Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs has died at his home in Detroit at the age of 72. No cause of death has been confirmed, but the singer had, in his later years, suffered from a variety of ailments, including cancer and a stroke.
The legendary group formed whilst the original members - Stubbs, Obie Benson, Abdul Fakir and Lawrence Payton - were still at school in the fifties, before becoming one of the major lynchpins of the Motown label in the mid-sixties, achieving huge hits with tracks like 'Baby I Need Your Loving', 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)' and 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)'. The band maintained its original line up for more than forty years, and only drafted in replacements in the late nineties, because of the death of two members, Benson and Payton, and Stubbs' failing health. The sole surviving member, Abdul Fakir, has continued to tour, with Payton's son Roquel plus former Temptation Theo Peoples and Motown veteran Ronnie McNair.
In addition to his Four Tops career, Stubbs did some other voicework; he was the voice of Audrey II in 1986's 'Little Shop Of Horrors', and of the character of Mother Brain on the cartoon show 'Captain N: The Game Master'.
Stubbs is survived by his wife of 48 years, Clineice, five children, and eleven grandchildren.