Anthony Riley: "Destined for greatness"

ANTHONY RILEY could make almost anyone feel good.

You. The girl you're trying to impress. A national TV audience. Our whole grouchy city.

The 28-year-old Philadelphia street performer got his big break this year on NBC's "The Voice" by belting out James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)."

Within seconds, all four judges were feeling good, too, slamming the red buttons that spin their chairs around and signal their approval.

Riley instantly became a crowd favorite. He was being coached by Pharrell Williams and poised to take the next step.

Like so many talented artists, though, Riley couldn't work his magic on himself. He was found dead Friday, an apparent suicide, in the basement of a Center City apartment building where he had been staying.

"On the inside, he was hurting," Riley's older sister, Halima Miley, said yesterday. "He couldn't take it anymore."

Riley, raised by his grandmother in West Philly, started singing before he could talk, emulating Michael Jackson in front of the mirror while still in diapers.

He crooned on Broad Street, at Suburban Station, at Rittenhouse Square and Reading Terminal, earning street cred in a city where skilled buskers don't always get the same respect as in places like New Orleans, Manhattan or Europe.

"That guy was destined for greatness," said local trumpet player Chris Aschman. "He was a special dude."

Last year, Philadelphia magazine named Riley the city's Best Street Performer, writing how the "clean-shaven 20-something busker who cycles through the Temptations, Sam Cooke and the Beatles" can instantly turn a stressful workday into a romantic evening.

"Riley is that good," they wrote.

But he was in a bad place.

Miley, of Upper Darby, recalled being in a hotel room in Los Angeles with her brother when he was taping "The Voice." It's a night she's replayed in her head over and over throughout the weekend.

"I will be forever 28," he told her, Miley recalled last night. "I've done all I can do. I've had the most fun any human can have."

Looking back, Miley, 36, suspects he was already considering ending his life then. Riley had struggled with substance abuse, but Miley said that was only a coping mechanism.

"His problem wasn't addiction," she said. "He had mental illness. The drugs kept him numb. Kept him in a fog."

Riley left "The Voice" in January after his first Battle Round victory and entered the Clarity Way drug and alcohol rehab in Hanover, the Inquirer reported in March.

"He didn't feel the love that people had for him. He thought he was being bought and sold - that people were making money off his talent," said Riley's friend, Tootsie Iovine D'Ambrosio. "He thought people loved him because he was going to be famous."

D'Ambrosio, who runs Tootsie's Salad Express at Reading Terminal, met Riley three or four years ago when her 56-year-old brother, Bobby Iovine, saw Riley singing on Broad Street.

"He was so good, my brother thought he was lip synching because he was that phenomenal," she said. "My brother brought him to Reading Terminal."

D'Ambrosio said Riley, who was addicted to crack cocaine, hung himself in the basement of her brother's building on 12th Street near Walnut. She hadn't seen him in about 10 days.

"He sang at my grandson's first birthday party in May and I could tell he was struggling," said D'Ambrosio, who had tried to get Riley into rehab or Narcotics Anonymous. "I begged him to be truthful with me but he couldn't tell me the truth."

Funeral arrangements were still pending last night.

Riley had been working on an original album with producer Bob Loy. They had loads of material - much of it just Riley and a piano or acoustic guitar - and planned to tour, Loy said.

"We got together with the idea that he was going to sing material that the public had never heard before," Loy said. "Anthony was an astonishing singer and he could handle any kind of repertoire. He easily would cross between soul, gospel, pop, folk and country music."

"This guy was as good, if not better, than anyone I've worked with," Loy added.

Dan Bruskewicz, frontman for TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb, recalled crossing paths with Riley regularly while busking at Suburban Station years ago. He and Riley had a mutual respect for each other and were careful not to step on each other's turf.

"He took it seriously and was just very good at what busking means, which is basically entertaining anyone you see within your peripheral vision at a moment's notice. It's very different from performing onstage," Bruskewicz said. "He really was a natural talent; super old-school. I was more surprised that he decided to try his hand on a national scale. It was great and I was excited about it."

Justin DeLoatch, of Manayunk, said he once paid Riley to come into Pumpkin on South Street and sing to his girlfriend on her birthday. Riley sang "If This World Were Mine" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

It was a brilliant plan.

"He sang to her, but essentially it was for the whole restaurant because Pumpkin is small," DeLoatch said. "He sang in his velvety, melodic, easy-to-listen to voice and it was perfect. Everyone loved it. It was perfect."

DeLoatch said he wasn't close with Riley, but could never forget him. Many Philadelphians will tell you the same thing.

"Someone would have to be the devil not to like this guy. He just had this je ne sais quoi about him. It was really awesome," DeLoatch said. "Just flooring everybody and making everybody feel good."