True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Marvin Gaye's parent's house. Photo credit: iamnotastalker.com)

Continued from part three....

Marvin never specified who he thought was trying to kill him but some people thought that he had good reason to worry and that it wasn't all just down to paranoia. Some suggested that he may have owed money to drug dealers, had affairs with people's wives and the husbands had found out or that he'd upset people in the industry.

''It wasn't a delusion, there were management companies after him, people wanted to make money out of him and when he said no, they got mad.'' - Gordon Banks, a musician who had played on the final tour.

Back home at his parent's house which Marvin had bought for them, things began to get worse. Marvin and his father had not lived in the same house since 1957 and his father had become fed up with the constant stream of people coming to the house to see Marvin. There was 20 to 30 people coming at all hours of the day and night and a lot of them were unsavoury characters who were either selling Marvin drugs or taking them with him.

Marvin rarely left his room and would refuse to wash for days on end, preferring to stay in his maroon coloured dressing gown which always had one of his guns in the pocket. He was convinced that someone would do a drive by shooting so tried to stay away from the windows as much as possible.

When Marvin was going through depression he often spoke of suicide although he thought that suicide was an unforgivable sin.

''He felt that everyone was using him. He felt that a lot of people loved him only for what he could do for them or what they could get out of him. During the tour he told me that he didn't feel that people loved him for what he was and that his mother was the only person who really loved him. He always longed for the love of his father but never got it.'' - Andrew White, Marvin's bodyguard on his final tour.

Marvin's mother would often read the bible with him in an effort to lift his spirits. She asked the minister Shelton West, of the local House of God for guidance. Marvin and his mother fasted and prayed for three days.

''We prayed that he would be healed of that suicidal mind. He felt condemned because he had diverted from God. He would even tell us never to do what he did, never to go the way he had gone.'' - Shelton West.

Marvin Sr began to suspect that his wife was having secret affairs with Marvin's friends and even tried to suggest that Marvin and his mother were having an incestuous relationship. He would often see them laid side by side reading the bible and it would make him jealous to see the close bond between his wife and their son. Marvin's father had spent the past 10 years battling an alcohol addiction.

His father always disliked the fact that Marvin was the family breadwinner. He resented the fact that Marvin had bought their house and that everything had to run through him. Marvin Sr considered himself to be the man of the family and they could never agree on anything. Marvin was said to enjoy some of the later arguments with his father, there seemed to be no love lost between the two of them and Marvin had grown tired of his father's coldness towards him.

Marvin had spent his early years in fear of his father and craved his love and praise but that had now turned to anger and hatred. He must have been in such confliction about how to feel about his father because it never mattered what success he achieved, his father was always there in the background, never approving and no matter what he did, it was never good enough.

''I remember once or twice Marvin Sr showing me his gun that he kept under his pillow and sometimes I even became afraid to go over there because he'd be so upset with Marvin and he'd say, 'I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him'. I would try to talk him down but he was a hard person to calm,'' - Shelton West.

Marvin had asked his bodyguard, Andre, who he referred to as ''Dre'' to record their conversations on the phone.

''He would like me to tape our conversations. He would sometimes say things then later claim that he had never said them and so we started recording everything as a kind of protection.'' - Andre, Marvin's bodyguard.

In a final recorded conversation which lasted three hours, Marvin spoke about his father's threats to kill him one day and Andre tried to convince him that somewhere deep down that his father loved him.

Marvin arranged for surveillance cameras to be placed around the outside of the house for added protection as he became paranoid about noises outside. 

His brother Frankie was struggling to find ways to get Marvin out of his depression and off of the cocaine. He contacted Marvin's close friend Dave Simmons and they decided that the only way to help Marvin was to take him by force out of the house. They knew it wouldn't be easy but something had to be done. Previously, in a rare occasion outside of the house, Marvin had tried to jump out of a moving vehicle in an attempt to commit suicide but surprisingly only suffered minor cuts and bruises. They had a feeling that he would make an attempt on his life again so they decided that they would take Marvin to an Addiction Unit on the 1st of April.

The day before the 1st of April 1984, Marvin Sr was frantically looking through documents trying to find a life insurance policy. He was heard shouting throughout the house, as usual there were arguments between Marvin's parents with Marvin trying to intervene and tell his father to stop shouting at his mother.

Th argument soon calmed down and everyone went to their own rooms. The next morning, Marvin Sr was still looking for the insurance document.

At 12:20 pm, Marvin had been lying on his bed dressed in his maroon bathrobe and talking to his mother. His father appeared at the doorway and began harassing his wife about the insurance document, he wanted her to look for it. Marvin asked him to come into the room and talk about it rather than shout at his mother.

Marvin said to his father, ''If you don't come into my room now, then don't you ever come into my room again.''

Marvin Sr carried on shouting which prompted Marvin to jump off of his bed and walk over to his father where he tried to push him out of the door and said ''You can't talk to my mother that way.''

His father turned around and went to his bedroom and sat down at his desk but Marvin followed him shouting ''I'll beat you up'' and ''M*therf**ker! You want some more?''

His father later claimed that Marvin pulled him off of his chair and proceeded to kick and punch him whilst he was lying on the floor. Alberta ran to her husband's room where she found him lying on the floor, Marvin was stood a few feet away from him. Alberta took Marvin back to his room to try and calm him down. He sat at the foot of the bed and said ''Mother, I'm going to get my things and get out of this house. Father hates me and I'm never coming back.''

Alberta was stood about eight feet away from Marvin when she noticed her husband stood at the door, holding the gun which Marvin had originally given him for protection and without saying a word, he aimed at Marvin and shot him. Marvin screamed and slid off the bed and slumped forward in a sitting position. Alberta screamed and ran out of the room. The bullet had perforated his lung, heart, diaphragm, liver, stomach and left kidney.

His father moved closer towards him and shot him again at point blank range. The bullet went into his left shoulder and exited out of his back. His father then turned around, went back to his room and placed the gun back under his pillow before sitting down on the bed.

Marvin's brother Frankie, who was planning to meet Dave Simmons that day so they could take Marvin to an addiction unit, along with his wife had heard gunshots. They both rushed to the house, Frankie found Marvin on the bedroom floor losing a lot of blood but still conscious. His wife, Irene went to Marvin Sr's room where she found him sat on the bed, staring into space. She was scared that he would carry on shooting so she asked him where the gun was. After she got no response she carefully looked around the room and found the gun under his pillow. She threw the gun out of the window and called the police and Dave Simmons.

''On the Sunday I got up and began getting dressed. I was getting ready to leave when the phone rang. It was Irene, Frankie's wife and she was saying 'Frankie needs you, get over here right away. Father has shot Marvin.'' - Dave Simmons.

Back in Marvin's bedroom Frankie was in tears as he held his brother in his arms. He said that Marvin's last words to him where ''I got what I wanted...I couldn't do it myself, so I had him do it...it's good, I ran my race. There's no more left in me.''

The emergency services waited 20 minutes to get to Marvin because they didn't know at the time if Marvin Sr was still armed. When the police arrived, Marvin Sr was found sitting on the front porch outside the house where he was arrested.

Marvin's body was rushed to the California Hospital Medical Centre. At approximately 1:01 pm he was pronounced dead on arrival. Marvin was just hours away from his 45th birthday.

As soon as word had spread that Marvin was dead, members of the public who were in shock and grief, began to crowd around the house and some would leave flowers and tributes.

When Marvin Sr was arrested and informed that his son had died, his reaction had shocked the police.

''What shocked me, was that he seemed more concerned about what was going to happen to him than the fact his son was dead.'' - Detective McCahn.

(Marvin Gay Sr with a police officer. Photo credit: yahoo.com)

At the police station, Marvin Sr pleaded that he had killed his son in self defence as he was scared that something was going to happen to him. He claimed that he did not know that the gun was fully loaded and believed that it contained pellets. 

Later, when he was placed in a jail cell he complained that his family had not been to visit him and wanted someone to bring him his favourite bathrobe as his cell was too cold. When asked if he loved Marvin he said ''Let's say I didn't dislike him.''

Alberta told a friend years earlier, ''My husband never wanted Marvin, and he never liked him. He used to say that he didn't think he was really his child. I told him that was nonsense. He knew Marvin was his, but for some reason he didn't love Marvin, and what's worse, he didn't want me to love Marvin either. Marvin wasn't very old before he understood that.''

During a medical examination and further tests, doctors discovered that Marvin Sr had a benign tumour in his pituitary gland. His lawyers would later use this information in court and claim that the tumour may have affected his actions when he killed his son. The judge overseeing the case ruled that Marvin Sr was competent to stand trial and that he was fully aware of what he had done. 

Details of Marvin's autopsy were presented to the court and examiners found that he had traces of PCP and cocaine in his system that would have been taken days before his death but were not active in his system on the day that he died. Pictures of Marvin Sr's bruises where his son had kicked and punched him were presented and the judge agreed to let Marvin Sr enter a plea bargain. On the 20th of September, 1984, he pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. 

During the sentencing hearing two months later, Marvin Sr said: ''If I could bring him back, I would. I was afraid of him. I thought I was going to get hurt. I didn't know what was going to happen. I'm really sorry for everything that happened. I loved him. I wish he could step through this door right now. I'm paying the price now.''

Marvin Sr was given a six year suspended sentence and five years of probation for the murder of his son. Alberta divorced him after 49 years of marriage. He returned back to the house but was forced to leave due to health issues and took residence in a nursing home.

Four days after Marvin's death his funeral took place at the Hall of Liberty Chapel in the Forest lawn Memorial Park by which time, between 8,000 and 10,000 fans had paid their respects at his open casket. Alberta kissed Marvin's forehead and said a gentle prayer. Marvin was dressed in a gold and white military uniform, one of his favourite costumes from his final tour. Dick Gregory and Smokey Robinson spoke at his funeral, Stevie Wonder gave a musical tribute and his mother, ex wives and three children were all in attendance.

His mother pulled Gerard White aside during the service (Gerard was one of the bodyguard's on Marvin's final tour) and whispered to him ''That's one gun I wish you had never given to my son.''

(Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: michigandaily.com) 

Marvin was cremated and some of his ashes were scattered by his children and Anna Gordy in the Pacific Ocean. The rest of his ashes were then kept by Anna and their adopted son Marvin III.

Due to Marvin not leaving a will, all of his estate went to his adopted son, Marvin III who was just 17 years old at the time. Marvin had various debts but these were soon sorted out over the next few years as royalties from his songs covered the debts.

Alberta passed away from bone cancer just three years after Marvin's death. Before she died, she founded the Marvin P. Gaye, Jr Memorial Foundation in dedication to her son to help people with drug and alcohol problems. She never got the chance to see the memorial opened.

In the final years of Marvin Sr's life he was moved to another nursing home in California. He later died of pneumonia, nine days before his 84th birthday.

Since Marvin's death he has continued to be a major influence and his music lives on decades later. He has posthumously been awarded Grammy Awards and been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The list of awards and honours is too many to mention but his contribution and mark that's been left on music has been legendary. People of all ages, all around the world know who Marvin Gaye is. Even to this day, up and coming artists will name-check him in their songs or sample his work.

Various attempts have been made to create a biographical film of Marvin's life but so far none have followed through. Recently, in 2018 it was announced that the rapper Dr. Dre was in talks to produce a biopic about Marvin but nothing else has been reported since.

It would be good to see a proper, respectful film made about Marvin as we've seen with the recent films based on Freddie Mercury and Elton John.

I never knew these four posts were going to be so long but there is just so much to cover about Marvin Gaye that I think I've only covered the half of it. I think I've managed to cover a lot about Marvin's career, what he went through and what happened after his death. His struggle for his father's love and acceptance was heartbreaking and it was clear that it had affected him his whole life. No matter what he achieved he knew that in the back of his mind his father was always there to put a dampener on his achievements. His father was a very narcissistic and hypocritical person who had no problems living off of Marvin's earnings despite frowning on his son's amazing achievements. Marvin has gone down as one of the greatest artists of all time and his father should have been proud. Even if Marvin only had one hit single, his father should have been proud.

I was told in the past that your relationships with your parents are the most important ones you will ever have and they reflect how you see the world. Marvin didn't realise how much people loved him, because of the rejection of his father who still took his money and negative experiences in the record industry, he thought that people didn't like him for him, that all they wanted was money from him. There's people in the world who listen to his music to this day and it helps them through hard times or lifts them up when they're down. His music has done what he set out for it to do, it moves people.

He wasn't an angel but he had a lot to deal with growing up and made some bad choices. One can only wonder what would have happened had Frankie and Dave Simmons had the opportunity to take Marvin to the addiction unit. He could have returned to Belgium again and recorded more music or tried his hand at acting? who knows what could have been.


His brother Frankie was the spitting image of him and he wrote about his brother in a book titled 'Marvin Gaye: My Brother'. Frankie sadly passed away in 2001 at the age of 60 due to complications following a heart attack. You can find Frankie's book here

Thank you as always if you've made it this far. I hope that you've learnt a bit more about Marvin and enjoyed reading my posts.

Here's some of Marvin's classics (some also feature Tammi Terrell & Kim Weston):

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get it On
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
Marvin Gaye - I Want You
Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Marvin Gaye - Mercy Mercy Me
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - It Takes two
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - You're All I Need To Get By
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing


Further reading & sources:

Marvin Gaye: Biography & History
Marvin Gaye, Shot & Killed
Marvin Gaye: Wikipedia
Marvin Gay Sr: Wikipedia
Alberta Gay: Wikipedia
Sins Of The Father: The Independent
Marvin Gaye: Find A Grave Memorial
Marvin Gaye: The Grammys
Marvin Gaye: The Final 24
Tammi Terrell: Wikipedia


See you in the next post x

(Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: indiewire.com) 

Continued from part two...

In Belgium, Marvin had managed to turn things around, he started eating healthily, attended a local church, did regular exercise and stopped taking drugs. He was in the best shape physically and mentally than he had been in a long time and with this his confidence had increased. He started to feel passionate about making music again and began writing and recording music. He was itching to do a live tour again and decided that he would do some live shows in England and Ostend in the months of June and July in 1981. This was a mini tour to see how audiences would respond and was called the ''Heavy Love Affair'' tour. His attorney later said that Marvin's period in Belgium was ''the best thing that ever happened to him.''

Word got around the industry that Marvin was planning a comeback and exit from Motown and record companies were desperate to sign him up. Marvin eventually signed with CBS Records after they had negotiated his release from Motown. The details of his new contract were kept private in case of the negative effect it would have on Marvin's settlement with creditors from the IRS. 

Marvin worked on his new album titled ''Midnight Love'' and released ''Sexual Healing'' as the first single on the 30th of September 1982. The song had been written and recorded in his apartment in Belgium. The song was a massive success, spending 10 weeks at No 1 on the Hot Black Singles chart. It became one of the biggest selling singles of the 1980s and sold over two million copies in the US alone. Marvin's comeback was phenomenal and he was at the top of his game again.

His album ''Midnight Love'' was a success all over the world and managed to sell over six million copies worldwide with three million sold in the US alone. He won two Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Instrumental Performance for ''Sexual Healing''. He also had a Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

In 1982, he told NME magazine ''I don't make music for pleasure. I did when I was a younger artist, but I don't today. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time.''

In February of 1983 he had the honour of singing the American national anthem at the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum in Inglewood, California. He also made an appearance on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever special. He made his third and final TV appearance on Soul Train. 

On the 18th of April 1983, Marvin kicked off his final concert tour which was plagued with problems from the start. One of his road crew members had committed suicide by hanging himself from a shower curtain rod whilst in New Jersey.

In a month before rehearsals for the show, Marvin had checked into a San Francisco hotel and sent his valet out to buy a tape deck and copies of his albums because he had forgotten the lyrics to his songs.

''He told me he couldn't remember all the lyrics so every morning of everyday I would put Marvin's stuff on the ghetto-blaster and let him re-learn them.'' - George, Marvin's Valet. 

 He was at the top of his career and should have been having the time of his life but instead he had fallen into a deep depression and started using cocaine again. His addiction had begun to take over his life and he was in a state of constant paranoia and suffering from delusions. It's unknown what triggered this episode in Marvin's life as everything seemed to be going fantastic for him career-wise. Some suspect it was all too much, the pressure and the fame. The flashbacks to his childhood would not have helped either. He tried to build bridges with his father so many times but it always came to nothing. He offered his father to come along to previous performances he had done but he would always refuse. It must have been difficult for him to know that although his father never praised him or accepted his career, that he was continuing to live off of the money that Marvin was working hard to make. 

Every night on the tour, Marvin was sweating profusely on stage and there would be nights where he would strip off down to his underwear and dance about in a crazy manner. The membranes inside his nose were so badly damaged from his heavy cocaine use that he couldn't sleep in an air-conditioned room without a vapouriser. He would hear voices in his head telling him his life was in danger and he smashed up a TV in his hotel room after he was convinced that it was sending him messages. He also tore out the wiring in the TV as he was convinced it had been bugged.

His bodyguards had to stay in rooms at either side of him and Marvin would call them at various hours of the night to inspect his room, to make sure that doors were locked and windows were securely closed. After the bodyguards had reassured him, he would call them a short time later and have them repeat the same inspection again.

One night he called his bodyguard and told him to bring his sub-machine gun because Satan was in his room. The bodyguard opened the door to find Marvin huddled on the bed with a towel wrapped around his head with 666 written on pieces of paper stuck to his face. 

The bodyguards were used to this behaviour from Marvin and before the tour had even begun, Marvin would tell them endless stories about him being stalked and that someone was trying to kill him. He told them that he had visions that someone was going to shoot him whilst he was on stage and he insisted on wearing a bulletproof vest at certain times and to have guns for protection.

He was also paranoid that someone was trying to poison his food. At one of his shows he was convinced that his ex-wife's father had hired the mafia to assassinate him and insisted that 75 police officers attended his show to protect him. His sister Sweetsie was brought along on the tour and her job was to bring Marvin bottles of water whilst he was on stage as he didn't trust anyone else. 

His brother Frankie joined the tour along with his old friend Dave Simmons. Marvin had Dave stand at the side of the stage during his performances to watch out for potential gunmen. Marvin had a Baptist preacher who would lead prayer before each show. 

''He was getting in worse shape physically every night and it became harder and harder to carry on. Then there were the constant stories that someone was trying to kill him. It was like a mad B movie. He would stay in his room all the time, take the elevator up to different floors and leave by back stairways. Whenever we came back at night, we'd have to drive around the hotel several times before going in.'' - Dave Simmons. 

As he was failing to maintain payments to his ex-wife and would fail to attend court appearances, threats were made which filtered back to Marvin and made him even more in fear for his life.

Marvin believed that if the people who were trying to kill him couldn't get to him, they would possibly try to kill his family. He arranged for one of his bodyguards to take a gun over to his parents house. His father had no experience with guns but agreed to keep it in the house for protection should it be needed and hid it under his pillow in his bedroom. 

With Marvin's cocaine consumption and paranoia out of control, his bodyguard contacted Civil Rights Leader Dick Gregory, who was also a leading nutritional expert and asked him to help Marvin. The plan was that he would collect him and have him detoxified on a farm in Massachusetts but when Marvin was informed of the plan, he refused to leave his hotel room.

Surprisingly, his ex-wife Jan came on the tour for some of the dates, even thought she was in a constant battle with him over money. They still continued to have a sexual relationship on and off and they would also take drugs together.

During one of their arguments during the tour, Jan had collapsed with severe heart palpitations due to her heavy drug use. Marvin also accused her of taking a shine to one of his band members.

''Marvin was sitting there cleaning his nose out because it was so wrecked with cocaine. In the middle of this argument he took this pot of hot water he was using and threw it over me. Gerard White, his bodyguard, then physically picked me up and put me outside the hotel. I had no airline ticket, no money, no nothing. I never saw Marvin alive again.'' - Jan, Marvin's ex-wife. 

Marvin claimed that he felt so ill after the argument that he cancelled the next two shows and checked himself into a private hospital in Florida, suffering from ''exhaustion'' and ''dehydration''.

The last show of the tour took place in California at the Universal Amphitheatre. Marvin decided to move back into his parent's house because his mother was recovering from kidney surgery and his father had left her to go on a trip. His two sisters originally lived in the house but they soon moved out when their father returned in October and the arguments between Marvin and their father became unbearable. 

Marvin's brother Frankie and his wife, Irene, lived next door in the guest house. When his father returned, Marvin was furious that he hadn't been looking after his mother. Things were tense as always between the pair and the arguments were a daily occurrence. Marvin preferred to stay in his bedroom and his parents had their own separate bedrooms at either side of his. 

Continued in part four....

(Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: thisismyjam.com)

Continued from part part one....

As I mentioned in part one, everyone thought that Tammi just had a migraine which caused her to collapse and expected the doctor to say something similar but the sad news was that the doctors had discovered a malignant tumour on the right side of her brain. Tammi had been suffering from headaches since she was a child but before the collapse she began to suffer from them more regularly. She would play down the pain and tell people that she was fine because she didn't want it to affect her career.

The diagnosis put an end to Tammi's live performances but she insisted that she carry on recording. It was after her first operation that she and Marvin recorded ''Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing'' and ''You're All I Need To Get By''. She really wanted to carry on recording but she became too ill. Marvin and Tammi had already recorded two successful albums together and they were in the middle of recording their third called ''Easy''. There's different stories on how the album came to be completed. In the book, What's Going On and The Last Days of The Motown Sound, it was reported that Tammi was too ill to record so Berry Gordy had Valarie Simpson come into the studio and record what should have been Tammi's vocals on the tracks. Marvin said it was ''another moneymaking scheme on Barry Gordy's part.''

Valarie Simpson has another version of events, she claims that Tammi did record all of the songs on the album.

Marvin was devastated at Tammi's diagnosis and began to feel disillusioned with Motown and the record business. He didn't like the way artists were treated like products and how everything was focused on record sales and money.

In 1966, Anna Gordy's niece (who was 17 at the time) had given birth to a baby boy. Marvin and Anna adopted him and named him ''Marvin III'. Marvin didn't want to give the child the same name as his father but he wanted to follow with tradition. It was later revealed that Marvin was the biological father of the baby.

On the 6th of October 1968, Marvin sang the national anthem at the Tiger Stadium in Detroit, during Game 4 of the 1968 World Series. The game was between the St Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers.

In late 1968, Marvin scored his first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with ''I Heard It Through The Grapevine''. The song was a huge success and topped the charts in many countries as well as selling over four million copies. The song had previously been recorded by The Miracles and Gladys Knight & The Pips. Marvin's version was originally blocked by Berry Gordy, he thought Marvin's version was too heavy for Motown but he had the Gladys Knight and The Pips version released after a few adjustments.

You can hear Marvin's version of the song here and Gladys Knight and The Pips version here

No disrespect to Gladys Knight and The Pips but I found their version to be a bit upbeat, not to say I didn't like it but Marvin's vocals and the way he sang the song sounded like a man who had been done wrong, there was more feeling to the lyrics in my opinion. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Marvin's career was continuing to rise and he'd finally reached No 1 but instead of celebrating and feeling over the moon about it, he was still struggling to come to terms with Tammi's diagnosis and he disliked the record industry more and more as time went on. He said that he ''didn't deserve'' his success and ''felt like a puppet, Berry's puppet, Anna's puppet.'' 

More singles followed which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he scored his first No 1 album in 1969 with M.P.G.

In late 1969, whilst Marvin was appearing at the Apollo Theatre he spotted Tammi in the audience and immediately rushed down off the stage toward her, he insisted that she sing with him and they both sung ''You're All I Need To Get By''. They were given a standing ovation by the audience. This was sadly to be Tammi's final public appearance.

By 1970, Tammi's condition had worsened dramatically, she had lost a lot of weight and was confined to a wheelchair. She also suffered from blindness and hair loss. She had endured eight surgeries since her diagnosis and following her final operation, she fell into a coma. She died on the 16th of March from complications from brain cancer. She was only 24 years old and was a month shy of her 25th birthday.

Tammi's funeral was held in Philadelphia and everyone at Motown apart from Marvin was barred from attending the funeral. Her mother felt that Marvin was her daughter's only true friend and that he really cared about her whereas others only saw money. Marvin gave a final eulogy whilst ''You're All I Need To Get By'' was playing in the background.

Tammi's death pushed Marvin over the edge and he struggled to cope and went into a period of depression.

A few months after Tammi's death, Marvin managed to pull himself out of the depression and decided he'd try to join the professional football team, the Detroit Lions, however this was not to be as there were concerns that Marvin may develop injuries which could affect his singing career.

Instead of falling back into depression, he returned to Hitsville and worked on the song, ''What's Going On''. The song was inspired by a police brutality incident which was witnessed by Renaldo 'Obie' Benson. Berry Gordy wasn't happy with the song and said that it was too political for radio. Marvin refused to make any more recordings for Motown if they didn't release the song. He got his wish and in 1971 the song shot straight up to the No 1 of the R&B charts within a month and it remained there for five weeks. The song was a success and sold over two million copies.

Marvin gained creative control from Motown to record the ''What's Going On'' album after giving them an ultimatum. Marvin included a song called ''What's happening Brother'' which was dedicated to his brother Frankie and his experiences in the Vietnam War. The album became Marvin's first million selling album and it launched two more top ten singles ''Inner City Blues'' and ''Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).

An AllMusic writer cited that the album was  ''the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of it's finest voices.''

(Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: nightflight.com) 

Marvin received two Grammy Award nominations for the ''What's Going On'' album. He received several NAACP Image Awards and Rolling Stone called it the album of the year. Marvin was also named as ''Trendsetter of The Year''.

In 1971, Marvin signed a new contract with Motown which was worth over $1 million dollars, it was said to be the most lucrative deal by a black recording artist at that time. Marvin released a song called ''Trouble Man'', he originally planned to to release the album ''You're The Man'' which was a follow up to ''What's Going On'' but Marvin and Berry Gordy had clashed over political views and the album was shelved, ''Trouble Man'' was released instead. [In 2019, Universal Music group announced that ''You're The Man'' would receive an official release]

Around this time, Marvin and his wife, Anna and their son Marvin III left Detroit and moved to Los Angeles permanently.

In 1973, the ''Let's Get It On'' album was released and was another success for Marvin. The title track became Marvin's second No 1 single on the Hot 100 and the album stayed on the charts for three years and sold three million copies. Marvin also recorded a duet album with Diana Ross which was an international hit.

Marvin started his first tour in four years at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on the 4th of January, 1974. He received rave reviews and a live album of the performance was released.

Everything Marvin touched seemed to turn into gold and Motown knew they had a superstar on their hands. He had earned a highly respected reputation as a live performer and people were snapping up tickets to his concerts. He toured throughout 1974 and 1975 and built his own custom made studio after renewing his contract with Motown.

In October 1975, Marvin performed at the UNESCO benefit concert in New York City to support UNESCO's African literacy drive, he was commended at the United Nations by then Ambassador to Ghana, a certain Shirley Temple Black and Kurt Waldheim.

Marvin's next album release was ''I Want You'' and it's title track of the same name went to No 1 on the R&B chart. That summer he kicked off his first European tour in a decade, opening in England. In 1977 he released ''Live At The London Palladium'' which sold over two million copies and his single ''Got To Give It Up'' became a No 1 hit.

In 1977, after a turbulent marriage with Anna Gordy, they officially became divorced. There were rumours that he was having an affair with a 16 year old girl named Janis Hunter who he later married that same year. He and Janis would go on to have two children, Nona and Frankie and Janis would later describe the marriage as abusive, claiming that Marvin would force her to get involved in sexual activities with other people and ridiculed her weight after she had given birth.

In 1978, he released the album ''Here, My Dear'' which was inspired by the breakdown of his marriage to Anna Gordy. He planned to give her some of the royalties from the album to cover alimony payments but the album didn't do as well as he had hoped.

Around this time he was sinking into deep depression again and he was struggling to pull himself out of it. To make matters worse he became heavily addicted to cocaine and had financial problems.

He moved to Maui, Hawaii and tried to record a disco album. He went on a European tour in 1980 and by the end of the tour he remained in London for fear of being imprisoned for failure to pay back taxes which were said to have totalled up to $4.5 million.

Marvin's divorce to the mother of two of his children, Janis, had been finalised in 1981.

He began working on an album in London when someone stole a master tape from one of his travelling musicians and took it to Motown. Motown remixed the album and released it in 1981. Marvin was furious and accused Motown of editing and remixing the album without his consent, allowing the release of an unfinished production, altering the album art. He accused them of rush-releasing the album and compared it to an unfinished Picasso painting. Marvin vowed that he would never record any music for Motown again.

Marvin was in a bad situation with the drugs, the financial problems and now the trouble with Motown. He felt like he couldn't catch a break. Someone needed to step in and help him and that person was music promoter Freddy Cousaert who persuaded Marvin to come and stay in his apartment in Ostend, Belgium. Freddy wanted to help Marvin straighten himself out, get off the drugs and be back to his best.

Continued in part three...

(Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: nostalgiacentral.com)

When I mention the name Marvin Gaye, what comes into your mind? Do you think of his classic hits, his handsome good looks, his voice or how he became one of the most influential artists of all time? Maybe you think of all these things but then you remember how it all came to a tragic end just hours before he reached his 45th birthday. He was a wonderful and talented man who appeared to everyone outside of his family, friends and business associates to have had the world at his feet, but suddenly he was gone and it all made no sense.

I knew of his songs and that he had died young but I didn't know about his life and what had really happened to him on the 1st of April 1984. I knew it would take a lot of time and research but I wanted to know more about Marvin and I felt really compelled to cover his story.

It has been an emotional roller coaster researching and writing about this case because Marvin, to me,  is someone who brought a lot of joy, inspiration and happiness to the world but behind closed doors he was desperately unhappy, struggled with depression, suicidal thoughts and a father who rejected him and his career but was happy to live off of his money.

I didn't want to just write about Marvin's death, I wanted to write a little bit about his background too.

In the following posts there may be some mention of depression and suicide so please be warned.

Also, before I begin. If you enjoy my posts or would like to request a case for me to cover. Please donate a coffee to me here

Let's begin...

''The Prince of Soul'' Marvin Pentz Gay Jr was born on the 2nd of April 1939 at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C. His father, Marvin Gay Sr was a church minister and his mother was a domestic worker. Marvin was the second oldest of four children, he had one brother called Frankie and two sisters, Jeanne and Zeola who the family nicknamed ''Sweetsie''. He also had two half brothers, Michael, who was his mother's son from a previous relationship and Antwaun Carey Gay who was born as a result of one of his father's extramarital affairs.

Marvin's early years were spent living in humble surroundings which he and his friends had called ''Simple City''. Most of the people he knew lived in small houses which were overcrowded and some of them lacked running water and electricity. Like a lot of young people growing up in poverty at that time, Marvin and his friends didn't know any different and everyone seemed to have the same struggles as they had.

The thing that bothered Marvin was the teasing from the other kids about his father. Marvin Sr liked to dress in women's clothes and his wife's stockings and high heels. The neighbours thought that he was homosexual and he was often the talk of the neighbourhood. People thought that it was strange for a minister to be behaving in such a manner and Marvin Sr didn't seem to care, he was very flamboyant and proud about it. Marvin Sr never spoke of being gay but years later would prefer to have a separate bedroom from his wife.

What also confused the neighbourhood gossips was that Marvin Sr would often get close to some of the women in the church and was said to have had a few affairs with them. He also had a heavy drinking problem.

Marvin's relationship with his father was a difficult one from the moment he was born. Marvin Sr refused to believe that Marvin was his biological son and this belief, despite his wife telling him otherwise, stayed in his mind. His mother, Alberta, adored him and they had a close relationship but she was quite a soft and laid back type of person. His father was very strict and made it clear that he was in charge. Marvin Sr would often tell his children if they thought to ever disobey him that he ''brought them into the world and he could take them back out.''

''We were a strange family, we were very much sheltered from the neighbourhood and I know they looked on us as being very strange.'' - Frankie Gay 

In the Gay household, movies and TV were banned and the children were set a curfew. If anyone failed to follow the rules they would be punished by Marvin Sr. Marvin would always face beatings from his father, who would use a leather belt, because he was the most rebellious of the children. He would later say that he felt like his father was getting some sort of enjoyment out of beating him.

The only music that was allowed in the house was gospel. Marvin Sr considered the music in the charts to be the devil's music and he didn't believe in songs that he thought promoted sin and sexual desires. Marvin didn't know any other music but gospel till he got a little bit older.

He began singing in the church when he was four years old, his father would play the piano as he sang gospel music and people would be amazed at this talented little boy. As people congratulated him on having such a talented son, Marvin Sr would say that his gifted son was going to make the family rich someday.

(Always a cutie: Marvin Gaye in his younger years. Photo credit: pt.fanpop.com) 

Unknown to Marvin Sr at the time, Marvin was on the path to stardom from the very moment that he began singing in the church, to him it was his calling and he believed that he was chosen by God to bring music to the people and help change society for the better. Marvin loved to sing and it came naturally to him, his mother encouraged him to follow his heart and without his father knowing, he would listen to songs by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole amongst others. He learnt Mario Lanza's ''Be My Love'' word for word and performed the song in a school play when he was 11 to great applause. He knew that this is what he was destined to do and that he enjoyed bringing smiles to people's faces when he sang.

Marvin enjoyed all of the positive attention that singing brought him but his home life had become unbearable at times. He still endured beatings and his father would often raise his hand to him over the slightest thing he had done wrong. Marvin would say years later that living with his father was like ''living with a king, a very peculiar, changeable, cruel and all powerful king.''

He said that if his mother had shown him the same lack of love, praise and warmth that his father had, he wouldn't have been able to cope and would have committed suicide.

At Randall Junior High he joined the Glee club and became a singing star. During his teenage years the tension with his father was often at boiling point and he would often be kicked out of the house. To escape the drama he dropped out of high school at 17 and joined the United States Air Force. The Air Force didn't turn out to be what he thought it was going to be and he wasn't happy performing what he called menial tasks so he faked illness and was discharged. His sergeant would later say that he refused to follow orders which with Marvin always being a bit of a rebel you could believe to be true.

Realising that his stint in the Air Force wasn't for him, he returned to his first love which was singing. He formed a vocal quartet with his friend Reese Palmer and they called themselves ''The Marquees''. The group's first single failed to chart and they were dropped by their record label. Marvin didn't let this deter him and he was determined to carry on.

The Moonglows founder, Harvey Fuqua hired The Marquees and changed the name of the group to ''Harvey and the New Moonglows''. They recorded several sides for Chess in 1959 which included Marvin's first lead vocal recording on the song ''Mama Loocie'' and the group relocated to Chicago. They also found work as session singers and worked with Chuck Berry on the tracks ''Back in the U.S.A'' and ''Almost Grown''.

The group broke up in 1960 and Marvin moved to Detroit with Harvey Fuqua where he worked at Tri-Phi Records as a session drummer, playing on some of their record releases. During the holiday season of that year he performed at the home of Motown's president, Berry Gordy. Berry was so impressed with his voice, his look and overall performance that he negotiated with Harvey to have Marvin signed to Motown subsidiary Tamla.

Marvin had always felt self conscious of his surname ever since he was young and the kids at school would call him ''Mr F**got'', he was thinking of changing his surname to something more showbiz but in the end he settled with just adding an e onto the end of his name, just like one of his idols, Sam Cooke.

His first single and album failed commercially and he spent the best part of 1961 as a session drummer for artists such as Jimmy Reed, The Marvellettes and The Miracles for very little money. He still wasn't giving up on his dream and worked on perfecting his art and he would take advice from other experienced artists. He was advised to keep his eyes open when he performed and was advised to attend the John Roberts Powers School for Social Grace in Detroit but he refused to go. The rebellious side of him didn't take to kindly to be given orders, possibly a strike back after years of growing up in a strict household. He would later say that he regretted not attending the school.

In 1962, he began to shine as a songwriter when he co-wrote a hit song for The Marvellettes. His first hit song ''Stubborn Kind of Fellow'' was released in September of that year and went to the eighth position on the R&B chart and No 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. Around this time he had married Anna Gordy who he had been seeing romantically since 1960. Anna was the older sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy. There was no doubt that Anna and Marvin had fallen deeply in love with each other but some people believed that part of Marvin's interest in Anna was to do with furthering his career.

In 1963, Marvin reached the top 40 with the dance song ''Hitch Hike'' which went to No 30 on the Hot 100 and the song ''Pride and Joy'' became his first top ten single. 

He performed as part of the Motortown Revue and performed at the Apollo Theatre in June, 1963. Tamla released one of Marvin's live shows as an album which was called ''Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage: Can I Get A Witness''. The album became one of his early international hits.

(The golden duet, Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye. Photo credit: culturocity.com) 

In 1964, Marvin recorded a duet album with Mary Wells which reached No 42 on the pop album chart and a single reached the top 20. ''How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)'' reached No 6 on the Hot 100 and reached the top 50 in the UK. He started appearing on Television shows such as American Bandstand and appeared in the concert film The T.A.M.I Show. In 1965 he had two number one singles with ''Ain't That Peculiar'' and ''I'll Be Doggone'' which became million sellers.

He was also involved in a tribute album to one of his singing inspirations who had passed away that year, Nat King Cole. 

He recorded his second duet with Kim Weston which became a huge hit and a classic, ''It Takes Two''. 

The most famous duet of them all though, was with Tammi Terrell and the pair just seemed to light up the stage together. There was a definite spark between them but it was never revealed whether they ever had a romantic relationship, all is known is that they were very close. They were both beautiful and talented people and you could see the joy in their performances and hear it in the songs they recorded together. Songs such as ''Ain't No Mountain High Enough'', ''Your Precious Love'', ''Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing'' and ''You're All I Need To Get By'' have continued to bring joy to people of all ages all around the world for decades. 

Marvin was on top of the world and living his dream, enjoying the fame, adoration and success. At the moment that everything seemed to be going well for him, where all the hard work and struggling was beginning to pay off and he was now officially a star, heartache and tragedy was just around the corner.

They always say that life is like that, one minute you're up and the next you're down. Everything going well and you're at the top of your game and then out of nowhere something happens and you find yourself trying to keep your head above water. 

It's hard to say where Marvin's struggle with depression began, he may have been so busy working hard towards his career that he was distracted and didn't have the time to sit down and think. We know he had a difficult and often abusive childhood and sometimes people can bottle things up for years and it takes a traumatic event to unleash a lot of pent up emotions and you start to remember all of the bad things that happened to you and that's where the anger comes in. 

The rise to success and the fun came to an abrupt stop when Marvin and Tammi were performing a live show in Farmville, Virginia. Everything was going well, the audience were enjoying themselves and the pair lit up the stage as always. At some point during the performance, Tammi collapsed into Marvin's arms. There was panic and nobody knew what was happening. An ambulance was called and she was rushed to the hospital. Marvin was worried sick and was scared he was going to lose her. Tammi had suffered from headaches since she was a child so they originally thought that she'd collapsed due to a severe migraine. The doctors ran some tests and the news they had in store for Tammi and her family was heartbreaking.

Continued in part two...