A man walked into two taverns for karaoke in Quincy and sang the Spinners’ 1976 hit, “It’s a Shame.” The crowd was truly impressed when the man appeared to hit every note perfectly.

The crowd was shocked to learn that the man was GC Cameron, the lead singer of the Spinners’ hit.

Cameron is one of the artists set to perform at “The Sounds of Motown” at the Oakley-Lindsay Center at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 19. He will join Paul Williams Jr., son of Temptations founder Paul Williams. Other artists will pay tribute to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and Otis Redding, among others.

Gerald Austin of the Manhattans, as well as Joe Herndon and Glen Leonard of the Temptations, will also perform at the event.

Cameron will direct the Spinners Revue.

“I’m lucky because I’m still singing and it’s different than when I was younger,” Cameron said. “I have a better understanding of what should be and what shouldn’t be. My life is an incredible blessing from God.”

Born George Curtis Cameron in Mississippi in 1945, Cameron worked on his family’s 250-acre farm.

“I could pick cotton. I could feed cows. I could milk them. And we had horses. We had Clydesdales. We had all that,” he said. “I did all that by the time I was 10 years old.”

Cameron’s parents moved the family to Detroit around 1955. The family was one of 20 families who migrated north to escape racial tensions in the South.

Cameron said he was always surrounded by music as a child, and the source of that music was common to artists of that era: the church.

“My mother was a singer. She and her sisters were in a choir when they were younger, and we always went to church,” he said. “God was always first. Praising and worshiping God was just normal procedure for us.”

After graduating from high school, Cameron’s cousin had the idea to join the Marines.

“I had no idea what the Marines were. All I knew was they had nice clothes,” Cameron said with a laugh.

Cameron spent more than four years in the Navy, ending his tour of duty in Vietnam. He said he had no idea what he was getting into,

“I said, ‘You mean we’re going to do what we trained for? Go out there and kill people? I don’t understand,'” Cameron said. “They said, ‘You’ll do it when you get there.'”

Cameron had a decision to make when he returned to Detroit.

“People treated us so badly when we came home,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “Everybody was spitting at us… throwing rocks and hitting us. They were doing all sorts of disgusting things. There was no time to do anything but try to survive… figure it out. I thought, ‘Wait a minute. I just fought for America and they kicked me in the head when I came home? How does that work?’”

“After the war, I was torn. I had to make a decision: be a good guy or go crazy and die. Of course, the Lord chose a good guy for me.”

It didn’t hurt that Dennis Edwards, the frontman for The Temptations, was a good friend of one of Cameron’s brothers. He had heard that GC was returning to Detroit after his tour of duty.

“Edwards said to me, ‘There’s a group at Motown called The Spinners, and they need a lead singer. Tell him to come right away,'” Cameron recalled. “It was that simple. There was only one person at the audition. Guess who auditioned me? Marvin Gaye.”

Cameron joined The Spinners in 1967.

Stevie Wonder called Cameron in 1970. Wonder had written a song called “It’s a Shame” and offered it to Cameron and the Spinners. The song became the group’s first chart-topping single, reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Rhythm and Blues chart.

Wonder is one of Cameron’s closest friends to this day.

Cameron and the Spinners began touring with the other Motown stars, playing places where he had been treated so poorly as a young black man.

“My experience in the military helped me put it in that perspective,” Cameron said. “I saw us as young warriors without weapons. Our voices were our weapons.”

Cameron left the Spinners when the group left Motown and joined Atlantic Records at the request of Aretha Franklin. Cameron remained with Motown to pursue a solo career. In 2003, Cameron became the only person to be a member of both the Spinners and the Temptations.

“Only God does that,” he said.

At almost 80, Cameron is eager to take the stage at the Oakley-Lindsay Center.

“The message I want to convey is one of unity and love,” he said. “I try to show people what love really means. I mean, through words, kindness, compassion, understanding and knowing the effects of hate.”

A variety of ticket options for October 19 are available, including a meet and greet with The Legends.