Why is teddy pendergrass in a wheelchair

Before the crash, Mr. He was an international superstar and sex symbol. His career was at its apex - and still climbing. Pendergrass on his biggest hits and recalled how the singer was even working on a movie.

Gamble said Thursday. Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia in , suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down - still able to sing but without his signature power. The image of the strong, virile lover was replaced with one that drew sympathy. But instead of becoming bitter or depressed, he created a new identity - that as a role model, Mr. Gamble said. Gamble said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Gamble said he was one of a kind as an artist and boasted a powerful voice and "a great magnetism.

But it wasn't Mr. Pendergrass' voice that got him his break in the music business - it was his drum-playing abilities. He met Harold Melvin, who was looking for replacement members for his group, the Blue Notes, and signed on to be the drummer. Watson, too, kept quiet. In fact, in the 30 years since the accident, Watson has rarely spoken about what happened that day or about the nature of her relationship with Pendergrass.

Like many Pendergrass fans, Watson admired the popular artist. You couldn't get any bigger than he was, and he was a very handsome man, I must say. Back then, Watson, a former sex worker, lived near the studio where Pendergrass recorded his music, and one day, she saw him walking down the street. Instead of talking with Pendergrass, Watson says she ran away. The other time they met was at a popular club in Philadelphia, where Watson was working as a nightclub entertainer and model.

The two struck up a conversation and when Watson said it was time for her to go home, Pendergrass offered her a ride. It was out of control," Watson says. Watson was relatively unhurt -- she had contusions and a chipped tooth -- so she boarded the ambulance with Pendergrass and accompanied him to the hospital. She didn't stay, however, and only learned about Pendergrass' paralysis when it was reported in the newspapers. Soon after the accident, Watson tried to reach out to Pendergrass, but was unsuccessful.

She said, 'Well, you're not going to see him before his son does,' and she caused this big scene," Watson says. He had a huge, Graceland-like mansion, a fleet of luxury cars, a stable of horses, even his own jeans label. Guys loved him because he got women in the mood for them. Women found him irresistible, and Pendergrass felt obliged to love as many of them back as he possibly could.

They disguised themselves as maids to get into his hotel room. But Pendergrass, as well as, many of the top black entertainers suffered sabotage. In , driving home one night, he crashed his green Rolls-Royce into a tree, breaking his neck and damaging his spinal cord.

He would never walk again. At 31, he was wheelchair bound and after years of battling depression and suicidal thoughts, returned to the recording studio. His comeback album went gold. Not letting his disability dictate his life, he began to sing and perform again and in true Pendergrass fashion, his comeback was in front of the largest possible audience: Live Aid, which took place in his home town in