Entertainment

Wilson:<i> Someday We'll Be Together</i>

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 21, 2000 / 11:23 AM EDT / CBS

The Supremes reunion tour that longtime fans of had been hoping for is about to hit the road, but Mary Wilson, a founding member of the all-girl group of the '60s and '70s, won't be there.

The setback hasn't slowed Wilson, who just returned from a three-month tour of England and is promoting her new book, Dreamgirl and Supreme Faith: My Life As A Supreme. Wilson remains confident fans will see the reunion tour for what it really is.

"It's not a reunion tour," she says. "It was touted as being a reunion. And I was excited about it because I've waited all these years. But it's not a reunion."

The singing trio that defined the "Motown Sound" of the 1960s with hits like Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love and Stop! In the Name of Love, was founded in East Detroit in 1961 by lead singer Diana Ross, Wilson and Florence Ballard, who left the group in 1967 and died in 1976. Cindy Birdsong, who also is not part of the upcoming tour, replaced Ballard.

Performing with Wilson in the summer reunion, which opens June 14 in Philadelphia and continues through Aug.5 with a finale at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, are Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, both of whom joined the group after Ross had left for a solo career.

"It's not Diana Ross and the Supremes," one disgruntled fan told CBS News. "It's Diana Ross and two people I don't know."

Wilson, 56, who kept the group going for several years after Ross left, said she first heard reports of a reunion almost a year ago.

"When I heard about it," Wilson says, "I was like, 'God, Diana is ready to do this. I've been ready for years.' It took an entire year for her to call me about it and so, I was starting to have doubts at that point."

When she finally got the offer a year later, the terms were less than acceptable. Published reports said Wilson was offered $2 million and Birdsong, $1 million, for the reunion, which was expected to bring Ross $15 million to $20 million.

"You know, people are talking about the money," Wilson says, "and that really is not it, for me, because I'm making money. I do well, you know? The money represented how I would be treated and my status in the situation - all of the plans that had been made for the tour and I was the last person they called."

Wilson said she thought Birdsong has gotten similar, if not worse, treatment.

Wilson, who represented the group at its induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame, said her biggest dream was to perform again with Diana.

"First of all, it's a friendship thing for me," she says. It's like love: You never fall out of love."

Saying "Diana is Diana, Wilson admits the former Supreme is a superstar now. But, she says, "talking about a reunion, that's different."

"That's when I come into the scenario. That means there were three little black girls from the projects who dared to dream in 1959, when, you know, for blck people to dare to dream an impossible dream, we accomplished a lot. We were one of the pioneers."

Reports of lagging ticket sales for the summer tour did not surprise Wilson but she says she takes no comfort from it. "I don't wish bad on anyone, not really, you know?" she says.

Wilson, who lives in New York, has written several books, performed and toured as a solo singing act and acted in TV and stage productions since the group disbanded in 1976.