What happened?’” Lichtenstein explains. she is my great-aunt and i`ve been tasked with trying to locate her. He was in three celebrity relationships averaging approximately 1.0 year each. Joan is working to keep Teddy’s legacy alive. That was in 1982, when, returning from a basketball game, his Rolls Royce skidded into a barrier and left him in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed. photos, Teddy Pendergrass Car Accident - What Happened?In 1982, Teddy Pendergrass was on top of the world. American Singer Teddy Pendergrass was born Theodore DeReese Pendergrass on 26th March, 1950 in Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and passed away on 13th Jan 2010 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA aged 59. I don’t even think he understood it.”. to add information, pictures and relationships, join in discussions and get credit for your contributions. “He wasn’t built like Arnold Schwarzenegger or nothing, he came out in that wife-beater T-shirt and they went crazy. Teddy Pendergrass was the R&B singer women wanted and who men wanted to be. Throughout the week I pull out all TP`s and have been listening to them. Just last week before I learned about his death, I was chatting with a male friend (George) from Zim who resembles TP so match. He even treated his girlfriends' children like they were his own and was very firm about not making a difference over them. I don’t even think he understood it.” The legend of Teddy Pendergrass, who died of cancer in 2010, might be better known … He was 31 years old. As a solo artist, Pendergrass was often called the “black Elvis”. His wife Karen and other partners took it as a given that when he toured, Teddy would sleep with whomever he wanted. “We really had to dig deep into our souls to come up with songs that he was gonna be able to execute.”. Unknown to his son, Pendergrass and his wife amended their will last October to completely remove Teddy II from it. Joan Pendergrass and Teddy Pendergrass were married. In her memoir, Janis Gaye tells how she snorted cocaine with Teddy out on a date one night while Marvin stalked them outside. “One guy said to me: ‘Teddy Pendergrass was an early form of Viagra,’” says Olivia Lichtenstein, the documentary’s director. All 3 of Teddy`s kids were born in 1974. In time, torn by Gaye’s cruel treatment, Jan slept with Beverly and also hooked up with Teddy Pendergrass, Gaye’s main musical rival. His music, especially at the peak of his solo career, was very much in the groove of smooth, seductive soul, powered by a husky, passionate-yet-effortless baritone. Everybody knows their biggest hits: Wake Up Everybody, If You Don’t Know Me By Now, The Love I Lost, and Don’t Leave Me This Way. It was not the only dreadful event in their lives, though. Shep E. Gordon (born October 18, 1945) is an American talent manager, Hollywood film agent, and producer. We have lost another legend. “I’m not about to have any lady who’s going to run me down and say I’ve got to report to her where I’m at. Pendergrass died from respiratory failure in January 2010. He had just exited the group that gave … When I remember TP I can recall two memories that come to mind. Think Barry White in the body of Idris Elba. And then there was his passenger that night: Tenika Watson, a transgender performer, whom Pendergrass was taking back to his house, having already abandoned his original date that evening. Teddy Pendergrass with his first wife and mother of one of his children, Karen (via Tumblr) One thing that stood out to us, is that although Teddy was married to his second wife, Joan Pendergrass, at the time of his passing, it is his first wife, Karen, whom Mother Pendergrass obviously trusts with collecting the GoFundMe donations on her behalf. See all Teddy Pendergrass' marriages, divorces, hookups, break ups, affairs, and dating relationships plus celebrity photos, latest Teddy Pendergrass news, gossip, and biography. Teddy said he would take care of him ( The son ) but he never did. He had five multi-platinum albums behind him, sold out shows wherever he played, and was branching … I loved the guy to bits. What I do like about Teddy is his love of children. Love you TP. Pendergrass’ mother, Ida, 91, came to the latter, Karen Pendergrass said. Pendergrass detailed how he fell in love with Taazmayia Lang. As were chatting I pulled out a TP`s CD with his picture on and asked a friend who the guy in picture looked like and in unison every one shouted George looks like Teddy! And he was just getting started. Thank God for you Teddy. Pendergrass described his upbringing as a “typical ghetto story”: born to a poor single mother, he barely knew his father, who was killed when Pendergrass was 12. Taaz only had one child that was raised by Taaz mother Eva Ritter. It was very, very important to him to be a father because he’d felt the absence of his own father so keenly.”, Pendergrass’s philandering even extended to the wife of his one-time arch-rival Marvin Gaye. R&B Singer And Sexual Icon Teddy Pendergrass Has Died Of Colon Cancer At 59. “You gotta give a voice like that some raw meat,” as Gamble puts it. Complicating matters further was Pendergrass’s relationship with the Philadelphia police. community I`m indeed saddened by teddy`s death. After leaving the group over monetary disputes in 1976, Pendergrass launched a successful solo career under the Philadelphia International label, releasing five consecutive platinum albums, a record at the time for an African-American R&B artist. He was the Godfather of Sex. Following his massive April 2003 stroke, he made a phantom return to the spotlight with the release of his 2003 CD "Dance With My Father", which was recorded prior to his illness. Gordon was his manager for the rest of his life. Teddy Pendergrass cheated death at least once. He came of age as the city was finding its own soul sound – a silkier alternative to rivals such as Motown, bridging the gap between funk and disco. All the way from Malawi I still have almost every Cd of TP. No thats not true his 2 daughters are his and their mother is very much alive as for little Teddy his mother`s alive to and thats a fact. Pendergrass continued his successful solo career until announcing his retirement in 2007. Karen Pendergrass and Teddy Pendergrass are divorced. He is most remembered for Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Rhythm and Blues Vocalist. And clearly, he regained some of his faculties with regard to women – to the extent that he and his wife Karen divorced in 2002. A few years later, In 1982 he slammed his Rolls Royce into a tree, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. Teddy Pendergrass is deceased. by Joan, and a second hosted by his ex-wife, Karen. Teddy Pendergrass had an encounter with Janis Hunter (1980 - 1981). Then, in 1982, driving home one night, he crashed his green Rolls-Royce into a tree, breaking his neck. “The children used to spend lot of time with Teddy. About. In case it is not evident by now, Pendergrass was something of a philanderer. Teddy Pendergrass was previously married to Joan Pendergrass (2008 - 2010) and Karen Pendergrass. Teddy Pendergrass car accident shook the world by storm Oprah brought on a guest Tenika but she actually wasn’t in the car with Teddy, someone else was! He was a rich, conspicuously successful, overtly sexual black man – something America had never really seen before the 1970s. But to this day, most people assume the guy who sang those tunes was Harold Melvin, but no: it was Pendergrass. After a 2 years engagement they were married on 23rd Mar 2008. Gordon’s big idea was to put on women-only concerts – “Spend the night with Teddy” – where women would be given chocolate teddy-bear lollies to suck as they swooned to slow jams such as Turn Off the Lights (sample lyrics: “Turn off the lights and light a candle / Tonight I’m in a romantic mood / Let’s take a shower together / I’ll wash your body and you’ll wash mine / Rub me down with some hot oils, baby, yeah / And I’ll do the same thing to you”). In true Pendergrass fashion, his comeback was in front of the largest possible audience: Live Aid, which took place in his home town in 1985. He ( Teddy ) only returned to the home one more time after her murder. Then came the wills. is that true? Born in Philadelphia, PA at Thomas Jefferson Hospital. Tyrese cast as R&B icon Teddy Pendergrass for forthcoming biopic: 'This is the role that I feel I was born to play' By Adam S. Levy For Dailymail.com. His wife Karen and other partners took it as a given that when he toured, Teddy would sleep with whomever he wanted. Login Though there were no other vehicles involved in the crash, there was a passenger in Pendergrass' car. In the wake of the accident, questions emerged about this mystery woman. Pendergrass was sexy as well as sexual. J,” basketball legend Julius Erving comes clean about his moves on and off the court. “Grass, cocaine, mushrooms, ’ludes, women coming and going. They disguised themselves as maids to get into his hotel room. “If I’m still standing, you need me.” It sounds like quite a party. Having inspired such sexual desire in his audiences in his prime, Pendergrass elicited an more compassionate, more platonic kind of love that time. That same year, fed up with not getting enough of the credit or the cash, Pendergrass quit the band. — File Photos. . PART 1: Several months after Teddy Pendergrass's girlfriend/manager Taaz Lang was murdered, he admitted that he received threats that the same thing would happen to him. Help us build our profile of Teddy Pendergrass! “I said to Karen: ‘You have stuck by him all that time, through the accident. He introduced characters who both mocked and celebrated black British culture, such as Theophilus P Wildebeeste (an homage to Teddy Pendergrass), Brixton pirate radio DJ Delbert Wilkins and Trevor MacDoughnut (a parody of Trevor McDonald). “I think the tone of his voice hit a certain centre in them, or something,” suggests James Carter, who played drums in his band for seven years, and therefore had a ringside seat on the Pendergrass effect. “It’s a story about how fragile life is,” suggests Lichtenstein, “how everything can change from one moment to the next.”, Pendergrass at least found some form of redemption. Gaye’s jealousy turned violent. There were also reports he had been having trouble with his new Rolls-Royce (the car company later paid him compensation). She has to realise that I’m a travelling entertainer, and if it’s rough on her that’s the end of that.” He fathered three children by two different women, all of whom were born in 1974. From car crashes to conspiracies, a new documentary charts the chaotic career of the late soul heart-throb, Last modified on Sat 2 Mar 2019 05.02 EST, “With Teddy, we realised it was all about sex,” says his manager Shep Gordon at one point in new doc Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me. I attended a Christening reception at his estate for Tamon. ... his greatest fears centered on how he would care for his mother and wife and children. Conspiracy theories abound around Pendergrass’s crash, which is partly a reflection of the lawlessness of the Philadelphia music industry at the time. Pendergrass started dating Taaz in 1974 and by 1976 he'd moved into her beautiful home with her and her son. Teddy Pendergrass had an encounter with Janis Hunter (1980 - 1981). Pendergrass's career was suspended after a March 1982 car crash that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. His music is so deep and heartfelt, it just makes you feel good all over. To her friends, just Taaz. Sometimes, Teddy was demanding, especially with his team and let Karen put up with situations most women would never tolerate. And the one whose life-sized cardboard cutout stood in one family's living room. They had been married for 9.7 months. “He wasn’t built like Arnold Schwarzenegger or nothing, he came out in that wife-beater T-shirt and they went crazy. Teddy Pendergrass' relationship with Joan Williams ended when Teddy Pendergrass died on January 13, 2009. music, I can recall him meeting with all his guests how he expressed the importance of everyone feeling at home, but please no picture taking. Having started out as the Blue Notes’ drummer, Pendergrass was quickly promoted on the strength of his voice and became the scene’s biggest star. thanks. The name was magic. “And all the guys loved Teddy because he’d get the women in the mood for them.”. Oh, we were bad,” Gordon recalled. “If you’re still standing at the end of it you don’t need me,” Gordon told him. Philly soul became a phenomenon, largely powered by songwriting-production duo Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who churned out hits not only for Melvin but also the O’Jays, the Three Degrees, Patti LaBelle, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls and more. ... who ran a successful business, flaunted his wealth and his white girlfriends. He was a tall, handsome, stylish man, given to performing in a white vest and a layer of sweat. Gordon is featured in a 2013 documentary, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, which was directed by Mike Myers. I can,t get enough of him. Teddy Pendergrass began his career as the drummer in Harold Melvin’s band before exchanging the drum riser for the microphone, his importance in the band cemented by stellar performances on songs like ‘Wake Up Everybody’, something that eventually caused friction in a band that, confusingly, bore someone else’s name.