![]() Knight declines to go into the specifics of the problems (Brown cited irreconcilable differences for the split), saying only that the pair "just had some basic philosophies that we needed to straighten out. And we had been working on some things for a while." ![]() And it's what you choose to do about it that makes the difference. On this latest chapter of her life, Knight says: "We were having problems, yeah. Meanwhile, the last chapter of the book had to be rewritten when Knight was served divorce papers last June by Les Brown, whom she met while performing at Chicago's Regal Theater in 1992. The painful breakup with the Pips in 1989 resulted from Knight's desire to expand her horizons and delve more into the nuts and bolts of the entertainment business, coupled with what she perceived to be too great a focus on other business ventures by her brother and cousins at the expense of the group's music. Knight developed a gambling addiction during the late 1970s (baccarat was her game of choice), winning and losing tens of thousands of dollars a night before beating the habit with the help of Gamblers Anonymous. Knight's second marriage was short-lived, but the prolonged divorce caused her youngest son, Shanga, to develop an eating disorder (Knight has three grown children in all, two from her first marriage). Her husband's constant drug abuse, meanwhile, caused the marriage to disintegrate, and Knight believes it eventually contributed to his death in the mid-1970s. A pregnancy at age 16 compelled a marriage to her high school boyfriend, but Knight miscarried the baby in a hotel room while on the road touring. At the age of 15, she fought off a rape attempt in her own home. The group broke up in 1989, after which Knight went solo.īut along with the glory, there has been a lot of pain for Knight. 1 R&B hits, win three Grammys and give countless displays of synchronized dance moves during its 30 years of existence. It was in 1959 that the somewhat reconstituted group (sister Brenda and cousin Elenor had left, to be replaced by distant cousin Edward Patten) was renamed Gladys Knight & the Pips and went on to record 10 No. They sang at venues throughout the South, enduring the racism that was still prevalent in the region in the late 1950s and early '60s. A year later, Knight, her brother Bubba (really Merald, but so nicknamed because little Gladys had trouble saying "brother"), sister Brenda and two cousins, William and Elenor Guest, banded together as a singing group called the Pips. Knight's mother entered her into the "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour" competition and at the age of 7, Gladys won the $2,000 grand prize. Moriah Baptist Church in her native Atlanta - although she would have preferred, she writes, to make mud pies or climb trees. Music was an uplifting influence in Knight's life as early as the age of 4, when she performed her first recital in front of the congregation of Mt. So I don't bring my life, I don't bring my woes, my troubles to you when I come into your space or your life. "My thing is to bring His joy, His word, my songs and all of that, to you. "God has given me a blessing," she explains. Typically, though, Knight, believing she is "spiritually and careerwise" moving into a higher level in her life, believed it was the right time to bring her story to the public, even if it was difficult airing some of her dirty laundry. 3, motivational speaker Les Brown, after only a few years. The book ends with her separation from husband No. It includes a gambling addiction, a teenage pregnancy and miscarriage, and a first husband whose drug dependency helped destroy their marriage. Knight reveals a side that most of her fans have never known. The title is lifted from the lyrics to "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," which, along with "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," remains one of her biggest hits. Yet the image gets battered somewhat in "Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story" (Hyperion), Knight's new autobiography.
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