Performing Arts - Marvin Gaye: His Final Hours

On his last day alive soul superstar Marvin Gaye is depressed and paranoid. Hes abandoned his latest tour and is holed up at his parents house in Los Angeles, California. His excessive drug use escalates and with it, the tension in the home. Soon, his lifelong power struggle with his father explodes in a violent climax as Marvin provokes his father into shooting him twice. We delve into the Prince of Motowns violent childhood to uncover the root of Marvins strained relationship with his strict father and to understand his struggle with drugs. Few deaths in the annals of American pop music stand out as more bewildering, senseless and tragic than the shooting of Marvin Gaye (a day before his 45th birthday) by his own father. This probing look into the last days of the soul icon investigates how drugs, paranoia, depression and a lifetime of tension between father and son precipitated an event that shocked the world.