Levi Stubbs the soulful lead to the Four Tops passed away today at age 72. For those of you who didn’t get the Rick Astley/Bond gag I posted earlier you sure as hell won’t get this.
This legendary soul artist put his bandmates first and never broke them up. He was offered a solo career more than once and wouldn’t take it.
Levi Stubbs, whose distinctive, rough-hewn voice and pleading vocal style elevated the Four Tops’ soul classics to masterpieces, died today at his Detroit home. He was 72.
The Michigan native had been in ill health since being diagnosed with cancer in 1995. A stroke and other health problems led him to stop touring in 2000.
Stubbs did venture into acting and commercial work. In addition to TV commercials and voice work, he provided the voice of the carnivorous plant Audrey II in the 1986 movie version of Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.
Heaven is a far prettier sounding place now.
I present to you AudreyII from Little Shop of Horrors in tribute.
