The Temptations -- late 70 to late 71

[jsmith]

The line up of the Temptations was in flux in 1970.
David Ruffin had already left the group, back in summer 68 -- Dennis Edwards being his replacement. Eddie Kendricks had been unhappy with his situation [[on & off) since the mid 60's. He, David & Paul Williams were close friends. David R & Eddie were talking on a regular basis by 69/70, while Paul was often too ill to perform with the group. A replacement had been brought in for Williams; Richard Street from The Monitors. He was an old ally of Otis's from their days in the Distants.
This must have made Eddie even more paranoid, as Richard had been travelling with the group for about six months as the 6th Temptation. Eddie would lose it & just walk off stage during live performances from around mid 1970. This wasn't going to be allowed to continue, so Eddie was signed to a solo recording deal and the group went looking for his replacement. This became urgent as Eddie had handled lead vocals on the group's big Jan 71 hit "Just My Imagination".
Many live bookings had been taken, the group were establishing themselves on the supper club circuit & were undertaking foreign tours, so the situation had to be quickly resolved. Eventually [[over around 9 months) a replacement was found. Ex Baltimore group youngster Damon Harris was hired after he'd initially auditioned for the group's members in DC in April 71. But no doubt, group dynamics were in turmoil over a 9 month period right up to August 71 when Damon was recruited.
Have any of the group's members truthfully documented just what was going on behind closed doors during that period ?
Please just don't quote Otis from his book, I don't believe most of his takes on what was going on in the group then or during other periods. For a guy who never sang lead for the group, he seemed to treat just about all the lead singers he hired to front them with utter contempt -- which is why they all quit numerous times.