PHYLLIS HYMAN’S 'STRENGTH' REVEALED: Journalist pens bio of singer's tragic life.
By Kenya M. Yarbrough“You see the deck was really stacked against her. This was her start. This was her childhood. This is how she grew up. The issues continued into adulthood. She turned to alcohol and to drugs as to sort of self-medicate. The substance abuse only further complicated mental health issues. She tried twice to clean up and go to rehab, but she couldn’t maintain sobriety. I think the depth of her issues were too great for her.”.jpg)
*Songbird Phyllis Hyman, one of the most gifted and critically acclaimed vocalists and performers from the 1970s through the 1990s is also considered one of the most overlooked by music historians and one of the most tragic in pop culture. Phyllis Hyman
After a lifelong bout with mental illness and depression, and battles with racism and sexism in the music industry, the singer took her own life in 1995, just hours before she was to perform at the legendary Apollo Theatre.
Journalist Jason A. Michael recognized that Hyman’s story was one that not only needed to be told, but wanted to be told, and after several attempts and 12 years, Michael released the biography, “Strength of a Woman: the Phyllis Hyman Story” on September 4.
The delay in putting the story to paper was not for Michael not trying.
“Shortly after Phyllis died, I had the dream to do this,” he said. “I felt there was a story there, but I was in college at that time. I tried and couldn’t get it off the ground and was sort of dismissed at that time by Phyllis’ estate. They had some other folks in mind to write this story. Finally, in 2001, six years after Phyllis’ death, nothing had come out. I figured that if I wanted to read a book about Phyllis Hyman, I was going to have to write a book about Phyllis Hyman. I tried for the third time and the pieces sort of fell into place. I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
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Publishing the book still wasn’t that easy. Michael presented his idea of a Hyman biography to several prominent New York publishers, but was told emphatically that no one remembered her and that there was no market for a book.
“We got turned down time and time again,” Michael exasperatedly told EUR’s Lee Bailey. “I went through two literary agents and both agents thought that it was going to be an easy sell. Both were surprised, as was I, that a book on Phyllis wouldn’t sell. I was told things like she had not become a cult icon like Marvin Gaye became after his death, or that not enough folks remembered her story.”
Michael said that he just felt the publishers were naïve about how big her fan base is.
“My goal is, I’ll prove them wrong and help them see they missed out on a great opportunity.”
Even though Hyman wasn’t a million-seller, the singer had an illustrious career of hits, with two gold records.
“She was always on the cusp of that major hit,” the writer said. “I think that folks had a hard time knowing what to do with her. Clive Davis certainly tried to make her into a more commercial superstar, but she felt that that did not really reflect her artistry. She was sort of the queen of the power ballads and her music did not always translate to the more commercial, youth-oriented radio audience. But for those in the know, there was no one like her.”
He continued that like many others, he became a big fan of Hyman’s as soon as she heard her voice, but that the time – the disco era – wasn’t right forher kind of music, that disco funk didn’t do her voice any justice. But it wasn’t the genre that drew fans to the powerful songstress. Like many others. Michael was drawn to her emotion.
“I heard a note of pain in her voice and I think it spoke to me. I had suffered from depression issues and had been diagnosed as bipolar, as Phyllis was. At the time that Phyllis died, I was working with soul singer Betty Wright who had been working with Phyllis since the early ‘70s. I saw that Betty was devastated, but not surprised with how Phyllis’ end came about. I think my journalistic instincts kicked in and said, ‘There must be a story there.’”
The more research Michael did on Phyllis, the more similarities he saw between the two of them, which attracted him to the story even more.
“She has taught me so much and even though she ultimately chose to end her life, I sort of credit her with giving me the courage to fully live mine. In examining some the traps and pitfalls she fell into and I feel as though I now know how to avoid them. That’s really what I’m hoping this book will do for its readers – to help them see what’s inside of them ... that they need to work on and inspire them to get started. ‘Strength of a Woman’ is a cautionary tale and I think the moral of the story is to take care of your issues or your issues will take care of you. With Phyllis’ case that’s sadly what happened.”
As Michael covers in the book, mental illness was prevalent in her family. Her mother suffered from chronic depression; her father was alcoholic. Two of her siblings also battled bipolar disorder, and another suffered from chronic depression, and yet another struggles with schizophrenia.
“You see the deck was really stacked against her. This was her start. This was her childhood. This is how she grew up. The issues continued into adulthood. She turned to alcohol and to drugs as to sort of self-medicate. The substance abuse only further complicated mental health issues. She tried twice to clean up and go to rehab, but she couldn’t maintain sobriety. I think the depth of her issues were too great for her.”
Hyman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1985 and was prescribed Lithium to treat it. Considered a newly diagnosed diseaseback then, medications and treatment options were limited at that time.
“A lot folks, Phyllis included, thought that a very creative individual would take these meds and would miss some of the highs that bipolar brings about, which they thought was somehow connected to their creativity. They didn’t like being leveled out, which is what Lithium and other mood stabilizers do. So [Hyman] thought the meds were not for her and that she could somehow handle this on her own, but I think bipolar disorder was bigger.”
In 1989, Hyman failed at her first suicide attempt. She tried again in 1990 before succeeding in 1995 at the age of 45.
“It was pretty much kept under wraps,” Michael said of her failed suicide attempts. “A lot of her issues and drama were kept under wraps to the extent that it could be. But if you’ve ever seen a Phyllis Hyman concert, she put a lot of her feelings on display. She was very open with her audience. The darker issues were sort of kept under wraps as were her trips to rehab.”
Friends, fans, industry execs, as well as music journalists also got a taste of Hyman’s tumultuous personality. Bailey, himself, called her “candid,” to say the least.
“It depended on where she was in her emotional spectrum when you encountered her,” Michael said of how others saw Hyman. “Phyllis was an extremely generous person, an extremely giving person, and at the right time, a hilarious person. It just depended on where she was in her struggle emotionally as to which Phyllis you would meet. She could be very difficult, but she could be incredibly sweet. She was all of those things in one body and you could see a great deal of them all in one day.”
Michael, on the other hand, did not have the pleasure, or displeasure for that matter, of meeting the recording star. His first biographical novel, he credits that to how the voice of the book remained balanced.
“I never met her, which I’m sort of thankful for and which Phyllis’ estate was appreciative as well. Had I met her, I may have had my own response to how I was treated. I think not having met her, it allowed me to speak to all these folks who had different recollections and sort of remain unbiased. I prayed for the gift of discernment. I had to sort of read between the lines and endeavor to remain impartial and write a very balanced story.”
“Strength of a Woman” candidly explores the singer’s torment and her successes, and includes revelations on how she lost the role of Shug Avery in the movie adaptation of “The Color Purple”; her clashes with record industry legend Clive Davis; and her assessments of female singers of her time including Jody Watley, Vanity, and Paula Abdul.
For more on the book, the author, and the star herself, check out www.phyllishymanstory.com.
Here's Phyllis Hyman's 'Living All Alone':
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