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Marvin gaye senior

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Marvin Gay, Sr., (the “e” was added by his son for his stage name) was a preacher in the Hebrew Pentecostal Church and a proponent of a strict moral code he enforced brutally with his four children. Even though there was no romance between them, they convincingly portrayed lovers in song after song, including the popular “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,” and “Your Precious Love.”

Marvin Gaye’s best-known album, What’s Going On? was created in reaction to Tammi Terrell’s untimely death from a brain tumor in 1970.

Joining his first musical group in high school, the DC Tones, he dropped out of school when he was 17 to escape his father’s abuse. He later sang “Hitch Hike,” “Pride and Joy,” “Can I Get a Witness,” and the famous, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).” Smokey Robinson wrote him two songs “I’ll Be Doggone” and “Ain’t That Peculiar” in 1965.

But as the critic Michael Eric Dyson put it, the man who “chased away the demons of millions…with his heavenly sound and divine art” was chased by demons of his own throughout his life.

If the physical cause of Marvin Gaye’s death was straightforward—”gunshot wound to chest perforating heart, lung and liver,” according to the Los Angeles County Coroner—the events that led to it were much more tangled.

As a person, Gaye preferred crooning and singing standards like those of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. The Marquees morphed into Harvey and the Moonglows, led by Harvey Fuqua who would be instrumental in advancing Gaye’s career. On his first single with Motown, “Let Your Conscience be Your Guide,” the record label added “e” to his last name, by one account.

After sinking into a depression and going into seclusion for over a year after her death, Gaye released this album. By some reports, Marvin Sr. harbored significant envy over his son’s tremendous success, and Marvin Jr. clearly harbored unresolved feelings toward his abusive father.

Those feelings spilled out for the final time in the Los Angeles home of Marvin Gay, Sr., and his wife Alberta.

Marvin Gaye’s brother, Frankie, who lived next door, and who held the legendary singer during his final minutes, later wrote in his memoir that Marvin Gaye’s final, disturbing statement was, “I got what I wanted….I couldn’t do it myself, so I made him do it.”

Legendary R&B singer/songwriter/activist Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his own father on April 1, 1984. In 1984, I was doing the morning show on B-97-FM in New Orleans and I recall sharing the tragic news of Marvin Gaye’s death with the audience. The story was unbelievable because Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father in the family home. My first reaction was what would lead a father to shoot and kill his son.

B-97-FM was a pop/rock station and for most of his career Mavin Gaye was known as one of the most popular R&B artists at Motown, but his career was revived in 1983 with the release of his hit, “Sexual Healing.”  It was on our playlist at B-97 which made the news of Marvin Gaye’s death pertinent to our audience.

As I researched into what led Marvin Gaye’s father to shoot and kill his son, I learned about the truly sad story of Marvin Gaye’s life and that he may have wanted his father to do something he could not bring himself to do - kill himself.

Marvin Gaye’s father was a Christian minister who believed in the strictest discipline for his children and he was known to administer physical punishment.  Marvin, Sr.

was also a crossdresser at a time when such behavior was much less understood and acceptable than it is today.  Marvin, Jr. was bullied at school because his father was a crossdresser and there were rumors that young Marvin was - gay..  As  Marvin, Jr. began to sense success in his music career, he added an “e” to his name to distance himself from his crossdressing father.

Marvin, Sr.

did not approve of his son’s interest in pursuing a career in music and in addition to tension building because Marvin, Sr. was a harsh disciplinarian, Marvin, Jr. and his father developed a strained and tense relationship.  Over the years there were only scarce moments of a father/son having a normal relationship.

Marvin Gaye battled depression and paranoia and attempted suicide on at least three occasions.  Marvin did not like touring and during the tour to promote his new hit, “Sexual Healing” and his newest music, he turned to cocaine to help him deal with his life on the road.  Cocaine became a serious problem for Marvin.  He became so paranoid that he was convinced that people wanted to kill him and even though there was no real threat, Marvin Gaye wore a bulletproof vest until the moment he went on stage.

When his tour was over in August of 1983, Marvin moved back into the family home to help his mother, Alberta, recover from kidney surgery.  It was the home young Marvin had purchased for them in 1973.  When Marvin, Sr.

returned from a long trip, the conflict between him and his musically successful son grew and for a six month period both men worked to keep their distance.  At one point the conflict was so intense that Marvin, Sr. called the police to have his son removed from their home.  Marvin, Sr. showed signs of being extremely jealous of his son’s success.

Marvin, Jr.

left the family home and moved in with his sister.  He grew remorseful and told his sister, “After all, I have just one father.  I want to make peace with him.” 

It was Christmas Day, 1983 when Marvin, Jr. gave his father a Smith & Wesson :38 special pistol to protect him from intruders.

According to family members and friends, Marvin, Jr.

had become more suicidal and talked often about suicide and death.  His behavior grew strange.  He would put on multiple overcoats and his shoes were on the wrong feet.

Days before he was shot and killed by his father, Marvin, Jr. threw himself out of a sports car traveling at a high rate of speed in an effort to kill himself, but he only suffered minor injuries.

On April 1, 1984, Marvine Gaye and his father got into a physical altercation.  Apparently, Marvin, Sr.

had gotten into an argument with his wife and Marvin, Jr. was attempting to settle the argument.  When the fight broke out between Marvin, Sr. and Marvin, Jr., Alberta stepped in to try to calm her son down.  As Alberta got involved and showed interest in calming her son down, Marvin, Sr. picked up the gun his son had given him that Christmas Day in 1983 and shot his son three times in the chest.  Bullets hit Marvin, Jr.’s heart, lung, and liver.  He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Los Angeles hospital.

Marvin Gaye’s brother, Frankie, lived next door and immediately went to the family house and held Marvin in his arms as his life was slipping away.  In a shocking revelation, Frankie wrote in his memoir about the final thing Marvin Gaye said to him:  “I got what I wanted...I couldn’t do it myself, so I made him do it.”

The criminal case:

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner printed Marvin Gay, Sr.’s recollection of that day: “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Shortly after killing his son, Marvin, Sr.

was diagnosed with a brain tumor that was benign.  Judge Michael Pirosh decided after two psychiatric evaluations that Marvin, Sr. was competent to stand trial and was sentenced.  But the amount of drugs in Marvin, Jr. 's system and the physical injuries to his father were factors in the sentencing.  Judge Gordon Ringer sentenced him to a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation.  At the sentencing, Marvin, Sr.

told the court:

“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 Gaye’s father lived with the regret of killing his son for 14 years.  He passed away in October of 1998.

The iconic Motown superstar, Marvin Gaye, had failed at suicide attempts and wanted to die.  But he couldn’t kill himself so he put his father in a position to do the one thing Marvin couldn’t do - kill himself.

I will never hear a Marvin Gaye song without thinking about the sad story of a father and son who both lived - and died - with regrets.

Gaye, Marvin

Born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.

on April 2, 1939 in Washington, D.C., the son of a Pentecostal preacher, singer Marvin Gaye would go on to become one of Motown Records’ most famous artists. Despite his success as a solo artist, Gaye was also famous for his duets with singers like Mary Wells, with whom he sang “Once Upon a Time” and Kim Weston, with whom he sang “It Takes Two.” His most famous duets, though, were with singer Tammi Terrell.

Gaye was known as "the Prince of Motown," the soulful voice behind hits as wide-ranging as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).” Like his label-mate Stevie Wonder, Gaye both epitomized and outgrew the crowd-pleasing sound that made Motown famous.

Over the course of his roughly 25-year recording career, he moved successfully from upbeat pop to “message” music to satin-sheet soul, combining elements of Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan and Barry White into one complicated and sometimes contradictory package.

Only one year removed from his first Grammy win and from a triumphant return to the pop charts with “Sexual Healing,” Marvin Gaye was in horrible physical, psychological and financial shape.

After an argument between father and son escalated into a physical fight on the morning of April 1, 1984, Alberta Gay was trying to calm her son in his bedroom when Marvin Sr.

took a revolver given to him by Marvin Jr. and shot him three times in his chest. The leaders of Motown Records, however, believed that Gaye could become a major pop and R&B success. In 2000 “What’s Going on” was on National Public Radio’s list of 100 most important music of the 20th century.

 

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Sunday, 25 October, 1998, 21:56 GMT

Marvin Gaye's father and killer dies

It was later determined that Gay Sr.

was suffering from a brain tumor.

Marvin Gaye was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. Gaye married Berry Gordy’s sister, Anna, in 1963, a marriage which ended in 1977.

In 1968 Gaye came out with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” which was a chart-topper for seven weeks.

Their son, the international recording star, had moved into his parents’ home in late 1983 at a low point in his struggle with depression, debt and cocaine abuse. He was also, by all accounts, a hard-drinking cross-dresser who personally embodied a rather complicated model of morality.

Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his own father

On April 1, 1984, one day short of his 45th birthday, Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his own father, bringing a tragic end to the life of a musical artist at the peak of his career.

It was through Fuqua, who had started working for Anna Records, owned by Gwen and Anna Gordy, that Gaye met their brother Berry Gordy, Jr. 

Working first as a drummer and backup singer, Gaye began recording with Motown Records in 1961.

marvin gaye senior

Its massive hit songs helped cement Gaye’s reputation as Motown’s number one solo male artist.

In 1982, after several years of declining sales, Gaye once again hit it big, this time with the hit “Sexual Healing.” The single stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for 10 weeks and earned Gaye his first two Grammy awards.

On April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday, Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father, Marvin Gay, Sr.

during a family argument. Other accounts say the singer added the “e” himself to avoid the association of “gay” with homosexuality.

His first Motown hit was “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” in 1962. The troubled relationship with his father would continue the rest of his life.

Following a one-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, he returned to D.C. to join the Marquees, signing a contract with Columbia.

On the one hand, there was the longstanding conflict with his father dating back to childhood.