Four Tops singing for 44 years with the Four Tops who, unlike many Motown groups, never had a single lineup change until then. At first, Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, and Duke Fakir toured as a trio called "The Tops". In 1998, they recruited former Temptation Theo Peoples to restore the group to a quartet. By the turn of the century, Stubbs had become ill from cancer; Ronnie McNeir was recruited to fill the Lawrence Payton position and Peoples stepped into Stubbs' shoes as lead singer. Stubbs later died on October 17, 2008 at his home in Detroit. The group also did commercials
John Stubbs (Quaker) John Stubbs (Quaker) John Stubbs (c.1618–1675) was an itinerant English Quaker minister and author who engaged in a well-known debate with Roger Williams in Rhode Island. Stubbs had received a liberal education and was fluent in several languages, including Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. Stubbs served as a soldier in Cromwell's army and was stationed in the Carlisle garrison where George Fox was imprisoned in 1653 and Fox converted Stubbs to the Quaker beliefs. Stubbs refused to take an oath of fidelity to Cromwell in 1654 as against his Quaker beliefs, so he left the army that year. In Lancashire in