Marvin's deterioration was known only to his family, friends and business associates. To the watching world he was a storming success. He was chosen to sing the national anthem at the opening of the NBA All-Star game at the Forum in Inglewood, California, on 13 February 1983 and just over a week later, at the Shrine Auditorium, he picked up two Grammys.
The tour was dogged by problems from the start. In the month before rehearsals Marvin checked into a San Francisco hotel and sent Gorgeous George, his valet, out to buy him a tape deck and copies of all his albums. "He told me he couldn't remember all the lyrics," says George, "so every morning of every day I would put Marvin's stuff on the ghetto-blaster and let him relearn them." On 13 April, Marvin was summonsed to appear in court on 7 July because of his failure to maintain his payments to his ex-wife, Jan. Marvin's single "Joy" hadn't even made a chart entry. Ticket sales were sluggish. In addition, threats were made, which filtered back to Marvin and made him fear for his life. He imagined a hired assassin shooting him as he performed, and became convinced that he was being supplied with cocaine cut with a poison. His two bodyguards, Andre and Gerald White, were flown in from Tampa, Florida, to lead a security team. The pair terrified potential interlopers. One unfortunate cocaine dealer who found his way to Marvin's hotel suite was made by Andre to consume his own merchandise on the spot. He lost consciousness and had to be taken to hospital.
When the tour hit Radio City Music Hall in New York there was a backstage confrontation with the controversial activist and preacher Al Sharpton, and the White brothers were called in to sort it out. "Sharpton's group felt that black promoters weren't getting what they deserved," says Andre. "I had to explain that we had gotten the money for these days and we were going to play them. They got a little ... I guess you could say 'disappointed', and started threatening. I had to let them know that we had ways of sorting that out."
Andre White was becoming concerned at Marvin's cocaine consumption. When they reached Baltimore, Andre made an arrangement with the civil-rights leader Dick Gregory, now a leading nutritional expert, to collect Marvin and have him detoxified on a farm in Massachusetts during a short break between dates. But Marvin stubbornly refused to leave his hotel room.
As the tour progressed he became more and more paranoid, convinced that there was a killer lurking in the wings. He had his brother Frankie join the tour as well as his old friend from Los Angeles, Dave Simmons, who had to stand at the side of the stage watching for potential assassins. His sister Sweetsie had to bring him his water on stage to prevent anyone poisoning him. He even had a Baptist preacher, Dave Futch, to offer him spiritual consolation and lead a prayer time before each show.
In Merrillville, Indiana, he was confronted by members of El Rukns, the notorious Chicago street gang whose leader, Jeff Fort, was jailed four years later for conspiring to commit explosions in America on behalf of the Libyans. El Rukns had connections both with the Black Muslim movement and with organised crime. They challenged Marvin over his use of a white promoter for the tour. In Detroit, Marvin was convinced that Jan's stepfather, Earl Hunter, had ordered a Mafia hit because of the way he had treated Jan. When he played the Joe Louis Arena he had his security team doubled and also alerted the local police department, who sent along 75 officers.
"He was getting in worse shape physically every night and it became harder and harder to carry on," says Dave Simmons. "Then there were the constant stories that someone was trying to kill him. It was like a mad B-movie."
Unbelievably, Jan came along for part of the tour, apparently unable to pull herself away from the impending destruction despite having just forced Marvin to pay part of his back alimony under threat of a court appearance. They began sharing drugs together again. One day Jan collapsed with severe palpitations because of the drugs she was taking. In a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, she began arguing with Marvin about a member of the band that he was accusing her of fancying. "Marvin was sitting there cleaning his nose out because it was so wrecked with cocaine," says Jan. "In the middle of this argument he took the pot of hot water he was using and threw it over me. Gerald White then physically picked me up and put me outside the hotel. I had no airline ticket, no money, no nothing. I never saw Marvin alive again."
Marvin claimed that he felt so sick after the incident that the next two dates, in Tallahassee and Memphis, were cancelled while he checked into a private hospital in Sunrise, Florida, suffering from "exhaustion and dehydration".
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