LOS ANGELES — Lamont Dozier was in his downstairs home studio, singing "My World Is Empty Without You," the classic Diana Ross and the Supremes hit he had composed with his Motown partners Eddie and Brian Holland. He was in mid-song when the unexpected happened.
The legendary songwriter's voice cracked and he became choked up. Although he had written the song and had sung it himself hundreds of times, he became overcome, so much so that he couldn't finish.
"The song was just pouring out of me, and then all of a sudden the emotion took over," Dozier explained during a 1999 interview in his spacious home. "It was overwhelming, and I had to regroup. All these memories just rushed in, of the people and friends who are no longer with us. Marvin Gaye. [The late Supreme] Florence Ballard. Some of the Temptations. ... I just had to have the engineer stop the tape."
