Vanity Dead at 57, Prince Protege Known for ‘Nasty Girl’
Singer had battled kidney failure and abdominal illness
Vanity, a former protege of Prince’s and a member of Vanity 6, has died at age 57, TMZ reports...
Matthews struggled with drug abuse, which took its toll on her health. At one point she suffered renal failure and, according to a Jet feature on the singer, required peritoneal dialysis five times a day.
Following a 1994 crack cocaine overdose that left her with near-renal failure, Matthews renounced her stage name and became a born-again Christian, at one point saying, “When I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, I threw out about 1,000 tapes of mine — every interview, every tape, every video. Everything.” Following a 1997 kidney transplant, she devoted herself to evangelism, speaking at churches.
http://www.thewrap.com/prince-protege-vanity-dead-at-57/