Janis Gaye
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
.
Biography
Born in January of 1956, she was the daughter of jazz musician Slim GaillardSlim Gaillard
Bulee "Slim" Gaillard was an American jazz singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist, noted for his vocalese singing and word play in a language he called "Vout"...
and Barbara Hunter. Growing up in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, she was raised by her mother and stepfather, Earl Hunter, and later graduated from Fairfax High School
Fairfax High School (Los Angeles)
Fairfax High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located in Los Angeles, USA, near the border of West Hollywood in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles...
in 1974.
In 1973, while accompanying her mother to Motown's recording studios in L.A., the 17-year-old made eye contact with Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
as he was recording music for a new album.
According to his co-producer Ed Townsend
Ed Townsend
Edward Benjamin 'Ed' Townsend was an American attorney, songwriter, and producer. He was best known for performing his composition, "For Your Love," a rhythm and blues doo wop classic, and as the co-writer of "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye.-Biography:Although he was born in Fayetteville,...
, Hunter's presence helped Gaye record the song "Let's Get It On
Let's Get It On (song)
"Let's Get It On" is a song and hit single by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded on March 22, 1973 at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by...
", though other reports say it was the song "If I Should Die Tonight
If I Should Die Tonight
"If I Should Die Tonight" is a 1973 song written by Ed Townsend and Marvin Gaye and recorded by Marvin as a single issued on his Let's Get It On album as the third track on the album....
" that was the catalyst for Gaye's emotional connection for Hunter.
Gaye later told a biographer that he was in "love lust" with Hunter, who was seventeen years his junior. According to Hunter years later, their first date ended with Gaye "kissing me on the forehead". A serious relationship grew and within a year the couple bore their second born, a daughter they named Nona
Nona Gaye
Nona Marvisa Gaye is an American singer, former fashion model, and screen actress. The daughter of soul music legend Marvin Gaye and granddaughter of jazz great Slim Gaillard, she began her career as a vocalist in the early 1990s...
(Janis' first pregnancy ended in miscarriage). A year later, a son, Frankie Christian, was born.
Hunter was the main inspiration behind most of the songs on Gaye's 1976 release, I Want You. Hunter said she was intimidated that Gaye was still married to his first wife, Anna Gordy
Anna Gordy Gaye
Anna Gordy Gaye is an American songwriter and composer, known as the elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy and the first wife of soul legend Marvin Gaye, who used their troubled marriage as the focal point of his critically acclaimed 1978 effort, Here, My Dear, an album from which Gordy...
, despite the couple having separated around the same time Gaye and Hunter first became acquainted.
Gaye's divorce from Gordy in March 1977 led to a hurried October 1977 marriage between Gaye and Hunter while Gaye was traveling to Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, where he had an investment in the basketball team the New Orleans Jazz (later the Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently a part of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
). Gaye dedicated the song "Falling in Love Again
Falling in Love Again (Marvin Gaye song)
"Falling in Love Again" is a 1977 song recorded by singer Marvin Gaye and issued on his 1978 album, Here, My Dear album. The song was another track on the personal album that didn't discuss the demise of his first marriage. Instead of Anna Gaye, the song talked of the other woman in Marvin's life...
", the last track on his album Here, My Dear
Here, My Dear
Here, My Dear is a studio double album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released December 15, 1978 on Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Hollywood, California from 1976 to 1977. A deeply personal and controversial album, Here, My Dear is notable for...
, to Hunter. Around that same time, Gaye allowed Hunter to apply background vocals to his hit song "Got to Give It Up
Got to Give It Up
"Got to Give It Up" is a funk/disco song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. Written by the singer and produced by Art Stewart, it was recorded in three studio dates in 1976 with a final mixing in early 1977...
"; Hunter (and Gaye's brother Frankie
Frankie Gaye
Frankie Gaye was a singer and the younger brother of the more famous singer Marvin Gaye. Born the son of minister Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr. and domestic Alberta Cooper in Washington, D.C., Frances watched as Marvin became a superstar...
) could be heard singing the chorus until the end of part one of the song.
Within a year after their marriage, however, Gaye and Hunter broke up. Gaye would accuse Hunter of openly cheating on him with several celebrities including Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and producer, known primarily for his recordings with the soul and funk band, Maze.-Early life and career:...
. Hunter, decades after Gaye's death, would accuse the singer for purposely forcing her to have these dates to make him feel jealous.
Hunter was heavily involved in the L.A. drug lifestyle during the 1970s and Gaye often accompanied her. Hunter was addicted to cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and moved up to freebasing by the turn of the decade.
By the late 1970s, their relationship had devolved into a drug-addicted paralysis for the both of them with episodes of verbal arguments and even, at one point, Hunter claimed, an attempt on her life with Gaye pointing a knife to her heart, which she explained was because of Gaye's paranoid state at the time.
After another attempt at reconciliation in London in 1980, Hunter filed for divorce despite the fact that Gaye, deeply in debt to the IRS for as much as $4 million in back taxes, was unable to pay for child support, which Hunter requested. Gaye then moved to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
Despite their February 15, 1981 divorce, Gaye and Hunter kept in contact until shortly before Gaye's death at the hands of his father on April 1, 1984. At one time Hunter briefly mentored and managed her and Marvin's daughter Nona as she began her show-business career.
In 1981, shortly after her divorce from Gaye was finalized, Hunter remained in the R&B spotlight, dating musicians such as funk superstar Rick James
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
and R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...
shortly before Pendergrass' near fatal 1982 car crash. Hunter's relationship with James was so close that James was picked as a godfather of Hunter's children Nona and Frankie. James' close friend and musical partner Teena Marie
Teena Marie
Mary Christine Brockert, better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer...
also became friends with Hunter and she was soon named as Nona and Frankie's godmother. Hunter also was friends with Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
. Shortly after Gaye's death, Womack gave her money to pay for debts left by Gaye at the time of his death.
In the mid-1990s, Hunter went to rehab to end her long-standing addiction to drugs and alcohol. Janis Hunter is presently living in Cranston, Rhode Island. She is the grandmother of Nona's 14-year-old son, Nolan Pentz Gaye.
It was rumored in the past that Hunter was working on an autobiography about her time in the glare of the media spotlight due to her romance with Gaye but nothing has been confirmed.