A new “Milli-Vanilli” documentary premiering on Paramount+ on Wednesday reveals the tragic impact a 1990 lip-synching scandal had on band member Rob Pilatus, the New York Post (NYP) reported.
Pilatus had fallen a long way after a lip-synching scandal tarnished the band’s reputation and forced the duo to return its 1990 Best New Artist Grammy, per NYP. Pilatus died in 1998 from a mix of alcohol and prescription pills nine years after Milli-Vanilli topped the charts in 1989.
Today is the day! The major motion picture documentary ‘Milli Vanilli’ featuring real singers @jodierocco @Linda_Rocco Brad Howell, John Davis, and others starts streaming today on @Paramountplus. Tune in! #MilliVanilliForever #millivanilli pic.twitter.com/vv2cbTmIfY
— Milli Vanilli (@MilliVanilli) October 24, 2023
Fab Morvan, a member of the duo, blames Pilatus’ death at 32 on the backlash the band faced after their producer, Frank Farian, exposed the duo for not singing a single-note on their best-selling debut album in 1989, according to NYP. (RELATED: Coolio’s Cause Of Death Revealed)
“There was bullying by everybody. But why so badly that you killed someone?” Morvan told NYP. “They killed my dude. That’s what they did by the way they treated us. He died of a broken heart; he really did.”
The documentary tells the tale of how Morvan and Pilatus met in Munich, Germany, and were wooed into a contract by famed Boney M producer Farian, described as the “evil genius” behind Milli-Vanilli, NYP noted.
When the young pair signed the contract, they didn’t read the fine print indicating their voices would not be featured on “Girl You Know It’s True,” according to NYP. Instead, Farian would have the duo lip-synch what the American duo Brad Howell and Charles Shaw sang.
“When I signed that paper, that means we can eat, we can pay our rent, we can buy some clothing,” Morvan said. “We didn’t know what was coming next.”
When the scandal broke, it destroyed Pilatus, who sought refuge in drugs, ultimately dying of an overdose in 1998, per NYP.
“Something in me died, and after that I didn’t care about anything anymore,” Pilatus says in an audio interview in the doc, the outlet noted.