The reunion was set up by the label - and was a complete pain in everyone's ass that was involved (and it's not "all 7 Tempts" - it's the five who were in the group at the time plus David Ruffin & Eddie Kendricks. The Tempts had already shed five other members in addition to Ruffin and Kendricks, two of whom were deceased)

Him producing that single was a foregone conclusion - he was one of Motown's hottests acts at the time, and he was assigned by Berry Gordy to do the record. He didn't reunite the remaining members of the "Classic 5" Temptations lineup, if that is what he is trying to imply.

Like every other Tempts record of this period, it did fine on the R&B charts but failed to crack the pop Top 40.

As for Rick James' relation to Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams says they're not blood related (I've heard both "cousin" and "nephew") in the latest Temptations book. James and Franklin don't share the same last name (Johnson and English, respectively, are their real last names), and Franklin (as far as I can determine) was an only child, so if James is really a nephew, he'd have to be blood-related to his wife. "Cousin" would be more plausible.