Bobby Debarge, his legancy continues

I was 14 years old sneaking out of middle school to Hollywood (California) unannounced to my then, mentor (and means to have a chance on becoming a Soul train dancer myself)and best friend, Jermaine Stewart. Hiking up the steep hill of Ivar, I finally arrive to the tiny cottage where Jermaine resided. Jermaine was my big brother in every way, but to my surprise, I to was about to be adopted by others that day. Robert 'Bobby' Debarge jr.

Upon my arrival I knocked on the wooden door of the landing scape of the cottage stoop of Jermaine's residence. I stood on the porch of the small house covering as the door opens, I see standing in the doorway a stranger I'd never seen, who looked as though he had been out all night and I'd just awaken him from an hour of deep sleep, scratching his tangled curly hair, stretching his thin muscular chest, pulling up his flannel pants that were falling.

"Who are you?" this stranger asked. With my childlike, widen, doe-like eyes, and speechless as a child would be when questioned by it's parent, i look up and asked, " I'm Perez. Is Jermaine, here?" He looked to me, 'wait here!" Bobby and Tommy who were members in a music group named switch. Bobby was the oldest [Bobby Debarge former lead singer to the music group Switch] of the Debarge children and Tommy was the second oldest. Bobby was the lead singer in the R&B group switch before he left the group. Bobby had a beautiful falsetto voice, and it was his voice that made Switch so popular.



And, our kindred friendship/big brother relationship.



After a week long of ditching school, Bobby sat me down, telling me during school hours I was no longer welcome to the cottage he and his younger, Tommy shared with Jermaine. At the time I thought Bobby was being an ol' meanie, but now looking back at the moment (as they say 20/20 is hindsight) he was showing me nothing but big brotherly love and guidance that i was so running away from and rejecting. I became very angry, screaming to the top of my lungs "You can't tell me what to do. You're nothing to me!" Within a beat, Bobby dashed across the room before Jermaine, or Tommy could interject, collaring me, eyeing me through slitted eyes, "I'm like your big brother!" And that was the revelation that was adequate for shaping my life.

Robert Debarge jr., (named after his father Robert Debarge), and the Debarge children are the light of life of their mother Etterlene Debarge were born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Debarge family was one of the most successful R&B groups of the late 1970's and 80s.

Etterlene Abney was 17 when she met the 21-year-old Army soldier Robert Debarge at a Detroit skating rink. Etterlene (Debarge) said "At first I didn't think he would like me, because I was so dark," Etterlene recalls. "A white man with a black woman… we were a freak show." They were married in 1953, two weeks before he was shipped out overseas. Etterlene says she'd never known brutality in her life — until she wed. "Robert was very jealous," she said with a sigh, "and an extremely abusive father." They stayed together 21 years before divorcing in 1974.

Bobby Had a lot of inner pain about living with his father Robert Debarge Sr. a lot of that pain came from childhood. You could hear that anguish in Bobby's music. He was not a bad person, he simply suffered in life like any one of us.

It began 1975, when Barry White fired a crew known as White Heat, one of his many backing bands, which included pianist/singer Robert "Bobby" DeBarge Jr., the second oldest of the 10 DeBarge siblings. The whole DeBarge family loved music. They'd sing on the radio in Detroit on Sunday mornings and perform at talent shows. Bobby's talents stood out.
"I've never heard anyone sound quite like him, and with so much ease," producer Bernd Lichters has said. "I knew I saw a star." Lichters worked with former White Heat members Bobby DeBarge and Gregory Williams (a schoolmate of Bobby's) to launch the pioneering soul-pop group Switch. Bobby co-wrote and co-produced much of the group's best music, but behind the good looks and dazzling talent lurked a tortured soul."I've never heard anyone sound quite like him, and with so much ease," producer Bernd Lichters has said. "I knew I saw a star." Lichters worked with former White Heat members Bobby DeBarge and Gregory Williams (a schoolmate of Bobby's) to launch the pioneering soul-pop group Switch. Bobby co-wrote and co-produced much of the group's best music, but behind the good looks and dazzling talent lurked a tortured soul.











Bobby's drug issues were common knowledge among the members of Switch, but his voice was too gorgeous to ignore. Still, Switch - which released five albums on Motown's subsidiary Gordy Records - almost bounded into the studio without his supple crooning. "I wasn't sure I wanted Bobby to be in the group because he was still on drugs," says Williams. But when a chance meeting in Los Angeles with Jermaine Jackson and his wife, Hazel (Berry Gordy's daughter), got them an audition with Gordy, Williams reconsidered.



Bobby was determined to kick his habit before reaching Hollywood, sweating the junk out of his system on the Greyhound bus ride west from Grand Rapids. By the time anyone from Motown met him, Bobby was clean. Switch - which consisted of Bobby and Tommy DeBarge, vocalist Phillip Ingram, Williams, Eddie Flueller, and Jody Simms - was offered a contract.Released in 1978, Switch's self-titled debut featured the standout "There'll Never Be," which rode the Billboard R&B charts for 26 weeks, peaking at No. 6. The album went on to sell a million copies and formed the sonic template for future groups as diverse as Jodeci and Mint Condition.

"The night we wrote 'I Call Your Name' was a strange one," says Williams of the achy slow-jam, which was sampled in 2006 by Polow Da Don for Rich Boy's big hit "Throw Some D's." "Bobby was dating LaToya Jackson," Williams says, "and she was the only girl on his mind. One night, he started fooling around on the Fender Rhodes. I started singing along, and next thing you know we had a song. I'm not saying the song was written for LaToya, but they were in love, and Bobby couldn't wait to play her the completed song."













While Bobby was working on that second Switch album, Mark and Randy DeBarge visited Los Angeles to see what their brothers were up to. Before long Bunny, Mark, Randy, El, and James made the journey west. Lichters leased a five-bedroom house and took them to buy instruments. "Motown put us on salary, because we were starving," says Bunny by. "Because he'd lost the Jacksons, we became his pet project." Motown encouraged the DeBarges to fire their managers and sign with DePassse and Bob Jones management, which was affiliated with Motown. They eventually agreed.












friends could sense the trouble at home. "To put it simply," says Williams, who has known and worked with the DeBarges since they were all youngsters, "their father was psychotic. Bobby was always very sensitive and withdrawn," says Williams, "and there was a lot of abuse at the hands of Mr. DeBarge. Heroin became his main way to escape." Though he stayed clean for a while, after the success of Switch II, Bobby began slipping. "He was back on drugs, and his ego was out of control," Williams says. "Bobby was going around saying, 'I'm Switch.'"
But Etterlene believes her son had simply outgrown the group. "There was a lot of hating going on," she says. "People might have bought Switch records, but they were really buying Bobby's voice."






El and Bobby Debarge



















Maybe he didn't need the band to show off his musical talents, but Bobby did seek refuge at his former bandmate's California home, "Bobby's last years were hell," Williams says. "He was separated from his wife and kids, and acting paranoid toward everybody. Bobby knew his life was basically over." He moved back to Grand Rapids the following year, and his family checked him into a hospice. After riding the heroin horse since his teens, Bobby was laid to rest where he'd finally found the peace he'd long for, for so long.




My last moment of spending time with the Debarge family was Labor day, 1996, as Jermaine Stewart, James Debarge and myself set around playing with the second generation of Debarge's and talking of fond memories of Bobby. Sharing that moment was closure for my peace of self and the desist of a long chapter of growth in my period of existence, that this angel of God was sent into life to assist in my development of direction.

Bobby, I will always love you!