He Planned His Own Death - The Marvin Gaye story

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Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast 8 min 2 speakers 5 chapters transcribed

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What led to Marvin Gaye's tragic end?

Narrator 0:00

You know this famous singer Marvin Gaye? Well, one day Marvin gets into an argument with his dad and this argument gets heated, like really heated. And they're yelling at each other and they're screaming and then bam, it turns violent. And then suddenly his dad pulls out a pew-pew and he aims it and blam, he shoots Marvin in the chest, which is exactly what Marvin had planned. Let me explain.

What was Marvin Gaye's childhood like?

Narrator 0:25

Now, in order for this to all make sense, let's rewind back to when Marvin is eight years old. And now, he's just a kid here, but he actually has quite a terrible life. Now, his dad, who we'll just call dad, dad is a minister, and he drinks a lot, and he's also really violent and extremely strict. Like, he'll often discipline little Marvin for things like wetting his bed, being a minute late home from school, or reciting Bible passages wrong. And when I say discipline, I mean... Yeah, dad's a real jerk. And little Marvin's not the only one dad is abusive to. He apparently gets violent with Marvin's mom too, who we'll just call mom. And like dad will get physical with her and he also verbally abuses her and also sleeps around on her a lot. He sounds like a real winner. And throughout all this, apparently mom wants to leave him But unfortunately, she won't because she's religious and I guess divorces against their religion.

Narrator 1:21

So anyway, mom and dad and Marvin and his siblings, they all just keep living in this extremely chaotic household. And to make it worse, little Marvin loves secular music, but dad discourages him from pursuing it, calling it the devil's music. But luckily, little Marvin just keeps on singing and playing as his mom is always there to encourage him. But then everything changes.

How did Marvin Gaye rise to fame?

Narrator 1:45

Time passes and little Marvin grows up and he actually becomes a professional singer-songwriter. And bro has a hell of a voice. And so he works hard and he tours and he writes a bunch of songs and soon enough his career blows up and everyone knows who he is. And he's out here selling albums and he's selling out tours and he's got songs on the radio. He actually has 41 songs make the top 40 charts. 41, including his most famous song, Let's Get It On, which is a song that I like to dedicate to your mother. My point is, despite being discouraged by his dad when he was young, Marvin ends up becoming the biggest soul singer in the world, and he ends up having an incredible career in music. Until... Fast forward a couple of decades to the early 80s, and Marvin is 44 years old now.

What personal struggles did Marvin Gaye face in his later years?

Narrator 2:38

In his career, it's still doing well, like he's still out there playing and making hits. In fact, he's just released one of his biggest songs ever, Sexual Healing, and it just hit number one. So all that's doing really well. But unfortunately, the poor guy still has a problem. He's super depressed, like clinically depressed. And he's been battling this depression for years, and it just doesn't seem to get any better. Not only that, he's suffering from a drug habit. Mostly what I like to call Coca-Cola. And this habit only adds to his depression problem. Not to mention the drug habit is also making him really paranoid, like really paranoid. He always believes he's being pursued by people who want to unalive him.

Narrator 3:24

In fact, his paranoia has gotten so bad that when he tours, he always wears a bulletproof vest right up until it's time to get on stage and then he takes it off and he performs. And if all that isn't bad enough, he's having money problems. And I know that sounds crazy because he's the biggest soul singer in the world, but he's actually like $9 million in debt. And he owes the IRS $4.5 million in back taxes. And they've already come after him and seized a bunch of his assets. So things are not looking good for Marvin. And so yeah, understandably, he's bummed out and he's trying to pull his life back together and he ends up moving into the house that he bought his parents years before. They still live there.

Why did Marvin Gaye move back with his parents?

Narrator 4:08

So now at 44 years old, he's living with his parents again. And unfortunately, in this household, things aren't going well. Tensions are really high. Like Marvin's dad, he's still a heavy drinker and he's still allegedly mistreating Marvin's mom. And as much as Marvin has tried to get clean, he's still using that Coca-Cola he likes so much.