Milli Vanilli's Fab Morvan on lip-syncing scandal, new documentary

a new Paramount plus documentary looks into the infamous rise and fall of Millie vanil the European Duo Robert patus and fabr morvin Rose to fame quickly in the 1990s even clinching a Grammy for Best new artists but all that came crumbling down when everyone found out that they never actually sang a single note on their hits for more on this we're joined by singer and dancer and member of the Duo for Morin and Luke corm who produced and directed this fascinating documentary good to see you both thank you for being with us good morning so uh Fab let me start with you um what was it like to tell your side of the story because as my colleague Amory pointed out at the top of our show it felt like everybody else was telling your story and everybody else had the narrative but we really never heard from you until this documentary at least not your the from your heart and from your soul you're right it was very gratifying because finally I was able to tell my story and have people really walk in my shoes and from what I've heard from all the the reactions everyone felt what we felt and we felt left all alone and and people were pointing the finger and somehow the the the guilty ones you know walked away Scot free and nothing happened to them and we took we took the blame Rob died of a broken heart as a result so for me to be able my story finally after 30 years and some change was super gratifying makes me feel good and it's not just me telling my story it's also the other members who took place in this project so everyone finally can tell their truth and when you look at what happens 1+ one equal two not three and in fact there were sort of there were a lot of victims in this kind of Scandal and I put it in like air quotes because as like we were talking earlier and it just doesn't seem like much of a scandal now but back then it seemed like such a bombshell it's a great documentary by the way and you know one of the things that you kind of this is what I loved about this documentary I was totally drawn in by the story and then every once in a while the music would start playing and I would start dancing and it reminded me of how great every single one of these songs were and that you needed the music and the musicians and you guys Fab and Rob like it you to make that great moment you know but I digress clearly I was a fan um but I want to talk to you Luke a little bit about Frank faan so he's like this super producer who's kind of behind this whole thing not the first time that he did something like this right um bonam my mom was a huge bony M fan so we knew all the words and then yeah then we you know pull back the curtain and we see Frank faan's here and one of the things that you sort of touch on in the documentary is that he you know he used black talent but it seemed that he had little regard for the black people right providing the talent uh Luke can you talk a little bit more about that yeah I mean that was a super important part of the story that we wanted to make sure was um well communicated in the film uh we had executive producer hanif ABD that really helped make sure that we were fine to that part um and it was quite disturbing you know um when you look at back at Frank Fan's history what's interesting is he wanted to be a solo singer in Germany and he actually had a little bit of a successful career but he liked black music and his label said hey you're white you can't sing that and so he created this Wizard of Oz idea well I'll just be behind the curtain and what started off for him might maybe innocently turned out to be something that was really terrible um and he exploited people in particular black artists over and over again and for me what was so tragic in this is not just the deception you know because it was great music and entertainment but when everyone found out all the hate came down in Rob and Fab and they weren't even created the deception in the first place and I thought that was so unfair I think that you know we're all having this moment now where we're looking back at some of the way some of the people that we admired have been treated when you talk about all everything sort of came down on Rob and Fab I'm thinking about you know uh Janet Jackson and what happened during the Super Bowl and how everything sort of came down on her I'm thinking about now we're looking at Britney Spears and and some of the cringeworthy sort of interviews that we thought were normal back in the day um Fab do you think that you know this is kind of like the right moment to tell your story because it's a moment where we're all kind of questioning our past Behavior well the thing is you know the I believe that the Universe delivered it at the right time there is no perfect time it just came now it took some time for me to get the right people and when Bradley and Luke came around I was like oh okay I I trust those guys and it was not just about the headlines it was about their human story uh the inner workings of the music industry which not too many projects like ours have touched on the way we've done in this project it really is an eyeopener to how artists are being treated you know they they''re been used and then thrown when you you no good you're not selling as much well you know maybe you're a problem let's kick him to the curb yeah so I'm pleased that Luke to approach yeah and Luke um and Fa I want you to weigh in on this too that uh Grammy Award uh winning that Grammy Award seemed to be the turning point for for Millie vanil but again when you look back and there have been incred you we sort of touched on it um the way that the music industry which only exists because of black artist I mean when I talk about the popular music industry I don't mean classical I I mean pop culture in this country which has been U uh exported around the world uh Rock and Roll pop music uh is a direct result of black artists ultimately some artists melded country music and gospel into what we call popular music but there's always business exploitation of black artists and then kicking them to the curb when uh something doesn't go exactly the way it's meant to go and the grammies have not been immune to that you could talk even as recently with the weekend and with Drake and other artists complaining about the voting process of the Grammy Awards that's not that's not old um just in in 30 seconds tell us what that means to You Luke well I I'll go first I mean like look I think one you look at the grammy website 1989 Tracy Chapman won Best New Artist 1991 Mariah Carey did 1990 no one they're trying to wipe this from from the record as if it never happened which I think it's horrible um number two Clive Davis and Arista records made hundreds of millions of dollars and in our documentary it reveals that they knew how could you not know right I mean and for them to walk away and for reporters at the time to not investigate the record label is ridiculous and there again is the racial theme because it's like no it's these two black guys this I mean we were running out of time can I say this the documentary is great yes Fab you sound great sound brother and breathing life into Blame It On The Rain is you know doing homage to your to your partner in this whole journey thank you so much I encourage people to watch it and much love to Rob's family Fab yes yes yes for sure great thank you guys you you can stream the new Millie vanil documentary anytime on Paramount plus we should note that CBS News and Paramount plus are part of Paramount global

Channel: CBS News

Views: 11,535

Keywords: Music, CBS News, Entertainment

Id: 5sWFVfVwWXc

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2023