Rob Pilatus
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Robert (Rob) Pilatus (June 8, 1965 – April 2, 1998) was an American model and entertainer of Afro-German heritage, and member of the infamous pop music duo Milli Vanilli.
Robert Pilatus was the son of an Afro American soldier and a German mother who was a dancer, born in New York. Pilatus was later adopted by a German couple and raised in Munich. He worked as a model and dancer before joining Fabrice Morvan in 1988 to form the pop group Milli Vanilli. He died of what the police stated as an accidental overdose on April 2,1998. Aside from having been an orphan, Robert says his childhood was frustrating and traumatic because of deep cultural differences. "My adoptive father was an engineer and my mother a housewife," he says. "The problem was my father, who is now 64. He didn’t want his kids to dress well. He didn’t want us to watch American television or American movies, no comic strips. So, I was a lonely guy. All the kids at school could look at Tarzan or Lassie. I couldn’t. I had an identification problem with my schoolmates. I was an outsider. If they bought a new jacket that was really good looking, I wanted it. But, I would get a parka because they cover the kidneys well. But for me, a Black guy in a White population who didn’t have any identification, I was handicapped. There were Black servicemen around but I didn’t speak English. I spoke a little, broken English. Because I had a German passport, I couldn’t go to the American embassy to get American products like curl activator, Magic Shave, the stuff you need. I couldn’t even get a comb for my Afro until late." He says he doesn’t blame his parents. "They just didn’t understand
Milli Vanilli
The pair were noticed by music producer Frank Farian, who signed them up to be part of a musical act. Shortly after a trip to Turkey, where the duo was reputed to get the band name from a local advertising slogan, Milli Vanilli was born, with Morvan and Pilatus serving as the public faces for the vocal talents of Charles Shaw, Johnny Davis, and Brad Howell, who Farian felt were talented but unmarketable musicians.
The first Milli Vanilli album was Girl You Know It's True. Despite critical pans, Milli Vanilli's fame continued to grow worldwide. The album garnered four hit singles: the title track, and the group's three #1 hits, "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You", "Baby Don't Forget My Number", and "Blame It On The Rain". Milli Vanilli won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist on February 22, 1990 for Girl You Know It's True.
The duo were a frequent target of rumours and allegations of on-stage lip-synching and not having sung on the album. Shaw told a reporter the truth about Milli Vanilli, but later retracted his statement after Farian paid him off.
When Morvan and Pilatus pressured Farian to let them sing on the next album, Farian revealed the truth to reporters on November 15, 1990 that Morvan and Pilatus did not actually sing on the records and their voices were dubbed. Milli Vanilli's Grammy was withdrawn four days later, and Arista Records dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, making Girl You Know It's True the largest-selling album to ever be taken out of print. A court ruling in the U.S. allowed anyone who had bought the album to get a refund.
Farian would later attempt a failed comeback for the group without Morvan and Pilatus. Months after the scandal, Morvan and Pilatus appeared in a commercial for CareFree Sugarless Gum. The duo begin to lip sync to an opera record. An announcer asks while they are lip synching, "How long does the taste of CareFree Sugarless Gum last?". The record then begins to skip and then the announcer answers, "Until these guys sing themselves."
During this time the duo moved to Los Angeles, where they released an eponymous album under the name 'Rob & Fab, but despite decent reviews, the lack of the record's availability and promotion led to it quickly disappearing from retail shelves.
Pilatus served some jail time for an attempted robbery and in a drug rehabilitation center before returning to Germany. A depressed Pilatus eventually died of an overdose of prescription drugs in Frankfurt on April 2, 1998.
