[3] Gaye's last televised appearances were at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, where he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner", Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever in 1983, and on Soul Train.

[11] Although one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, with many elegant Federal-style homes, most buildings were small, in extensive disrepair, and lacked both electricity and running water.

He also had two half-brothers: Michael Cooper, his mother's son from a previous relationship, and Antwaun Carey Gay,[18] born as a result of one of his father's extramarital affairs.

He feigned mental illness and was given a "General Discharge", with an outgoing performance review from his sergeant remarking "Airman Gay cannot adjust to regimentation nor authority".

[citation needed] The group found work as session singers for established acts such as Chuck Berry, singing on the songs "Back in the U.S.A." and "Almost Grown".

Despite the presence of successful singles such as "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By", Terrell's illness caused problems with recording, and led to multiple operations to remove the tumor.

The Lions played along for the publicity, but ultimately declined an invitation for Gaye to try out, owing to legal liabilities and fears of possible injuries that could have affected his music career.

[67][68] On June 1, 1970, Gaye returned to Hitsville U.S.A., where he recorded his new composition "What's Going On", inspired by an idea from Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops after he witnessed an act of police brutality at an anti-war rally in Berkeley.

One of Motown's first autonomous works, its theme and segue flow brought the concept album format to rhythm and blues and soul music.

[77] In between the releases of What's Going On and Trouble Man, Gaye and his family relocated to Los Angeles, making Marvin one of the final Motown artists to move there despite early protests urging him to stay in Detroit.

Marvin took them on his tours, featured them as the opening acts of his concerts, and persuaded Beverly to change the band's name from Raw Soul to Maze.

These issues led him to move to Maui, where he struggled to record a disco-influenced album titled Love Man, with a probable release date for February 1980, though he would later shelve the project.

[88] By the time the tour stopped, he had relocated to London when he feared imprisonment for failure to pay back taxes, which had now reached upwards of $4.5 million (US$16,640,549 in 2023 dollars[52]).

[88][89] Gaye then reworked Love Man from its original disco concept to another socially-conscious album invoking religion and the possible end time from a chapter in the Book of Revelation.

[91] In the fall of that year, a master tape of a rough draft of the album was stolen from one of Gaye's traveling musicians, Frank Blair, and taken to Motown's Hollywood headquarters.

The details of the contract were not revealed due to a possible negative effect on Gaye's settlement to creditors from the IRS and to stop a possible bidding war by competing labels.

Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time.On February 13, 1983, Gaye sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum in Inglewood, California—accompanied by Gordon Banks, who played the studio tape from the stands.

[105] In the early afternoon of April 1, 1984, Gaye intervened in a fight between his parents in the family house in the West Adams neighborhood of Western Heights[5] in Los Angeles.

In addition to his talent as a drummer, Gaye also embraced the TR-808, a drum machine that became prominent in the early '80s, making use of its sounds for production of his Midnight Love album.

Gaye's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame page lists the Capris' song, "God Only Knows" as "critical to his musical awakening".

"[120] In songs such as "Pride and Joy", Gaye used three different vocal ranges—singing in his baritone range at the beginning, bringing a lighter tenor in the verses before reaching a gospel mode in the chorus.

"[123] Bowman found that Gaye's multi-tracking of his tenor voice and other vocal styles "summon[ed] up what might be termed the ancient art of weaving".

Early in his career, Gaye was affected by social events such as the 1965 Watts riots and once asked himself: "with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?

[125] Gaye was inspired to make this album because of events such as the Vietnam War, the 1967 race riots in Detroit, and the Kent State shootings, as well as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F.

[130] Further in the article, Gaye was also credited with combining "the soulful directness of gospel music, the sweetness of soft-soul and pop, and the vocal musicianship of a jazz singer".

[citation needed] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 1987, declaring that Gaye "made a huge contribution to soul music in general and the Motown Sound in particular".

[113] A year after his death, then-mayor of D.C., Marion Barry declared April 2 as "Marvin Gaye Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund Day" in the city.

[158] In July 2018, a bill by California politician Karen Bass to rename a post office in South Los Angeles after Gaye was signed into law by President Donald Trump.

[174][175][176][177][178] Years later, other producers such as Jean-Luc Van Damme, Frederick Bestall and Jimmy De Brabant, came aboard and Goodman was replaced by Julien Temple.

He had a role in the Lee Frost-directed biker-exploitation film Chrome and Hot Leather, about a group of Vietnam veterans taking on a bike gang.