For our Last Word interview series, we spoke with smokeyrobinson about 'Gasms,' his memories of the Beatles and Marvin Gaye, Motown’s role in the civil rights movement, and much more. Read the full interview ⬇️
Do you ever wonder why you’ve been blessed with such a long and healthy life?
Not to do it again. I speak at churches and schools and rehabs and places like that all the time. In fact, judges have asked for me to come to other states to speak at rehab graduations and things like that. I see people there who are 20 years old, they’ve been doing drugs for 10 years. And I don’t understand, because I did it for two years and I was dead. I was a walking corpse after two years when I started messing with that cocaine. Thank God it was before crack.
It was different when I went on tour down there with Motown. They were blatant: “We don’t want you here, don’t come in here.” We’ve been shot at for trying to go to the bathroom. You’re definitely not staying in any of these hotels. You have to go to the Black side of town and find rooming houses to live in.Dr. Martin Luther King came to Motown, and he met with Berry [Gordy] and me. He wanted us to record his “I Have a Dream” speech, which we released on Motown.
That even happened internationally. The Temptations, during the height of the Cold War, went to Russia. They came back and said, “Russia was deep, man, but the people loved the music.” Music is the international language. And I’m very proud of the fact that we broke down some of those barriers. I think that, at first, he was running just to see if he could, just to see what would happen. And he was a celebrity, so many people voted for him for that reason. They thought, “Well, he’s got his own money so he’s not obligated to any corporations or anything like that.”
I didn’t feel anything, man. I’ve been hearing about “Hanukkah” all my life. But by the time I said that — I was 80 years old, man — I’d never heard Hanukkah spelled with a “C.” There’s a whole lot of people who had never heard it with a “C.” I got ridiculed by some people, but that didn’t mean anything to me because I was being honest.about it during “Weekend Update,” where Chris Redd played you.
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