WASHINGTON — Denise Matthews, the former Prince protégé who went by the name Vanity and was the lead singer of the group Vanity 6, died on Monday. She was 57.
She died in Fremont, California, after having checked into a hospital on Saturday night, her sister, Renay Matthews, told The New York Times. She had struggled for years with kidney-related health problems, Renay Matthews says.
The members of Vanity 6 were known for their racy stagewear and for the 1982 hit “Nasty Girl,” on which Matthews, Brenda Bennett and Susan Moonsie were backed by The Time, another group from Prince’s funk/pop empire.
Matthews left the group in 1984 for a solo career on Motown Records; the rest of the group took on singer Apollonia and renamed themselves Apollonia 6, according to allmusic.com.
Matthews was on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1983 (with Prince) and on Playboy in 1988, and acted in films including “The Last Dragon,” “Never Too Young to Die” and “Action Jackson,” The Times says. But she left the entertainment industry after a kidney-related health scare in the 1990s and became an evangelist. Her 1999 autobiography is entitled “Blame It on Vanity.”
Many musicians and artists expressed their condolences and remembrances on Monday night. The rapper MC Hammer said that he had been in Matthews’ church on Saturday after “giving a beautiful testimony of appreciation.”
Saturday #Vanity left church after giving a beautiful testimony of appreciation for her Pastors & Thanks to her savior Jesus, I was there
— MC HAMMER (@MCHammer) February 16, 2016
