During their earlier days as a group, Paul Williams was the only member of the Temptations who abstained from alcohol consumption. He would, in fact, lecture his bandmates about ruining their health whenever he’d catch them covertly drinking. That’s why it’s tragically ironic that Williams descended into alcoholism as the Tempts began to enjoy massive success as one of Motown’s most popular acts.
According to Otis Williams in “Temptations,” Paul’s drinking problem might have started when he entered an affair with a woman named Winnie Brown, who worked as the Supremes’ hairstylist. “Paul had married young and had five children,” Otis wrote. “He was devoted to his family but torn between them and Winnie. Before too long Paul, who never took anything stronger than milk, started drinking.”
All in all, however, Otis Williams acknowledged in his book that it’s hard to pinpoint an exact cause or driving factor for Paul Williams’ problems with the bottle. But as he told Deseret News in 1998, it was difficult watching his bandmate develop a drinking problem almost out of nowhere. “[T]o see a guy come from drinking milk to drinking, sometimes, two to three-fifths of Courvoisier a day – that was kind of hard to take,” he said.
