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Dawn Robinson confirmed that rumors En Vogue didn’t get along so well with Luther Vandross while touring with him in the early ’90s were true.
During an interview with Discussions ‘N Things recently, the singer shared that when they were part of his Never Let Me Go tour, “He didn’t like us very much.” She claimed that in a contract for them to join the tour, they were told that he didn’t want them to wear certain colors, including red, white, blue or black. They were also told that they wouldn’t be able to wear clothing that would attract light. No sequins. Nothing flashy, which is a standard for girl groups. They signed the contract nonetheless because they wanted to tour with the legend.
But the demands of them became a bit too much, so much so that he was allegedly watching their dress rehearsals to ensure, in fact, that their clothes were not colorful. If that wasn’t enough though, there was also an incident where he called the police on them for disobeying an order that they wouldn’t pass his dressing room door to get to the stage. This incident was also noted in his 2004 biography, Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross.
“He called the police on us when we were in Miami because he said we walked past his door to go to the stage,” she said. “He wanted us to take a cart and have one of those golf carts drive us around to the front of the venue of the Coliseum, with all the fans mind you at the concession stands buying stuff. He wanted us to drive all the way through the hallway, go to the front of the building and walk down the steps past all the fans…and walk to the stage. ‘Do not pass my door.'”
Despite the fact that the stage was right next to Vandross’s dressing room, and En Vogue’s dressing room was next to his, he insisted that they not come around his room.
“He called the police. The police showed up,” she said. “The police were like, ‘Oh my God, we thought you guys were tearing the place apart.'”
Despite such experiences, Robinson said she took most issue with their manager at the time. She said she told the ladies they should have dropped him at the time they were on that tour, especially after he got them such lousy contracts. She didn’t blame Vandross for his behavior because at the end of the day, it was his tour.
“It was not his fault. We got on the road. We signed that contract,” she said. “I just think that he could have been like a little less of a stickler.”
He was quite the divo according to her. She said during a tour meeting where he had to remind them about what he was expecting of them based on the contract they signed, he told them, “I am a girl group.”
“What he meant was, I have these girls who are here with me, Ava [Cherry] and Lisa [Fischer]. They are the ones that I want dancing around on stage with sequins hitting their dresses. I want them to catch the light,” she said. “That’s why you guys signed the contract.”
Looking back on that experience, Robinson still remembers the crooner fondly.
“He had a vision and this was his show,” she said. “Yeah, he was mean to us. It was very rough. But we learned a lot from him and he was amazing. I wouldn’t change anything.”
