If you know Tommy Chong, you probably know him as one half of Cheech & Chong, the comedy duo responsible for convincing several generations of Americans that perhaps the best possible thing to do with a car, a joint and absolutely no plan was make a movie about it.
You probably know him as the guy who turned stoner comedy into a legitimate cultural institution.
You may know him from Up in Smoke, Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, That ’70s Show, Dancing with the Stars, or approximately 47,000 memes that have circulated online since the invention of the internet.
But there is a pretty good chance you do not know Tommy Chong was standing in a theater decades ago when a little kid named Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 walked onto a stage and started singing. And Chong wasn’t watching from the audience.
He was in the band sharing the bill.
Before Tommy Chong was Cheech’s comedy partner, before he was the patron saint of baked-out movie nights everywhere, he was a guitarist in a Motown group called Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.
And yes.
That Bobby Taylor.The Bobby Taylor who helped get the Jackson 5 into Motown. The Bobby Taylor who recognized what was happening on that stage. The Bobby Taylor whose decision to take those kids seriously helped set in motion one of the biggest careers in the history of recorded music.
And Tommy Chong was there for it. Hollywood could not write this shit better, although it was directly left out of the Michael biopic.
Before there was Cheech & Chong, there was Tommy Chong and the Vancouvers
Let’s back up. Tommy Chong’s path to becoming Tommy Chong, Cultural Icon of Weed Comedy, was not exactly a straight line. Long before he was making movies with Cheech Marin, Chong was a musician.
He played guitar in Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, a soul and doo-wop group that eventually became part of the Motown family.
And even the band’s origin story is a little more interesting than the usual Wikipedia speedrun.
The group had gone through a few different names, some of which we can’t even mention because they’re so controversial, before settling on Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. The lineup included Bobby Taylor on vocals, Tommy Chong and Eddie Patterson on guitar, Robbie King on organ and Ted Lewis on drums.
The Vancouvers eventually landed at Motown and scored a hit with “Does Your Mama Know About Me,” a song about an interracial relationship that became their signature record. And then, in 1968, the band found itself in in a theater with the future king of pop.
And that’s where history got weird.
Enter five kids from Gary, Indiana
By 1968, Joe Jackson had been working with his sons for years.
Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael had been performing together since the mid-1960s. They had competed in talent shows, played clubs, and already had a reputation as a frighteningly good young act.
And they had already experienced something that would become a recurring theme in their early career: People saw the talent. The industry just hadn’t figured out what to do with it yet. The boys had even previously caught the attention of Gladys Knight after performing at the Apollo Theater. She reportedly tried to get Motown’s attention, but the effort didn’t immediately result in a deal.
They were also already recording. The Jackson 5 had signed with the Gary-based Steeltown Records and recorded songs including “Big Boy.”
So Bobby Taylor wasn’t walking into a room where five random children had been dragged in off the street. These kids had been working. They were performers and man did they know how to command a room. And then they ended up on the same bill as Bobby Taylor & the Vancouver.
According to Tommy Chong’s own recollection, the Jackson 5 had won an amateur contest at the theater, and the prize was the opportunity to open for Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. Imagine that for a second.
You win a local talent competition, you get to open for a Motown act. You’re a family group from Gary, Indiana. Your youngest singer is a tiny kid who is about to become the most famous person on Earth.
And backstage, Tommy Chong is watching.
Then Michael Jackson opened his mouth
This is the part of the story that sounds almost too perfect. The Vancouvers shared a dressing room with the Jackson 5.
They watched the boys perform. And Tommy Chong remembers knowing almost immediately that they were looking at something different.
In our interview years later, Chong recalled the Jackson 5 as incredibly talented and knew they were going to do big things. Bobby Taylor noticed too.
Taylor didn’t just say, “Wow, those kids are good.” He did something about it. He told Joe Jackson that the boys should come with him to Detroit and audition for Motown. That sounds like a simple invitation now because we know how the story ends.
At the time, it was a massive gamble. Motown was already one of the biggest record companies in the world. Berry Gordy had a reputation for being extraordinarily selective about what got through the door.
And Motown had already seen plenty of young talent. Bobby Taylor apparently believed these particular kids were different.
So he put his reputation behind them.
The Jackson 5 moved into Bobby Taylor’s apartment
Buckle up, because this is where the story gets completely insane.
According to Tommy Chong, Bobby Taylor invited the Jackson family to Detroit, and the boys and their father, Joe, ended up staying at Taylor’s apartment for roughly a month while the audition process came together.
Think about the logistics of this. You are Bobby Taylor, you have a band, you’re working at Motown, you’re trying to build your own career. And suddenly you have Joe Jackson and five kids living in your apartment because you believe those kids could become something enormous.
There was no Instagram, no TikTok, no viral video, no manager posting a clip and tagging an A&R executive, no email blast, no “link in bio.” Hell, there aren’t even photos of these events.
If you wanted somebody important to see an artist, you had to physically get the artist in front of them. So that’s what Taylor did. He got them to Detroit.
He got the right people involved.
And eventually, Motown saw the group. The boys sang several songs a cappella, and Motown was blown away. Like can you imagine saying “I saw the Jackson 5 before the world did.” The Jackson 5 eventually auditioned for Motown in Detroit.
And Berry Gordy wasn’t immediately sitting in the room waiting to hand them a record contract.
The audition was recorded and sent to Gordy, who was initially hesitant about another child act. According to Motown’s historical account, Gordy ultimately saw the performance and changed his mind.
And then the machine started moving. The Jackson 5 were signed to Motown. The group would eventually be relocated to Los Angeles. They would be groomed, coached and developed by the Motown machine.
Diana Ross would be involved in their public introduction. And in 1969, the world got “I Want You Back.” The song went to No. 1. Followed by “ABC”, and eventually The Jackson 5 became a phenomenon.
And Michael Jackson became Michael Jackson. The kid Tommy Chong had watched in a Chicago theater became one of the most famous entertainers who has ever lived.
But there was another strange piece of the story happening behind the scenes. Bobby Taylor wasn’t just the guy who brought them through the door.
He became involved in making the music.
Bobby Taylor produced the Jackson 5
Once the Jackson 5 were at Motown, Bobby Taylor became one of the producers working with the group.
Motown’s own history credits Taylor with producing many of their earliest recordings, including Michael’s now-famous performance of “Who’s Lovin’ You.” The label says Taylor produced roughly three-fourths of the group’s debut album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5.
That is a ridiculous contribution to a debut album that would become part of pop music history. And it makes the original connection even stranger.
The guy who was playing guitar in a Motown band in Chicago saw a bunch of kids open a show.
He liked what he heard, he brought them to Detroit, and he helped get them into Motown. And standing beside him through part of that journey was a young guitarist named Tommy Chong.
Meanwhile, the band that had been Bobby Taylor’s vehicle was beginning to come apart.
And then the band broke up
This is where the story takes one final left turn. Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers didn’t become a permanent Motown supergroup. By the end of the 1960s, the members had moved on to other projects.
Taylor stayed involved with Motown as a solo artist and producer, including his work with the Jackson 5. The other Vancouvers eventually pursued their own opportunities.
And Tommy Chong? Tommy Chong went on to become Tommy fuckin’ Chong.
The guitarist who had been playing soul music with Bobby Taylor would eventually meet Richard Anthony “Cheech” Marin. Together, Cheech & Chong would become one of the most successful comedy duos of their era.
Which means that somewhere in the strange multiverse of entertainment history, there is a timeline where Tommy Chong’s biggest claim to fame is being the guy who played guitar in a Motown band. Instead, he became half of Cheech & Chong. But he also happened to be there when Michael Jackson was a kid opening a show in Chicago.
And that is the kind of thing you cannot make up.
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