Milli Vanilli (2023) Movie Script
1
- MTV
- We shouldn't concentrate too
much on superstar, you know?
It's a very dangerous thing
to talk about.
I know--I know a lot
of superstars...
- Yeah.
- And I look back
and I see--I don't see them
now, you know?
So the same could
happen with us.
Girl, you know it,
girl, you know it
Girl, you know it's true
- Milli Vanilli,
the striking European duo,
has made it big in America.
- First album went six times
platinum in 1989.
- It's quite a weird story.
One minute,
Milli Vanilli were there...
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli--
- Milli--
- Milli--
- Vanilli!
- And the next minute,
they weren't.
- New weasel boys of
the record world.
- Everybody participated,
but they were the scapegoats.
- Record companies are oddly
silent on the whole issue.
- People don't understand
the machine that is
underneath a pop act.
- We want to say thank you
to our producer.
- The evil genius,
I guess we could call him.
- If it wasn't for him,
this would not even take place.
- You get something,
but for that, you make
a pact with the devil.
- Imagine you have
everything...
- The fame, the fortune.
They were in a dream.
- And suddenly,
everybody turns against you
and you have nothing.
Overnight.
How do you handle that?
- It cost them everything.
- There is not another story
like this
in pop music history.
- It's been a while.
Oh!
Yeah, man, we were
young and fresh, man.
That's a normal tank top but
I think he just pulled on it.
You know, I mean,
we were fashion forward.
That was a big show in Germany.
Yeah, that was a cool vibe.
Hmm.
You know, Rob Pilatus doesn't
look right in this photo.
I can see the decline.
'Cause that's not
what Rob looked like
or was supposed to look like.
He was extremely strong,
but you can tell that
life took a toll on him.
Becoming friends
was inevitable.
I grew up in Paris.
When I turned 18,
I went to Munich, Germany,
ran out of money,
ended up being homeless for
a couple weeks.
It was cold so I had to
sleep in the train station,
but I was able to
get some jobs
teaching classes
with dance school,
'cause that was my background
in Paris.
And then one day,
I went to a party in Munich
and there he was,
Mr. Rob Pilatus.
He was a break-dancer.
He was onstage
doing the helicopter.
At the end,
when everybody gave him
his props and everything,
he saw me and he was like,
"Who the hell are you?
That's my turf!"
Because there were not
many Black people
in Munich at the time.
Rob and I were the only
dark-skinned people.
There were none.
Rob was older than me
by two years.
He had an infectious laugh--
Like, really loud, you know?
I was socially awkward.
You know, I was shy and
I was not fluent in German.
It was like big brother,
little brother.
He became my best friend.
But I felt like there was
something inside of him
that was--that was missing.
- Every time we talked about
that period of his life,
it was kind of like taboo,
but I understood his pain.
Growing up, my family
was so dysfunctional.
It was an abusive environment,
and I ran away.
So, just like me,
he was looking for a family.
We moved in together in
an attic of a friend of his.
Rob would take the bed,
I would take the sofa.
But there was, like,
a stereo system,
and that thing was on all day.
Music always
pulled us together.
We both liked dancing,
we were very social people,
so we started throwing
parties together.
And they were packed.
The girls were beautiful.
You know, we had a DJ,
and we brought the vibe.
You know, a circle
would be happening.
Rob doing break dancing,
and when he was done,
I would come in
and I would pop, lock,
bam, bam, bam!
And it brought
a lot of attention.
So we started doing shows
in this club, Piantz.
We loved to entertain
people, like,
make people like, "Aw, yeah!"
We loved that energy,
that roar,
and we wanna do more of this.
And the dream was to do
what we did in the club,
sing, perform, live the life,
to become the biggest pop stars
in the world!
- Hot girl, hot girl
I'm satisfaction, baby
Hot girl, hot girl
- We started dancing
for this TV show.
- Hot girl
We danced behind pop stars
of the '80s.
We ended up modeling as well.
We did some catalog.
We were making a lot of noise
in Munich at that time,
but it was like, how do
we get to the next level?
In order to become pop stars,
we had to have the look,
so we had to study
what makes a superstar.
And one thing we noticed was
the hair.
I know Elvis' hair.
I know Bob Marley's hair.
Marilyn Monroe.
Michael Jackson.
You could put, like, a shadow,
and you knew who that was.
We were like,
"Hell yeah, we're doing this."
And the hair came...
Like that.
Hoo!
The reactions were amazing.
Every time we went to
the clubs,
girls loved the hair,
loved the clothing--
they loved Rob and Fab.
- Go to the dance floor,
dansez
Voulez vous, dansez
- We put a band together,
Empire Bizarre...
- Hey
- And we played a few gigs.
We gave tapes to people.
We knew we were gonna be big.
- Dansez
- Since we were
spreading the word
of us getting into
the music industry,
we were starting to
get approached by people.
So one day, this guy came to
Rob and said, "Hey, you know,
we're gonna connect you with
Frank Farian."
Rob played cool to the dude,
but to me, he was like,
"Oh, my God!
Oh, Frank Farian!
You know this?" I didn't know.
Rob told me,
"Hey, Frank Farian,
he did Boney M."
I was like,
"Oh, wow, that's--that's big"
because Boney M., obviously,
was a huge group.
- There lived a certain man
in Russia long ago
- He was big and strong,
in his eyes a flaming glow
- Boney M. were a big hit
disco group in the '70s...
Boney M.!
- And they were huge worldwide.
- Huge!
- He could preach the Bible
like a preacher
Full of ecstasy
- Boney M. sold 80 million
records.
They had a number of
number one hits.
- "Rivers of Babylon."
- "Daddy Cool."
- "Sunny."
- I love the song "Ma Baker."
- Ra, ra, Rasputin.
- Ra, ra, Rasputin,
lover of the Russian queen
- A bananas song
and it's about Rasputin.
- Mysterious figure
in czarist Russia.
- When you watch video
of Boney M.
and you see Bobby Farrell,
you're like,
"Wow, that dude is awesome."
- It was on the radio,
at parties.
- Boney M. made music that
you could dance to
and get drunk to and have fun.
- But how did you four people
get together to form Boney M.?
- Well, it all came about from
our producer Frank Farian.
- If you work with
Frank Farian,
that's a high level guy.
We realized that this could be
the one we've been waiting for,
so we went to Frankfurt.
Frank Farian's
compound was huge.
And when they opened the door,
we were greeted by all those
gold records on the wall,
and it was amazing.
It was the kind of stuff that
you saw with Quincy Jones.
100 tracks, Neve console,
microphones.
It was incredible!
Frank and his secretary,
Ingrid Segieth,
they said,
"We're working on a project
and we're thinking that
you could be good for it,"
if we were interested.
Hell, yeah, we were interested.
Ingrid brought in
the recording contract,
and we never really
attempted to read it.
We were not trying to say no
to this powerful producer.
Also, we would get, like,
1,500 deutschmark each,
and we were like,
"Oh, hell yeah. Where? OK."
When we signed that contract,
we toasted.
We were, like, breaking bread.
But then Frank leaned over
to Rob and told him,
"Don't fuck with me.
Don't ever fuck with me."
Several months went by.
They never gave us
any information.
That was driving us crazy.
Like, why don't
they tell us, like,
a date where we can come
to do the vocals,
or like, when do
we get started?
Finally, Ingrid called.
"Come to studio.
It's gonna be good."
Oh, man, we were pumped.
We went straight to
the studio.
And then once everyone is
in the room,
he plays a tune.
I couldn't believe that
this music was for us.
I saw colors.
I saw us onstage
singing in front of a crowd.
And then when
the music stopped...
It was like, wow.
You could still
hear those bells--
ding, ding, ding, ding.
He turned, and then,
you know, "folgen Sie mir."
You know, "follow me."
- It felt serious.
And then we end up
in this dark room.
Rob and Frank start talking
really fast in German,
so I can't really understand
everything,
but I can tell, like,
it's getting intense.
Like, they raise their voices.
Rob is looking at me with
his green eyes.
Like, he looks pissed.
Frank leaves and screams,
and then Rob turns to me,
saying,
"They don't want us to sing
on this record."
And I'm like, like--
So, I'm trying to speak.
I'm trying to talk to him
and trying to get
as much information,
but he was like,
"Just wait, wait.
"They don't want us to sing!
They want us to
lip-sync the song."
I'm like, "What?"
Why in the hell?
Like, he's playing us a song.
I'm trying to understand,
like, what do you mean?
I don't get it.
And that's where I--I--
I black out.
I remember thinking,
"This is weird.
Like, we don't want to
lip-sync."
That's when Ingrid
gave us the options.
What she conveyed to us
clearly is that
we signed the contract,
we got money--
if we didn't want to
take part,
we have to pay them back.
But Ingrid said,
"It's not just the advance
that we paid you,
"but also all the money that
we gave you
through the months."
We developed a debt
towards Frank Farian.
We were scared as hell.
I was 21 years old
and Rob was 24.
We had nowhere to go.
So we thought,
OK, it's one song.
You do that and you're out.
- Sunny
Yesterday, my life was
filled with rain
Sunny
You smiled at me and
really eased the pain
Sunny
Hold on.
I should not be so funny.
Serious.
This is serious.
Thank you, schatzi.
- Interview, "Milli."
Take one.
Camera A and B, mark.
- I've heard that
the name Milli Vanilli
is because of you.
- Oh.
- Is that true?
- That's true.
I was Frank's girlfriend.
I wrote the checks because
I was the financial controller
of Frank's company.
When they came into
the studio,
they looked fantastic.
I never saw people like that
so well-dressed
and good-looking and braids,
and Rob's eyes, green--
You couldn't stop
looking at him.
But they were
such good dancers.
- Frank needed American singer
like me.
He said,
"I'm gonna make a project
and you'll be the lead singer."
I said, "OK, let's do it."
- I'm from Houston, Texas.
Frank says,
"I have a new project.
Can you rap it?"
He wrote me a check
for $12,000.
Just keep your mouth shut.
- Frank said, "Linda, we're
gonna need backing vocalists."
So I brought in
my twin sister Jodie.
- And I looked at her, I said,
"If this is 'oohs' and 'ahs'
and 'I love you,'
I'm gonna shoot you."
- I said, "Shut up."
He hits it, he says,
"I want you to sing this."
both: Ooh, ooh, ooh
- I love you
- I said, "Don't say it!"
The song is ready,
and the two guys--perfect.
- When they're told
they're gonna lip-sync,
what's their reaction?
- No problem at all.
They agreed and said,
"OK, when can we start?"
It was never an--an--
an argument.
Never ever. Never!
- So you didn't have to
convince them to lip-sync?
- No! Why?
They want to have success
and...
- Was there ever
a point you said,
give us the advance back
that we gave you.
- Gosh.
- No.
- No?
- No.
- You didn't ask--
- No, no, no.
This is not Frank's art--
artwork, yeah.
If they would refuse,
they can go back to Munich
and can...
go for...
or something like that.
Well, I, uh...
The first time I went to share
my side, uh,
I was young.
And if you're a young artist,
you can only tell what
they want you to tell.
But now, fuck it.
I ain't keeping
my mouth shut for nobody.
Frank Farian, he was just a--
a genius of his art
of making money.
He knew exactly
what he was doing.
You know,
it's not the first time.
The same game was played with
Boney M.
Bobby was not a singer.
He was a dancer.
He was a dancer.
- And who sung?
Frank.
- And it sold
how many platinums,
how many golds,
you know what I'm saying?
- You're looking at him as
a producer
that made most his money
on Black artists,
and it worked.
Then years later, he came back
and did it again
with Milli Vanilli.
He took my voice,
he took their faces,
he put the project together,
he put it on the market,
and he got rich off it.
- Milli Vanilli was delivered
by Frank Farian,
and we were the distributor.
We only saw the pictures of
the both guys and the song.
Was nice-looking guys.
Internationally, they could be
sold because they were colored
and everything was--every--
it fits together.
The product was great.
The music was great.
The whole project is fantastic.
- No, we didn't know it.
I got tapes where--
me, I was told that
it's Rob and Fab singing.
- One day,
we're at a friend's house
watching "Formel Eins,"
this TV show...
- And then we see
Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli,
"Girl You Know It's True."
- Our name on television
on "Formel Eins."
We used to dance
behind the stars
who would come on this show,
and suddenly,
we're in the charts.
I mean, we went crazy.
Running, like,
we even broke stuff.
The song starts to blow up,
and it happens so fast.
Like, every week,
it was going up.
Boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, pow!
- And the song just takes off.
It becomes a huge hit
in Germany.
- Nobody knew
it was gonna be a hit.
Not even Frank.
But once he's seen
it was rising,
then he started putting
more promotion into it.
- Suddenly,
we were in "Bravo,"
a youth magazine in Germany,
selling millions every week.
People that were not
taking us seriously
were suddenly like, "Hey."
And now it's going through
Europe.
So we travel up and down Europe
on television.
We were nervous.
"Can you drop your mic
a little bit?"
No, I'm gonna keep it there.
But nervousness translated
into excitement.
A minute ago,
we didn't want to do this,
but now, we want more.
We were so pumped.
You're in Italy,
you're in Spain,
you're in Holland.
- And then all of a sudden,
it hits the States.
Bam.
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
And when you pack a smile
in everything you do
Don't you understand, girl,
this love is true
- They came in,
braids swinging...
- Chest bumping...
with tights on.
- It was two Black dudes
with dreads coming into pop.
That alone was
the shock factor.
- Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- The hair and the bandannas
and the shoulder pads.
- Yes, you know it's true
- It was a totally
different style.
both:
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- That's all we knew.
- They had it all.
Like, their visuals were
on point.
- I mean, they were
just eye candy.
It was yummy, yummy, yummy.
- "Girl You Know It's True"
becomes the number two hit
in the United States.
- "Girl You Know It's True,"
number two.
Oh, my God.
- It became a top five hit in
23 countries around the world.
That's Michael Jackson
level success.
- Ah!
- Great music, it just rises.
When those special ones come,
they come.
- As much as it wasn't
the right thing to do,
the power of
"Girl You Know It's True"...
I'm so in love, girl
Was pulling on us.
I'm so in love, girl
This energy, this hype...
- Do you want to party?
The love...
So from that point on,
we embraced the lie.
- What's up?
- Running.
- Yeah.
Number one.
- Every time we were
around people
or, like, taking pictures...
- OK.
- We knew,
you know, you know.
They don't know.
Do they know? I don't know.
- But it was too difficult to
say no to this new life.
"Girl You Know It's True"
just unveiled the beast in us.
- Yeah.
- We came from nothing
and now we were tasting
this pop star life.
To be adored, to be loved,
that became very addictive.
- I was nervous.
Being caught was something that
was always, always very aware.
- So, when will we have
your LP?
- Gonna come out in two weeks.
It's just like very pop
dance orientated music.
Are you ready here?
- For us, it was a surprise
that it developed immediately.
It was worthwhile thinking
about what you can do.
Do we need an album?
Yes, we need an album.
Do we need a second single?
Yes, we need a second single.
- I get the call.
"Frank needs to talk to you."
So I goes up to the studio,
Ingrid opened the door,
I go in.
Sit in the kitchen and wait.
He came out--took his time,
fixed him a coffee--
and then he said,
"I told you,
keep your mouth shut."
He says to me, um,
"They found out in Munich,
"from your promotion manager
or whoever,
"that you're the voice.
Don't want to
see you here anymore."
We didn't talk anymore.
That's it.
I was kicked to the curb.
- One night,
Frank Farian called me up.
He said, "John, I've got
a project I'm working on."
"I had a rapper, Charles Shaw,
who tried the situation
and he was not good so
can you come to the studio?"
So that's what I did.
He said,
"You got 10,000 D-marks,"
and I said, "Wow."
He said, "You're gonna do
the whole album with me."
- Frank said, "We're gonna be
doing more songs."
- We always asked,
"Where is Rob and Fab?
When are they gonna
start singing?"
Frank said, "They're gonna
record in the evening
when you guys are done."
- I used to have to go through
the back door
because Frank didn't want
nobody know
I was the lead singer.
- This is run like
a tight military operation.
It's on a need-to-know basis.
It was smoke and mirrors.
David Copperfield
couldn't have done it better.
We like it hot, don't we?
You want to get down with
Milli Vanilli?
They're coming.
It's a hit. Shake your booty.
"Girl You Know It's True."
- One, mark.
- Mark.
- Make sure everyone's phone's
on silent.
- That's a good idea.
- Clive is a--
is a gift-seeker.
He is like the Yoda of talent.
He knows.
He just knows.
- With Milli Vanilli,
Clive saw dollar signs.
"Girl You Know It's True"
is big now.
How can we cash in on
the immediate moment?
- Well, we moved everything up
as fast as possible.
- Clive would say every week
that we're missing,
we're missing, like,
a million dollars.
So we had to put
an album in motion.
But the album that's out
in Europe, "All or Nothing,"
was not strong enough
to release in America.
- Clive called up
Diane Warren.
- Diane Warren is one of
the biggest songwriters
there are in the country.
- I had written
"Blame It On The Rain"
when I was scheduled
to see Clive,
and he goes, I want you to
hear this new group I have.
And he played me
"Girl You Know It's True."
I'm like, "This is so crazy
"'cause the song
I'm bringing you
really sounds like
the follow-up to that."
It's even the same rhythm.
"Girl You Know It's True,"
"Blame It On The Rain."
I played him the song
and he loved it.
He sent it to Frank Farian
and they recorded it.
- Normally,
when you've given the producer
some repertoire
for them to record,
you want to be there
to make sure it gets done.
In the case of Frank, though,
he didn't want anyone
in the studio.
- It was very weird for us
to find the songs,
send them to Frank,
and then have them produce it
without any of our presence.
But the speculation that
we were somehow aware of
what was going on
behind the scenes in Germany
is simply not the case.
If an outside producer sends
in all the album credits,
you have to take it on faith
that represents what actually
happened in the studio.
There was no reason
to think not.
- Ah, there it is.
So this is the European version
of the album "All or Nothing."
You see Rob and Fab on
the cover, the first album.
That's their, like,
running man logo.
There they are on the back,
shirtless, of course,
'cause why not?
And let's see
who's credited on this album.
So it says musicians here,
and I don't see Rob and Fab
on here at all.
So, backing vocals, Jodie and
Linda Rocco, Charles Shaw--
produced by Frank Farian.
But this is the truth
in advertising version
that doesn't have them on it.
If I'm at a record label and
I'm putting out this record,
and I look at the vocalists and
the guys who are on the cover
are not listed in
the liner notes,
I'm gonna have some questions,
you know?
Like, that is a giant
red flag for me.
- That was the name of
the European album.
- Really?
OK. I didn't know that.
So that's--
I--
I don't know what to say
to that.
- Yeah, but we didn't
release that record, so--
- Really? I forgot about that.
- Woo, blame it on the rain
- Rain
- Yeah, yeah
Blame it on the stars
- Stars
- Ooh
- Rob Pilatus, my brother,
he loved "Blame It On The Rain"
because that was--
that was his thing.
- You said you
didn't need her
- "Blame It On The Rain" is
number one hit in 1989.
- They released "Baby Don't
Forget My Number," number one.
- "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"
is the third number one song.
They have three number one
smashes off that record.
- That feels impossible.
- To satisfy your pride
- And once you have
three big hit singles,
you're gonna sell
a lot of albums.
- If an artist sells 500,000
and went gold, that's terrific.
- You let her walk away
- If an artist sells a million
albums, that's something.
- Got to blame it on
something
- But 8 million?
- It's one of the biggest
debuts of all time.
- Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
that didn't shine that night
- To just come out of nowhere
and have a number one
debut album for seven weeks,
well, that just was unheard of
at the time.
- Blame it on the rain,
yeah, yeah
- Debut album,
hot right out of the gate.
"Here's Milli Vanilli.
What do you want to do
with it?"
Well, we want to play it.
We want to dance to it.
We want to have fun with them.
Can we get them in the studio?
We want to meet them.
- Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
- At that point,
what are we gonna do?
Should we bring them over?
Should they do the MTV tour?
Then that all kicks in.
- Blame it on the rain
- Labels saw we were growing
in the charts in America.
- Blame it on the rain
- Our presence was needed.
But Frank didn't want us
to go to America.
- Frank was apprehensive
because of the big secret,
obviously.
- Frank was concerned that
they would go to America
and fuck up everything.
- America had our heart.
"We want to go to the US.
USA! USA!"
Coming to LA for us was like
we're living the dream,
we're doing things.
- A'ight?
- Kick it.
- Hollywood, Malibu.
The girls are hot there, too.
Oof.
- Cold coolin' at a bar
- We got a manager,
Sandy Gallin...
- But like
Mick Jagger said
- He was like a big player.
- I can't get
no satisfaction
- He had Michael Jackson
at the time,
Dolly Parton--tons of people.
That's why he had us,
to handle people like
Milli Vanilli.
- Funky Cold Medina
- I was truly,
in the beginning, a fan.
I said to them,
"You know, I've never been
a manager before,"
and Rob said, "Well, we've
never been pop stars before."
I was like, "OK, here we go."
My first job was putting them
on the MTV tour.
- It was gonna be
our first tour in America--
a 107 city tour
in eight months--
so we had to put
a band together.
- I was the band leader then.
We had rehearsed,
we were flawless.
Everybody was really
invested in this gig
'cause it was
the new hottest shit, you know?
After we had been approved,
Rob and Fab disappeared.
They were gone.
So we were just rehearsing
with no artist.
And I start going, "These guys
must be really, really good.
"They don't rehearse,
they don't fucking do nothing.
They--
what the hell's going on?"
We started asking
more questions.
We got to realize, this musical
director at the time
is programming this Oberheim.
There's where the vocals are.
And then we understood,
"Oh, they're lip-syncing."
So we said, "OK, we're in
a lip-sync band."
They said, "Don't say anything
about this to anybody else."
"Fine."
- The show would play
to packed arenas.
Rob and Fab were two sexy
performers selling hits,
and they did a really
bloody good job at it.
- Yeah!
Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
Yes, you know it's true
- The audience loved them.
- Yeah!
- It was very powerful.
- Girl, you know it's,
girl, you know it's
Girl, you know it's true
Girl, you know it's,
yes, you know it's
Girl, you know it's true
- Performing is a drug.
That euphoric feeling allowed
us to just forget everything.
- Milli Vanilli,
the European duo,
now one of the hottest
groups in America,
made a special trip to the
Disney MGM Studios theme parks
where we arranged
for them to have
an exclusive interview session
with some of
their most loyal fans.
- Wherever you've performed,
has anything really
embarrassing happened to you?
- Yeah.
- It was super hot that day.
"Downtown" Julie Brown
introduces us as usual.
- I decided to take a break--
the show had been going now
for a few months--
and it was while
I was in my trailer
I heard the crowd, like,
getting a little bit rowdy.
- The vocals that were
being cued from the emulator
started repeating.
Girl, you know it's--
Girl, you know it's--
girl, you know it's--
Girl, you know it's--
It was like--
Shit!
- As I open my door,
I saw Rob go flying by.
- Rob and Fab were gone,
and I'm onstage still with
the guitar player and the
drummer going "What the fuck?
Do we continue the song on
or what are we doing here?"
So, of course,
there was outrage.
I was furious.
"What the fuck, you know?
Find him!"
- Rob was pissed.
He was like, "Fuck that!"
He lost his cool.
- Rob had gotten hold of me
to say,
"I don't know what to do."
You know, he was scared.
He kind of exploded.
It was the moment where
it just burst open.
And at that time,
we didn't know
what pressure he was feeling
because we didn't know
the load they were carrying.
- On the rain
that was falling
- When Milli Vanilli blew up,
I was a program director at
WILD radio station, Boston.
1090 on the AM dial.
The only Black station
within miles
of Boston, Massachusetts.
The guys came to our radio
station for our morning show.
And I remember
them sitting there,
and when I heard them talk
for the first time,
I'm like,
"Oh, they sound very different
than they do on the record."
- Please welcome Milli Vanilli.
- Once they started doing
promotional dates,
it became pretty clear
that something was strange.
- Fab, how are you
finding Australia?
You enjoying it?
Sydney?
Syd-ney. Syd-ney.
Melbourne. Melbourne.
- It just seemed that
they weren't comfortable
communicating in English.
- Who inspired you
the most, Rob?
- Uh, diff--difficult.
- You could tell
they were sweating bullets.
People were starting to,
you know,
giggle a little bit
on the sides.
- Fab, you speak English,
right?
- Yeah, I can, too.
- Who are your--
- And it was easy to
kind of latch on to that
and make them a joke.
- You are Germany,
and I'm from French.
Oh.
- There's a way that
I think some people knew.
Blame it on the rain
- Arsenio Hall is someone who
had been around the business
a long time and had seen a lot.
- Man, I think Milli Vanilli
doing crack.
I don't think--
- It seemed bad to
a lot of these folks.
- Those pants too tight.
They going--
- They knew something was up.
- Privately, I thought, like,
you know, "Did they really
sing everything?"
- Girls!
crowd: Girls!
- Hey, boys!
crowd: Hey, boys!
- Yeah!
crowd: Yeah!
- Girl, you know it's--
girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
- We didn't sing on
those records.
- Don't you understand, girl,
this love is true
- We didn't even sound like
those records.
We were lying.
Lies are taking the elevators
while the truth
takes the stairs.
I knew that at some point,
the truth would rise.
They were gonna catch us
at some point or another.
This load on our shoulders,
it was getting heavy and heavy
and heavy.
- I was a little bit
tired by it, yeah.
- We drank more,
took more drugs,
to be able to, like, numb out.
- I think next time,
next time, maybe--
should we ask them to sing
next time?
- Um...
This, uh..
- They got double platinum.
They got gold records.
Everybody else got
a gold record of my voice
on their walls.
That's my voice!
You end up drinking,
you end up taking drugs
to not think about
what's really happening
in reality.
Then my manager that I had
at that time said,
"Well, you know what?
We're gonna do interviews.
You're gonna go live."
I was singing before
Milli Vanilli
even thought about
becoming stars.
I went abroad and said it
in a TV show,
it's my voice.
Music is from Frank Farian
and not from Milli Vanilli.
And Frank denied it all.
His words were--I can
remember them to the day--
"This artist is a liar.
"Look the way he's dressed.
"The Black guy.
He's just trying to
make money."
- Ingrid!
She said,
"Frank don't want you to be
"talking out there to nobody.
Keep your mouth shut."
"How could you say that?
You're just trying
to get publicity."
Milli Vanilli fans?
Oh, man.
Death threats.
"Your next show, this and this
is gonna happen to you."
- The phone rang and
it was Charles Shaw.
And I didn't know who he was,
and he said, "I'm the real
singer of Milli Vanilli
and you have to help me."
So I called Sandy right away
and I said, "I just got this
weird call from this guy.
He says he's the real voice."
"Ah, just a crazy person.
Just ignore it."
- It didn't interest anybody.
You get tired of trying to
lead a jackass to water
and make him drink it.
- People wanted to believe
they are really singing
these songs
because it was
a good production.
It was entertainment.
- It's a magic trick pulled
off in front of you onstage,
and the audience usually
wants to be deceived
in a magic show.
So if everyone benefits
from a scam like that,
including the audience,
it's very easy to
look the other way.
- Everyone got his bonus,
everyone was happy to be
successful,
and the people are happy to
have this record.
We all together were in
a very nice flow of success.
- Mo-mo-mo-money rules
the world
It's still
the same old greed
- Successful music is
a great money machine.
- Their videos are hot,
their songs are hot.
- Singles, albums,
maxi singles...
- Buy it now.
- The album made
$580 million.
They had sold approximately
46 million records, global.
There was merchandise,
keychains,
ticket sales to the concerts.
- It's Milli Vanilli.
Milli Vanilli!
What a show. What a night.
- We're going to
a Milli Vanilli concert.
- They could've recorded
the alphabet, the phonebook.
You name it,
they were selling it.
- Their logo is
the running man
and it symbolizes
the pursuit of success.
If they do any better
next year,
they're gonna have
to find a new logo.
- At that time,
Frank Farian was worth
almost half a billion.
- Money rules the world and
don't you love that cash?
- They continued to steamroll
through the end of the year.
- And the winner is...
Milli Vanilli.
- They won three
American Music Awards...
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli!
- This train was moving.
- Thank you to our producer,
Frank Farian,
to our manager, Sandy Gallin.
- We'd like to thank
Clive Davis.
- Money rules the world
- Arista, BMG,
they were cashing in
the bucks.
- Money, money
- And the whole thing with
Milli Vanilli
would have kept going if
they had not been nominated
for the Grammys.
- Well, because--
no, but, see,
most everybody knew
the secret, and I didn't.
They never told me this,
so I just assumed they sang,
you know?
So we're at a conference
meeting and I said,
"I think Milli Vanilli could
get nominated for a Grammy."
I thought "Blame It On
The Rain" was a Grammy song.
They laughed at me and
they're like, "Trust me,
Milli Vanilli's never gonna
get nominated for a Grammy."
So I called
National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences.
They put me right through
to Mike Greene's office,
the president of NARAS.
I had no idea how somebody
actually does get nominated,
and he said,
"Oh, you just put it on
"your management company
letterhead,
'please consider
Milli Vanilli for a Grammy.'"
So I typed it up and faxed it
off to the Academy.
Never thought another thing
about it.
So when that ballot came out
and Milli Vanilli was on it,
like, just everything
hit the fan.
Clive called Sandy
and threw a hissy fit,
and then Sandy called me
absolutely furious,
like, "Look what you've done!"
I'm like,
"why doesn't anybody want them
to have a Grammy award?"
- If Milli Vanilli had
been nominated for
the lip-sync awards,
that would've been fine,
but they got nominated for
this prestigious musical award
and they were up against
people who produce music
and write music and sing.
They were up against
the Indigo Girls...
- Closer I am to fine
- This incredible folk duo
who sang
these beautiful, deep songs.
They were up against Tone Loc.
- Funky Cold Medina
- Tone Loc made brilliantly
constructed records,
full of incredibly clever
rhythmic artifice.
- Sweetness
- Neneh Cherry, who had
a really interesting debut
album and had a lot to say.
- We always hang in
a buffalo stance
- Back to life
- Soul II Soul changed
the way R&B music sounded.
They changed the way
music moved.
- And so, if I'm one of those
artists,
I'm like, "These guys?"
- We knew that the Grammys
were the highest standard.
Then here we were,
you know, Rob and Fab.
Not only that,
they want us to perform live.
- I thought, how the hell are
they going to do the Grammys
when it's all live?
Live-sing.
- Michael Greene was
the head of NARAS at the time.
I remember taking a picture
with him, and him saying,
"Be sure you do it right
tonight."
Money, money, money
makes the world go 'round.
- We're at the Shrine.
I remember getting out
of the car and going in.
On that day, it was pressure.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Mike Greene.
- Thank you.
This is a great night
for music!
- Yeah, boy!
- All the stars are
in the building.
- Woo-hoo!
- Finally, it was our turn
to be on that stage.
Cold sweat.
- Well, girl,
you know it's true.
It can only mean Milli Vanilli.
- Hit it!
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
And when you pack a smile
in everything you do
- Performing in front of
the Grammys
with all those artists,
that was nerve wracking.
- And this is true
- Girl, you know it's true
- All those people who spent
years of their lives
to get to this point,
and we got here pretty fast.
- I remember sitting there,
and I think the entire industry
knew at that time
that it wasn't them singing.
That was great.
I was actually--I was supposed
to be in that number.
I don't know what--
- When he called out
the nominees,
you know, it was like, "Man."
- This year, the nominees for
Best New Artist
are making all kinds of music.
- Each one of them express
themself in a unique way
that commands attention.
- Now, the nominees for
Best New Artist are...
- Do Rob and Fab
deserve the Grammy?
- Neneh Cherry.
- That's a tough one.
We didn't sing on
the record, so...
- Indigo Girls.
- No.
But...
- Milli Vanilli.
- For the pain and everything
that we suffered...
- Soul II Soul.
- And the hard work that
we put into,
do we deserve it?
- Tone Loc.
- A very small part of me
says yes.
- And the Best New Artist is...
- Rob and Fab deserved
the Grammy.
- Milli Vanilli.
"Oh, my God."
Frank goes,
"Now, everybody's watching."
- Uh, we want to say
thank you very much,
but we want to say
there are a lot of artists
here in this room,
there are a lot of artists
outside in the world
who could 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.
- It was a joke
that went too far.
And once they crossed
that line into
something that
people really care about,
that was the beginning of
the end for Rob and Fab.
- Once they won the Grammy...
Once they won the Grammy,
they hung they selves.
- The afterparty
for the Grammys,
oh, man, we were already faded.
I remember having to listen
to Mr. Clive Davis.
We were so high
that it took a lot of energy
to just keep the stuff
together.
- Frankly, Rob and Fab didn't
do themselves any favors.
They were just acting arrogant
and, frankly, obnoxious.
"I have no time.
Who's Paul McCartney?"
- When they won,
Rob and Fab were way up here,
these big stars that
just won a Grammy.
And the bigger they got,
the more celebrity
they became.
They had to have Avin
in the limousine,
sushi in the dressing room.
- They wanted for nothing.
- The stardom made them crazy.
- Rob said, "Oh,
can you turn on my voice?"
And Frank said,
"It's not your voice!"
Believe it.
It's Brad Howell's voice.
- He was singing with
my voice during playback
and believing
that's his own voice.
They were believing this.
- They started to forget
the reality
that they didn't sing.
- So they were doing
this interview one time
and they said they were better
than The Beatles.
Think about waking up
every day and knowing that
you don't sing
any of the vocals,
and then saying you're better
than The Beatles.
I mean, that takes, like,
giant stones.
You've really gotta believe
your own bullshit to say that.
They got caught up in it.
- At that point, they thought
they had the power,
and they did, to some degree.
They said, you know,
"We're in control now."
Millions and millions of
dollars were at stake
and people depended on them.
Frank depended on them.
Clive depended on them.
Everybody depended on
Milli Vanilli doing their job.
- Frank Farian was already
preparing album number two,
"Keep On Running,"
and they wanted us
to get back to Germany to go
promote the second album.
But Rob and Fab were done.
We wanted to sing.
We wanted to come out
as singers.
- At Arista,
we had a weekly luncheon
in the conference room.
One day, Clive got a call and
he walked into the kitchen.
And then came back out
and he goes,
"They want to sing on
the second album."
And I remember him saying,
"That's not gonna happen."
"Oh, but I would like to sing."
"Yeah, Rob, it's impossible.
"You cannot sing and
Fab cannot sing,
so please stop talking."
- We couldn't continue
to be his marionette.
Hey, listen.
Done with this.
So we started to lawyer up,
and then that's when
we found out
we signed a contract
for multiple albums.
We had no clue.
So to get out of under
the thumb of Frank Farian,
we played a game
of cat and mouse.
Our MO was to hurt him.
Let's push him to a brink
where he's gonna break,
and then he's gonna say,
"You know what? I'm tired.
Go away."
You know, we didn't show up
to the video of
"Keep On Running."
And we told him,
"More money. More money."
He's like,
"No, I'm not doing that!
What else do you want?"
They told Frank,
"If you don't give us 150,000,
"we will go to the producer
and telling them that
we are not the guys
who singing on the tape."
- The story broke in
"The Los Angeles Times"
and all hell broke loose.
- Frank threw Rob and Fab
under the bus.
- I knew it from the start,
you would break my heart
But still, I had to play
this painful part
You wrapped me around
your little bitty finger
- He basically brushed it off
and said,
"You know, yeah,
they didn't sing..."
- I just don't know
what I should do
- "And who cares?"
- Very quickly after that,
the whole train
came off the tracks.
- It's a tragedy for me
to see the dream is over
And I never will forget
the day we met
Girl, I'm gonna miss you
- The pop music world's
in shock tonight--
- With the revelation that
pop duo--
- Milli Vanilli didn't sing.
- So, girl, you know
it's not true.
Well, I am shocked.
- It was the lead-in story
on all the news.
- More embarrassment today
for the pop singing group
Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli turns out to be
a lot of phony baloney.
- And it didn't just
hit America;
it hit worldwide.
- One pop group this week
has been involved in
a feverish controversy.
- And then NARAS got involved.
- There's too many doubts
that have been cast now
for us not to go forward and
try to find out the truth.
The credibility of
the Grammy depends on it.
- Having to give back
their Grammy,
it's the only time that has
happened in music history.
- There was no recovering
from that.
The only way that that could be
ridden was to own it.
- Robert Pilatus
and Fabrice Morvan.
- Come together. Come together.
- Come together, guys!
- Right here! Right here!
- Right here.
- Straight ahead.
- Fabrice and me,
we lived together in a project
with two other musicians
in Munich.
We--we had nothing to eat.
We weren't happy.
We wanted to be stars.
We want to get up on top.
So suddenly, this guy gave us
a chance and we took it.
He gave us a little bit money.
- We were young, naive,
and we believed him.
It was an opportunity for us.
- We feel really, really sorry
about our fans,
but we just hope that they
understand that we were young,
that we just wanted to live
the life the American way.
- Of course.
Yeah.
- You're absolutely right.
I was seduced.
You have to understand
we were seduced,
we were abused,
and we felt very guilty,
and we're happy that
it's over, you know?
We don't understand
that it's us,
the two little guys
from Germany,
the victims who has
to play suddenly
the crux of a trial
that we are not.
- I will describe it like this.
You get something,
but for that, you make
a pact with the devil.
- I think you should
go with this tape.
We give you each a tape.
You can take it to
a scientist--
- But you could--
- OK, I demonstrate!
Fuck it. I do it. Let's do it.
Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
When you crack a smile
in everything you do
- Yeah, I understand--
I really understand them.
I have to say
I understand them.
- That's a good question, but--
- A lot of your fans--
a lot of your fans will be
very upset by the fact
that the only way
you can explain the charade,
the farce, the fakery of
the last year, two years,
is money.
- It's not.
This is fame--
- There's no other reason.
That's the only pressure
that Farian put on you,
was financial--
- Do you live in a project?
Did you live in a project?
We had no money,
we wanted to be stars.
We think we are talented.
We love to be onstage.
That's our first aim.
It wasn't money.
If we wouldn't have accept that
at the start,
we knew we would be
still in Munich.
I would still work at
the McDonalds.
- OK, thank you very much.
- Thank you very much.
- They ate 'em up like sharks.
- They were
the town spectacle.
- New weasel boys of
the record world.
Did you know they were exposed
for not actually appearing on
their Grammy-award winning
record album?
- They do not sing...
- Do not sing on it at all.
- On their own record.
- Ooh, ooh, ooh,
you are through
- The response was swift
and it was harsh.
They stopped playing on radio,
Arista Records took it
out of circulation,
and then, to top it all off,
there were, like, two dozen
class action lawsuits
from fans who were just pissed.
- A California woman who
bought the album for her son
is suing to get a refund.
- When I listened to the music,
I would sort of picture them
singing,
and that's--that's how
I looked up to them.
- They sued them for fraud
and racketeering.
- Listen carefully
to this important message
about a pending
Milli Vanilli lawsuit
that may affect your rights.
- I remember being surprised
by the animosity,
and the amount of anger
behind that
seemed outsized
for what happened.
- I mean, Milli Vanilli,
to be clear,
had a largely white audience,
so a part of the betrayal
that was felt was,
"I can't believe
I listened to these Black guys
singing these songs and
it really wasn't them."
- You're gonna have
a movie now,
"The Milli Vanilli Story."
Is that beautiful?
I play Fab, one of the dudes
in Milli Vanilli.
- Girl, I love you
- I love you
- It was really ugly to see
that sort of hostility
directed at Rob and Fab.
- Rob Pilatus told
"The LA Times" that
his family back in Germany was
getting harassed as well.
- Management was gone.
Label was gone.
- No representative of
a major record company
would discuss them with CNN
on camera.
- Frank came out of it
unscathed.
- Rob and Fab deserved to
be called out, certainly.
But it was weird that
people didn't come down on
Frank and Arista and Clive
in the way that
you would think.
There was plausible
deniability, I think,
for Arista, anyway.
I mean, it was easy for them
to say, "We didn't know,"
and nobody could prove that
they knew it,
so they got off the hook.
- I mean,
I just know personally,
that we knew before
the Grammys,
so there's no--there was
no question about it.
- Yeah, maybe six months
before.
"Why didn't anybody from
the label speak out,"
is that what you're asking me?
- Yeah.
- That's a--
that's a good question.
I mean, I can't--
I have to answer truthfully,
and I would have to say that,
that, yeah, I believe that
Clive felt that this
not only wasn't good
for Arista,
but wasn't really good for
his reputation
and for his, you know, history.
- The record company and
industry has all of the power,
so they're gonna use
everything they can
to point the direction at
Rob and Fab.
"Don't look at,
we sold these million records.
"Don't look at the fact that
someone inside of our industry
"had to have known
this was going on.
"No, it's these two guys
who barely speak English.
It's their fault."
- Not only did Frank have
no problem
exploiting Rob and Fab,
but he also seemed to
think them foolish
and beneath him.
And just like his lineage of
treating Black artists as
disposable,
he chose to get what he needed
and disposed of them.
- We regret it.
- We regretted it...
200,000 times.
Lying in front of my mom,
lying in front of the job.
- Everybody.
- Lying in front of everybody.
- They were young,
just like me,
looking to achieve something
in the music branch,
just like me.
So what do you do?
You followed the light,
but it's the wrong light.
At the end of the tunnel,
the light goes out,
and what happens?
Don't nobody care.
It's just another scandal.
- And the number one new job
for Milli Vanilli, "Who cares?
Just as long as we don't
hear from them ever again."
- Just when you thought
there couldn't possibly be
another twist to the story--
- So, you know,
the thing about Frank,
he's always a step ahead
of everybody, right?
He had already recorded
the second record,
and he dropped it,
like, right after
this whole thing blew up.
- Frank Farian called me up
and said,
"John, now you and Brad are
gonna be stars of the show."
Elaborate on the microphone
Pumping some knowledge
'cause my brain ain't stoned
- It's called
The Real Milli Vanilli,
"The Moment of Truth."
But again,
it's all another facade.
This guy was never
in the band.
He's just another guy
who Frank recruited.
- That girl had nothing to
do with the first album,
she had nothing to do with
the second album.
- We are still on that album,
Jodie and I.
But Frank said, no touring,
no video, no being seen.
- Listen to what he says
- "Linda, hope you understand.
"I have a certain
look that I want.
You're not Black."
- I'm not into bragging,
strutting, or bigotry
Or bigotry
- Don't ask me how I felt.
Well, go ahead, ask me.
- Yeah, how did you feel?
- I felt horrible!
- Oh, I was incensed.
- Keep on running, baby
- You've got to be kidding me.
It was almost as big a lie
as the first Milli Vanilli.
- Keep on running
- This was Frank's MO.
- Baby
- He already did Boney M.,
and then Milli Vanilli,
and he's like, "Hey, man,
this is
my 'Fast and Furious 10'."
I'm just gonna keep
making these things
because you love 'em,"
so why would
he change his stripes?
- Do you know what they are
doing now, Rob and Fab?
- Well, they have
a new single out--
- It's not out yet.
- It's not out actually.
They don't--
they don't have a label.
A lot of record companies are
scared to touch them right now
because, well, if you know
somebody can't sing,
why produce them?
- So you want to sing
a little bit for us?
- Yeah, we come in here
with our live band
and we would love to sing.
- No, how about right now?
Sing something off your album.
Um...
- Some of the verse from
the first single?
- Uh, yeah, OK.
Girl
Back together.
- Girl
both:
Do you want to get it on
Then tell me now
- Now Rob and Fab are
courageously trying to
make a comeback,
real voices and all.
both: I just want to be
your everything
- For the last year, they've
been working on a new album,
on the dance steps,
and on the singing.
They've got a new sexy video.
- Girl, can you tell me now
Straight up what's up
- So what's a man
supposed to do
Oh
- Do you want to get it on
- So this is
the "We Can Get It On"
12 inch LP single by Rob & Fab.
They're just, like, badasses,
you know?
They're like,
"Yeah, we're hot. We know it."
The expectation of the record
was based on curiosity alone
they could sell a million
copies of the record.
But the Rob & Fab album
sold 2,000 copies worldwide,
which is not good.
- By the time the
Rob & Fab record came out,
people were just
not that interested
in the spectacle anymore.
- That's when we...grew apart.
Rob was going in
his own tunnel
and didn't want to come out,
really.
- The team Rob and Fab
had fractured.
He didn't see me as--
as his brother anymore.
And that hurt.
- Now, where have you been
for the past six years?
- Well, the past six years,
I was in Los Angeles
undercover, you know,
doing my thing.
- You have an accent.
Where are you from?
- I'm from Paris. I'm French.
- From Paris.
- Yeah.
- Now, listen,
you've got some new music...
- That's true, yeah.
- And you are actually singing
on this damn thing.
- That's right.
- Yeah.
Put it together
for Fabrice Morvan.
- Come on, children
both:
If you see what I see
And you know what I feel
- For me,
performing was vindication.
both:
And we'll find a solution
- I was able to, like,
blossom as a singer
and do what I was supposed
to do in the first place.
Everybody,
join the love revolution
- Lovely!
- Come on.
- Hi, baby.
- Hi.
- Hey, listen.
Do you ever see Rob anymore?
- Well, we don't talk
as much as we used to
because he's doing
his own thing,
I'm doing my own thing,
you know?
We kind of went apart,
you know?
Bands broke up and
they do their own thing.
- Sure.
- That's what happened.
- You done joined
the love revolution.
- That's right.
- Where do I sign up?
- I was at The Viper Room.
I was outside.
I see a dude stumbling
across the way.
As he was falling,
his body turned
and I looked into his eyes
and I was like,
"Oh, my God. This is not true."
I'm looking at Rob Pilatus.
So I crossed the street,
I picked him up,
and I said, "Hey, Rob.
It's Fab."
"Rob, it's Fab.
Where do you live?"
And then he said, "There.
So we ring the doorbell.
We're like,
"Hey, we're there with Rob.
Like, this is
where he live, yes?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bring him in.
"It's our boy, man.
We--you know,
he--sometimes,
he just wanders."
And I'm like,
"Oh, that looks like
a crack house to me, man."
They were doing heavy drugs
in that--in that room.
I'm not surprised
'cause I heard
that's what he's been doing
for a long time.
But to actually see
my brother in the street
looking like this,
and looking back at
my dude in his prime...
Man, it was like, "Phew."
I didn't know what to say.
- What'd they do?
They just pulled you over?
- Yeah, they pulled me over,
man.
Unfortunately.
- He was lost.
Everything had failed.
He had not been satisfied with
anything that he'd ever done.
- He came back from
Oberberg Clinic
and he stayed at a hotel
close to my house.
Next morning, 10:00,
I called, no answer.
11:00, no answer.
12:00, no answer.
At 2:00, I said, "I'm going to
the hotel right now."
And we go to his door
and the chain was from inside,
so the house master
has to open it.
And--and he was laying there
on--on the floor,
just with shorts.
Yeah.
And I was...
- The call came in.
"Rob is dead."
I was like, "Wow."
And then I went into, like,
a state of shock.
And I didn't move for
a long time.
- I lost a family member.
I lost a brother.
I lost someone that was there
with me, walking in my shoes.
You know?
That's it.
When I went to Holland,
I was running away
from my past.
- He'd introduced himself
as Fabrice,
but I didn't know who he was.
He had such short hair,
and he has a different face
when he has short hair.
So in the beginning, actually,
when we were dating,
people were like,
"Hey, Tessa, hey, Tessa."
"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow,"
and, you know,
I was the one being recognized.
So there was no signs that
he was Milli Vanilli.
We had just fun together,
and we were working out
together,
and we had those dates.
I start to really
like this guy,
and you talk with
your friends about,
you know,
your new dating experience.
One of them said,
"Dude, that's Milli Vanilli.
Hello."
And I was like, "Well, OK.
"If that's Milli Vanilli, fine,
because I like Fabrice, so..."
- I didn't think she would,
like, want to be with me.
I had to tell her, "Listen,
my life is not great."
- I was like,
"Well, don't worry, you know?
I got you."
- You already, Sach?
Drum roll.
- One, two, and three.
Flip!
- Oh!
When Sacha came,
when Solange came,
and now Vince and Paris came,
then things started
flourishing all around me.
What?
- Hey, Sacha, look!
He's holding the bottle.
- That's a first.
Look at that.
- Cute.
- It's amazing
to realize that
there is another side
at the end of the tunnel.
- Together.
- Together?
- Pink.
- You want pink? OK.
It changed everything for me,
and that part was like,
"Hey..."
Well done, Sach.
"You don't have to be ashamed
about nothing."
- Because of the way
human beings and
their minds are built,
Milli Vanilli's legacy is
they deceived the public
and tried to get away with it,
and then they didn't.
But what it should be
is a cautionary tale.
- All of the answers about
how pop music is made
rest in this story.
What we want to believe
our pop musicians to be
versus what they actually are.
- Show business is all part of
an illusion.
- But that is what pop music
is supposed to do.
It's supposed to take us to
an elsewhere.
Even if we say, "These people
deceived the public,"
so fucking what?
Who was this harming?
- Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
I've met people that told me,
"Because of your voice,
my daughter's here today."
- It was such a big thing
for a lot of people.
- So many people went to their
high school prom with that.
That was good music,
and it's good music today.
- There's no real crime here,
if we're being honest.
But it cost a life.
It also cost both of them
lives that they could have had.
And the heartbreaking thing is
that their legacy then became
that of a punch line.
- There was a time when
I would avoid going in public
because when I heard someone
laugh,
I always thought it was
directed to me.
But now I've reached a point
where I've embraced the past.
I'm proud of being
Milli Vanilli.
I'm proud of being who I am.
We're going back down
memory lane with some more.
Woo
Got to blame it on
something
Got to blame it on something,
come on
Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
that didn't shine that night
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain,
yeah, yeah
When people think of
Milli Vanilli...
You can blame it
on the rain
The one thing I want people
to think of is that
when you fall...
And the rain don't care
You can stand back up.
You got to blame it
on something
Blame it on the rain
And Rob is part of that.
I am honoring his name
every time I perform onstage.
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
You fall, you stand back up,
and you reinvent yourself.
Yeah, yeah
That's the legacy.
Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
crowd:
Blame it on the stars
- That didn't shine
that night
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain
Yeah, yeah
- Baby, don't be shy
when you're holding my hand
'Cause as time goes by,
you got to understand
It's you
- That it's with you
- Ba-ba-ba-ba baby, in your
eyes I see it so clearly
That our love is so strong
and you never go wrong
- Baby
- I did the best for you
- So when you're in doubt
and you're needing someone
Baby, call my line,
call me anytime
- Baby
- I'll be there for you
I've been searching high
- High
- I've been searching low
Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
- Ba-ba-ba-ba,
ba-ba-ba-ba baby
- Love is stronger
than thunder
Ba-ba-ba-ba,
ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- I've been searching high
I've been searching low
Want to spend my life
With you
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
And I dance with you
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Love will see you through
Ba-ba-ba baby, in your eyes
I can it so good
That our love is so strong
and you never go wrong
- Baby
- I do my best for you
So when you're in doubt
and you're needing someone
Baby, call my line,
call me anytime
- Baby
- I'll be there for you
You, you
I've been searching high
- High
- I've been searching low
- Low
- Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
- Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
- Love is stronger
than thunder
Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- I've been searching high
I've been searching low
Want to spend my life
With you
- Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Love will see you through
- Baby, call my line,
baby, call my line
- Call me anytime
- Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- Is Eddie OK?
- I don't know.
- MTV
- We shouldn't concentrate too
much on superstar, you know?
It's a very dangerous thing
to talk about.
I know--I know a lot
of superstars...
- Yeah.
- And I look back
and I see--I don't see them
now, you know?
So the same could
happen with us.
Girl, you know it,
girl, you know it
Girl, you know it's true
- Milli Vanilli,
the striking European duo,
has made it big in America.
- First album went six times
platinum in 1989.
- It's quite a weird story.
One minute,
Milli Vanilli were there...
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli--
- Milli--
- Milli--
- Vanilli!
- And the next minute,
they weren't.
- New weasel boys of
the record world.
- Everybody participated,
but they were the scapegoats.
- Record companies are oddly
silent on the whole issue.
- People don't understand
the machine that is
underneath a pop act.
- We want to say thank you
to our producer.
- The evil genius,
I guess we could call him.
- If it wasn't for him,
this would not even take place.
- You get something,
but for that, you make
a pact with the devil.
- Imagine you have
everything...
- The fame, the fortune.
They were in a dream.
- And suddenly,
everybody turns against you
and you have nothing.
Overnight.
How do you handle that?
- It cost them everything.
- There is not another story
like this
in pop music history.
- It's been a while.
Oh!
Yeah, man, we were
young and fresh, man.
That's a normal tank top but
I think he just pulled on it.
You know, I mean,
we were fashion forward.
That was a big show in Germany.
Yeah, that was a cool vibe.
Hmm.
You know, Rob Pilatus doesn't
look right in this photo.
I can see the decline.
'Cause that's not
what Rob looked like
or was supposed to look like.
He was extremely strong,
but you can tell that
life took a toll on him.
Becoming friends
was inevitable.
I grew up in Paris.
When I turned 18,
I went to Munich, Germany,
ran out of money,
ended up being homeless for
a couple weeks.
It was cold so I had to
sleep in the train station,
but I was able to
get some jobs
teaching classes
with dance school,
'cause that was my background
in Paris.
And then one day,
I went to a party in Munich
and there he was,
Mr. Rob Pilatus.
He was a break-dancer.
He was onstage
doing the helicopter.
At the end,
when everybody gave him
his props and everything,
he saw me and he was like,
"Who the hell are you?
That's my turf!"
Because there were not
many Black people
in Munich at the time.
Rob and I were the only
dark-skinned people.
There were none.
Rob was older than me
by two years.
He had an infectious laugh--
Like, really loud, you know?
I was socially awkward.
You know, I was shy and
I was not fluent in German.
It was like big brother,
little brother.
He became my best friend.
But I felt like there was
something inside of him
that was--that was missing.
- Every time we talked about
that period of his life,
it was kind of like taboo,
but I understood his pain.
Growing up, my family
was so dysfunctional.
It was an abusive environment,
and I ran away.
So, just like me,
he was looking for a family.
We moved in together in
an attic of a friend of his.
Rob would take the bed,
I would take the sofa.
But there was, like,
a stereo system,
and that thing was on all day.
Music always
pulled us together.
We both liked dancing,
we were very social people,
so we started throwing
parties together.
And they were packed.
The girls were beautiful.
You know, we had a DJ,
and we brought the vibe.
You know, a circle
would be happening.
Rob doing break dancing,
and when he was done,
I would come in
and I would pop, lock,
bam, bam, bam!
And it brought
a lot of attention.
So we started doing shows
in this club, Piantz.
We loved to entertain
people, like,
make people like, "Aw, yeah!"
We loved that energy,
that roar,
and we wanna do more of this.
And the dream was to do
what we did in the club,
sing, perform, live the life,
to become the biggest pop stars
in the world!
- Hot girl, hot girl
I'm satisfaction, baby
Hot girl, hot girl
- We started dancing
for this TV show.
- Hot girl
We danced behind pop stars
of the '80s.
We ended up modeling as well.
We did some catalog.
We were making a lot of noise
in Munich at that time,
but it was like, how do
we get to the next level?
In order to become pop stars,
we had to have the look,
so we had to study
what makes a superstar.
And one thing we noticed was
the hair.
I know Elvis' hair.
I know Bob Marley's hair.
Marilyn Monroe.
Michael Jackson.
You could put, like, a shadow,
and you knew who that was.
We were like,
"Hell yeah, we're doing this."
And the hair came...
Like that.
Hoo!
The reactions were amazing.
Every time we went to
the clubs,
girls loved the hair,
loved the clothing--
they loved Rob and Fab.
- Go to the dance floor,
dansez
Voulez vous, dansez
- We put a band together,
Empire Bizarre...
- Hey
- And we played a few gigs.
We gave tapes to people.
We knew we were gonna be big.
- Dansez
- Since we were
spreading the word
of us getting into
the music industry,
we were starting to
get approached by people.
So one day, this guy came to
Rob and said, "Hey, you know,
we're gonna connect you with
Frank Farian."
Rob played cool to the dude,
but to me, he was like,
"Oh, my God!
Oh, Frank Farian!
You know this?" I didn't know.
Rob told me,
"Hey, Frank Farian,
he did Boney M."
I was like,
"Oh, wow, that's--that's big"
because Boney M., obviously,
was a huge group.
- There lived a certain man
in Russia long ago
- He was big and strong,
in his eyes a flaming glow
- Boney M. were a big hit
disco group in the '70s...
Boney M.!
- And they were huge worldwide.
- Huge!
- He could preach the Bible
like a preacher
Full of ecstasy
- Boney M. sold 80 million
records.
They had a number of
number one hits.
- "Rivers of Babylon."
- "Daddy Cool."
- "Sunny."
- I love the song "Ma Baker."
- Ra, ra, Rasputin.
- Ra, ra, Rasputin,
lover of the Russian queen
- A bananas song
and it's about Rasputin.
- Mysterious figure
in czarist Russia.
- When you watch video
of Boney M.
and you see Bobby Farrell,
you're like,
"Wow, that dude is awesome."
- It was on the radio,
at parties.
- Boney M. made music that
you could dance to
and get drunk to and have fun.
- But how did you four people
get together to form Boney M.?
- Well, it all came about from
our producer Frank Farian.
- If you work with
Frank Farian,
that's a high level guy.
We realized that this could be
the one we've been waiting for,
so we went to Frankfurt.
Frank Farian's
compound was huge.
And when they opened the door,
we were greeted by all those
gold records on the wall,
and it was amazing.
It was the kind of stuff that
you saw with Quincy Jones.
100 tracks, Neve console,
microphones.
It was incredible!
Frank and his secretary,
Ingrid Segieth,
they said,
"We're working on a project
and we're thinking that
you could be good for it,"
if we were interested.
Hell, yeah, we were interested.
Ingrid brought in
the recording contract,
and we never really
attempted to read it.
We were not trying to say no
to this powerful producer.
Also, we would get, like,
1,500 deutschmark each,
and we were like,
"Oh, hell yeah. Where? OK."
When we signed that contract,
we toasted.
We were, like, breaking bread.
But then Frank leaned over
to Rob and told him,
"Don't fuck with me.
Don't ever fuck with me."
Several months went by.
They never gave us
any information.
That was driving us crazy.
Like, why don't
they tell us, like,
a date where we can come
to do the vocals,
or like, when do
we get started?
Finally, Ingrid called.
"Come to studio.
It's gonna be good."
Oh, man, we were pumped.
We went straight to
the studio.
And then once everyone is
in the room,
he plays a tune.
I couldn't believe that
this music was for us.
I saw colors.
I saw us onstage
singing in front of a crowd.
And then when
the music stopped...
It was like, wow.
You could still
hear those bells--
ding, ding, ding, ding.
He turned, and then,
you know, "folgen Sie mir."
You know, "follow me."
- It felt serious.
And then we end up
in this dark room.
Rob and Frank start talking
really fast in German,
so I can't really understand
everything,
but I can tell, like,
it's getting intense.
Like, they raise their voices.
Rob is looking at me with
his green eyes.
Like, he looks pissed.
Frank leaves and screams,
and then Rob turns to me,
saying,
"They don't want us to sing
on this record."
And I'm like, like--
So, I'm trying to speak.
I'm trying to talk to him
and trying to get
as much information,
but he was like,
"Just wait, wait.
"They don't want us to sing!
They want us to
lip-sync the song."
I'm like, "What?"
Why in the hell?
Like, he's playing us a song.
I'm trying to understand,
like, what do you mean?
I don't get it.
And that's where I--I--
I black out.
I remember thinking,
"This is weird.
Like, we don't want to
lip-sync."
That's when Ingrid
gave us the options.
What she conveyed to us
clearly is that
we signed the contract,
we got money--
if we didn't want to
take part,
we have to pay them back.
But Ingrid said,
"It's not just the advance
that we paid you,
"but also all the money that
we gave you
through the months."
We developed a debt
towards Frank Farian.
We were scared as hell.
I was 21 years old
and Rob was 24.
We had nowhere to go.
So we thought,
OK, it's one song.
You do that and you're out.
- Sunny
Yesterday, my life was
filled with rain
Sunny
You smiled at me and
really eased the pain
Sunny
Hold on.
I should not be so funny.
Serious.
This is serious.
Thank you, schatzi.
- Interview, "Milli."
Take one.
Camera A and B, mark.
- I've heard that
the name Milli Vanilli
is because of you.
- Oh.
- Is that true?
- That's true.
I was Frank's girlfriend.
I wrote the checks because
I was the financial controller
of Frank's company.
When they came into
the studio,
they looked fantastic.
I never saw people like that
so well-dressed
and good-looking and braids,
and Rob's eyes, green--
You couldn't stop
looking at him.
But they were
such good dancers.
- Frank needed American singer
like me.
He said,
"I'm gonna make a project
and you'll be the lead singer."
I said, "OK, let's do it."
- I'm from Houston, Texas.
Frank says,
"I have a new project.
Can you rap it?"
He wrote me a check
for $12,000.
Just keep your mouth shut.
- Frank said, "Linda, we're
gonna need backing vocalists."
So I brought in
my twin sister Jodie.
- And I looked at her, I said,
"If this is 'oohs' and 'ahs'
and 'I love you,'
I'm gonna shoot you."
- I said, "Shut up."
He hits it, he says,
"I want you to sing this."
both: Ooh, ooh, ooh
- I love you
- I said, "Don't say it!"
The song is ready,
and the two guys--perfect.
- When they're told
they're gonna lip-sync,
what's their reaction?
- No problem at all.
They agreed and said,
"OK, when can we start?"
It was never an--an--
an argument.
Never ever. Never!
- So you didn't have to
convince them to lip-sync?
- No! Why?
They want to have success
and...
- Was there ever
a point you said,
give us the advance back
that we gave you.
- Gosh.
- No.
- No?
- No.
- You didn't ask--
- No, no, no.
This is not Frank's art--
artwork, yeah.
If they would refuse,
they can go back to Munich
and can...
go for...
or something like that.
Well, I, uh...
The first time I went to share
my side, uh,
I was young.
And if you're a young artist,
you can only tell what
they want you to tell.
But now, fuck it.
I ain't keeping
my mouth shut for nobody.
Frank Farian, he was just a--
a genius of his art
of making money.
He knew exactly
what he was doing.
You know,
it's not the first time.
The same game was played with
Boney M.
Bobby was not a singer.
He was a dancer.
He was a dancer.
- And who sung?
Frank.
- And it sold
how many platinums,
how many golds,
you know what I'm saying?
- You're looking at him as
a producer
that made most his money
on Black artists,
and it worked.
Then years later, he came back
and did it again
with Milli Vanilli.
He took my voice,
he took their faces,
he put the project together,
he put it on the market,
and he got rich off it.
- Milli Vanilli was delivered
by Frank Farian,
and we were the distributor.
We only saw the pictures of
the both guys and the song.
Was nice-looking guys.
Internationally, they could be
sold because they were colored
and everything was--every--
it fits together.
The product was great.
The music was great.
The whole project is fantastic.
- No, we didn't know it.
I got tapes where--
me, I was told that
it's Rob and Fab singing.
- One day,
we're at a friend's house
watching "Formel Eins,"
this TV show...
- And then we see
Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli,
"Girl You Know It's True."
- Our name on television
on "Formel Eins."
We used to dance
behind the stars
who would come on this show,
and suddenly,
we're in the charts.
I mean, we went crazy.
Running, like,
we even broke stuff.
The song starts to blow up,
and it happens so fast.
Like, every week,
it was going up.
Boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, pow!
- And the song just takes off.
It becomes a huge hit
in Germany.
- Nobody knew
it was gonna be a hit.
Not even Frank.
But once he's seen
it was rising,
then he started putting
more promotion into it.
- Suddenly,
we were in "Bravo,"
a youth magazine in Germany,
selling millions every week.
People that were not
taking us seriously
were suddenly like, "Hey."
And now it's going through
Europe.
So we travel up and down Europe
on television.
We were nervous.
"Can you drop your mic
a little bit?"
No, I'm gonna keep it there.
But nervousness translated
into excitement.
A minute ago,
we didn't want to do this,
but now, we want more.
We were so pumped.
You're in Italy,
you're in Spain,
you're in Holland.
- And then all of a sudden,
it hits the States.
Bam.
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
And when you pack a smile
in everything you do
Don't you understand, girl,
this love is true
- They came in,
braids swinging...
- Chest bumping...
with tights on.
- It was two Black dudes
with dreads coming into pop.
That alone was
the shock factor.
- Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- The hair and the bandannas
and the shoulder pads.
- Yes, you know it's true
- It was a totally
different style.
both:
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- That's all we knew.
- They had it all.
Like, their visuals were
on point.
- I mean, they were
just eye candy.
It was yummy, yummy, yummy.
- "Girl You Know It's True"
becomes the number two hit
in the United States.
- "Girl You Know It's True,"
number two.
Oh, my God.
- It became a top five hit in
23 countries around the world.
That's Michael Jackson
level success.
- Ah!
- Great music, it just rises.
When those special ones come,
they come.
- As much as it wasn't
the right thing to do,
the power of
"Girl You Know It's True"...
I'm so in love, girl
Was pulling on us.
I'm so in love, girl
This energy, this hype...
- Do you want to party?
The love...
So from that point on,
we embraced the lie.
- What's up?
- Running.
- Yeah.
Number one.
- Every time we were
around people
or, like, taking pictures...
- OK.
- We knew,
you know, you know.
They don't know.
Do they know? I don't know.
- But it was too difficult to
say no to this new life.
"Girl You Know It's True"
just unveiled the beast in us.
- Yeah.
- We came from nothing
and now we were tasting
this pop star life.
To be adored, to be loved,
that became very addictive.
- I was nervous.
Being caught was something that
was always, always very aware.
- So, when will we have
your LP?
- Gonna come out in two weeks.
It's just like very pop
dance orientated music.
Are you ready here?
- For us, it was a surprise
that it developed immediately.
It was worthwhile thinking
about what you can do.
Do we need an album?
Yes, we need an album.
Do we need a second single?
Yes, we need a second single.
- I get the call.
"Frank needs to talk to you."
So I goes up to the studio,
Ingrid opened the door,
I go in.
Sit in the kitchen and wait.
He came out--took his time,
fixed him a coffee--
and then he said,
"I told you,
keep your mouth shut."
He says to me, um,
"They found out in Munich,
"from your promotion manager
or whoever,
"that you're the voice.
Don't want to
see you here anymore."
We didn't talk anymore.
That's it.
I was kicked to the curb.
- One night,
Frank Farian called me up.
He said, "John, I've got
a project I'm working on."
"I had a rapper, Charles Shaw,
who tried the situation
and he was not good so
can you come to the studio?"
So that's what I did.
He said,
"You got 10,000 D-marks,"
and I said, "Wow."
He said, "You're gonna do
the whole album with me."
- Frank said, "We're gonna be
doing more songs."
- We always asked,
"Where is Rob and Fab?
When are they gonna
start singing?"
Frank said, "They're gonna
record in the evening
when you guys are done."
- I used to have to go through
the back door
because Frank didn't want
nobody know
I was the lead singer.
- This is run like
a tight military operation.
It's on a need-to-know basis.
It was smoke and mirrors.
David Copperfield
couldn't have done it better.
We like it hot, don't we?
You want to get down with
Milli Vanilli?
They're coming.
It's a hit. Shake your booty.
"Girl You Know It's True."
- One, mark.
- Mark.
- Make sure everyone's phone's
on silent.
- That's a good idea.
- Clive is a--
is a gift-seeker.
He is like the Yoda of talent.
He knows.
He just knows.
- With Milli Vanilli,
Clive saw dollar signs.
"Girl You Know It's True"
is big now.
How can we cash in on
the immediate moment?
- Well, we moved everything up
as fast as possible.
- Clive would say every week
that we're missing,
we're missing, like,
a million dollars.
So we had to put
an album in motion.
But the album that's out
in Europe, "All or Nothing,"
was not strong enough
to release in America.
- Clive called up
Diane Warren.
- Diane Warren is one of
the biggest songwriters
there are in the country.
- I had written
"Blame It On The Rain"
when I was scheduled
to see Clive,
and he goes, I want you to
hear this new group I have.
And he played me
"Girl You Know It's True."
I'm like, "This is so crazy
"'cause the song
I'm bringing you
really sounds like
the follow-up to that."
It's even the same rhythm.
"Girl You Know It's True,"
"Blame It On The Rain."
I played him the song
and he loved it.
He sent it to Frank Farian
and they recorded it.
- Normally,
when you've given the producer
some repertoire
for them to record,
you want to be there
to make sure it gets done.
In the case of Frank, though,
he didn't want anyone
in the studio.
- It was very weird for us
to find the songs,
send them to Frank,
and then have them produce it
without any of our presence.
But the speculation that
we were somehow aware of
what was going on
behind the scenes in Germany
is simply not the case.
If an outside producer sends
in all the album credits,
you have to take it on faith
that represents what actually
happened in the studio.
There was no reason
to think not.
- Ah, there it is.
So this is the European version
of the album "All or Nothing."
You see Rob and Fab on
the cover, the first album.
That's their, like,
running man logo.
There they are on the back,
shirtless, of course,
'cause why not?
And let's see
who's credited on this album.
So it says musicians here,
and I don't see Rob and Fab
on here at all.
So, backing vocals, Jodie and
Linda Rocco, Charles Shaw--
produced by Frank Farian.
But this is the truth
in advertising version
that doesn't have them on it.
If I'm at a record label and
I'm putting out this record,
and I look at the vocalists and
the guys who are on the cover
are not listed in
the liner notes,
I'm gonna have some questions,
you know?
Like, that is a giant
red flag for me.
- That was the name of
the European album.
- Really?
OK. I didn't know that.
So that's--
I--
I don't know what to say
to that.
- Yeah, but we didn't
release that record, so--
- Really? I forgot about that.
- Woo, blame it on the rain
- Rain
- Yeah, yeah
Blame it on the stars
- Stars
- Ooh
- Rob Pilatus, my brother,
he loved "Blame It On The Rain"
because that was--
that was his thing.
- You said you
didn't need her
- "Blame It On The Rain" is
number one hit in 1989.
- They released "Baby Don't
Forget My Number," number one.
- "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"
is the third number one song.
They have three number one
smashes off that record.
- That feels impossible.
- To satisfy your pride
- And once you have
three big hit singles,
you're gonna sell
a lot of albums.
- If an artist sells 500,000
and went gold, that's terrific.
- You let her walk away
- If an artist sells a million
albums, that's something.
- Got to blame it on
something
- But 8 million?
- It's one of the biggest
debuts of all time.
- Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
that didn't shine that night
- To just come out of nowhere
and have a number one
debut album for seven weeks,
well, that just was unheard of
at the time.
- Blame it on the rain,
yeah, yeah
- Debut album,
hot right out of the gate.
"Here's Milli Vanilli.
What do you want to do
with it?"
Well, we want to play it.
We want to dance to it.
We want to have fun with them.
Can we get them in the studio?
We want to meet them.
- Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
- At that point,
what are we gonna do?
Should we bring them over?
Should they do the MTV tour?
Then that all kicks in.
- Blame it on the rain
- Labels saw we were growing
in the charts in America.
- Blame it on the rain
- Our presence was needed.
But Frank didn't want us
to go to America.
- Frank was apprehensive
because of the big secret,
obviously.
- Frank was concerned that
they would go to America
and fuck up everything.
- America had our heart.
"We want to go to the US.
USA! USA!"
Coming to LA for us was like
we're living the dream,
we're doing things.
- A'ight?
- Kick it.
- Hollywood, Malibu.
The girls are hot there, too.
Oof.
- Cold coolin' at a bar
- We got a manager,
Sandy Gallin...
- But like
Mick Jagger said
- He was like a big player.
- I can't get
no satisfaction
- He had Michael Jackson
at the time,
Dolly Parton--tons of people.
That's why he had us,
to handle people like
Milli Vanilli.
- Funky Cold Medina
- I was truly,
in the beginning, a fan.
I said to them,
"You know, I've never been
a manager before,"
and Rob said, "Well, we've
never been pop stars before."
I was like, "OK, here we go."
My first job was putting them
on the MTV tour.
- It was gonna be
our first tour in America--
a 107 city tour
in eight months--
so we had to put
a band together.
- I was the band leader then.
We had rehearsed,
we were flawless.
Everybody was really
invested in this gig
'cause it was
the new hottest shit, you know?
After we had been approved,
Rob and Fab disappeared.
They were gone.
So we were just rehearsing
with no artist.
And I start going, "These guys
must be really, really good.
"They don't rehearse,
they don't fucking do nothing.
They--
what the hell's going on?"
We started asking
more questions.
We got to realize, this musical
director at the time
is programming this Oberheim.
There's where the vocals are.
And then we understood,
"Oh, they're lip-syncing."
So we said, "OK, we're in
a lip-sync band."
They said, "Don't say anything
about this to anybody else."
"Fine."
- The show would play
to packed arenas.
Rob and Fab were two sexy
performers selling hits,
and they did a really
bloody good job at it.
- Yeah!
Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
Yes, you know it's true
- The audience loved them.
- Yeah!
- It was very powerful.
- Girl, you know it's,
girl, you know it's
Girl, you know it's true
Girl, you know it's,
yes, you know it's
Girl, you know it's true
- Performing is a drug.
That euphoric feeling allowed
us to just forget everything.
- Milli Vanilli,
the European duo,
now one of the hottest
groups in America,
made a special trip to the
Disney MGM Studios theme parks
where we arranged
for them to have
an exclusive interview session
with some of
their most loyal fans.
- Wherever you've performed,
has anything really
embarrassing happened to you?
- Yeah.
- It was super hot that day.
"Downtown" Julie Brown
introduces us as usual.
- I decided to take a break--
the show had been going now
for a few months--
and it was while
I was in my trailer
I heard the crowd, like,
getting a little bit rowdy.
- The vocals that were
being cued from the emulator
started repeating.
Girl, you know it's--
Girl, you know it's--
girl, you know it's--
Girl, you know it's--
It was like--
Shit!
- As I open my door,
I saw Rob go flying by.
- Rob and Fab were gone,
and I'm onstage still with
the guitar player and the
drummer going "What the fuck?
Do we continue the song on
or what are we doing here?"
So, of course,
there was outrage.
I was furious.
"What the fuck, you know?
Find him!"
- Rob was pissed.
He was like, "Fuck that!"
He lost his cool.
- Rob had gotten hold of me
to say,
"I don't know what to do."
You know, he was scared.
He kind of exploded.
It was the moment where
it just burst open.
And at that time,
we didn't know
what pressure he was feeling
because we didn't know
the load they were carrying.
- On the rain
that was falling
- When Milli Vanilli blew up,
I was a program director at
WILD radio station, Boston.
1090 on the AM dial.
The only Black station
within miles
of Boston, Massachusetts.
The guys came to our radio
station for our morning show.
And I remember
them sitting there,
and when I heard them talk
for the first time,
I'm like,
"Oh, they sound very different
than they do on the record."
- Please welcome Milli Vanilli.
- Once they started doing
promotional dates,
it became pretty clear
that something was strange.
- Fab, how are you
finding Australia?
You enjoying it?
Sydney?
Syd-ney. Syd-ney.
Melbourne. Melbourne.
- It just seemed that
they weren't comfortable
communicating in English.
- Who inspired you
the most, Rob?
- Uh, diff--difficult.
- You could tell
they were sweating bullets.
People were starting to,
you know,
giggle a little bit
on the sides.
- Fab, you speak English,
right?
- Yeah, I can, too.
- Who are your--
- And it was easy to
kind of latch on to that
and make them a joke.
- You are Germany,
and I'm from French.
Oh.
- There's a way that
I think some people knew.
Blame it on the rain
- Arsenio Hall is someone who
had been around the business
a long time and had seen a lot.
- Man, I think Milli Vanilli
doing crack.
I don't think--
- It seemed bad to
a lot of these folks.
- Those pants too tight.
They going--
- They knew something was up.
- Privately, I thought, like,
you know, "Did they really
sing everything?"
- Girls!
crowd: Girls!
- Hey, boys!
crowd: Hey, boys!
- Yeah!
crowd: Yeah!
- Girl, you know it's--
girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
- We didn't sing on
those records.
- Don't you understand, girl,
this love is true
- We didn't even sound like
those records.
We were lying.
Lies are taking the elevators
while the truth
takes the stairs.
I knew that at some point,
the truth would rise.
They were gonna catch us
at some point or another.
This load on our shoulders,
it was getting heavy and heavy
and heavy.
- I was a little bit
tired by it, yeah.
- We drank more,
took more drugs,
to be able to, like, numb out.
- I think next time,
next time, maybe--
should we ask them to sing
next time?
- Um...
This, uh..
- They got double platinum.
They got gold records.
Everybody else got
a gold record of my voice
on their walls.
That's my voice!
You end up drinking,
you end up taking drugs
to not think about
what's really happening
in reality.
Then my manager that I had
at that time said,
"Well, you know what?
We're gonna do interviews.
You're gonna go live."
I was singing before
Milli Vanilli
even thought about
becoming stars.
I went abroad and said it
in a TV show,
it's my voice.
Music is from Frank Farian
and not from Milli Vanilli.
And Frank denied it all.
His words were--I can
remember them to the day--
"This artist is a liar.
"Look the way he's dressed.
"The Black guy.
He's just trying to
make money."
- Ingrid!
She said,
"Frank don't want you to be
"talking out there to nobody.
Keep your mouth shut."
"How could you say that?
You're just trying
to get publicity."
Milli Vanilli fans?
Oh, man.
Death threats.
"Your next show, this and this
is gonna happen to you."
- The phone rang and
it was Charles Shaw.
And I didn't know who he was,
and he said, "I'm the real
singer of Milli Vanilli
and you have to help me."
So I called Sandy right away
and I said, "I just got this
weird call from this guy.
He says he's the real voice."
"Ah, just a crazy person.
Just ignore it."
- It didn't interest anybody.
You get tired of trying to
lead a jackass to water
and make him drink it.
- People wanted to believe
they are really singing
these songs
because it was
a good production.
It was entertainment.
- It's a magic trick pulled
off in front of you onstage,
and the audience usually
wants to be deceived
in a magic show.
So if everyone benefits
from a scam like that,
including the audience,
it's very easy to
look the other way.
- Everyone got his bonus,
everyone was happy to be
successful,
and the people are happy to
have this record.
We all together were in
a very nice flow of success.
- Mo-mo-mo-money rules
the world
It's still
the same old greed
- Successful music is
a great money machine.
- Their videos are hot,
their songs are hot.
- Singles, albums,
maxi singles...
- Buy it now.
- The album made
$580 million.
They had sold approximately
46 million records, global.
There was merchandise,
keychains,
ticket sales to the concerts.
- It's Milli Vanilli.
Milli Vanilli!
What a show. What a night.
- We're going to
a Milli Vanilli concert.
- They could've recorded
the alphabet, the phonebook.
You name it,
they were selling it.
- Their logo is
the running man
and it symbolizes
the pursuit of success.
If they do any better
next year,
they're gonna have
to find a new logo.
- At that time,
Frank Farian was worth
almost half a billion.
- Money rules the world and
don't you love that cash?
- They continued to steamroll
through the end of the year.
- And the winner is...
Milli Vanilli.
- They won three
American Music Awards...
- Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli!
- This train was moving.
- Thank you to our producer,
Frank Farian,
to our manager, Sandy Gallin.
- We'd like to thank
Clive Davis.
- Money rules the world
- Arista, BMG,
they were cashing in
the bucks.
- Money, money
- And the whole thing with
Milli Vanilli
would have kept going if
they had not been nominated
for the Grammys.
- Well, because--
no, but, see,
most everybody knew
the secret, and I didn't.
They never told me this,
so I just assumed they sang,
you know?
So we're at a conference
meeting and I said,
"I think Milli Vanilli could
get nominated for a Grammy."
I thought "Blame It On
The Rain" was a Grammy song.
They laughed at me and
they're like, "Trust me,
Milli Vanilli's never gonna
get nominated for a Grammy."
So I called
National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences.
They put me right through
to Mike Greene's office,
the president of NARAS.
I had no idea how somebody
actually does get nominated,
and he said,
"Oh, you just put it on
"your management company
letterhead,
'please consider
Milli Vanilli for a Grammy.'"
So I typed it up and faxed it
off to the Academy.
Never thought another thing
about it.
So when that ballot came out
and Milli Vanilli was on it,
like, just everything
hit the fan.
Clive called Sandy
and threw a hissy fit,
and then Sandy called me
absolutely furious,
like, "Look what you've done!"
I'm like,
"why doesn't anybody want them
to have a Grammy award?"
- If Milli Vanilli had
been nominated for
the lip-sync awards,
that would've been fine,
but they got nominated for
this prestigious musical award
and they were up against
people who produce music
and write music and sing.
They were up against
the Indigo Girls...
- Closer I am to fine
- This incredible folk duo
who sang
these beautiful, deep songs.
They were up against Tone Loc.
- Funky Cold Medina
- Tone Loc made brilliantly
constructed records,
full of incredibly clever
rhythmic artifice.
- Sweetness
- Neneh Cherry, who had
a really interesting debut
album and had a lot to say.
- We always hang in
a buffalo stance
- Back to life
- Soul II Soul changed
the way R&B music sounded.
They changed the way
music moved.
- And so, if I'm one of those
artists,
I'm like, "These guys?"
- We knew that the Grammys
were the highest standard.
Then here we were,
you know, Rob and Fab.
Not only that,
they want us to perform live.
- I thought, how the hell are
they going to do the Grammys
when it's all live?
Live-sing.
- Michael Greene was
the head of NARAS at the time.
I remember taking a picture
with him, and him saying,
"Be sure you do it right
tonight."
Money, money, money
makes the world go 'round.
- We're at the Shrine.
I remember getting out
of the car and going in.
On that day, it was pressure.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Mike Greene.
- Thank you.
This is a great night
for music!
- Yeah, boy!
- All the stars are
in the building.
- Woo-hoo!
- Finally, it was our turn
to be on that stage.
Cold sweat.
- Well, girl,
you know it's true.
It can only mean Milli Vanilli.
- Hit it!
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
And when you pack a smile
in everything you do
- Performing in front of
the Grammys
with all those artists,
that was nerve wracking.
- And this is true
- Girl, you know it's true
- All those people who spent
years of their lives
to get to this point,
and we got here pretty fast.
- I remember sitting there,
and I think the entire industry
knew at that time
that it wasn't them singing.
That was great.
I was actually--I was supposed
to be in that number.
I don't know what--
- When he called out
the nominees,
you know, it was like, "Man."
- This year, the nominees for
Best New Artist
are making all kinds of music.
- Each one of them express
themself in a unique way
that commands attention.
- Now, the nominees for
Best New Artist are...
- Do Rob and Fab
deserve the Grammy?
- Neneh Cherry.
- That's a tough one.
We didn't sing on
the record, so...
- Indigo Girls.
- No.
But...
- Milli Vanilli.
- For the pain and everything
that we suffered...
- Soul II Soul.
- And the hard work that
we put into,
do we deserve it?
- Tone Loc.
- A very small part of me
says yes.
- And the Best New Artist is...
- Rob and Fab deserved
the Grammy.
- Milli Vanilli.
"Oh, my God."
Frank goes,
"Now, everybody's watching."
- Uh, we want to say
thank you very much,
but we want to say
there are a lot of artists
here in this room,
there are a lot of artists
outside in the world
who could 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.
- It was a joke
that went too far.
And once they crossed
that line into
something that
people really care about,
that was the beginning of
the end for Rob and Fab.
- Once they won the Grammy...
Once they won the Grammy,
they hung they selves.
- The afterparty
for the Grammys,
oh, man, we were already faded.
I remember having to listen
to Mr. Clive Davis.
We were so high
that it took a lot of energy
to just keep the stuff
together.
- Frankly, Rob and Fab didn't
do themselves any favors.
They were just acting arrogant
and, frankly, obnoxious.
"I have no time.
Who's Paul McCartney?"
- When they won,
Rob and Fab were way up here,
these big stars that
just won a Grammy.
And the bigger they got,
the more celebrity
they became.
They had to have Avin
in the limousine,
sushi in the dressing room.
- They wanted for nothing.
- The stardom made them crazy.
- Rob said, "Oh,
can you turn on my voice?"
And Frank said,
"It's not your voice!"
Believe it.
It's Brad Howell's voice.
- He was singing with
my voice during playback
and believing
that's his own voice.
They were believing this.
- They started to forget
the reality
that they didn't sing.
- So they were doing
this interview one time
and they said they were better
than The Beatles.
Think about waking up
every day and knowing that
you don't sing
any of the vocals,
and then saying you're better
than The Beatles.
I mean, that takes, like,
giant stones.
You've really gotta believe
your own bullshit to say that.
They got caught up in it.
- At that point, they thought
they had the power,
and they did, to some degree.
They said, you know,
"We're in control now."
Millions and millions of
dollars were at stake
and people depended on them.
Frank depended on them.
Clive depended on them.
Everybody depended on
Milli Vanilli doing their job.
- Frank Farian was already
preparing album number two,
"Keep On Running,"
and they wanted us
to get back to Germany to go
promote the second album.
But Rob and Fab were done.
We wanted to sing.
We wanted to come out
as singers.
- At Arista,
we had a weekly luncheon
in the conference room.
One day, Clive got a call and
he walked into the kitchen.
And then came back out
and he goes,
"They want to sing on
the second album."
And I remember him saying,
"That's not gonna happen."
"Oh, but I would like to sing."
"Yeah, Rob, it's impossible.
"You cannot sing and
Fab cannot sing,
so please stop talking."
- We couldn't continue
to be his marionette.
Hey, listen.
Done with this.
So we started to lawyer up,
and then that's when
we found out
we signed a contract
for multiple albums.
We had no clue.
So to get out of under
the thumb of Frank Farian,
we played a game
of cat and mouse.
Our MO was to hurt him.
Let's push him to a brink
where he's gonna break,
and then he's gonna say,
"You know what? I'm tired.
Go away."
You know, we didn't show up
to the video of
"Keep On Running."
And we told him,
"More money. More money."
He's like,
"No, I'm not doing that!
What else do you want?"
They told Frank,
"If you don't give us 150,000,
"we will go to the producer
and telling them that
we are not the guys
who singing on the tape."
- The story broke in
"The Los Angeles Times"
and all hell broke loose.
- Frank threw Rob and Fab
under the bus.
- I knew it from the start,
you would break my heart
But still, I had to play
this painful part
You wrapped me around
your little bitty finger
- He basically brushed it off
and said,
"You know, yeah,
they didn't sing..."
- I just don't know
what I should do
- "And who cares?"
- Very quickly after that,
the whole train
came off the tracks.
- It's a tragedy for me
to see the dream is over
And I never will forget
the day we met
Girl, I'm gonna miss you
- The pop music world's
in shock tonight--
- With the revelation that
pop duo--
- Milli Vanilli didn't sing.
- So, girl, you know
it's not true.
Well, I am shocked.
- It was the lead-in story
on all the news.
- More embarrassment today
for the pop singing group
Milli Vanilli.
- Milli Vanilli turns out to be
a lot of phony baloney.
- And it didn't just
hit America;
it hit worldwide.
- One pop group this week
has been involved in
a feverish controversy.
- And then NARAS got involved.
- There's too many doubts
that have been cast now
for us not to go forward and
try to find out the truth.
The credibility of
the Grammy depends on it.
- Having to give back
their Grammy,
it's the only time that has
happened in music history.
- There was no recovering
from that.
The only way that that could be
ridden was to own it.
- Robert Pilatus
and Fabrice Morvan.
- Come together. Come together.
- Come together, guys!
- Right here! Right here!
- Right here.
- Straight ahead.
- Fabrice and me,
we lived together in a project
with two other musicians
in Munich.
We--we had nothing to eat.
We weren't happy.
We wanted to be stars.
We want to get up on top.
So suddenly, this guy gave us
a chance and we took it.
He gave us a little bit money.
- We were young, naive,
and we believed him.
It was an opportunity for us.
- We feel really, really sorry
about our fans,
but we just hope that they
understand that we were young,
that we just wanted to live
the life the American way.
- Of course.
Yeah.
- You're absolutely right.
I was seduced.
You have to understand
we were seduced,
we were abused,
and we felt very guilty,
and we're happy that
it's over, you know?
We don't understand
that it's us,
the two little guys
from Germany,
the victims who has
to play suddenly
the crux of a trial
that we are not.
- I will describe it like this.
You get something,
but for that, you make
a pact with the devil.
- I think you should
go with this tape.
We give you each a tape.
You can take it to
a scientist--
- But you could--
- OK, I demonstrate!
Fuck it. I do it. Let's do it.
Girl, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
- I'm in love with you, girl,
'cause you're on my mind
You're the one I think about
most every time
When you crack a smile
in everything you do
- Yeah, I understand--
I really understand them.
I have to say
I understand them.
- That's a good question, but--
- A lot of your fans--
a lot of your fans will be
very upset by the fact
that the only way
you can explain the charade,
the farce, the fakery of
the last year, two years,
is money.
- It's not.
This is fame--
- There's no other reason.
That's the only pressure
that Farian put on you,
was financial--
- Do you live in a project?
Did you live in a project?
We had no money,
we wanted to be stars.
We think we are talented.
We love to be onstage.
That's our first aim.
It wasn't money.
If we wouldn't have accept that
at the start,
we knew we would be
still in Munich.
I would still work at
the McDonalds.
- OK, thank you very much.
- Thank you very much.
- They ate 'em up like sharks.
- They were
the town spectacle.
- New weasel boys of
the record world.
Did you know they were exposed
for not actually appearing on
their Grammy-award winning
record album?
- They do not sing...
- Do not sing on it at all.
- On their own record.
- Ooh, ooh, ooh,
you are through
- The response was swift
and it was harsh.
They stopped playing on radio,
Arista Records took it
out of circulation,
and then, to top it all off,
there were, like, two dozen
class action lawsuits
from fans who were just pissed.
- A California woman who
bought the album for her son
is suing to get a refund.
- When I listened to the music,
I would sort of picture them
singing,
and that's--that's how
I looked up to them.
- They sued them for fraud
and racketeering.
- Listen carefully
to this important message
about a pending
Milli Vanilli lawsuit
that may affect your rights.
- I remember being surprised
by the animosity,
and the amount of anger
behind that
seemed outsized
for what happened.
- I mean, Milli Vanilli,
to be clear,
had a largely white audience,
so a part of the betrayal
that was felt was,
"I can't believe
I listened to these Black guys
singing these songs and
it really wasn't them."
- You're gonna have
a movie now,
"The Milli Vanilli Story."
Is that beautiful?
I play Fab, one of the dudes
in Milli Vanilli.
- Girl, I love you
- I love you
- It was really ugly to see
that sort of hostility
directed at Rob and Fab.
- Rob Pilatus told
"The LA Times" that
his family back in Germany was
getting harassed as well.
- Management was gone.
Label was gone.
- No representative of
a major record company
would discuss them with CNN
on camera.
- Frank came out of it
unscathed.
- Rob and Fab deserved to
be called out, certainly.
But it was weird that
people didn't come down on
Frank and Arista and Clive
in the way that
you would think.
There was plausible
deniability, I think,
for Arista, anyway.
I mean, it was easy for them
to say, "We didn't know,"
and nobody could prove that
they knew it,
so they got off the hook.
- I mean,
I just know personally,
that we knew before
the Grammys,
so there's no--there was
no question about it.
- Yeah, maybe six months
before.
"Why didn't anybody from
the label speak out,"
is that what you're asking me?
- Yeah.
- That's a--
that's a good question.
I mean, I can't--
I have to answer truthfully,
and I would have to say that,
that, yeah, I believe that
Clive felt that this
not only wasn't good
for Arista,
but wasn't really good for
his reputation
and for his, you know, history.
- The record company and
industry has all of the power,
so they're gonna use
everything they can
to point the direction at
Rob and Fab.
"Don't look at,
we sold these million records.
"Don't look at the fact that
someone inside of our industry
"had to have known
this was going on.
"No, it's these two guys
who barely speak English.
It's their fault."
- Not only did Frank have
no problem
exploiting Rob and Fab,
but he also seemed to
think them foolish
and beneath him.
And just like his lineage of
treating Black artists as
disposable,
he chose to get what he needed
and disposed of them.
- We regret it.
- We regretted it...
200,000 times.
Lying in front of my mom,
lying in front of the job.
- Everybody.
- Lying in front of everybody.
- They were young,
just like me,
looking to achieve something
in the music branch,
just like me.
So what do you do?
You followed the light,
but it's the wrong light.
At the end of the tunnel,
the light goes out,
and what happens?
Don't nobody care.
It's just another scandal.
- And the number one new job
for Milli Vanilli, "Who cares?
Just as long as we don't
hear from them ever again."
- Just when you thought
there couldn't possibly be
another twist to the story--
- So, you know,
the thing about Frank,
he's always a step ahead
of everybody, right?
He had already recorded
the second record,
and he dropped it,
like, right after
this whole thing blew up.
- Frank Farian called me up
and said,
"John, now you and Brad are
gonna be stars of the show."
Elaborate on the microphone
Pumping some knowledge
'cause my brain ain't stoned
- It's called
The Real Milli Vanilli,
"The Moment of Truth."
But again,
it's all another facade.
This guy was never
in the band.
He's just another guy
who Frank recruited.
- That girl had nothing to
do with the first album,
she had nothing to do with
the second album.
- We are still on that album,
Jodie and I.
But Frank said, no touring,
no video, no being seen.
- Listen to what he says
- "Linda, hope you understand.
"I have a certain
look that I want.
You're not Black."
- I'm not into bragging,
strutting, or bigotry
Or bigotry
- Don't ask me how I felt.
Well, go ahead, ask me.
- Yeah, how did you feel?
- I felt horrible!
- Oh, I was incensed.
- Keep on running, baby
- You've got to be kidding me.
It was almost as big a lie
as the first Milli Vanilli.
- Keep on running
- This was Frank's MO.
- Baby
- He already did Boney M.,
and then Milli Vanilli,
and he's like, "Hey, man,
this is
my 'Fast and Furious 10'."
I'm just gonna keep
making these things
because you love 'em,"
so why would
he change his stripes?
- Do you know what they are
doing now, Rob and Fab?
- Well, they have
a new single out--
- It's not out yet.
- It's not out actually.
They don't--
they don't have a label.
A lot of record companies are
scared to touch them right now
because, well, if you know
somebody can't sing,
why produce them?
- So you want to sing
a little bit for us?
- Yeah, we come in here
with our live band
and we would love to sing.
- No, how about right now?
Sing something off your album.
Um...
- Some of the verse from
the first single?
- Uh, yeah, OK.
Girl
Back together.
- Girl
both:
Do you want to get it on
Then tell me now
- Now Rob and Fab are
courageously trying to
make a comeback,
real voices and all.
both: I just want to be
your everything
- For the last year, they've
been working on a new album,
on the dance steps,
and on the singing.
They've got a new sexy video.
- Girl, can you tell me now
Straight up what's up
- So what's a man
supposed to do
Oh
- Do you want to get it on
- So this is
the "We Can Get It On"
12 inch LP single by Rob & Fab.
They're just, like, badasses,
you know?
They're like,
"Yeah, we're hot. We know it."
The expectation of the record
was based on curiosity alone
they could sell a million
copies of the record.
But the Rob & Fab album
sold 2,000 copies worldwide,
which is not good.
- By the time the
Rob & Fab record came out,
people were just
not that interested
in the spectacle anymore.
- That's when we...grew apart.
Rob was going in
his own tunnel
and didn't want to come out,
really.
- The team Rob and Fab
had fractured.
He didn't see me as--
as his brother anymore.
And that hurt.
- Now, where have you been
for the past six years?
- Well, the past six years,
I was in Los Angeles
undercover, you know,
doing my thing.
- You have an accent.
Where are you from?
- I'm from Paris. I'm French.
- From Paris.
- Yeah.
- Now, listen,
you've got some new music...
- That's true, yeah.
- And you are actually singing
on this damn thing.
- That's right.
- Yeah.
Put it together
for Fabrice Morvan.
- Come on, children
both:
If you see what I see
And you know what I feel
- For me,
performing was vindication.
both:
And we'll find a solution
- I was able to, like,
blossom as a singer
and do what I was supposed
to do in the first place.
Everybody,
join the love revolution
- Lovely!
- Come on.
- Hi, baby.
- Hi.
- Hey, listen.
Do you ever see Rob anymore?
- Well, we don't talk
as much as we used to
because he's doing
his own thing,
I'm doing my own thing,
you know?
We kind of went apart,
you know?
Bands broke up and
they do their own thing.
- Sure.
- That's what happened.
- You done joined
the love revolution.
- That's right.
- Where do I sign up?
- I was at The Viper Room.
I was outside.
I see a dude stumbling
across the way.
As he was falling,
his body turned
and I looked into his eyes
and I was like,
"Oh, my God. This is not true."
I'm looking at Rob Pilatus.
So I crossed the street,
I picked him up,
and I said, "Hey, Rob.
It's Fab."
"Rob, it's Fab.
Where do you live?"
And then he said, "There.
So we ring the doorbell.
We're like,
"Hey, we're there with Rob.
Like, this is
where he live, yes?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bring him in.
"It's our boy, man.
We--you know,
he--sometimes,
he just wanders."
And I'm like,
"Oh, that looks like
a crack house to me, man."
They were doing heavy drugs
in that--in that room.
I'm not surprised
'cause I heard
that's what he's been doing
for a long time.
But to actually see
my brother in the street
looking like this,
and looking back at
my dude in his prime...
Man, it was like, "Phew."
I didn't know what to say.
- What'd they do?
They just pulled you over?
- Yeah, they pulled me over,
man.
Unfortunately.
- He was lost.
Everything had failed.
He had not been satisfied with
anything that he'd ever done.
- He came back from
Oberberg Clinic
and he stayed at a hotel
close to my house.
Next morning, 10:00,
I called, no answer.
11:00, no answer.
12:00, no answer.
At 2:00, I said, "I'm going to
the hotel right now."
And we go to his door
and the chain was from inside,
so the house master
has to open it.
And--and he was laying there
on--on the floor,
just with shorts.
Yeah.
And I was...
- The call came in.
"Rob is dead."
I was like, "Wow."
And then I went into, like,
a state of shock.
And I didn't move for
a long time.
- I lost a family member.
I lost a brother.
I lost someone that was there
with me, walking in my shoes.
You know?
That's it.
When I went to Holland,
I was running away
from my past.
- He'd introduced himself
as Fabrice,
but I didn't know who he was.
He had such short hair,
and he has a different face
when he has short hair.
So in the beginning, actually,
when we were dating,
people were like,
"Hey, Tessa, hey, Tessa."
"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow,"
and, you know,
I was the one being recognized.
So there was no signs that
he was Milli Vanilli.
We had just fun together,
and we were working out
together,
and we had those dates.
I start to really
like this guy,
and you talk with
your friends about,
you know,
your new dating experience.
One of them said,
"Dude, that's Milli Vanilli.
Hello."
And I was like, "Well, OK.
"If that's Milli Vanilli, fine,
because I like Fabrice, so..."
- I didn't think she would,
like, want to be with me.
I had to tell her, "Listen,
my life is not great."
- I was like,
"Well, don't worry, you know?
I got you."
- You already, Sach?
Drum roll.
- One, two, and three.
Flip!
- Oh!
When Sacha came,
when Solange came,
and now Vince and Paris came,
then things started
flourishing all around me.
What?
- Hey, Sacha, look!
He's holding the bottle.
- That's a first.
Look at that.
- Cute.
- It's amazing
to realize that
there is another side
at the end of the tunnel.
- Together.
- Together?
- Pink.
- You want pink? OK.
It changed everything for me,
and that part was like,
"Hey..."
Well done, Sach.
"You don't have to be ashamed
about nothing."
- Because of the way
human beings and
their minds are built,
Milli Vanilli's legacy is
they deceived the public
and tried to get away with it,
and then they didn't.
But what it should be
is a cautionary tale.
- All of the answers about
how pop music is made
rest in this story.
What we want to believe
our pop musicians to be
versus what they actually are.
- Show business is all part of
an illusion.
- But that is what pop music
is supposed to do.
It's supposed to take us to
an elsewhere.
Even if we say, "These people
deceived the public,"
so fucking what?
Who was this harming?
- Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you
I've met people that told me,
"Because of your voice,
my daughter's here today."
- It was such a big thing
for a lot of people.
- So many people went to their
high school prom with that.
That was good music,
and it's good music today.
- There's no real crime here,
if we're being honest.
But it cost a life.
It also cost both of them
lives that they could have had.
And the heartbreaking thing is
that their legacy then became
that of a punch line.
- There was a time when
I would avoid going in public
because when I heard someone
laugh,
I always thought it was
directed to me.
But now I've reached a point
where I've embraced the past.
I'm proud of being
Milli Vanilli.
I'm proud of being who I am.
We're going back down
memory lane with some more.
Woo
Got to blame it on
something
Got to blame it on something,
come on
Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
Blame it on the stars
that didn't shine that night
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain,
yeah, yeah
When people think of
Milli Vanilli...
You can blame it
on the rain
The one thing I want people
to think of is that
when you fall...
And the rain don't care
You can stand back up.
You got to blame it
on something
Blame it on the rain
And Rob is part of that.
I am honoring his name
every time I perform onstage.
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
You fall, you stand back up,
and you reinvent yourself.
Yeah, yeah
That's the legacy.
Blame it on the rain
that was falling, falling
crowd:
Blame it on the stars
- That didn't shine
that night
Whatever you do,
don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain
Yeah, yeah
- Baby, don't be shy
when you're holding my hand
'Cause as time goes by,
you got to understand
It's you
- That it's with you
- Ba-ba-ba-ba baby, in your
eyes I see it so clearly
That our love is so strong
and you never go wrong
- Baby
- I did the best for you
- So when you're in doubt
and you're needing someone
Baby, call my line,
call me anytime
- Baby
- I'll be there for you
I've been searching high
- High
- I've been searching low
Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
- Ba-ba-ba-ba,
ba-ba-ba-ba baby
- Love is stronger
than thunder
Ba-ba-ba-ba,
ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- I've been searching high
I've been searching low
Want to spend my life
With you
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
And I dance with you
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Love will see you through
Ba-ba-ba baby, in your eyes
I can it so good
That our love is so strong
and you never go wrong
- Baby
- I do my best for you
So when you're in doubt
and you're needing someone
Baby, call my line,
call me anytime
- Baby
- I'll be there for you
You, you
I've been searching high
- High
- I've been searching low
- Low
- Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
- Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
- Love is stronger
than thunder
Ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- I've been searching high
I've been searching low
Want to spend my life
With you
- Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Love will see you through
- Baby, call my line,
baby, call my line
- Call me anytime
- Ba-ba-ba-ba baby
Don't forget my number
Love will see you through
- Is Eddie OK?
- I don't know.