El DeBarge, enjoying 2nd chance, comes to ATL

DeBarge, 49, said he has emerged a changed and grateful man. He has been touring the country with Mary J. Blige and next month is expected to release his first album in more than a decade. He is also headlining a few gigs on his own, including a performance at Center Stage on Thursday.

"I think people didn't want me to really leave the scene," said the singer by phone a week before his Atlanta appearance. "Nobody wanted drugs for me. They wanted me to be better. I needed to know that people would forgive me."

"Second Chance" is the appropriately titled album on which DeBarge is hanging his comeback. The single of the same name quickly jumped to the top 20 on the urban adult contemporary radio charts, but it was his performance on the 10th annual BET Awards in June that left fans believing the singer was truly ready for a return to music.

At the sound of his trademark falsetto, the audience rose to its feet, singing along as he ran through a medley of the songs he once performed with his brothers and sisters. "I can't describe to you the nervousness that was going through my whole system," he said. "I almost couldn't get off of that stool."

But rise he did, as did his voice, apparently undamaged by the years of cocaine and heroin abuse. "My voice is something that emanates from my spirit. It is clearly by the grace of God that I still have my chops," he said.

DeBarge said his drug problems began in 1986, at age 25, during the peak of his career. He first tried pot, then moved to heroin and crack cocaine. By 1994, after his final solo album with Warner Bros., he said drugs "became my reason for living," not music.

Other members of the DeBarge clan took a similar path. Older brother Bobby DeBarge, whose distinctive voice fronted the '70s group Switch, and younger brother Chico DeBarge did time in prison for drug trafficking. "My brother Bobby died because his drug abuse made him get loose," DeBarge said of his sibling who contracted AIDS and died of complications from the disease at age 39.

Last year, sister Bunny DeBarge released a tell-all memoir detailing the drug problems she and her siblings faced as well as the emotional and physical abuse from their father.

El DeBarge didn't agree with such a public airing of family issues. "I remember [our father] sitting us down and asking us to forgive him. He had us all in one room, and he said, ‘I'm sorry Daddy did things he shouldn't have done, and I need you to forgive me and pray for me.' I feel like it should have been left there. Sometimes people need to vent things ... but there is therapy and counseling."

In some ways, DeBarge has used music as his therapy. In prison, there was one piano, and inmates would always want him to come and sing. "They had me doing whole concerts in there," he said. "They wanted me to listen to their songs and promise them I would keep in touch when I got out. I was like, ‘Noooo.' "

DeBarge said he remained grateful in prison, if impatient. He knew he had been rescued from his addiction, but was anxious to get out and start over.

"My children are so happy and I am happy. They feel secure and safe now. They know Daddy is there," he said. And together, they are enjoying the resurgence in his popularity. "They like to get caught by the paparazzi," he added.

On "Second Chance," the ever-humble songwriter collaborates with some big names in the industry including Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, but he wrote all but three songs on the album.

"I love to write and I wouldn't dare do an album without me writing on it," he said. "This is real in essence, emotion, soul and harmony. I think this is one of the richest albums I have done to date."

Staff writer Rodney Ho contributed to this article.

Concert preview

El DeBarge with Shareefa. 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28. $29.50. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. N.W. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com .