I am not behind the times. I don't go on every music forum on the net. This is the only one I go to. As far as Mama D, she has a myspace page, a website and is selling her kid's stuff on ebay. She seems too happy to sort of talk openly about her kid's troubles and then cry wolf when the story doesn't come out the way she wanted, ie. that Vibe article.

filmnoirdame said:

This is the only forum you frequent?

This is the ONLY music forum I go to.

Anyway, does anyone remember which Debarge it was that boarded a plane with a gun-I remember hearing that story in the mid 90s and being shocked, cause it was the first time I had heard of Debarge in years.
[Edited 9/29/08 6:46am]

filmnoirdame said:

This happened in the 80's ,it was Bobby being funny he didn't have a gun, he just said hi-jack a few times to fuck with a slow steward named Jack, that's all

Thanks for clearing that up. I heard he got arrested for that ish, as well.

One thing that did strike me as odd is that as popular as they were, Debarge never really got a lot of media exposure. I don't ever recall Jet or Ebony putting them on the cover or doing features on them-which is beyond odd-and I don't remember them in People mag or even Rolling Stone. Did they do any videos other than rhythm of the night?

thatruth said:

I don't know where you got your facts from. I will be the first to admit when I am wrong. However, in the Vibe article it says that they were married for 21 years. So, I gathered that Bunny was not 21 when she was being abused by her father. In the article Etterlene, Bunny, Chico and Gregory Williams (family friend) all stated that Robert Sr. was abusive, so I assumed that this abuse went on during their childhood, not after they left because it was not stated that way in the article. I apologize if I have misinterpreted their statements.
Here is the exact verbiage from the article...make of it what you will.

They were married in 1953, two weeks before he was shipped out overseas. Etterlene says she'd never known brutality in her life — until she wed. "Robert was very jealous," she said with a sigh, "and an extremely abusive father." They stayed together 21 years before divorcing in 1974."

Oh, and here is what Bunny said in the same article.

But according to Bunny, it wasn't just label troubles that derailed the DeBarge family's dreams of showbiz glory. "We weren't able to sustain our success because of our childhood," she says. On the surface, they seemed like a model family. But the parents' relationship was troubled. "Interracial marriage was still controversial and we were talked about everywhere," recalls Bunny. To make matters worse, Bunny says her father was "always fighting" with her mother. "Mom came from a loving, church family," says Bunny. "She wasn't used to people who were violent."

Even family friends could sense the trouble at home. "To put it simply," says Williams, who has known and worked with the DeBarges since they were all youngsters, "their father was psychotic."
...
That may be our fault," says Bunny, unsurprised to hear her father's denials. "We never made daddy stand up. I don't hate my father, but he has a way of blocking things out of his mind."

http://www.vibe.com/news/...rge_epi_3/
[Edited 9/29/08 18:14pm]

The whole story is that no one is really coming out with the whole story. there is so much unsaid and seemingly hidden with that family. It really is the great American Tragedy

Timmy84 said:

I got my information from the Vibe article. Here is the exact text and link.

But his mother takes a very different view of this latest DeBarge comeback attempt. "If I had to do it again, I would never allow my kids to be in the music industry," says a somber Mama DeBarge, who recently put a bunch of Chico's keyboards and recording equipment up for sale on eBay. "There are a lot of snakes out there," she observes. "And they bite real hard."

http://www.vibe.com/news/...episode_4/

You can't stop your grown kids from making choices or mistakes. Mama D could not have stopped her kids from getting in the industry

filmnoirdame said:

DeBarge were mostly popular with R&B audiences.If you were reading magazines like Right On!,Black Beat and Rock N' Soul back then,you would have seen DeBarge all over those mags.Their songs were only played on R&B radio.All of this changed in 1985 when they released the 'Rhythm Of The Night' album.The title track was a huge crossover hit for them but by that time,El was already plotting his solo career.He departed right when they were becoming mainstream.





Good question.I don't think I've ever seen any other video by them!

Whatever happened to Rock and Soul Mag? I remember that being a pretty good mag! In fact, I think they called Motown and El out over El going solo. I used to have to sneak and read my older cousins rock and soul and right on and black beat mags. I knew that El left as the band was crossing over, which was a dumb move. One more album from them could have sent them really soaring.

I think Debarge ever did only vid and that was for Rhythm and if that is true, I am really shocked. Why didn't they do more than 1 video? It is insane that they had such good record sales w/out doing more.

One thing I do remember is that Debarge was on Solid Gold a lot. I think El even cohosted once

I remember hearing El's early 90s stuff and not really liking it. Now, I love it, but at the time, it was too quiet stormish and it seemed like modern rnb had left him in the dust. El never really adjusted to New Jack Swing-he was more a balladeer. Now, he might have done better during the whole Neo Soul movement, but that was more Chico's thing than El's. The problem was that EL wrote his best stuff when he was with Debarge. He really shone with them.

Around the New Jack Swing time, too, El started using dancers in his performances and dancing as well. It's like what the hell are you doing? That's not you. He's not a bad dancer at all, I just don't think that style suited him..

Them Debarges are REAL scandalous! I found out that a few months before James and Janet got hitched, El married a Soul Train dancer named Roberta-who was pregnant with his son who was later named Eldra Patrick Debarge Jr. He either married the girl to give the baby his name or to avoid a blackmail attempt. Either way, El divorced the girl a month after the marriage and later spent years in court battling her over child support. And apparently, that brief relationship fucked him up for years.When all is said and done, I bet they have more skeletons than the Jacksons.

scriptgirl said:

El's solo material is a mixed bag.Some of it is great ("Love Always" is his best solo single,imo) but much of it was boring and bland.Motown should have paired him with better producers and songwriters.He needed that one big album to make him the solo superstar he deserved to be.

years ago (1994) I was stationed with a guy whom grew up with the debarges. he told me stories like he and chico use to get high together. and janet WAS pregnate because he met her when she came to MI. and he, chico and james left janet at there moms house while they went out and screwed with some other girls.

he told me that bobby was gay, and once at church they were praying for him and he went off saying something to the effect of " i don't need no m****f***ing body praying for me" (not sure when this took place but I am guessing it was prior to to 1987)

he also said there mom prayed alot. if she saw someone whom she thought need a pair of shoes she'd pray for them.

How true all this is? I don't know but this guy has a relative that was a member of switch.

daingermouz2020 said:

A lot of good things came from drugs. Artists that were making good music, made their best music when they were on drugs. When they got off drugs, that's when their music suffered. Also, dull artists like Shitney Houston that weren't into drugs, stopped recording altogether when they got on drugs. I say, we need more drugs today. Hell, anything to liven these dead motherfuckers of today up.

Sorry, I think more bad comes drugs than good. Soul Alive, have you heard all of El's solo stuff?

vainandy said:

LOL! Somebody get this man a Podcast.

I just saw Chico doing some youtube interview. On the plus side, he looks way younger than 42 and on the neg-he is ghetto as hell. Wonder if El is like that?

Bobby was gay?

bboy87 said:

I don't know about him being gay but I've heard a source that Bobby was bisexual.

vainandy said:

I have heard it said Bobby was gay or bi, but truth being told, I got that vibe more from James or Chico (when he was first starting out)

vainandy said:

Oh, Jesus....

The real question is - which musical family had the best Jheri curls, DeBarge or The Jacksons?

Debarges did not have Jheri curls. They had curly hair that was really silky-basically, "straight" hair that was curly.

uPtoWnNY said:

No contest: The Jacksons.

The Debarges didn't need that mess in their hair