The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye

"If He Touches Me I’ll Kill Him"

Marvin hadn’t lived in the same house with his father in a quarter-century. Besides the childhood baggage and conflicts over the drug use, sex and porn, two other issues festered in the edgy relationship between them.

Alberta Gay had had kidney surgery in the fall of 1983. Marvin Sr. had gone back to Washington for unspecified purposes, and he refused to return to California to support his wife during her surgery.

Also, Marvin Jr. had learned that his father had sold the family house in Washington during his stay there. He believed his mother was owed half that money, but Marvin Sr. refused to acknowledge that he had sold the property.

Although the men managed to avoid one another most of the time, the physical tension was palpable—so much so that Marvin Sr. told his daughter Jeanne, “If he touches me I’ll kill him.”

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1. Setting The Stage
2. Motown's Lover Man
3. Tangled Roots
4. Gay Goes To Washington
5. Nightmare Childhood
6. Marvin Sr. "Enjoying the Whole Thing"
7. Music & the Military
8. Marquees & Moonglows
9. Hitsville, USA
10. The Top
11. The Superego
12. Let's Get It On
13. "He Wanted To Suffer"
14. The Influence Of Narcotics
15. The World Closes In
16. To The Beach
17. To Europe
18. Sexual Healing
19. Increasingly Bizarre Behavior
20. Flying Home
21. "If He Touches Me I’ll Kill Him"
22. The Final Fight
23. The Postmortem
24. Conclusion
25. Photo Gallery
26. Bibliography