Florence Ballard - Unreleased Interview Excerpts

[pissedoff7771]

i love you florence yesterday,today and tomorrow.always.you do live on you still have fans and freinds yes even now.people have their opinions and beliefs and they are intitled to that just as we chose to love you. i think you are grand thanks for bringing the girls together.i enjoyed the supremes so much.when the person whos suppose to be in your corner always betrays you thats very hard.tommy was not good for florence.she needed a man that would of been there for her.

[ramona2400]

It seems that Flo Ballard here, herself , after all these years and through these interviews is telling pretty much the same story Tony Turner told, as if he was speaking for Flo, in his book, "All That Glittered My Life With The Supremes". Who knew? The mixture of the legal facts and tradedies from the Benjaminson book, and the behind the scenes guts and glory from the Turner book, could just make this a fascinating movie.

[tommiexander]

I don't know where you get off telling me you hope that this is the last time I come on here. You MUST be crazy! If anything you young people that don't know nothing about what went on in those days need to move on with this because I can't figure out why you all are so into this as if you knew Flo personally. You all have plenty of messed up situations today that you should be uptight about rather than trippin about something that happened 40 years ago when most of you weren't even alive.

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander I don't know who you're addressing as "young people that don't know nothing" because it seems that you been fed the lies and misinformation that Motown/Berry Gordy/ Diane Ross Legal, marketing, publicity department created to justify the ousting of Florence Ballard fromTHE SUPREMES!

One mistake young and inexperienced Florence did was to TRUST the legal team assigned to her by Motown (Hello?) they were not looking up for her interest, they were looking up for MOTOWN!

[tommiexander]

@TWTR4EVER

You need to let it go because who fed you the information that you are going on about?.....Was it Flo, or maybe it was Motown's legal department who told you what was going on behind the scenes....

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander I don't take marching orders from anybody!

One thing is certain, as long as I have a forum on which I can share the fact (this is just one of them) of who's truly Diane Ross and the role Berry Gordy played on the injustices of fellow artist (Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson & Cindy Birdsong and others) committed for the benefit and glory of a two timing, bastard bearing megalomania starlet (Diane Ross) the story will keep on being circulated for those who would listen!

[tommiexander]

I'm going to say this for the last time for those of you that weren't around during those times and who can't seem to get it. He picked Diana, whether he was sleeping with her or not, to sing lead because she had crossover appeal, which is what he was looking for. Flo didn't like it and starting acting up, which made Berry and Diana start getting on her case as well. Common sense: If you're on a job or in a group and you continue to act up, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU? I'm done.

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander Yes, I hope this is the last time you come here with your BS!

You're insulting the memory of dead ICON MS. FLORENCE BALLAR & THE SUPREMES!

Your DIANE/BERRY/MOTOWN practical scenario that's been peddled for years in order not to shattered Diane Ross image is not believable as her long trail of "backstabbing conning deceit" is now clear!

She had Florence "ousted" as she wanted to fully control the group, she got into Berry's pants to do it!

[tommiexander]

Florence's life was an unfortunate set of circumstances. If she would have just simply accepted her position in The Supremes like Mary did and like all of the other background singers of Motown did, most likely she would still be going strong today like Mary is. If she felt so strongly that she should have been singing lead, she could have stayed with The Supremes for awhile and then went solo. She made a bad decision by becoming defiant and angry which was the beginning of her downfall.

[ForeverFlorenceB]

@tommiexander Flo was about the group, she was about The Supremes and just wanted to be part of it. She accepted Diana being lead singer and never argued about that. Her problem was with Gordy wanting to elevate DR above the group, and Gordy felt that somehow Flo was going to wreck DR's career. Flo even told BG that she had no problem with DR pursuing a solo career, but Flo wanted to stay in the group. She wasn't a push over, and wasn't going to allow BG to run over her.

[tommiexander]

@ForeverFlorenceB

You young people never cease to amaze me with this Flo thing and why you all get soo concerned over something that happened in our generation, probably before many of you were even around. I can't figure you all out. Your generation is the one that you all should be concerned about because there is more than enough mess going on in this generation for you all to have more than plenty to be concerned about. Because our generation was fine. We didn't sweat the small stuff.

[ForeverFlorenceB]

@tommiexander all I can say is that if you don't like it, you shouldn't come on here. Especially since youtube's founders are all in their early 30's.

[tommiexander]

@ForeverFlorenceB

What does the you tube founders being in their 30's have anything to do with the fact that many young people like you post about a lot of irrelevant foolishness about people who are in the 60's and 70's when you were still in purgatory. And if you don't like what went on in our generation before you were born, maybe you shouldn't come on the "ol school site" either. As I said, your generation has plenty of mess going on that you can complain and get concerned about. OKAY!...

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander I don't know from what side of the fence your comment to ForeverFlorenceB is coming but I guaranteed you the truth and the search for justice & vindication knows no age, color, language, social background or coercions so let this be a lesson that in todays era of communication the truth will not be hidden, bad deed and facts will be exposed, discussed and will serve as testimony of progress!

[tommiexander]

@TWTR4EVER

???? Lord have Mercy on you young people. You all have your priorities so backwards. And they wonder why this generation is in the shape that it's in.

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander I think the priorities of prior generations are the screwup! On their watch, financial debacles, global warming, trying to turn the clock back on woman's rights, labor laws, they have neglected the infrastructure of the nation, allowed monopolies, the oxymoron of capitalism, they get the chance of socialized medicine and they rejected and the icing on the cake they want to grant themselves the right to spin facts to create history as it suits them?

The party is over!

[TheQueenAretha2]

@TWTR4EVER Very well said, I didn't know where he/she was coming from because history has told us that the world has alway been a mess and that each generation has had it troubles, faults, and misunderstandings!

[TWTR4EVER]

@TheQueenAretha2 I have a feeling he/she is a "ROSSMANIA RABID FAN" (Diane Ross) that wants to discredit any SUPREME that's not Diane as they want the legacy of the 12 # 1 Billboard Pop Singles accredited to THE SUPREMES, not Diane Ross & The Supremes for Diane alone to enhance the "not so stellar" solo career!

God works in mysterious ways and after what Diane did, all her "backstabbing & conning" to go "SOLO" her professional chips are falling into place!

"WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND"

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander I lived THE SUPREMES saga, those of us that were loyal fans and followed the group in deep from the "mirage" Berry Gordy/Motown & Diane Ross have manufacture to cover their tacks on their deceit through the commercial media that feeds the masses the sanitized version of the facts when in all reality, Florence Ballard was railroad out of not only THE SUPREMES, MOTOWN BUT OUT OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY by those two scum bags!

[ForeverFlorenceB]

@tommiexander Now, I do believe she could have approached it differently, like private meetings in BG's office, or pulling him off to the side and telling him how she felt about the situation. But there were times BG put her on the spot in public also. I guess it was just her nature to bite back hard. Flo was no Mary in the least bit. This goes to show that everyone deals with things differently, and each has it's own set of consistences, good and bad.

[TWTR4EVER]

@tommiexander Oh tommie? So you're from the believe that once you had a dream, together with other friends they start shaping that dream together and because PRINCESS DECEIT (Diane Ross) creates a strategy to get into the pants of the boss (Berry Gordy) who had them under IRON CLAD CONTRACT and will give her the run of the show changing the whole dynamics, you would seat idle and ride for peanuts?

That was not FLORENCE BALLARD!

INTEGRITY was never lost!

ETHICS, were not lost!

Diane's greed won!

[tommiexander]

Florence's life was an unfortunate set of circumstances. If she would have just simply accepted her position in The Supremes like Mary did and like all of the other background singers of Motown did, most likely she would still be going strong today like Mary is. If she felt so strongly that she should have been singing lead, she could have stayed with Supremes for awhile and then went solo. She made a bad decision by becoming defiant and angry which was the beginning of her downfall.

[9876543217303]

It just seems that for a girl to pass at 32 of a heart attack was very troubled by the events the separated her from the Supremes, which she really founded. I didn't understand then why I always favored her, now listening to her voice and reasoning I see she was a down sister. She was earthy, sensitive and had ethics. This is why she couldn't cow tow to anybody. Yes, fame has an ugly price but she wasn't willing to submit. I love her and I say Hooray for Flo and R.I.P. :D

[Vincent50]

The whole Supreme saga is Flo was not willing to sell her soul the way Diana and Mary did. She saw deeper into the fame bit than the other two which cost her, her job. Diana and Mary would learn years later and struggle to keep their career going. I wish Flo could've achieved something more out of life but she was constantly being robbed at every turn she made by Motown, her lawyer and yes her husband. She didn't have a break anywhere. I LOVE YOU FLO.

[Marcia1982]

She was treated so poorly and definitely misunderstood...so sad that the ppl around them preyed on her weaknesses

[4eva68]

Thank you for posting this.

[bcoombs1988]

You are so welcome :-)

[Individuell83]

some of it is on the CD which is included to mr benjaminsons book " the lost supreme"

thanks for uploading some parts which I didn't knew

some of the interview is uploaded by jonathanlgardner aka meetthesupremes and me =D check it out hun

and thanks again

5*

[paul51]

I vaguely remember reading the article in Look Magazine that featured The Supremes. Miss Flo stated she would dream of one day having her own telephone. Miss Flo also stated in that article while at high school, she would not pick up her feet too much while walking, as she use to have holes at the bottom of her shoes.

[bcoombs1988]

Yes, I have that article. It's great :-)

[LetTheRainCome]

HONEH!!!!

[45spindle]

God bless you Britt...you're the best!

[ekocentric]

bcoombs, I missed this when it came on television and did not worry about it because, even though I don't know you, I knew that once again you would come through.

Thanx.

[tayishere202]

This is awesome thank you for the post:)

[MarvelettesDude]

The Supremes - no one knew what kind of struggle they went throught to get to the top and for Florence getting to the top was one of the hardest things to do, she also "fell" off the top and went back to the rock bottom. But what seperates her from everyone else she never gave and despite her troubles she tried and probably would have cllimbed back to the top. Too bad she didnt make it

[ekocentric]

I am always more compelled to read about Florence because of what you just said. I grew up in the sixties and it is so sad to see someone back in those days travel to exotic places, wear classy clothes, meet interesting people only to fall down so far.

I don't know Florence but I am sure that she may have fallen, but she was never "down". Her biggest enemy was her health..or lack there of.