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Concept
Killing of Marvin Gaye
Summary
On April 1, 1984, Marvin Gaye, an American musician who gained worldwide fame for his work with Motown Records, was shot and killed on the day before his 45th birthday by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., at their house in the Western Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Gaye was shot twice following an altercation with his father, after he intervened in an argument between his parents. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the California Hospital Medical Center. His father later pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Gaye's filicide inspired several musical tributes over the years, including recollections of the incidents leading to his death. He was given a burial plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery, and was later cremated and his ashes were spread around the Pacific Ocean.
Marvin Gaye had a bitter relationship with his father, Marvin Gay Sr., since his childhood. Marvin Sr. was a Christian minister and strict disciplinarian who often physically punished his children. He was also a cross-dresser, a fact widely known in the family's Washington, D.C. neighborhood which made the younger Marvin a target of bullying. Due to this "sexual ambiguity" on the part of his father, as well as rumors of Gaye's own homosexuality (and in tribute to one of Gaye's favorite singers, Sam Cooke), the younger Marvin added an "e" to his last name when he became famous. Gaye's father never approved of his son's career in music, and gradually grew resentful that Gaye was closer to his mother, Alberta, and had become the breadwinner for the family. Despite a brief improvement in their relationship after Gaye found success with his album What's Going On, father and son never found any lasting peace.
By 1983, after a period as a European tax exile, Gaye had re-entered the public eye with the hit song "Sexual Healing" and its album, Midnight Love. For a time, he had also achieved sobriety during his extensive stay in Belgium. Returning to the U.S., he embarked on his final Sexual Healing Tour in April of that year.
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