“I’m not a bitter man—I can’t be,” says Morvan (posing for a tongue-in-cheek photo at a karaoke club in L.A.). The duo’s story is now being made into a movie. 1990 Morvan (right) and Rob Pilatus bask in a Grammy win. FAB MORVAN LIFE AFTER LIP-SYNCHING Twenty years after winning—then losing—a Grammy, Milli Vanilli’s surviving member talks about how he weathered the scandal BY MARISA LAUDADIO GROOMER: JAMIE GREENBERG/THE WALL GROUP; STYLIST: RAHEL AFILEY; INSET: DOUGLAS C. PIZAC/AP Photographs by JEFF MINTON PEOPLE December 13, 2010 105 fter enduring endless talk-show jokes, a class- action suit and even fans driving a steam- roller over his band’s records,A Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan could have turned his back on music MY NO. 1 REGRET forever. Yet in the 20 years since he IS ROB’S DEATH. and Rob Pilatus were stripped of their MY FRIEND LOST Best New Artist Grammy because they hadn’t sung a note on “Blame It HIS LIFE—THAT’S on the Rain” or any of their hits, Mor- HOW DEEP OUR van says he never lost hope. “When SITUATION GOT. it all crumbled,” he says, “I promised I WISH I COULD myself to still go for my dream.” So for years the Paris-born singer HAVE SAVED HIM has been paying his dues, deejaying on SO THAT HE COULD L.A.’s KIIS-FM, teaching French and BE WITH US TODAY” lecturing students about the music industry, while continuing to record. “It was difficult to rebuild my life with this stigma,” says Morvan, 44, who’s now working on dance-music project “they had us.” Over the next two years, overdose in 1998. “Rob didn’t have the SMFM. “When you get beat down like they sold 7 million albums, spawned strength to start over,” says Morvan, that, you don’t want to trust anyone.” trends (spandex shorts, anyone?) and who got clean in 1991. Morvan admits he was young and won a Grammy. “We had fun at first, Soldiering on alone, Morvan, who naive when he and Pilatus, who were but the pressure was huge,” he says. is single and lives in Amsterdam and in a Munich cover band, caught the When the two demanded to sing live L.A., put out a neosoul album, Love eye of producer Frank Farian in 1987. in 1990, Farian outed them. “After Revolution, in 2003. And last month They inked a deal without lawyers, they wouldn’t follow instructions he returned to his club roots with then were told to lip-synch to studio- and wanted to sing—they couldn’t— SMFM’s first single, “Twisted.” He’s singer vocals for one track. (“They we stopped the faking,” says Farian. also been playing Milli Vanilli hits were hired as dancers, not singers,” With their reputations ruined and onstage—with his own live vocals. says Farian.) “We tried to get out of it, little money saved (Farian earned most “In life, you want to walk with dig- but we couldn’t pay the money back,” of Milli Vanilli’s royalties), Morvan nity,” he says. “I want ‘Milli Vanilli’ says Morvan. “We thought, ‘One song says they “did an alphabet of drugs.” to mean when you fall, you stand up and we’re done.’ ” But “Girl You Know A new album as Rob & Fab in 1993 and go forward. And no one can take It’s True” shot to No. 1 and, he says, failed, and Pilatus died of a suspected that away from you.” • GIVING BACK THE GRAMMY After their trophy was revoked (the first and only time one has been in the awards’ 52-year history), Milli INSET: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES Vanilli returned the hardware at a heated November 1990 press con- ference. Morvan says it was “the right thing to do,” but he questions artists today who correct their vocals with technology like Auto-Tune. “If the machine is doing everything for you, is it really any different?” 106 December 13, 2010 PEOPLE.