Najee said:

Yeah I think I heard about that too.

Timmy84 said:

so even Bunny got mixed up in drugs. Are their parents drug addicts too? Because for virtually a whole family, and it's a big family, to get mixed up in drugs it must be a genetic trait or something.

whatsgoingon said:

I have no idea of what the father is in to, but Mama Debarge seems to be a spiritual woman.. I think she sings gospel... check out her website and bunny's essay about her having to leave LA broke ... I'll tell you one thing.. it's a shit load of them Debarges... I think she has like 50 grandkids

http://www.mamadebarge.com/

banks said:

Thanks so much for posting.

Sh!t like this drives me nuts. These cats beat the odds, become famous, sell tons of records, then piss away their talent(and loot) engaging in self-drstructive behavior. Same goes for actors/rock stars/athletes.

banks said:

God, she has even got more kids than Katherine Jackson. But she looks good for a 70 year old.

But it's sad that at least half of her kids seem messed up. As much as we go on about the Jacksons, the only ones that seem seriously mess up are Michael and maybe Latoya, the rest of them give a divorce or two are pretty a lot more down to earth than we probably think.

Wow, I had no idea El was into such mess as drugs and domestic violence.

Now that I looked at Mama DeBarge’s site Darrell was the one who was talking like Janet had a baby somewhere and the family was left in the dark about her whereabouts.

I wonder why there is no mention of Papa DeBarge. Somewhere on Mama DeBarge's website, it mentioned that her first husband was abusive. Is her first husband the father of all the DeBarge children? Did she remarry?

JackieBlue said:

Yeah he was in cahoots with Ms Jones... He agreed to tell that story and she tried to push his wack single
Didn't work though

banks said:

Hell yeah, no one believed his story and his album BOMBED!

PurpleCharm said:

Yes, thank you! That family is HUGE And they alllll seem to be musically inclined! It's a very touching website, you really get a strong sense of this family having a rather epic story to tell; I imagine with all they've seemed to endure her/their story would be a good candidate for one of those Lifetime Television for Women feature movies . But all lightness aside, somehow I was touched taking in little tidbits of her site. On one of the pages she has the song "Queen of My Heart", and do you know I chimed right in singing that song and I haven't listened to it since I bought the original LP the year of its' release!!!? I shocked myself!

...wow, people just don't craft songs like that anymore, the kind where you remember every chord change and every vocal harmony without hearing it after 30 years. I miss that kind of music

"I've had some problems
And no one could seem to solve them..."

I guess El wasn't lying when he said this.
[Edited 8/30/07 13:22pm]

It seems that there's nothing on the site about the father whatsoever but I didn't go through every page. It takes like 15 minutes for each page to load for some reason.

Her book or story is called The Other Side of Pain... What in the world happened to her or the family? Is her/their story that tragic? I just know a few of them were into drugs, the passing of Bobby and I remember El's divorce was not easy or amicable.

This is so sad. I hope he gets lots of help before it is too late.
All the Debarges have such great voices. El's mugshot is even
sadder to see. -- He has 10 children-wow!
[Edited 8/30/07 14:15pm]

JackieBlue said:

"Mama" Debarge's memoir promises to be an inspirational story of unconditional faith and love. It's a harrowing story of a woman's personal battle when forced to survive a life riddled with abuse, drugs, violence and great despair.

Her story intricately weaves her own life with that of her children's (the celebrated, Motown singing group from the 1980's), their story, told through her eyes. From her agonizing depiction of her tumultuous and violent marriage to her first husband, to the rise, fall and rise again of her famous children and their celebrity, including untold accounts of her son James' marriage to Janet Jackson, and the loss of her daughter-in-law at the hands of a serial killer.

It is fascinating account of a family and their roller-coaster like highs and way to low, lows. It's about an extraordinary woman, wife and a mother who through it all manages to keep hold of the reins, a smile on her face and a song in her heart and a supernatural strength that only God could have given her.

I'm thinking about purchasing her book.

RosesRred said:

He has 10 children? I only counted about 5 or 6.

PurpleCharm said:

Wow. Thank you, PurpleCharm.

I read that El had 10 kids by almost 10 different women too.
I just found this... apparently VIBE.com is going to be running a piece on them in episodes that just premiered yesterday, August 29th. Here's the first bit: http://www.vibe.com/news/...rge_ep_1/


The Rise and Fall of the DeBarge Family (Episode 1)
By: Michael A. Gonzales
POSTED: 13:27 EST, August 29, 2007

The DeBarge family - El, Marty, Randy, Bunny and James, not to mention Thomas, Bobby, and baby brother Chico - were supposed to be Motown's follow-up to the Jacksons. But after a trail of dazzling '80s hits, behind-the-scenes drama threatened to bring the family down. From dating Latoya and Janet Jackson to allegations of sexual abuse and drug addiction - the DeBarge family has dealt with everything from prison time to AIDS. But even now, their music is still sampled by the likes of Diddy and Polow Da Don, and some of the DeBarges are trying resurrect their careers. Is it too late, though, to pick up the pieces? A story in four parts, from our October 2007 issue. Episode 1.

The house lights dimmed on a humid summer evening in 1994, and El DeBarge floated across the cluttered stage of the now-defunct New York City nightclub Tramps.

"Respect to the old school!" screamed a drunk woman from the bar. El, then 33, gently grabbed the microphone and wrapped his feathery falsetto around a songbook of classic material from his family's R&B-pop group, DeBarge. Though he'd left the group in 1986, El opened with their heartbreaking 1983 hit "Stay with Me" (Gordy), which Sean "Puffy" Combs would soon sample for the Notorious B.I.G.'s 1995 smash remix of "One More Chance" (Bad Boy). As El sang, it seemed he was ready for another chance himself. Despite rumors that he was caught up in a fog of drug addiction, on this night, both El's voice and his wardrobe were sharp as nails.

An ex-child preacher at Bethel Pentocostal Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., Eldra DeBarge still knew how to work a crowd, baptizing the blissful audience simply by playing a few chords on his white keyboard. Born into a biracial - not hispanic, as many still believe - family of sublime vocalists, El was the brightest star of the eight singing DeBarge siblings.

DeBarge was part of Motown's second wave of soul-music stars after founder Berry Gordy Jr. fled the grit of Detroit for the glam of Los Angeles. Consisting of brothers El, James, Mark, and Randy, and their elder sister Bunny, the group was instantly transformed from Midwestern church singers into Right On! magazine teen dreams, complete with flashy 1980s fashions and beaming smiles. But by the late '80s, DeBarge's fame was fading.

Less than a decade later, El was in NYC to promote his new album Heart, Mind & Soul (Warner Bros.) and perhaps to make a new start. Except for the huge hit he had with Barry White, Al B. Sure!, and James Ingram of 1990's Quincy Jones-produced "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)," El had been off the radar for years. He was already a throwback in a world dominated by new jacks like R. Kelly and Jodeci, but no one could have predicted that H,M&S would be El's last solo release for 13 years.

At Tramps, El briefly closed his eyes and sang the tortured lyrics of "All This Love," a massive radio hit he wrote and produced in 1983: "I've had some problems," he sang. "And no one could seem to solve them." The poignant lyrics were a fitting synopsis of the turbulent life and times of the DeBarge family, the greatest story never told.

It began 1975, when Barry White fired a crew known as White Heat, one of his many backing bands, which included pianist/singer Robert "Bobby" DeBarge Jr., the second oldest of the 10 DeBarge siblings. The whole DeBarge family loved music. They'd sing on the radio in Detroit on Sunday mornings and perform at talent shows. Bobby's talents stood out.

"I've never heard anyone sound quite like him, and with so much ease," producer Bernd Lichters has said. "I knew I saw a star." Lichters worked with former White Heat members Bobby DeBarge and Gregory Williams (a schoolmate of Bobby's) to launch the pioneering soul-pop group Switch. Bobby co-wrote and co-produced much of the group's best music, but behind the good looks and dazzling talent lurked a tortured soul."I've never heard anyone sound quite like him, and with so much ease," producer Bernd Lichters has said. "I knew I saw a star." Lichters worked with former White Heat members Bobby DeBarge and Gregory Williams (a schoolmate of Bobby's) to launch the pioneering soul-pop group Switch. Bobby co-wrote and co-produced much of the group's best music, but behind the good looks and dazzling talent lurked a tortured soul.

Bobby's drug issues were common knowledge among the members of Switch, but his voice was too gorgeous to ignore. Still, Switch - which released five albums on Motown's subsidiary Gordy Records - almost bounded into the studio without his supple crooning. "I wasn't sure I wanted Bobby to be in the group because he was still on drugs," says Williams. But when a chance meeting in Los Angeles with Jermaine Jackson and his wife, Hazel (Berry Gordy's daughter), got them an audition with Gordy, Williams reconsidered.

To be continued in Episode 2, coming soon.

El's mugshot. He looks tortured...

When I worked in the music business, I dealt with the DeBarges constantly. Let me tell you.. that is one crazy bunch of mofos ! One of the luniest was sister Bunny, but the whole crew was wacked

jjhunsecker said:

Spill some gossip please!

whatsgoingon said:

katherine had 10 kids also, marlon's twin died soon after birth. and Mama DeBarge is 71
[Edited 8/30/07 21:53pm]

jjhunsecker said:

On her myspace there's a really intense audio recording of her testimony as given during a church service , she admits she was high the ENTIRE time they had a music career. She said she started out as a teeneger being a flower child doing the drugs associated with that, but once they got famous she did everything under the sun, eventually ended up on heroin

mimi07 said:

I know Katherine had 10 children but only 9 of them grew up and inspite of everything all 9 are still alive today.

Sad story indeed. But DjQuik has a dvd out about himself. During the dvd it shows some studio scenes w/El. Some are good some are quite revealing. One shows him being tossed a brown paper bag then him bolting outta scene once he catches the bag. Hopefully he can lean on his faith and rise up from this low point.

I really thought they were a pretty clean cut family. I remember being surprised by the lyrics El was singing on the songs he did with DJ Quik. I couldn't imagine him doing that sort of material even though I liked the songs.

I bought the vibe magazine yesterday and they have a picture of Papa Debarge
he's white man and Chico stated that their father sexually molested his sons and daughter

he seems to think that's why Boby was so messed up

That's horrible. I had no idea. No wonder they never speak of him.

JackieBlue said:

you have to get it... it's really a sad and tragic story

another little tidbit from the article... Mama Debarge said that Michael was star of the Jackson's but she feel that her kids made them all look like crap


She must have been indulging in the samethings her kids were using
[Edited 8/31/07 6:08am]

Ottensen said:

Wow! That's so sad.

I wonder what she means by flower child. Wasn't the whole "flower child" thing in the 60's? She would have been grown with children by that time.

JackieBlue said:

I never knew he collaborated with DJ Quik. What was he saying on the song?