Pop singer Vanity, a protege of Prince and lead singer of the girl group Vanity 6, died on Monday from kidney failure, reports Rolling Stone.
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Born Denise Katrina Matthews, the former entertainer passed away in a Fremont, CA hospital, according to sources close to her family. Prince’s protégée’ Vanity died at the age of 57 on Monday.
Matthews was briefly involved with Prince romantically and also engaged to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx but never married. In that time, they recorded the smooth funk single, “Nasty Girl”, which was produced by Prince and topped the Billboard dance charts.
After the health scare, she became a Christian evangelist, leaving her fame behind.
Vanity would later renounce her stage name and, like Prince, become a born-again Christian.
Vanity died after a battle with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis (SEP) more recently, which causes an inflammation of the small intestines, compounded her health issues, according to TMZ.
Among those to leave public tributes was Billy Idol – who she was rumoured to once be in a relationship with, MC Hammer and Solange Knowles.
“There was a lot of cocaine”, she said. She published an autobiography, Blame It on Vanity, and dedicated herself to evangelism.
Vanity starred in several movies, including Action Jackson and The Last Dragon, and appeared in Playboy twice. She quit drugs and turned to religion.
Matthews developed an addiction to crack cocaine during her solo career. Still being recognized from her singing days is one of the reasons the singer said she had to show people a better way with God.
Unusually conversational and candid, Prince shared with the crowd of 2,000 a fond and amusing memory: “Can I tell you a story about Vanity?”. She suffered incredible damage to her kidneys after a 1994 drug overdose and had 23 surgeries since that time. She claimed Jesus appeared to her and offered her a second chance at life-if she got out of the entertainment business.
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That same year, though, Matthews had a falling out with the group and dropped out of Purple Rain before it could begin filming; she was later replaced by Apollonia Kotero as the lead in both the film and in the group, rechristened Apollonia 6.
