Donny Hathaway - Death

Death

Sessions for a second album of duets were underway in 1979. On January 13 of that year, Hathaway began a recording session at which Eric Mercury and James Mtume were present. Mercury and Mtume each reported that although Hathaway's voice sounded good, he began behaving irrationally, seeming to be paranoid and delusional. According to Mtume, Hathaway said that "white people" were trying to kill him and had connected his brain to a machine, for the purpose of stealing his music and his sound. Given Hathaway's behavior, Mercury said that he decided the recording session could not continue, so he aborted it and all of the musicians went home.

Hours later, Hathaway was found dead on the sidewalk below the window of his 15th-floor room in New York's Essex House hotel. He had jumped from his balcony. The glass had been neatly removed from the window and there were no signs of struggle, leading investigators to rule Hathaway's death a suicide. His friends were mystified, considering his career had just started to pick up again, and Flack was devastated. Amongst many of Hathaway's friends in Chicago, the rumor was that he was in "hot water" with elements of "The Mob" . Hathaway had mentioned he thought "white men" were out to kill him for "gambling debts" he could not pay.

Spurred by his death, Flack included the few duet tracks they had finished on her next album, Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway. According to Mercury, Hathaway's final recording, included on that album, was "You Are My Heaven".

Hathaway's funeral was conducted by the Reverend Jesse Jackson.