My First Love

I have something to confess.

I am in love with Teddy Pendergrass. I have been in love with "Teddy P," as I affectionately call him, since I was five-years-old.

It is often said that little girls are first in love with their fathers. But for me, I was first in love with Teddy from the moment I saw him in concert at the then Reunion Arena in Dallas in 1981. My parents took me, and, even though we were sitting at an angle, there was just something special about T.P. It could have been those gold chains. Or maybe that full, bushman beard. Or maybe those thin, tight tank tops that were often in lighter colors that highlighted his chocolate skin.

I cried when I heard that he had gotten into the car accident that robbed him of most of the movement in his body. I was six, and my parents had to sit me down to tell me. I even sent him a "Get Well" card. I don't care if there was a transvestite in the front seat allegedly giving him a bj or if Dr. J's wife Turquoise was in the backseat. Teddy P was gangster in a world full of androgynous R&B male singers (Prince, Michael, The Time, Rick James, and others). Brazenly heterosexual, and always holding it down for the ladies. Even when he wore that ridiculous Beatles wig way after it would have even been slightly acceptable. 

And I am not trying to hear nothing about Jaheim sounding like him. Get outta here with that nonsense! Teddy is and will always be the man. Even with that Ike wig on.