The first recollection we have of Pilatus’ struggles came a year after Milli Vanilli sold 7 million records and ultimately were publicly humiliated after they were busted for lip-synching their entire multi-platinum album, Girl You Know It’s True. After winning their Best New Artist Grammy in 1990, they returned their trophies and their album became the biggest-selling album ever to be permanently deleted from a record label’s catalog.

His suicide attempt>>>>

In 1991, Pilatus called the Los Angeles Times threatening suicide. He had downed a fifth of bourbon, swallowed five dozen tranquilizers, slit his left wrist with a shard of broken glass and slowly crawled out onto the railing. He eventually was rescued from a the hotel balcony by police. Here’s what Pilatus once said about that day:

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“I can still see myself dangling there nine stories above the Sunset Strip.”

“I was shaking and I was crying and I could feel my arms getting weaker and weaker. I wanted to die but I was too scared to let go. So I just hung there waiting for the medication to kick in, hoping that at some point the drugs would just cause me to drop.”

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Pilatus blamed the suicide attempt on the lip-sync scandal; problems with his family, including a recent call (at that time) from his adoptive mother during which, he said, she requested he change his name, claiming that various European media reports related to the lip-sync hoax had disgraced the family; a break-up with his girlfriend; and a visit from his then 4 year old son, whom he hadn’t seen in a year.

Rob Piltaus’ crime spree and pimp-slapping antics>>>

Pilatus continued his downward spiral and December 1995 is when things really got out of control for him: He attacked a…