
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993                   TAG: 9311250099
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SHEILA RULE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SINGER DIANA ROSS REFLECTS ON THE PAST

Diana Ross says that in writing her memoirs, after more than 30 years in the music business, she was sometimes reluctant to reveal her thoughts, feelings and experiences. But her daughter Rhonda told her, "It's therapy, Mom." With "Secrets of a Sparrow" (Villard Books) now in bookstores, Ross says her daughter was right.

"You force yourself to focus on how and why you do what you do," she said in a recent interview at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. "The early days of my career happened so fast that I didn't stop to think of the reason I did things. But I'm absolutely clear that I didn't do it for money. I did it for the love of the work, the singing. I'm still not clear about everything, but as I wrote the book I got a little more understanding of myself."

Her memoirs are one of several projects that have been taking Ross' time lately. Her first careerlong retrospective recording, "Forever, Diana" (on Motown, which is now owned by Polygram) has been released in a boxed set of four compact disks.

And she is producing three made-for-television movies for ABC Entertainment, two of which she will star in. The first, in which she plays a schizophrenic, may be broadcast around March, she said.

There's also talk of a world tour.

Among other things, "Secrets of a Sparrow" covers the singer's early days with the Supremes, one of the first black singing groups to cross the color barrier and hit the top 10; Ross' decision to leave the group in 1970 and, later, the Motown record label for a time; her long and complicated relationship with Berry Gordy, who founded the label; and her roles as wife and mother.

Ross, 49, has been characterized in books by or about members of the Supremes as a self-important, underhanded performer who manipulated people and left the group to promote her own skyrocketing career. When asked why she believes she has been portrayed so negatively, she said, "Good stuff doesn't sell books."

"I have to keep trusting in what's good," Ross said. "That period that people were saying negative things about me, I thought people had put a voodoo hex on me. I knew that's not who I am. People will always try to blame someone else for why their life is not working.

"It's easy to blame me, easy to blame Berry Gordy. But if it wasn't for him and Motown, would I have bumped into anyone else who would have given me that opportunity?"

Her critics aside, Ross says that one of the most important ingredients in her rise to the top and her endurance is her spirituality.

"I don't think people know about my faith," she said. "It has a lot to do with who I am, how I raise my family, how I live. I was brought up in a religious family.

"I don't preach to people; if you have to talk about God all the time, I don't know if you've got it. I'm always in prayer. I didn't have to be born again. Everything I do is my ministry. That's why I know I never intended to hurt anybody."

by CNB