Standing on His Own

Stevie needed other people to help him build his own record company. A lot of this help came from his family. Stevie was always close to his brothers and sister. Now he employed some of them in his music business. Taurus Productions was the record company, and Black Bull, Inc. would publish the records. These names referred to Stevie's astrological sign: Taurus the Bull.

Stevie still needed a company to do his advertising and record distribution. Motown came to Stevie and Vigoda with an offer. Stevie signed a contract with Motown that gave him complete creative control of his music. In return, Motown would get half the songwriting royalties. This deal was unique in the recording business. Stevie would make enough money to do anything he wanted musically and personally. In the meantime, Stevie was writing more songs and getting ready to unleash a mountain of innovative music over the next nine years.