D'Angelo: What the Hell Happened?
Magazine
On a Sunday in April 2006, Gary Harris pulled up to D'Angelo's large starter mansion outside Richmond, Virginia, in a limo. Harris, the A&R man who'd first signed D'Angelo in the early '90s and who had overseen his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, was on a mission: to escort the singer to Eric Clapton's Crossroads Treatment Centre in Antigua.
As he walked into the spacious kitchen, Harris knew this wouldn't be easy. Spread across the kitchen table, marble countertops, shelves -- nearly every available flat surface -- were empty alcohol bottles of all conceivable varieties. "There was scotch, vodka, beer," Harris recalls. "While I was waiting for him, he emptied the contents out of the corners of three or four bottles to get a shot." D'Angelo himself was unshaven, about 40 pounds overweight, and hadn't packed. "He was trying to act like he didn't know I was coming that day," Harris says.
According to Harris, it took more than five hours to corral D'Angelo into the limo. Then the real journey began. Four days after hooking up with him, Harris had only gotten the then-32-year-old D'Angelo as far as Puerto Rico, delayed by missed flights, a forgotten passport, and the singer's insistence on emptying every hotel minibar he came across. After two days of trying to coax D'Angelo from his room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Juan, Harris threw up his hands.
"I told him he can do whatever he wants, but I'm getting on a plane," Harris says. "D'Angelo broke down and cried," and then agreed to go to Crossroads. The night he arrived, Harris says, "he called everyone he knew to send him a ticket to get him out of Antigua." D'Angelo wasn't in denial about his alcohol problem, Harris explains. "He just wasn't prepared to deal with it."
Six years earlier, a very different-looking D'Angelo stood on a small platform at a soundstage in New York City. His muscled frame was naked, save for a small gold crucifix on a chain, nestled in the valley between his pecs, and pajama bottoms hanging impossibly low on his chiseled hips, exposing the lower regions of a flat, V-shaped torso that pointed suggestively toward his crotch. The pj's would be invisible in the "Untitled (How Does It Feel?)" video being shot that day. In it, the camera opens tight on D'Angelo's head before drawing back slowly to reveal this once-chubby choirboy in all his sculpted glory. The effect is gloriously uncomfortable. As the camera sucks him in, it feels intimate and intrusive, revealing and voyeuristic.
"We made this video for women," says Paul Hunter, who directed "Untitled" along with D'Angelo's then-manager, Dominique Trenier. "The idea was, it would feel like he was one-on-one with whoever the woman was."
The video was actually the second made for D'Angelo's sophomore album, Voodoo. (The first, an artsy performance clip for "Left & Right," stirred little interest.) It was part of Trenier's strategy to shed the artist's Brown Sugar–era image as a doughy 21-year-old kid sitting behind a piano. Although D'Angelo had been working out intensely with trainer Mark Jenkins, he was anxious about the video.
"Initially, to him, it seemed completely bonkers," says Trenier, who managed D'Angelo from 1996 to 2005 and still considers him a close friend. "He didn't quite get what I was saying. He kept going, 'What do you mean, 'naked'?"
26 Comments
Click here to comment- Posted By Pete
01.20.10 6:32 AM
D ´angelo
To me being a producer and musician since 20 years back, this name means so much, i don´t even know where to begin. So i´ll just say this, - take care of yourself, and you will see that at the end of the day, all the people who care for you and who care for your artistry and who matter to you will not judge you for not being the perfect implacable superman. Only the one´s who don´t care for you and your music will do that, and they´re gonna keep judging you and everyone else they don´t like until they drown in their own miserable bs.
I wish that you find back to that strength in you that you KNOW is still there.All love / *
- Posted By Madamoiselle Lace
01.20.10 2:41 AM
D'Angelo...through music is healing!I don't care whatever anyone is has going on in their lives...one click of certain track can make the pain go away even for a little while.You did that for us man and we need you back! You are a one of a kind very talented artist who music we treasure forever!!!!COME BACK TO US MAN! COME BACK!!!!
- Posted By Catherine E
01.15.10 4:17 PM
Wishing you nothing but peace and peace of mind. Your fans will be here waiting patiently on your return.
Love and blessing to you and yours
- Posted By cue
12.24.09 11:09 PM
Dam d i miss your talent man ive bin a fan since the first time i heard your song brown sugar when i was locked up in york pa. To my surprise i seen you at te ritz carlton here in puerto rico were i used to work at but i did not dare to aproach you becuase you looked so difrent. Man listen ive reproduced a couple of your songs from voodo in spanish because i just love that album so much ( not to comercialize it) but for. My own pleasure i wish on day you could hear it ill give you a run for your money when you hear your songs in spanish. 787 647 8061
- Posted By wil
12.21.09 6:22 PM
D - let this be your consious talking to you/beyond the bottomless bottles and surronding rumors that haunt you- look through the haze and listen to that voice that is pure- the same voice that lured you to the piano at a young age/no matter what critics say once james river is completed/pour the past years desires,ideas,harmonies,heartbrakes and excitement into this album/only then will you set the demons free and once again enjoy what god has granted and planned for you. the gift of music.
- Posted By Beam
12.21.09 5:00 PM
As a 28 year old successful, bright, young woman who went into recovery for alcohol abuse a little over a year ago, I know that we are often the most creative, soulful, sensitive, loving people you will meet. I also know that if you can make it through, you will be stronger and more in tune than ever before. When you meet someone who has dropped an addiction, you are staring at one of the strongest people you will ever meet. He can take the time he needs to get himself back, but I do hope he shows himself soon. So many are inspired by him, and more people are truly behind him than he knows. To make fun of his appearance is shallow when you face death as an alcoholic. I know what you've gone through, D, and you're in my thoughts today!
- Posted By MR.KEYS_86
12.21.09 11:13 AM
D-L0 ak.a. soul brother number one!COME ON BACK TO THE GAME MY DUDE! I've been a fan of yours since I was nine years old man and I've been patiently waiting for that James River to drop. And as for the untitled video. That video is part of what inspired me to transform myself from a boney kid to a chiseled sex symbol!LOL Nah but real talk we miss u bro!
- Posted By Anonymous
12.15.09 11:35 PM
Just come back baby. The nasty comment just come from those who don't have your talent. You are truly loved beloved. You can do baby for yourself and for the world of people who want, crave and miss your REAL music. Come on honey you were not built to break.
- Posted By nannette
12.15.09 7:54 AM
ho babie D'angelo what on earth happened to you man once a pon a time you were so good looking you had the body and damn you had the mind to just look good even naked too which we all like but now man you gong all wrong come back to to the way you uesd to be making those poping songs thos e poping videos come on narh fix up you can do it in fact i know you can.
your just too damn sexy to let it all go to waste in VOICE
LYRICS
in MUSICLUV YA LONG TIME MAN
- Posted By MSShanna
11.28.09 5:13 AM
Evidently, this man has something to deal with that needs a holistic approach. Those that are close to him should embrace his issues, stick with him through this trial- not for us, but for him. When he's ready he will come back to us. And we all know that he will welcomed back with open arms.
- Posted By Frad
10.02.09 9:09 AM
The man's music touches my soul now the same way it did 9 years ago.
D'Angelo is a musical genius, and like many artists before him, the pressures of writing music of such high caliber seem to have burnt him out.
Personally, I cannot wait to hear his work again. His music kept me sane during a very tough period in my life, in a part of the world that he probably cannot imagine his music reaching. I'm waiting patiently for the next masterpiece.
- Posted By BROWN SUGAR
09.24.09 11:03 PM
well, i went to school with mike;actually sat with him im choir. this was 7th grade. he played @ the school assemblies, and any other musical event we had. i just want him to bounce back. he is a walking pillar of talent, humbleness, skill, wisdom & a certain level of unceartinty. why? thats my question. he posses it all. he even had the drive to shape & mold his physique into a Godlike image. GEORGOUS!!!!!! however, it obviously wasn't the missing piece to his puzzle. AWWW... if i had the recipe, i would gladly take him a big bowl of it; warm ,with crackers & ginger ale. however,he should know that hewas not built to be defeated. our minds can be guilty of playing tricks on us more than we would like to admit. d'angelo,if you are listening; COME BACK DADDY,I (ecuse me) WE NEED YOU. BRING BACK THE LOVE. A.S.A.P. do we need to come to your house & get you?????
- Posted By Trinidiva
09.20.09 11:37 PM
His music made me come alive. It was the best thing I have ever heard in years, after all the trash that has been coming out that passes for music. I don't care if you're cut, or heavy just come backand serenade me with your soulful voice and transport me to anoher place. I thought he was perfect on Brown Sugar and Voodoo was just another thing altogether. Smoking! But D., please we need you like the flowers need the rain. Please don't let all tat amazing talent go to naught.
- Posted By 119souls
09.17.09 11:47 AM
D'angelo's music has been some of the greatest, smoothest, classiest, hottest, most innovative stuff to come out in decades. We need you back. We don't care if you're cut or heavy. (Of course you were a sex god to all of us deprived women but that wouldn't have meant anything if you hadn't been a music god under God.) When God gives you such an amazing talent you need to use it even if it's only for yourself. Fame has ruined a lot of people who turned to booze and drugs, but just kick the fame and the hype in the butt and start playing and singing again. D'angelo was never just "the naked dude" to anybody I know. He and the musicians he has worked with have always been one of a kind, top notch artists.
- Posted By Anonymous
06.18.09 2:00 PM
D'Angelo will never be known as the naked guy to me instead he will always go down as one of the smoothest soul singers of our time. After all he made a song with the hook being three curse words and the **** sold 4 the movie business his voice is mesmerizing and his melodies are so sweet i love him........although i must say he was much finer 10 years ago so let him know workout a lil bit honey you was too sexy get that back BOO OK BYE 4 NOW
- Posted By onedayaj
08.23.08 3:07 PM
Awesome article.
01.31.10 6:46 AM
When GOD gives you such a special gift you should not waste it. You have touched millions with your music but your work is not done. I/We are here when you are ready.
Many Blessings