An Interview with MARVIN GAYE Circa 1981

The Motown legend was born on April 2, 1939

I would be lucky to inteview Marvin Gaye twice. The first was in January 1981 for Record World magazine, the music trade publication that I’d just joined a few weeks before. This phone call from London was when Marvin was at a low point in his life. It would be a few years before he recorded this comeback songs, “Sexual Healing,’ and returned to America for a tour and a confrontation with his father that would result in his death.

This interview was keyed to his last Motown album, ‘In Our Lifetime,’ not one of his best works and his mood speaks to why.

A few years later I would have a longer, more detaild conversation with Marvin in person in a Bay Area hotel when he was on his comeback tour. That interview is contained in The Nelson George Mixtape book, which can be purchased via www.pacificpacfic.pub.

Happy Born Day to one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters.