displayed signs of jealously toward his big sister’s success, although they both loved each other very much.

One article explained T-Boy’s alleged envy of Diana’s success in further detail:

While [Diana] had a glorious 35-year career and amassed a 50 million fortune, had worldwide fame and 150 hit records, he was a songwriter who became bitter and angry when he never quite made it, turning instead to drink and drugs. At times he was insanely jealous of her success . . . and she had dreaded his premature death all her adult life.

While Diana went to great lengths to provide him with an opening to stardom, their relationship was one based on contradictions since her every public achievement cut him to the quick.
He never really forgave her, for example, for leaving Detroit, since her departure became a catalyst for the legendary Tamla Motown records moving out of the city. For struggling black songwriters in Detroit, Tamla had been their way out of poverty.

Arthur clearly blamed Diana. And yet Diana had a similar start in life to Arthur.
They were both born into poverty, along with four other brothers and sisters, on the infamous Brewster housing estate on the east side of the city.

`He could never measure up,’ says Ajene Smith, a close friend of Arthur’s since his schooldays. `You don’t realize how he made himself suffer. He was playing out the role of the black sheep of the family and he played it out to the end. Maybe that is the only way he knew to get away from his sister’s shadow.’

The jealousy began privately in childhood in the scrublands of Detroit, where he used to hang out with his gang and was nicknamed T-Bone after his love of steak, a name which became T-Boy as a spiteful joke. He was also known from the age of 11 as brother of `one of The Supremes’ and he grew to loathe it.

Diana allegedly always went to great lengths to lend a helping hand to her brother, once bailing him out of jail and getting a high powered attorney to win his case against a scuffle he had with a police officer at the age of 20; Diana apparently would always give him money whenever he needed it, or simply just because; she allegedly paid for his school and university education, and one of the biggest helps of them all was when Diana gave her brother’s singing and songwriting career a boost by getting him a contract with Motown.
T-Boy had great success as a songwriter, with his songs being covered by Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, The Miracles, and Madonna, but when he released his one album, it flopped, only selling 12,000 copies.
Eventually T-Boy allegedly began to feud with his Motown writing partner, Leon Ware, as well as Marvin Gaye, in the middle of writing some songs on Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” album.
According to one source, this is what happened:

He [T-Boy] thought he wasn’t getting the respect he deserved from his peers. He began feuding with Diana. He accused Marvin Gaye of stealing his music. Then he fell out with Motown and Diana sided with her record label against her brother. His friend Ajene said: `He loved to play the big man, telling strangers, `You don’t know who I am.’ But then Arthur would as easily bore friends with the complaint, `Nobody does actually know who I am. To everyone, I am just Diana Ross’s brother’.’

In the end, after Diana had `given up’ on her brother, his absence was obviously still a loss to her. At the lavish family dinners laid on by the star at her multi-million [dollar] Connecticut mansion, Arthur was always absent.

T- Boy’s distance from his family allegedly began to grow and they would not hear from him for long periods of time. Sources close to T-Boy say that although he was making some money from his songwriting royalties, he felt that he still needed more income and began to allegedly deal drugs (heroin, weed, cocaine) and the day after T-Boy’s body was discovered, he was due in court on drug related charges. Unfortunately he also began using drugs. Was T-Boy attempting to self-medicate his pain and jealousy away? Maybe so.

Diana didn’t attend her brother’s funeral because some insiders say that she didn’t want to cause the media uproar that she knew her brother would have hated. Here’s what one source stated:

Diana tried in vain for years to…

help him conquer his self-destructive streak, was doubly horrified when she learned that Arthur’s body had lain undiscovered for three weeks and was badly decomposed. She had loved him `very, very much’, she said in the message read by Tracey.

`Why?’ was her first heart-rending question. `It is so hard to understand. Why did you make the choices that you made in your life?

`It breaks my heart that someone like you, with so much life to live, should be taken like this. I cannot blame you for your imperfections. You were such a beautiful boy, a beautiful smile and beautiful eyes. Such spirit and yet so mischievous.’

[Sources: Jet Magazine, SoulfulDetroit, Wikipedia]

Sibling rivalry is common, but when the rivalry becomes too competitive, it can reach dangerously toxic levels, as is possibly the case of T-Boy unfortunately. Diana’s success could have been too much for him to bear, especially since he knew he had a great deal of talent as well. This is just a reminder that we can miss our opportunities and/or blessings when we allow bitterness, or envy to eat us alive. Hopefully Diana and her family have been able to move past their grief. May Arthur T-Boy Ross and his wife, Patricia, continue to rest well.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view