Marvin Gaye
*Musically speaking, Marvin Gaye ranks among the best of the best.
Classic songs {“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, “What’s Going On”, “Let’s Get It On,” “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology),” “Sexual Healing”).
Classic albums (“What’s Going On,” “Let’s Get It On,” “Here, My Dear”) and a voice that spoke and continues to speak to music lovers the world over.
To this day, Gaye’s legacy is an influencer for rookie vocalists and those who have sung tunes for decades.
And while Gaye is primarily known for music, in another universe he could have excelled in a different medium. According to Soul Tracks, that scenario played out for real when Gaye’ tried out for the Detroit Lions.
The entertainer was an avid sports fan and football fanatic who shared a close friendship with the team’s offensive and defensive stars (running back) Mel Farr and (defensive back) Lem Barney, a future Hall of Famer. A good athlete in his own right, Gaye wanted a tryout with the Lions and had no trouble letting Farr and Barney know about it.
After weeks of going back and forth about it, then-Lions coach Joe Schmidt (who also graduated to Hall of Fame status), gave Gaye a tryout in July 1970.
The vocalist made a gym in his garage and put on muscle for the occasion, even when started running five miles a day.
“Because training camp is so long and so tedious and difficult, you had to have something to break it up. You needed to have a few laughs and enjoy it a little bit,” Schmidt recalled during an interview with John Niyo of The Detroit News in 2020.
With Gaye announcing the upcoming Lions tryout on television, it automatically became the big local story.
“Had I not become an entertainer, I’m sure I’d have been a pro athlete,” he told the Detroit Free Press at the time. I love baseball and basketball and I golf in the mid-’80s, but football is the only thing I’ve had a real feeling for. I’ve watched the pros over the years and it became a part of me. I learned to love it and I have confidence I could play.”
Despite having skills on the football field, Gaye failed to make the team. Fate took over and he found his success with carrying a tune. Not one to be left out, Barney and Farr gained a great story a year later when they appeared on Gaye’s iconic “What’s Going On” album. That’s them conversating back and forth in the background of the seminal title cut, Soul Tracks noted.
What’s Going On album cover
For their work, Farr and Barney got a gold album. Guilty by association, in a very good way.
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