I'm reading a book on him now called Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye. The book is written by David Ritz. It's a very good book. I found out a lot of things about Marvin i didn't know such as he owed the IRS a lot of money in back taxes. He didn't leave a will when he died. His first wife Anna Gordy who is Berry Gordy's sister was 17 years older than him when they dated. He was 20 and she was 37 when they first dated. His 2nd wife Janis was 17 years younger than him when he first dated her. He was 33 and she was 16. She had his daughter Nona who has turned out to be a good actress and she's fine. Marvin tried to commit suicide a few times and he was a heavy drug user. He snorted cocaine a lot. He canceled his concerts a lot because he was afraid of performing in front of lots of people. He had some albums that flopped after I Want You album. He was mad about his ex wife Janis dating Teddy Pendergrass when she broke up with him. He was kinda jealous of Jermaine Jackson when Jermaine married Berry Gordy's daughter Hazel because Marvin felt like Berry would help Jermaine with his solo career rather than help him with his career since he was married to Berry's sister. Marvin said one time Berry Gordy slapped him in the mouth backstage at a concert and yelled at Marvin because Marvin didn't wanna perform. Marvin said he performed after what Berry did to him LOL. Marvin didn't wanna do anymore duet songs with women after Tammi Terrell died because he was devastated when Tammi passed out in his arms when they were performing at a concert. There was rumors that Tammi had a brain tumor. She supposedly had gotten a brain tumor from her ex boyfriends beating her badly. That's what the rumor was. Berry Gordy talked Marvin into doing a duet album with Diana Ross that didn't sell that well. Marvin didn't wanna do it at first but he later agreed to it. I also found out in the book that Florence Ballard was fired by Berry Gordy from The Supremes because Diana wanted her out the group. Diana and Berry were dating each other at the time so since Berry was in charge of Motown, he could fire her. Mary Wilson who was also in the Supremes was very upset about Florence being fired and that's why Diana and Mary don't speak to each other anymore. I also heard a rumor that Diana didn't show up to Florence's funeral. Marvin also talked about Berry Gordy only paid him $60 a week when he did concerts. Some of the producers at Motown weren't paid fairly either and some of them left Motown such as Holland Dozier Holland. There's 340 pages in this book and i'm already on page 273.



The one thing i didn't understand about Marvin is how come he never paid his taxes and why did he do drugs. I always read about entertainers that do drugs and i just don't understand it. Marvin also talked about his childhood being rough when he grew up in Washington DC. His father would make him strip naked and beat him with a belt until he saw bruises on his body when Marvin acted bad. That's insane. Marvin's sister said that her and Marvin used to wet the bed a lot when they were kids. One time Marvin said his father had Marvin's bed sittin outside on the porch to dry because Marvin had wet the bed. When Marvin came home from school and saw his bed on the porch, he was so scared because he knew his father knew he wet the bed and he was gonna get a whipping. Marvin said his father used to like to wear women's clothes LOL.

I've never read that book. Marvin Gaye was a great singer while David Ritz wrote his biography.

That's a good book I also read it.

Marvin was afraid that people would assume he's Gay so he put an "E" in his last name and made it Gaye instead of Gay.

Diana Ross did go to Florence Ballard's funeral.

The reason why they wanted Florence out of the group "The Supremes" was because she was drinking too much.

Florence was a alcoholic huh? I didn't know that. Musicradio77 your responses are so dumb. I know that the book was written by David Ritz idiot. Tell me somethin i don't know LOL. Somethin else i found out in the book is that Paul Williams of The Temptations owed the IRS money in back taxes. What's up with these entertainers not paying their taxes?