What happend to Luther Vandross

Luther Vandross’ Response to an Eddie Murphy KFC Joke — Plus More Revelations from the Star’s New Documentary

Luther Vandross was one of a kind.

In Luther: Never Too Much, which premiered Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, viewers get an inside look at the R&B star’s life and career like never before.

The documentary, directed by Dawn Porter, explores the Grammy-winner’s passion for music, global rise and sheds light on his personal struggles.

Vandross, who sold over 40 million records worldwide and released 13 platinum albums throughout his career, died in 2005 at 54 due to complications from a 2003 stroke.

From his first run-ins with David Bowie and Bette Midler to his long search for love, here’s the biggest revelations from the documentary.

David Bowie was blown away by Vandross’ voice

In 1974, Bowie was working on his Young Americans album when he met Vandross in a studio session — and recruited him to sing background vocals.

“I love this guy,” Ava Cherry, a background singer, recalls of Bowie’s reaction when he first heard Vandross sing.

It was during a session for the song “Young Americans” when Vandross started ad-libbing and Bowie loved what he heard.

“What a breath of fresh air. He had such a fantastic voice that I asked him if he wanted to join in the session and start doing the backing vocals,” Bowie said in an interview clip.

In addition to his background vocals, Vandross had a hand in arranging the album. “Fascination”—which ended up on Young Americans—was a Vandross song originally called “Funky Music.”

Bette Midler inspired his stage style

At the time that Bowie — who died in 2016 — and Vandross were working together, the “Heroes” singer introduced Vandross to none other than Midler.

They ended up touring together for several years — and she was influential in his stage style.

“She was big on production. So some of my early impressions about what to do onstage were that you should have big, elaborate productions,” he said in a clip.

An Eddie Murphy joke lit a fire inside him

When Eddie Murphy made a joke about him being a “Kentucky Fried Chicken-eating motherf—er,” in a standup — Vandross had an epic response.

In an archival interview clip, Vandross told a journalist of the joke: “Yeah I love it, I think it’s great. You have to know how to play the game.”

Then, during one of his shows not too long after, he brought a giant bucket of KFC onstage.

“I didn’t want to let Eddie Murphy down,” he joked onstage.

“The reason I did this was because I looked on the guest list to see who was coming and I saw Eddie’s name. That’s when I got the idea. I said, ‘We have to address this. This is going to be so funny, ‘” he said in an interview clip.

Jamie Foxx played Vandross’ music to court women

Jamie Foxx, who’s a producer on the documentary, would play Vandross’ music while dating.

“Back in the day, if you wanted to fall in love, you let Luther do the work for you,” he says. “So I would put the phone up to the radio — and what’s crazy is you had to wait for it to come on the radio.”

He continued, “So I would put the phone up to the radio and say, ‘This is what I want to tell you.'”

Turns out, it works every single time.