Ticket sales fell as the tour progressed. Vocal problems compounded the physical deterioration. The tour ended on August 14, 1983, in Costa Mesa, California.
Gaye retreated to Los Angeles. He rented a mansion in Sherman Oaks. He began accumulating debt again. By late 1983, unable to sustain the rental, he had returned to the only place available to him.
He moved back into his parents’ house.
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PART TEN: THE HOUSE ON GRAMERCY PLACE
The house at 2101 Gramercy Place in Los Angeles’s West Adams neighborhood was not a large house. It was a modest residence in a working-class district. Marvin Gaye had purchased it for his parents in 1973—a gift intended to be generous, an act of material care toward the family that had given him so much grief. He had bought it for them and asked them not to interfere with his life.
But by the end of 1983, it was the only place Gaye could go.
He was 44 years old. He was deeply addicted to cocaine and PCP. He was in significant debt. The Sherman Oaks mansion he had rented at the height of his comeback was no longer sustainable. He needed somewhere to stay.
He moved in with Marvin and Alberta Gay.
The people who knew him during these final months have given consistent accounts of his deterioration. His paranoia was severe. He remained convinced that assassins were tracking him. He slept irregularly. He isolated himself in his bedroom for long stretches. Friends and family who visited found him diminished, frightened, and angry.