The DeBarge kids all sang in church and in high school, Randy joined the local band and learned how to play bass guitar from his elder brother Tommy.
When Randy was seventeen, his older brothers Bobby and Tommy formed the Ohio-based funk/soul group Switch, later on signing with Motown in 1977.
After a drug conviction befell Bobby and the group's younger brother Chico, the rest of DeBarge disbanded at the end of the eighties.
A father of five, Randy DeBarge reportedly suffered drug and alcohol addiction but was able to find partial sobriety in the mid-1990s.
On September 21, 2011, Randy appeared on Lifechangers, a daytime show hosted by Drew Pinsky on The CW Television Network.