After years of struggling with diabetes, hypertension, and worsening stress, 54-year-old Luther Vandross died from a heart attack on July 1, 2005.
Sheri Lynn Behr/Alamy Stock Photo R&B icon Luther Vandross performing at Radio City Music Hall in 1977.
Like many musicians, Luther Vandross had his vices. While other performers often turned to drugs or alcohol, however, Vandross’ Achilles’ heel was junk food. Tragically, his self-proclaimed “obsession” with food likely led to Luther Vandross’ death at the age of just 54.
In his short life, Vandross had eight Grammy awards and nearly a dozen platinum albums behind him, but with that success came lots of stress to continue creating the best music for his fans. To cope with his perfectionist nature, Vandross often turned to carb-heavy foods, causing his weight to fluctuate back and forth dramatically throughout his career.
At least 14 separate times, his weight bounced from a healthy 180 pounds to over 300 pounds. When he felt good, he could cut the carbs and slim back down on a high-protein diet, but when he felt stressed or his perfectionist tendencies took over, he always turned to food to cope.
This took a toll on his body, especially as he developed diabetes and high blood pressure. Then, in 2003, he suffered a massive stroke, which put him into a coma for nearly two months and left him with lingering complications like slurred speech. Tragically, he never fully recovered from the stroke.
Luther Vandross’ death in 2005 in Edison, New Jersey was simultaneously shocking and unsurprising, given his long history of struggling with his weight and the health issues that developed amidst his yo-yo dieting. Like others gone too soon, though, his legacy in American music is undeniable.
Luther Vandross’ Rise To Stardom
Public DomainLuther Vandross in 1985.
Luther Ronzoni Vandross was born on April 20, 1951 in New York City, to Luther Vandross Sr. and his wife Mary Ida. The family was poor, but the younger Luther said his upbringing was full of love. His parents had backgrounds as vocalists for gospel and big band ensembles, and that passion for music carried over to their son. Luther Vandross was a self-taught musician, learning to play piano by ear at the young age of three.
He trained his voice in the same way, mimicking and singing along with his favorite vocalists until those various influences came together to give Vandross his own unique style that’d later be dubbed the “Velvet Voice.”
Vandross continued to develop musically throughout his teenage years, but also started honing his skills as a performer. He visited the Apollo Theater often to watch other artists, and when he felt he had gained enough confidence, he showed off his own talents during Amateur Nights.
After graduating from William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx in 1969, Vandross briefly attended Western Michigan University. But Vandross soon decided that academia was not for him — he was meant to be a performer. So, he left school and decided to pursue a full-time career in music.
Scott Weiner/MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Luther Vandross recording in the studio.
He spent the first few years of his career singing commercial jingles and working as a background vocalist. During this period, Vandross added backing vocals for artists like Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Carly Simon, David Bowie, and Chaka Khan. He established a reputation as a talented singer — but it was clear his talents deserved to be heard on their own.
So, in 1981, Vandross made his debut as a solo artist with the album Never Too Much. The song “Never Too Much” was an instant hit, quickly reaching number one on the Billboard R&B chart. And his debut album sold more than a million copies, with many other impressive successes to come, especially as Vandross collaborated with other talented artists.
Unfortunately, his perfectionism made it difficult for him to enjoy it all. In the meantime, he was also keeping a secret from the world.
The R&B Icon’s Personal Life And Sexuality
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoThough he never publicly came out, friends later confirmed rumors that Luther Vandross was gay after his death.
While his music captured the hearts of many, Luther Vandross wasn’t without his issues. He wrote love songs, and his desire for love was genuine.
“I loved, loved, loved that song ‘Any Love’ before I worked for Luther,” Vandross’ personal assistant Max Szadek told The Guardian. “But once I started working for Luther, I could see that the desperation described in that song was real. And I hated that song after that because it always reminded me that he wasn’t seeking love. He was seeking any love.”
Indeed, Vandross’ music was as sincere as it sounded, but despite his longing for love, he never quite managed to find himself in a successful romantic relationship. Part of the reason, as his friend Patti LaBelle would later controversially reveal, was that Vandross was a closeted gay man.
“He did not want his mother to be [upset] — although she might have known — he wasn’t going to come out and say this to the world,” she said on a 2017 episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live! “And he had a lot of lady fans. He told me that he just didn’t want to upset the world. It was hard for him.”
Paul Smith/Featureflash/Alamy Stock PhotoPatti LaBelle was one of Luther Vandross’ closest friends, and one of the few he opened up to about his personal life.
Another friend said Vandross described his sexual orientation as being “in the life” and spent most of his time without a partner, apparently only seeking out relationships when he felt happy with his weight.
Meanwhile, several media outlets were speculating about Vandross’ sexuality. He never had a girlfriend or wife, and for a man who sang about love as much as he did, it seemed odd that he would be single for so long. Many theorized that he must have been gay, but being a gay Black man in the 1980s and 1990s wasn’t something easy to be open about.
This was, after all, at the height of the AIDS crisis. On top of that, Vandross’ weight was fluctuating dramatically amidst speculation about his personal life. When he lost 85 pounds in 1985 (after reportedly weighing 325 pounds), for example, a British publication wrote that the weight loss was due to Vandross having contracted AIDS — prompting him to file a libel suit.
Inside The “Emotional Eating” That May Have Led To Luther Vandross’ Death
Barry King/Alamy Stock Photo Will Smith, Patti LaBelle, Luther Vandross, and Vanessa Williams.
Emotional eating became something of a recurring theme for Luther Vandross, according to the Daily Mail. Vandross was a self-proclaimed carb addict. He once admitted that he had eaten a hamburger between two glazed donuts when he couldn’t find a standard bun.
While the occasional dabbling in gluttony might be fine for most people, it was indicative of a larger issue for Vandross. He was a perfectionist, never fully satisfied with the tracks he recorded, and he was struggling to find the validation he so desperately needed. When it all became too much, he turned to carb-heavy foods for comfort, sometimes eating hefty servings of pizza, burgers, chicken, biscuits, rice, ham, and ice cream in one sitting.
But after some time, he would gain more than 100 pounds, and he would be forced to cut back for health reasons. So, he would sometimes go on a high-protein, low-carb diet to lose weight quickly. Other times, he would try riskier, extreme diets, like a six-month “liquid diet.” When the stress inevitably caught up again, he returned to his old carb habit.
“I obsess about food. I’m thinking about food from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep,” he once confessed to a friend.
Vandross’ emotional eating reached a particularly low point after he crashed his convertible in 1986. His close friend Larry Salvemini was in the passenger seat when it happened. Tragically, Salvemini didn’t survive.
While there were no signs that Vandross had been under the influence, and Salvemini’s family was initially supportive of him, he faced vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving charges for Salvemini’s death (after he pleaded no contest to reckless driving, the vehicular manslaughter charge was dismissed and Vandross was placed on informal probation). The Salvemini family also eventually filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Vandross, which was ultimately settled out of court.
It was one of the most stressful periods of his life, and he de-stressed the only way he knew how: by eating. He soon reportedly gained 120 pounds.
Over time, he developed both diabetes and high blood pressure, but he was never able to find the balance he needed with his food intake. By 2003, it was obvious just how badly it was affecting his health.
Inside The Tragic Death Of Luther Vandross
MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Luther Vandross in February 2000, during a period when he was dieting.
On April 16, 2003, Luther Vandross suffered a stroke at his home. After a career slump, he had just burst back onto the scene with the hit song “Dance With My Father,” an emotional track about his relationship with his father, who died of diabetes complications when Vandross was just eight.
It seemed like Vandross was back, and fans were anticipating a triumphant return to the limelight. The label anticipated the hype as well — but, for some reason, decided to promote his upcoming album by focusing on Vandross’ most recent weight loss. The pressure made his friends worry that he would once again turn to eating to cope with the stress.
Then, he had his massive stroke. Just a few days earlier, his mother had visited him, worried because he was “eating everything in sight.”
As People reported, the stroke left Vandross in a nearly two-month coma that caused loved ones to worry he might never wake up. Even when he did regain consciousness, the recovery process was long. At first, Vandross couldn’t walk. And the stroke also left him with lingering complications like slurred, slowed speech, which he never fully recovered from.
Then, in May 2004, Vandross appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which he thanked his fans for caring about him while he was in a coma. He also raised awareness of the dangers of diabetes and strokes.
His niece Seveda Williams later said, “He just wanted people to know that taking good care of your health is extremely important and that having diabetes is not a joke and having a stroke from it is not either.”
That was his last public appearance.
On July 1, 2005, Luther Vandross died of a heart attack at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey. He was just 54 years old. Tragically, Vandross, despite all his acclaim, never got the one thing he always wanted.
“God has given me everything I asked for except for this one thing,” he once told his friend Robin Clark. She asked what he meant.
“To have one person who loves me.”
After reading about Luther Vandross’ death, learn about the accidental overdose that killed Mac Miller. Then, read about the tragic death of Karen Carpenter, the singer who perished after a battle with anorexia.
