DeBarge has suggested his problems resulted from alleged molestation by his father, as Vibe reports and as Chico Debarge claims. It has also been speculated that fame simply provided too many temptations and imposed too few restrictions. Bobby DeBarge was the first in the family to succumb to drugs, but certainly not the last. Bunny, El, Tommy, Chico, and James DeBarge all battled addiction for years. "Drugs happened," mother Etterlene DeBarge told Atlanta Daily World of the musical family's addiction. "When El got into drugs it just paralyzed him. He just couldn't deal with all the people in the music industry. He couldn't deal with their fakeness and people ripping him off. Motown had taken all of his publishing and they're still making money from those songs."
According to Vibe, Bobby had been addicted to heroin since his teens in the heyday of Switch, always riding the coaster of sobriety before returning to opioids. But regardless of how his addiction began, Bobby's fate was unforeseen and tragic to family, friends and countless fans.
With the immensely-popular 1985 hit "Rhythm of the Night" (featured in the film The Last Dragon), DeBarge was on the track to success. Any hopes of mainstream popularity were dashed in 1988, however, when DeBarge family members Bobby and Chico, along with four others, were arrested for drug trafficking in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Both Bobby and Chico ended up in court. The resulting convictions and prison sentences marked the end of the family musical group, and DeBarge disbanded in 1989.
