During a live performance in July 1989, at the Lake Compounce
theme park in Bristol, Connecticut, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True"
began to skip. The line "Girl, you know it's" began to repeat over and over. Fans attending
the concert didn't seem to notice or even care, but critics did notice and questioned Rob
and Fab in their concert reviews. That was pretty much the end. A huge scandal followed,
including lawsuits, and the loss of Milli Vanilli's Grammy.
Blame It on the Rain
This was their last Billboard Hot 100 number one hit before
the scandal broke out. Here's the video:
In order to restore their career, Farian agreed in 1997 to produce
a new Milli Vanilli album with Morvan and Pilatus on vocals. This led up to the 1998
Milli Vanilli album Back and in Attack.
Pilatus encountered personal problems during the production of the
new album. He turned to drugs and a life of crime, and wound up serving three months in
jail. Farian paid for Pilatus to attend drug rehabilitation, and also bought plane tickets
for him to fly back to Germany. On the eve of the new album's promotional tour in April
1998, Pilatus was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel after ingesting a mixture of pills
and alcohol, according to the Associated Press.
Morvan spent the following years as a session musician and public
speaker while working on his musical talents. In 1998, he was a DJ at radio station
KIIS-FM. He also performed at the station's sold-out 1999 Wango Tango festival
concert before 50,000 people.
In 2000, Morvan was featured in a BBC documentary on Milli Vanilli,
as well as the premiere episode of VH1 Behind the Music. Morvan spent 2001 on tour before
performing in 2002 at the Hard Rock Café Hotel in Orlando, Florida. In 2003, Morvan
released his first solo album, Love Revolution. He marketed the album through his
website and CD Baby.