MARVIN GAYE INTERVIEW REVISITED

Memories of one of the most important conversations of my life

Interviewing Marvin Gaye back in 1983 was a huge moment in my life. Having grown up on Motown with a soul music loving mother, Marvin was a God. Moreover I was just starting work on a book about Motown Records and talking to Marvin would be key to that book. The interview was for Musician magazine and has been reprinted in my collection The Nelson George Mixtape (available via www.pacificpacific.pub). Moreover when Marvin was shot by his father on April 1, 1984, that interview informed an obit I wrote, The Power and the Glory, for the Village Voice that was republished in Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop From Elvis to Jay Z.

The youtube video, part of my Follow the Sound series, tells the funny, nearly tragic, tale behind this interview.