“It’s a make-it-or-break-it period for us. We do the right thing, we’ll be able to pull into the 21st century with some kind of program. We do the wrong thing, the 21st century is going to be gone, there’ll be no coming back”

“He remains an invisible man in black music history. Rumors swirl — some say he's a junkie, others insist his masculinity is a fraud... Gospel singers whispered his name, women fol­lowed him home, junkies and drag queens idolized him.”

His story has been a series of fuck-ups, small and tragic. At 29, living at home under close supervision, he acknowledges what he has done: “I never wanted to hurt anybody.”