Mighty Murdered Marvin...

I grew up a house that listened to Marvin Gaye pumping though our 2 speaker JVC 8 Track. In March of 1983, he gave his final performance in front of his old mentor and label for Motown 25, performing "What's Going On". He then embarked on a U.S. tour to support his album. The tour, ending in August 1983, was plagued by health problems and Gaye's bouts with depression, and fear over an attempt on his life. Then the tour ended, he isolated himself by moving into his parents' house. Marvin said he wished being famous had some useful function—such as preventing constipation. Gaye didn’t like being a celebrity. He thought it would destroy him. It eventually did. He threatened to commit suicide several times after bitter arguments with his father. On April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday, Gaye's father shot him after an argument that started after his parents argued over misplaced business documents. Gaye was killed by a gun he had offered to his father as a gift. (Whoa! That part was creepy) Marvin Sr. was sentenced to six years of probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Charges of first-degree murder were dropped after doctors discovered Marvin Sr. had a brain tumor. Spending his final years in a retirement home, he died of pneumonia in 1998.