Eddie Watkins Jr.
June 2, 2016 — Eddie Watkins Jr.’s love of music started when he was 7. That was the year his grandmother bought him a piano.
He took lessons and learned to read music, but by the time he was 13, he began to favor the bass guitar.
He’s played with many of the old Motown greats and other famous personalities, including Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand, Herbie Hancock, Santana, Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Pointer Sisters and James Brown.
He sang with The Temptations during their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s. Three classic Temptations songs, “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me),” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.” The group was also ranked at number 68 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
But later in life Watkins began attending the Spiritual Life Center in Las Vegas, and a new type of music began pouring out of him.
“It woke me up,” Watkins said.”
Within the first six months of his “waking up to his spirituality,” he wrote, produced and manufactured his first CD, “The Answer.”
The change came to fruition in 2007, when he was 52, and now, at 61, he’s become known as the man from “Motown with a Message,” often (during church services) presenting messages along with the music.
June 12 he will be performing at the Unity SouthShore Spiritual Life Center during its 10 a.m. service held at the Firehouse Cultural Center, 101 1st Ave. N.E., Ruskin, followed by a community concert at 1:30 p.m., also at the Cultural Center. The center suggests giving a love offering of $15.
Watkins was born in Detroit, which also happened to be the birthplace of the Motown sound. He began composing music and learning many other instruments as he grew, including drums and saxophone
Eddie Watkins Jr., also known as the man from “Motown with a Message,” will bring his music and message to Unity SouthShore Spiritual Life Center on June 12 at the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin.
When Motown moved to Los Angeles, Watkins left Detroit behind, moved to Hollywood and made a name for himself as a premier “A list” session bass player.
Success and the fast life led Watkins to substance abuse, recovery and a spiritual search for deeper meaning of his life.
This is when he began the type of shows he does now: part message, part music. For a while, when he began his spiritual search, he became music director at the Center for Spiritual Living Greater Las Vegas and the Center for Spiritual Living Seattle.
Today, he has six CDs of original life-altering high-consciousness music under his belt, and he tours the country aiming to raise the vibration of the planet with his music.
Watkins is also writing a book, Motown & Miracles, and is the keynote speaker at many of the centers he visits.
“I know what my life purpose is now, to share this music with the world,” Watkins said in a telephone interview May 27.
To find out more or to hear his music, visit www.eddiewatkinsjr.com.
