While there’s no denying that the DeBarge family are extremely talented, they have always had their fair share of ups and downs. One thing we respect about them, is that they’ve never tried to hide their struggles. Singer, Chico DeBarge, was always known as the bad boy of the DeBarge fam.’ He served 5 years in prison for drug trafficking. However, shortly after getting out of prison, he was living right and touring as a cast member for Tyler Perry’s stage play, “Why Did I Get Married.” That’s when a violent stabbing incident took place that seemed like something straight out of a mob movie and it almost cost him his life. Chico broke it all down to Sister 2 Sister Magazine. Check out the excerpts below…
Chico Describes Night Of Stabbing
Chico Debarge: I got stabbed in 2003. I was at a play with Tyler Perry—me and Kelly Price and Tyler Perry. It was a play called “Why Did I get Married?” …We were in Philly. It was around the end of October, November, and I just was out there in the play.”
Chico said that after the play that night, his friend’s new female acquaintance, actually played them, by using his friend to make her real boyfriend- a mob gangster- jealous. The unnamed friend didn’t know the woman had another man, so he and Chico were not aware that was why she’d asked them to meet her at a club where her mafia boyfriend would also be.
Chico Debarge: So I took him to it, and when I got in there, you could tell it was made men; it was like you stepped right into “Goodfellas.” … I was like, ‘Hmm, this is not right.’ […] To me, it was obvious. She just met my friend and she’s all over him. … It looks like she’s trying to make somebody jealous. And sure enough she was trying to make this guy, who was a hit man for the mob, jealous.
That’s when the fight broke out:
CD: He [the Italian mobster] sent a girl over there to beat the girl’s butt, so they got in a fight. And when they got in a fight, my associate [his friend] intervened, and I guess he must’ve touched the girl to do it because I was at a distance when I saw it go down, and just, the troops came in. The guy got up—that was his reason to get up—he pursued my friend and an altercation took place. And I ended up stabbed. […] I was stabbed in the side, like, by my kidney: a seven-inch scar from my kidney close to my lung.
I didn’t know I was stabbed, so I was still fighting. Then my friend kicked the door down. There was an exit door and he kicked it. We jetted out of there. Then I began to feel like my shoes were sloppy wet and I began to feel dehydrated. … My mouth was very dry. I could feel there was something wrong. When I moved a certain way, that’s when I felt the sting—like a hot burn. I was like, “Wow. Did I get shot?” I lift my shirt up for him. I said, “I’m alright?” And he looked at me like, “Oh no!”
A Philadelphia Eagles Player Helped Save Chico’s Life
By a chance of fate, Chico luckily ran out of an exit door where a Philadelphia Eagles player (Chico didn’t name which one) who was skilled in those types of injuries, happened to be standing nearby…
CD: One of the guys from the Philadelphia Eagles was next door. I guess he owned a club with security or whatever. …He knew what he was doing and he was security; he deals with situations like this all the time and for me not to lay down because my adrenaline—he wanted to keep my adrenaline flowing. He started coaching me. He said the ambulance is on the way so I knew it was kind of serious. But I went to the hospital. Then the police came and they wanted me to identify the dude, which I would not do.
Man Who Allegedly Stabbed Chico Loses His Life 2 Weeks Later
The guy who stabbed Chico was allegedly the same mob boyfriend of his friend’s female acquaintance. Chico said that although the cops caught the guy that same night, they had to let him go because Chico refused to snitch on him. Two weeks after that incident, the guy lost his life apparently in an unrelated event.
Stabbing Led To Chico’s Past Drug Addiction
CD: “I was stabbed and I was prescribed some prescription pills. So as a result of that, I became addicted to the prescription pills.”
In other interviews, Chico also admitted that prescription med addiction later led to his addiction to harder drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Thankfully, Chico cleaned up his act years ago and is back on the scene performing again and making great music.
