Diana Ross: A Biography

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Of course, she had done some things wrong, hadn’t she? Behind the facade of celebrity, Diana Ross had been nothing if not fallible, a human being in search of love and acceptance in a complicated, cutthroat world and making all sorts of mistakes along the way, pretty much like the rest of us. However, in that moment backstage at the Pantages, she let Berry’s words wash over her, soothe her. “Perfect,” he had called her. On some level, after all she’d been through, she had to know by now that perfection would always elude her. But, still, coming from Berry, the compliment meant the world to her, and she had waited years for that word to cross his lips. She glowed with pride as she floated among her friends, looking like a woman at home within herself. Indeed, that night, as laughter echoed through the hallways backstage at the Pantages Theater, it would seem that Diana Ross finally felt the way others assumed she had felt all along; she finally felt like a star.

  A final note

  In her youth, Diana Ross was nothing if not ambitious, to the point where she was criticized by her Motown peers for what they saw as ruthlessness. With the passing of the years, however, she was able to put her life and career in a new perspective. “It’s a fleeting thing, the celebrity of your life,” she now says. “I’ve had a wonderful career, but career doesn’t last forever. And the men have been fleeting. But my children are still here. I would be terribly lonely without my children. Nothing would matter without them.”

  In 2005, “Big Bad Love,” a duet Diana recorded back in 1994 with the late Ray Charles, finally made it to CD on Ray’s Genius and Friends duets collection. The song was originally heard in 1994, in the film The Favor. Also in 2005, Diana reached number two for the second time in the UK with “When You Tell Me That You Love Me,” a cover of her own 1991 hit but now recorded as a duet with the internationally popular boy band Westlife. She also charted on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary list with a duet with Rod Stewart, “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” from his album The Great American Song Book Number Four. Another dance remix of her hit “I’m Coming Out” also appeared on the UK release Ultimate “Queer As Folk”: The Best of and More.

  In 2006, Motown released a CD of material recorded by Diana back in 1972 during the Lady Sings the Blues sessions. Called Blue, it featured previously unreleased recording sessions of jazz and blues standards, as produced by Gil Askey. Billboard called it, “an album every bit as bold an artistic statement as her contemporaries Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, who were recording the opuses Where I’m Coming From and What’s Going On? at around the same time.” Amid stellar reviews, Blue debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart.

  Also, in 2006 the DVD edition of Lady Sings the Blues was released, featuring bonus commentaries by Berry Gordy, Shelly Berger and Sidney J. Furie. Deleted scenes are included as well as a new on-camera interview with Diana. Also on DVD: Reflections: The Definitive Collection, features television performances of nearly all of her hit records with The Supremes. On CD, Motown issued Diana Ross—The Definitive Collection, and Angel Records and Manhattan/EMI released Diana’s first studio album in seven years, I Love You. (See Discography for more information on the latter two releases.)

  Update, 2008

  Since the original American publication of this book in 2007, Diana Ross has spent much of her career time either performing on the road (and to her best reviews in years) or on television, promoting her album I Love You. Among her many TV bookings of the year, two of the most significant were her appearances on The Actor’s Studio and on the wildly popular American Idol.

  On The Actor’s Studio—hosted by the venerable James Lipton and broadcast in February 2006—Diana was asked an array of questions about her musical and acting career, and she also sang several songs (the most striking of which was her performance of “It’s My Turn”). Oddly, during her discussion of her days with the Supremes, she reverted back to timeworn, stock answers, suggesting that there weren’t major personality clashes between the three girls. It was as if she’d forgotten that she’d already painted a very different picture in her own memoir, Secrets of a Sparrow. (“They had gone against me with a vengeance. They were so blinded by jealousy.”) It’s likely, though, that at this stage of her life, Diana would just as soon not dwell on any backstage melodrama when discussing the group. She probably feels that she’s already said and written all she cares to about the subject and would just as soon brush off any further inquiries. Still, the public remains quite interested in the truth about the Supremes, especially after the fictional account of the movie Dreamgirls (which was still in theaters when the Actor’s Studio interview was broadcast).

  While The Actor’s Studio appearance was largely a positive experience for her, Diana’s appearance on American Idol yielded mixed results. This program—a national phenomenon if ever there was one—afforded her the biggest television audience she’s ever had, more than 30 million people. Because she hadn’t appeared before large audiences since her Central Park concerts of the early 1980s, the stakes were high. She really needed to deliver.

  On the first of the two Idol nights on which she was booked, she successfully mentored contestants vying to win the singing competition. She seemed genuine during her time with the youngsters, giving sound advice and appearing to be not only good-natured but truly invested in their successes. No doubt she scored big with viewers and critics on that particular night and CD sales from her entire catalogue soared following that first appearance.

  The next evening, however, she didn’t fare quite as well during her live performance of “More Today Than Yesterday” from her I Love You CD. She had certainly gotten off to a good start, making what was perhaps one of the best “diva” entrances in TV history in a stunning red gown with her trademark mane of hair, her arms stretched to the heavens. She’d never looked more electrifying. The performance that followed, however, was something of a disappointment. It’s characteristic of Diana that she can become unnerved and lose focus when she feels performance pressure high—such as in the aforementioned Central Park concert and, more recently, the important Divas 2000 performance for VH-1—and that’s what happened during her performance of “More Today Than Yesterday.” She seemed off pitch, flubbed her lyrics, and pretty much made many of the kinds of mistakes for which novice contestants on American Idol get booted off every week. It’s not uncommon for a star to promote a song from their latest CD on that program, but in hindsight Diana would probably have done better to perform one of her tried-and-true classics, a number with which she was more familiar.

  After the performance, when host Ryan Seacrest asked who she thought would be going home—meaning which of the contestants she thought viewers would vote off the program—she exclaimed, “Me!” Obviously, she meant it as a joke. It was a shame, considering that many who have seen her live in recent years feel that she is in the best voice of her entire career.

  Fortunately, Diana Ross is never only as good as her last performance. Indeed, with her long history of accomplishments it’s inevitable that she has had mediocre moments in the past and, no doubt, will have them in the future; that’s just the nature of longevity in show business. It was heartwarming, though, to see her legacy honored with two major awards in 2007.

  Miss Ross’s first 2007, honor was at the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards in the spring of 2007, when she was given a Lifetime Achievement honor. The program—broadcast to a smallish audience every year—had more than its share of ironies, especially given Diana’s history. For instance, it opened with dueling “Florence Ballards.” Indeed, Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson, both of whom played the Ballard based character in Dreamgirls (in the play and the movie, respectively), started the proceedings off by dueting fabulously on the show’s big number, “(And I’m Telling You) I’m Not Going.” Later in the program, not only did Hudson win an award for her portrayal in the film but so did Beyoncé. Of course, it was Beyoncé who had played “Deena Jones” in Dreamgirls, the character patterned after Diana Ross (but n
ot nearly as gutsy or as enterprising as the real thing). Hudson had already won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her role in the film. During her acceptance speech for the former award, she actually thanked Florence Ballard, the first and only time one of the real Supremes was publicly acknowledged in connection to Dreamgirls. True to form, Diana made very little comment about Dreamgirls in interviews and never admitted to even seeing the film. She joked to David Letterman, though, “Maybe I should see it … with my lawyers!”

  On the BET Awards, fictional and real worlds collided when Miss Ross was brought to the stage to accept her Lifetime Achievement award. In a gracious speech, she was not only sincere but also smart and funny as she thanked Berry Gordy and her friends and family (“for keeping me grounded”). She was surrounded by her children at the podium, all of whom looked overwhelmed (and one of whom, Rhonda Suzanne, looks more like Mom with each passing year.) She even thanked Mary Wilson, which surprised more than a few observers—and also got the rumor mill churning once again about a possible Supremes reunion. To the audience filled with young black entertainers, Diana noted that “you don’t have to say the f-word and bump and grind in order to have a career with longevity.” It was a good point and one received by thunderous applause.

  Diana Ross ended the year 2007 with what was, without a doubt, the most prestigious recognition ever given her: becoming a Kennedy Center honoree.

  The Kennedy Center Honors have been bestowed on notables in different fields of entertainment for thirty years. In addition to Ross, the 2007 honorees included Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, actor Steve Martin, and pianist Leon Fleisher. The annual Honors Gala is the highlight of the Washington cultural year, and its broadcast on CBS is the zenith of the nation’s television season. Seated with the President of the United States and First Lady Laura Bush, the honorees customarily accept the thanks of their peers and fans through performances and heartfelt tributes. There’s no doubt that Diana richly deserved such acknowledgment. If only her father, Fred, could have been present to witness the presentation, which took place on December 2 at the Kennedy Center Opera House stage in Washington. Sadly, he had died on November 20 in Detroit at the age of 87 after a long illness. Diana made the sad announcement on stage that night, at the Gibson Theater in Los Angeles, a concert at which I was in attendance. In a moment as moving as it was memorable, she accepted the crowd’s final standing ovation while surrounded by her children, then announced that they were all flying to Detroit that very night to grieve for Fred. “I just know he would have loved being here, sitting right behind me,” Diana told a reporter after the Kennedy Center event, and it was true. Of course, Fred once had mixed feelings about his daughter’s decision to become an entertainer, but he’d long ago let go of any ambivalence he had and, at the time of his death, couldn’t have been more proud of her. The Kennedy Center Honors went a long way toward acknowledging Diana’s amazing journey from the Brewster Projects to stardom.

  Diana’s daughter, Chudney Ross, recalled of the evening, “Each of the honorees sat in the President’s box right in front of the stage (next to the President) with their spouses seated behind them. My mom doesn’t have a significant other, so I was voted to fill the seat. We watched the touching and heartfelt tributes to Martin Scorsese, then Steve Martin, then Mom.” The program then continued with performances of Diana Ross classics by Jordin Sparks (the winner of American Idol, and one of the young women Diana had mentored on the show), Vanessa Williams, and others, as well as film clips of some of her career highlights.

  The problem with the way the Kennedy Center Honors was presented (when it finally aired on December 26) was the haphazard way in which Diana Ross was historically framed during the broadcast. According to Kennedy Center chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman, she’d been selected as an honoree because her “singular, instantly recognizable voice has spread romance and joy throughout the world.” While, that’s fair enough, it’s also a reductive way of looking at the life and times of Diana Ross. In fact, it was as if no one involved in the award had given it much thought when planning the event.

  For instance, in the retrospective film of Diana’s career, the Supremes’ name was, oddly enough, never once mentioned (though the group was shown in photographs and even Florence Ballard’s voice heard on their second Motown release, “Buttered Popcorn”), nor were the names of Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Cindy Birdsong mentioned. While Smokey Robinson, one of the speakers of the evening, talked about “their” perseverance at Motown, he never said who “they” were. “Their” rise to the top was briefly explained and some of “their” hit records mentioned, but unless the viewer was already familiar with Diana’s history—or was, at the very least, paying close attention to the quickly moving display of photographs—just who “they” were would have been a mystery. (One had to wonder if the Supremes’ name been inadvertently edited from the broadcast. However, one source present for the awards show insists that the name was never once uttered. Moreover, the Beach Boys were also not mentioned during Brian Wilson’s tribute, which was even stranger considering that Wilson isn’t technically famous for anything but his role with the Beach Boys.) Though Diana’s film work was briefly explored, the proceedings made it seem as if the only thing she ever did was sing some nice songs and wear some pretty dresses in the process. What a shame.

  Is Diana Ross’s important contribution to the civil rights movement so difficult to comprehend? And shouldn’t that have been the focus of attention on this important night? For instance, where was the footage of her performing with stars like Bob Hope, Andy Williams, Ethel Merman, and Bing Crosby in the 1960s, a time when black performers were lucky to get on TV at all, let alone be accepted as part of mainstream show business in America? And where was the film of her standing next to Irving Berlin at his 80th birthday on The Ed Sullivan Show as he blew out the candles on his cake, she and Mary and Cindy the only black artists on a stage full of white luminaries? And how about footage of her singing with Dinah Shore and Lucille Ball on a TV special called Like Hep in 1969? Or her impersonations of Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, and Groucho Marx on her own TV special two years later, during a time when few black women ever hosted such programs? Obviously, Ross’s success and that of the Supremes—not to mention Motown and Berry Gordy (whose name came up only once in the Kennedy proceedings as “Mr. Gordy”)—was, by itself, a huge leap for all black Americans. It also helped the white masses see black people in an entirely new light.

  Moreover, when Diana spoke about Martin Luther King in “Somewhere” during the Supremes’ act, it was the only official statement Motown made about his senseless murder in 1968. “Free at last,” she said, intoning MLK’s words, “Free at last! Thank God almighty, free at last.” Indeed, when she appeared on the Tonight Show the evening of his assassination and made a plea for racial tolerance, it was during a time in our history when the only pop stars who had a social voice were white artists such as Lennon and McCartney and Dylan. Yes, she was gentle, not hostile, in her pleadings. But in the pivotal 1960s, she was there just the same, at the forefront of the civil rights movement in everything she did just by virtue of the fact that she not only existed but also thrived in those years. Hers was the image of a strong, successful, and proud black woman, and it became indelible at a time when such images were hard to come by in this country. “Let’s do try and put black and white together,” she would say during the Supremes’ onstage performance of “Someday We’ll Be Together”—and she meant it. So, while she did sing quite a few nice songs while wearing pretty dresses, much more should be considered when taking serious stock of Diana Ross’s endurance and of her contributions to our culture.

  Unfortunately, the Kennedy Center’s reduction of her achievements (inadvertent as it probably was) is the norm when it comes to Diana Ross. She’s usually undervalued. She’s never won a Grammy award, for instance, which seems unfathomable. The recent BET award aside, she’s never been given any kind of main
stream Lifetime Achievement award and, in fact, doesn’t receive many awards at all. Some have speculated that the reason for such blatant lack of respect and appreciation is that her reputation as a diva has obliterated her contributions to our culture. Maybe that was true back in the 1970s and 1980s when she was at her peak of sensational and unpredictable behavior, but not today. Today, the reason for such devaluation of her achievements is likely that she’s not perceived by mainstream critics and opinion-makers as an artist who has ever cared much about her music. She’s viewed as glitzy and superficial. Moreover, her critics think of her as a creation of Motown—even Smokey Robinson has suggested that—a notion that has made her bristle in the past. This is unfair, especially considering not only how hard she worked to become who she is but for how long and in how many different musical milieus—from H-D-H to Rodgers and Hart to Cole Porter to Jule Styne and beyond.

  Because she’s been around for so long and has done so much with her life—and has made it all look so effortless—it’s easy to forget that Diana Ross has seen adversity. In fact, she is a woman who once drank at “blacks only” water fountains in the South. Indeed, in her lifetime she performed to audiences who were segregated, with blacks on one side of a theater, whites on the other, and a rope down the middle. And she certainly will never forget the time she was taunted and called a “nigger” in a Southern pizza parlor by a table of bigots. She even has memories of jumping into a swimming pool filled with Caucasians, then watching as they leapt out of it in response to her presence. Year after year, she persevered until the racist ’60s gave way to more progressive times. Yet even in the 1980s, she was denied admittance to her white husband’s country club. No matter how much success she’d enjoyed, how much money she’d made, how famous she was, or even how much of a civil rights trailblazer she’d become, she was still a black woman and unwelcome there. While being rejected so horribly had to hurt, it certainly didn’t stop her from continuing with her lifetime of achievements. In fact, it can be said that so far, nothing has stopped her from pushing forward. Today, there are probably still certain people on this planet who judge her harshly simply because of the color of her skin. Obviously, racism remains a sad and intense reality in the world. Who knows if that will ever change? Hopefully, though, most people think of her in a different way. Hopefully, they think of her as Miss Ross, and not “Miss Ross” in the pejorative but as an appellation of reverence. Certainly, if Diana Ross can’t command respect by now, at the age of 64, who can? After all, “Baby Love”—as fun as it was and as memorable as it remains—is really the least of her contributions to our culture. And that’s worth remembering.