Wndyri Plus subscribers can listen to Blame It On The Fame, Millie Vanille, early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcast. A listener note. This episode contains references to substance abuse disorder. If you or someone you know is in need of help, you're not alone. We'll share resources at the end of this episode. The phone rang at Frank Studio. It was a reporter from America looking for Frank. He had some questions about Charles Shah. Now, that was a name that stopped Ingrid and Frank in their tracks. The reporter told Frank he spoke to Charles, and that Charles was claiming he was Millie Vanille's real singer.

He was never the singer. He was, for one song, rapper.

Okay, Ingrid. Charles had laid down the rap on Girl, You Know It's True. Charles told the reporter that Frank paid him $6,000, which was a pretty good session fee. A very good session fee, Frank said. But then the song blew up. And while Frank and the guys in the record companies were making millions, Charles wasn't getting any credit or any money for his voice. What did Frank have to say to that? Frank told the reporter that Charles was full of it. He only sang background vocals on Girl, You know It's True. Nothing more. And then he'd had to fire him because Charles had been running around on German radio, bragging about singing the lead on the record.

Chad Shore, he became an idiot because he was I wish asking for more money.

He told the reporter Charles was just bitter, a struggling musician with an album to promote. There was no story here, but he knew it was going to get printed. And it did. Newsday ran an article with the headline, Former Singer for Millie Vanille, Duo, Isn't True. This was December 1989. Millie Vanille could not have been bigger. Their album had already been certified five times platinum after less than a year. Their debut album, ya. And Frank was not ready to see the gravy train that was Millie Vanille come to a halt. He needed to shut this down. So he whipped out his checkbook. He paid Charles six figures to take back everything he'd said about being the singer. But it wasn't Frank's real singers who were the true threat. It was the fake ones.

Every day, the same words. I want to sing. Impossible. You cannot sing.

Frank was just about to start working on the second album, which could make them all millionaires many times over. Everyone just needed to keep playing their part.

Your job is to be on stage, to lip sync, to dance, to be good-looking. You can tell a child 100 times the same, and nothing happens.

Have you ever felt like a sleeping to your own desert island. Well, that's exactly what Jane, Phil, and their three kids did when they traded their English home for a tropical island they bought online. But paradise has its secrets, and family life is about to take a terrifying turn. You don't fire at people in that area without some consequence. And he said, Yes, ma'am, he's dead.

There's pure cold-blooded terror running through me.

From WNDYRI, I'm Alice Levine, and this is the Price of Paradise, the real-life story of an island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. Follow The Price of Paradise wherever you get your podcasts or binge the entire season right now on WNDYRI Plus. From WNDYRY, I'm Amanda Seals, and this is Blame It On The Fane. You wanted to This is episode 4, Best New Artist. The champagne was sparkling, the chandeliers were twinkling. If there was one invite in town that told you, You've made it, it was an invite to Clive Davis's pre-Grammy's party at the Beverly Hills Hilton. The cream of the crop of American music was in this room. Everywhere Ingrid looked, there were stars.

Hola, I'm Paul McCartney. We Listen.

Ingrid was over the moon. But Frank, that man wanted to hide under a table. He had not reacted well to the news that Millie Vanille was up for best new artist.

Frank said, Tell Sandy, I don't want the nomination for the Grammys.

Yeah, that's not how it works, Frank. Millie Vanille was nominated, and every single person who had voted to put them on the ballot thought they were nominating a legit group. And that's the part Frank understood completely. You see, there was a difference between making money off of a lie and winning a Grammie for it.

He always said, The people are crazy for finding out that there is a secret.

If they won, people would start looking too closely.

The truth is coming.

A part of Ingrid knew Frank was probably right. But in the meantime, couldn't they just let themselves enjoy this? Clive Davis waved Frank and Ingrid over. He was standing next to Babyface. Frank knew exactly who that was. Whip appeal, tender lover, every hit on Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel. Clive looked at Babyface Face and said, May I introduce you to Frank Faron?

He's a producer of Millie Vanille.

Babyface looked at Frank.

And Babyface said, Oh, my God, he's white.

Frank was speechless. It was like Babyface had seen straight into his soul.

Frank said, This was the biggest compliment in my whole life. Babyface thought, I'm a Black guy.

Frank told us this himself.

That was the biggest compliment.

That's Frank on the phone with our German reporter saying, Yeah, that was the best compliment.

The Baby Phase? Oh, my God, she's White.

Frank ignored our requests for an interview for two years. But when we finally got him on the phone, he was more than happy to talk about this moment. Surprise, surprise.

Baby Phase was basically telling him, Yo, your music is legit.

You're a soul, brother. Which lined up with what Frank always knew. He was meant to make Black music. Is that right? Now, when he was young, the record execs couldn't see it, but Frank had followed his dream and found a way to make it work. With Bony M, he'd hired stand-ins for himself on stage, but it was still Frank's voice making people dance. Even on Millie Vanille.

Baby, don't forget the number? How could you not shoot?

Girl, you know it's true. Baby, don't forget my number. Frank's voice was on every song. Frank had never stopped singing black music. He just kept replacing the puppets his voice came out of. But now his puppets were up for a Grammy, and Frank was worried about what that would mean for all of them.

Look at this.

This is great.

I was actually very nervous when I found out I was going to be doing the Grammy.

Ingrid beamed as she sat in her seating the Shrine auditorium. Next to her, Frank Sult. Somewhere behind them sat the Senior VP of Creative at Arista. I can only tell you my feeling. My feeling was dread. Ken Levy was seated in the same row as the other executives from Arista. None of them looked happy. First of all, Arista didn't put them up for nomination for Best New Artist.

We didn't do that.

Their manager did. And now here it was, the moment of truth. Now, the nomination for Best New this are. Clips from the nominees filled the room. Indigo Girls, Soul to Soul, Tone Loke, Millie Vanilli.

The best new artist is Millie Vanilli.

Frank sank in his chair. Ken and the Arisa team followed suit as Rob and FAB bounded on stage to accept the award. We want to say thank you very much. I just slink in my seat, and I think we just all looked at each other and went, Oh, God. In front of Ken was a friend from another label. I remember my friend turning around and looking at me with a wearing eyes. At that point, everyone knew. And I just remember feeling terribly uncomfortable. There are a lot of artists who can achieve the same award that we achieved today, and it's an award for all artists in the world. Thank you Very much. Thank you. The one person who was determined to be in a good mood after the win was Ingrid. She drifted from the ceremony to the after-party like a princess in a fairytale. She even had a brand new gown.

.

Celebrity after celebrity came up to her to give their congratulations. And then suddenly, she was face to face with Paul McCartney.

I was in love with him when I was 12.

He wanted to say congrats to the guys.

I couldn't even talk.

I said, Oh. She raced to find Rob and him, You're not going to believe it. Hall McCartney wants to meet you.

He said, I have no time for Paul McCartney. Who the fuck is Paul McCartney?

Ingrid's like, The Beatles.

And he says, You can go and talk to him.

Ingrid couldn't believe what she was hearing. This is the one time I agree with Ingrid, by the way.

This is arrogant behavior. This is terrible.

She came back to Paul without Rob or Fab.

I said, Yeah, they have no time at the moment.

She could have died of shame. But Paul was very British and polite about it. He shook her hand, told her congratulations.

I didn't wash my hand forever.

Other people at the party weren't so British about the guy's behavior. Ken Levy was sitting next to Kenny G. I'll never forget it. I remember him turning to me and going, Who the hell are these guys? He was gesturing toward Robin Fabb. I was just like, What can I tell you? What do you want from me? They were bad. They were loud. They were just out of control. Within days of the Grammys, Sandy Gallen invited Ingrid and Frank over to his house to meet with Robin Fabb's lawyer. Now, as much as Frank feared the Grammy exposing the secret at the center of Millie Vanille, he feared that the guys would use a Grammie win as leverage. In walked the lawyer, a fellow by the name of John Bronca. Frank Frank took one look at this American guy in cowboy boots and gave him a nickname. The Cowboy Lawyer got straight to it. So Frank, how are we going to proceed with the new album? Frank asked him what he meant.

The lawyer said, When do you want the two guys to come to the studio?

Frank could have choked. Never. He looked the cowboy lawyer straight in the eye and said, Those two have never sang a note.

They said be cowboy in the company.

Frank said the cowboy lawyer's jaw dropped. Guess Sandy and the guys had never let in on the secret. But it didn't slow the lawyer's roll. He was still asking Frank to pay the guys more money for the next record. More money to not sing. Frank hit the end of his rope. This was already too much.

Too much work, too much pressure, too much bullshit.

Millie Vanille had gotten so much bigger than Boniem. And Frank was losing control.

He decided that the second Millie Vanille album would be his last.

He'd make one more while the getting was good, and then he'd get out before the whole house of cards collapsed. Just as Frank had predicted, winning a Grammy turned up the pressure on a question that had been lurking there the whole time. What the actual fuck? How did two guys who barely spoke English and were almost unanimously panned by critics end up here?

So the daggers started coming out on late night television, and the rumors really started to fly after that.

Their manager, Todd, watched as Rob gave his haters something to talk about.

He knew how to work the media. Rob did things sometimes for shock value.

Time magazine was the first to get an interview with the guys coming off of the Grammys. In it, Rob described himself as the new Elvis. He said Millie Vanille was more talented than Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. And one more name popped into his head, Paul McCartner. He. I know Ingrid loved that.

I think that was one of those instances where he said something that he knew would be picked up and spread around.

Oh, it got picked up and spread around all right.

The aftermath of the Time magazine article was not pretty. Because when you're Millie Vanille and you're comparing yourself to the Beatles and Bob Dylan, there are powers that be in the music business that are like, I beg to differ. And they were very loud about pushback. They got a lot of bad press on that article.

The target on Millie Vanille's back just kept getting bigger.

They came after us.

Especially, Arsineo Hall. As soon as Rob dropped the name Elvis, the guys became a staple in his opening night monologs.

That was a show that we love watching because the performing guests were really cool, and it was the number one show at the time.

And now even Arsineo's guests were coming at them. Please welcome Sinbad. The comedian Sinbad strutted on stage in a wig doing the Millie Vanille dance. You know that side-to-side pendulum kick? Arsineo fell to his knees like, I'm dying. Even Sinbad could barely keep it together. I want you to know I'm bigger than Bill Cosby. I am the Bob Hope of music. Arsineo could barely breathe. Let me ask you, as a father, you have kids. Do you let your kids listen to Millie Vanille? I let them listen because they listen also to Peewee Herman, and they listen to Farmer in the Dead. It was about the same music.

To see this very successful person, Black person, attacking us daily and turning it into something very personal. It's It felt very personal. Those jokes were starting to point the finger at Robin Fabb. We were being tracked. We were the one being hunted by the media, and it was getting closer and closer.

I just know how much stress they were under with this lie being held over their head. Rob called this a golden prison. He was trapped in a golden prison. In other words, he was living his dreams, but he knew that this lie, the rug, was going to be pulled out from under him at any moment.

Patrick Patient was standing backstage at an arena in Oklahoma City. He'd come all the way from Germany to see his friends on tour.

It was pretty nice for them because they sent me the limo at the airport with champagne and everything.

He hadn't seen Rob or Fab since they'd moved to LA, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing, especially Rob.

You know Scarface? You know Al Pacino? And you got this mountain of cocaine, and he put this face into it and you go like, Oh, like this.

And this was before the show.

I was like, It's crazy. It's crazy. It's too much. I said, Those guys never going to do the show. It's never going to happen. It's not possible.

But they made it out on stage.

They did a great show. They did a Fantastic show.

Afterwards, everyone went back to Rob's hotel suite. Rob ordered some room service, kicked off his shoes, and turned on the TV. He stopped on a segment about Millie Vanille. He leaned back and started in on his dinner of meat and rice. Some of it made it into his mouth because he never took his eyes off the image of his own face on TV.

And Then when the interview was finished, I remember Robert looking at me and saying, Yeah, man, I think maybe it's going to be time now. I'm going to win an Oscar.

Did that man just say, Next up, Oscar? Patrick didn't know what to say. He just kept staring at Rob's feet, all the flattened, sticky bits of rice on them.

I didn't want to offend him. To tell him, Bro, look at it. Half of the rice is on the floor, and you got both feet into it.

He was one of the few people in their inner circle who knew for a fact that FAB and Rob did not sing. But all the drugs had seemed to make Rob forget that.

They finally believe that they are singers, that they are a superstar.

Carmen Palades flew to LA to catch her baby brother on tour. Maybe another sister would have been impressed, but Carmen was Carmen.

.

You know, like the same way she didn't tell him she loved him all the time. Why are Americans always saying, I love you? So when Carmen joined her brother on tour for a couple of weeks, she didn't plan to go gushing about how proud she was of him. But she also didn't expect to be watching her brother with a growing sense of dread. He was sleeping through the day and staying up all night. He was picking fights with FAB over every little thing. He started getting nosebleeds, and everywhere she looked, she saw white residue on different surfaces around his house. Look, Carmen wasn't an idiot. Her brother was a bona fide pop star, partying every night, living it up. Of course, he had done cocaine. Hell, so had she. But that was just for fun. What was going on with her brother, didn't seem like it was just fun. As soon as the high wore off, he needed more. She worried about where this was headed. In calmer moments, she told him, Please be careful. In less calm moments, she yelled at him. That's Bavarian for, Did someone shit in your brain or what? But nothing worked.

In many ways, the baby brother in front of her, with his Fame and his money and his entourage, was someone she didn't recognize. But Carmen suspected that deep down, he was still the scared little Rob she'd grown up with. But as long as he was high, Rob could pretend that he was someone else. He could be the Rob girls through themselves at, the Rob who'd won a Grammy. The Rob who could save himself before the lie got out. But he was running out of time. He knew Frank was already working on the next record. He needed to get to Frank's studio before it was too late. Robin Fabb touched down in Frankfurt. It was the end of summer. Their US tour had just ended. That's Rob, speaking to a reporter named Francis Schoenberger. He says Frank told them it was urgent they'd come right away because he was going to start working on the next record. Rob said they checked into a hotel, but every time they spoke with Frank, he had an excuse.. Yeah, not today. You need to go to Paris for a photoshoot. Rob kept asking, When are we going to get to sing?

And Frank kept punting. So Rob finally decided he wasn't going to wait for an invitation. He hopped in the car and drove to Frank's studio to check things out for himself. When he pulled up, everybody was The whole gang, Brad Howell, Jody Rocko, Linda Rocko. The whole crew had been working on the second album for months.

And obviously, if he was working on the second album the same way he was working on the Gurno's tour album, well, it was for us to front the second album and nothing else.

And the guys had no intention of doing that. Robin Fabb didn't want to double down on the lie. They wanted to sing. Sandy Gallen had promised that he'd get Frank to come around.

In their eyes, they were just strung along.

So they fired Sandy.

He probably was just thrilled about that, I would guess. He didn't need Milly Vanille muddling up his life.

And then Sandy fired Todd.

I was escorted to the elevator and sent on my way.

Bye-bye, Todd.

In the end, I was thrown under the bus. So was I bitter? Yeah.

Now it was time for Robin and FAB to fight Frank on their own. So they went hard with their tried and true tactic.

Making outlandish demands more money. That was the button to push with Frank because already in his mind, we were not deserving of anything.

Their plan was to keep their fingers on that button until Frank caved.

We were hoping that pushing to a brink would have him say, All right, I'm done with you guys. Go do whatever you want to do. Go live your life. Leave me alone.

But Frank wasn't letting them go. He put out the first single from the new record. He set a release date for the second album. He lined up promotional appearances, including Vatten Das. In Germany, there are TV shows, and then there's Vetten Das. And on November third, Robin Fabb were supposed to perform the new single. It was time to push with everything they had. That morning, Ingrid and Frank got a call from Rob. He was already in Austria, where Vetten Das would be filming live.

And he said, I cannot go on stage because my father died.

I mean, that's a pretty valid excuse. But Ingrid pushed back.

You have to go on stage because millions of people are watching Vatten Das. And he said, Yeah, but we want to have more money.

According to Frank, they wanted one million marks, or they'd be shows. Frank was livid. But this was Vetten das. He needed them to get out on that stage and perform this new single. So he pulled out his checkbook. And a driver from the record label made the 400 a mile dry from Frankfurt to Vienna to hand deliver it. But even with his back against the wall, Frank still wanted Rob to know who was in charge. That's Frank. He's saying they asked for a million, but he only sent them 500,000. Rob was pissed, but they did the show, and they never deposited the check. Frank didn't have to. I'm done. I've had enough. He was done with the blackmail, with the drugs, with all of it. It was time to pull the plug on Millie Vanille.

I cannot stand it anymore. We have to do something.

Frank didn't want to let Robin Fabb go. He wanted to make them pay.

I said no, Frank.

Ingrid begged Frank, Don't do this. She suggested, Maybe everyone just take a beat.

Maybe we should say we make a break because of so much stress, or we stop because they behave so bad. They should go away for a while. And he said, No more. I don't want. I cannot work anymore. He was finished.

Ingrid couldn't talk Frank out of it. He told her, Book me a flight. I'm going to New York. Larry McShane entered a swanky hotel room on Manhattan's East Side. Three men were sitting there waiting for him. One was a music industry guy he knew, the one who'd asked him to come here in the first place. And one was a translator who was there for the third guy.

And there's the guy that I learn is Frank Farian.

The producer of Millie Vanille.

And of course, I was aware of them. They were all over MTV at the time.

His publisher's friend had promised him that this interview was going to be huge. Frank had a story he wanted to tell. Larry took a seat and uncapped his pen. He cut to the chase.

Did these guys appear on the album as advertised? And he was like, Never happened.

Larry wanted to know why Frank was going public with this now.

Fariant says that he decided that he had to cut them loose because they were insisting that they wanted to be the real singers on the follow-up to this big, Smash platinum selling album that they didn't sing on.

Frank told them, Sure, they have a voice, but that's not really the one I want to use on my records. After the interview, Larry called Arista for comment. This didn't look good for them either. He got the vice President of operations on the phone.

I asked him if he was embarrassed that he just flatly said, Embarrassing? I don't mean the end justifies the means, but we just sold seven million albums.

Yeah, these guys were not sorry. Larry added Arista's comments, put the finishing touches on his piece, and sent the bombshell to be printed. In less than 24 hours, the whole damn world would know that, girl, it was never true.

It didn't feel like they were after the truth. They were after us. Just to devour us and just embarrass us. That was it.

That's on the next episode of Blame It on the Fame. Follow Blame It On The Fame, Millie Vanilli on the WNDRI app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry. Com/survey. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse disorder, reach out for help. In the US, you can contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by calling 1-800-662-HEALP. From WNDRI, this is episode 4 of 6 of Blame It on the Fame, a series about the lie that shot to number one and what it cost to tell the truth. Blame It on the Fame is hosted by me, Amanda Seals. I also host another a podcast called Small Doses that you should check out. Producers are Melissa Duenas and James Edwards. Senior producer is Julia Lowry-Henderson. Senior Story Editor is Natalie Sheesha. Production assistance by Sam Hobson, Emily Locke, and Christie Taewo Machinjula. Additional reporting by Kirsten Seelm. Additional writing from Pia Wilson. Host production services are provided by Ultra Violet, with mixing and sound design by Matt Boyton.

Original Music and Additional Sound Design by David Bowman, with additional sound design from Jamie Cooper for WNDYRI. Music Supervisor is Scott Velaezquez for Frissan Sink. Sound Supervisor is Marcelino Villapando. Additional research and fact-checking by Barran Dutla. Senior Managing Producer is Lata Pandia. Managing Producer is Oliviaber. And coordinating producer is Heather Baloga. Executive producers are George Lavender, Marshall Louis, and Jenn Sargent for WNDYRI. Wndyri.