According to Billy Wilson, Pres. And founder of the Motown Alumni Association, former lead singer of the Temptations, Ali “Ollie” Woodson, died Sunday of cancer (leukemia) in California. He was 58.
Woodson, born Oct. 12, 1951, in Detroit, was the front man for The Temptations for most of the 1980s and 90s. He is probably best known for the 1984 hit “Treat Her Like a Lady,” which he wrote and sang lead on.
“He was an excellent singer,” Wilson told the Detroit News. “He’s one of the few singers who was accommodating to virtually everything. He had a style and swagger about himself that was different than the other Temptations.”
After leaving the group, Woodson began a solo career, and often toured with a Temptations-like revue called Ali-Ollie Woodson & the Emperors of Soul (Emperors of Soul being the name of the Tempts’ 1994 box set).
In 1997, he guest starred on an episode of The Jamie Foxx Show as a patient in a mental hospital. He also appeared in a handful of movies after that.
The singer also released a solo album, “Right Here All Along,” in 2001.
From 2006-2008, he was in The Temptations Revue featuring Dennis Edwards, although he and Edwards were never Tempts members at the same time. Woodson also toured with Aretha Franklin in 2008.
Funeral services are pending.
Ollie Woodson sings lead on The Temptations hit song “Treat Her Like A Lady”.
