Berry Gordy on origins of songwriting and Motown: ‘My goal was to get girls’

TORONTO – If Berry Gordy had fallen in love early in life, he might never have founded the legendary Motown Records.

The illustrious producer/songwriter says the hit-making R&B label that nurtured major acts — from Stevie Wonder to the Temptations and Diana Ross and the Supremes — came out of a “great desire” to find a mate.

“When I started off, I didn’t know that I wanted to be a mogul or a big songwriter or anything — I just wanted to write songs, make some money and get some girls,” he said in a phone interview to promote next Tuesday’s start of “Motown The Musical” in Toronto.

“In my neighbourhood, that’s all we strived for,” added the 85-year-old Detroit native.

“If I had found love right away, my incentive would have been gone.”

Gordy first fell in love with music through his uncle, a classical pianist who made him want to play.

“I tried it out and failed miserably,” he said. “But as I was trying it out, I could hear melodies in my head and I started writing songs of my own.”

After being drafted to serve in the Korean War, Gordy briefly ran a record store and worked on the assembly line at Ford Motor Co.

Then he met singer Jackie Wilson and co-wrote songs for him, which eventually led to producing and working with the Miracles.

In 1959, he borrowed $800 from his family to start his record company.

To create his stars, Gordy applied the same assembly-line approach he learned at the car plant: Talent that came in the door had to learn not just how to dance and sing, but also how to walk, talk and represent themselves.

“I wanted (the label) to a be a place where kids could walk in one day an unknown and come out another door a star,” said Gordy.

Along the way, Gordy reflected his journey through his songwriting.

When he was girl-crazy, he wrote “Do You Love Me?” When he started getting girls he realized his next goal was money.

“So then I wrote a song called ‘Money, That’s What I Want,’ and that became a big hit,” he said. “So from that, I realized that telling the truth about yourself and making it entertaining is really part of the key, if you do it in an artistic way.”

Gordy applied that thinking when he wrote “Motown The Musical,” a four-time Tony Award nominee that runs Sept. 22 through Oct. 25 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

Audiences get to see the “trials and tribulations” he went through with his artists, many of whom he’s still close to, he said.

“Our love was strained dramatically, especially when they left me for lots of money and stuff, but our bond today, with all of them, is stronger than ever,” he said, noting he just got off the phone with Smokey Robinson.

“If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be here talking to you today.”