Former lead singer for Spinners wants to deliver message of ‘unity and love’ at Oct. 19 Motown concert

QUINCY — A man recently walked into a couple of taverns for karaoke in Quincy and sang the Spinners’ 1976 hit, “It’s a Shame”, at both places. The crowds were really impressed as the man seemed to hit every note perfectly. 

They were more shocked when they learned the singer was GC Cameron, lead vocalist of the Spinners hit.

Cameron is one of the performers for “The Sounds of Motown” event that will take the Oakley-Lindsay Center stage at 7:15 p.m. Oct. 19. He’ll join Paul Williams Jr., son of Paul Williams, a founding member of the Temptations. Other artists will honor Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and Otis Redding among others. 

Gerald Austin of the Manhattans, along with  Joe Herndon and Glen Leonard of the Temptations, also will perform during the event.

Cameron will lead the Spinners Revue.

“I’m blessed because I still sing, and it is different than I when I was young,” Cameron said. “I know more about what should be and what shouldn’t be. My life is just an incredible blessing from God.”

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

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

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 around music as a child, and the source was common for entertainers of that era — church.

“My mom was a singer. She and her sisters had a choir when they were younger, and it was always church with us,” he said. “Always God, always first.  Praising and worshiping was just simply a normal procedure for us.”

After his high school days were over, Cameron’s cousin had an idea to join the Marines.

“I had no idea what the Marines were about. All I knew was they had pretty clothes,” Cameron said laughing.

Cameron spent more than 4 years as a Marine, finishing his duty in Vietnam. He said he had no idea what he was getting into,

“I said, ‘You mean what we’ve been training for is what we gonna do? Go there and kill people? I don’t understand,’” Cameron said. “They said, ‘You will when you get there.’”

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

“People were treating us so badly when we got back,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “Everybody was spitting on us … throwing rocks at us and hitting us. Doing all kinds of sick stuff. You didn’t have time to do nothing but try to survive … figure it out. I thought, ‘Wait a minute. I just came from fighting the war for America, and they kicked me in the head when I got home? How does that work?’

“After the war, I was torn. I had to make a decision on whether to 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, frontman for The Temptations, was a good friend of one of Cameron’s brothers. He heard GC was back in Detroit after his tour of duty. 

“Edwards said, ‘Well, there’s a group at Motown called The Spinners, and they need a lead singer. And tell him to get over there right now,’” Cameron recalled. “It was that simple. There was 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 charting single, hitting No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Rhythm and Blues chart. 

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

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

“With my time in the military, I put it into that perspective,” Cameron said. “I thought of us as young warriors without guns. Our voices were our weapons.”

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

“Only God does that,” he said.

Now nearing 80 years old, Cameron cannot wait to hit the stage at the Oakley-Lindsay Center.

“The message I want to tell is unity and love,” he said. “I’m trying to show people what love really feels like. I mean, through the words, the kindness, the compassion, the understanding and the knowledge of what hate can do.”

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