Bee Gees interview Chris Evans 1997 TFI

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IN CONVERSATION WITH MAURICE GIBB (In Conversation, May 21, 2001

Q: Maurice Gibb, welcome to In Conversation.
M.Gibb: Thank you.
Q: Well, this is where you come in.
M.Gibb: This is where we came in.
Q: Well, you've had such great successes. You're a legend now. How are legends made?
M.Gibb: You know, it's very hard for anyone to see as an icon or a legend or whatever. To me that is very funny. I am sorry. It seems, I mean if somebody dies, yes, it's okay. But being so prominent as people put that name on us, I mean, we don't perceive ourselves as that or ...
Q: What do you see yourself as?
M.Gibb: Three brothers trying to be bigger than Beatles.
Q: And..
M.Gibb: We're still trying.
Q: You feel you haven't made it yet?
M.Gibb: No. No by a long shot.
Q: But you certainly have had all the successes of the Beatles have had in the sense.
M.Gibb: All because they have stopped. If they had kept on going and John hadn't died and so forth. Who knows?
Q: But then that's what's great about you. Your group has survived where others has just stopped.
M.Gibb: It's the songs. It's the songs more than anything. If you can write a good song that last for years. I mean that is a great blessing. And the Beatles did that. But it's just that they are not productive anymore after that period. We were. We just kept writing more songs and we do need to do.
Q: Well how have you been able to do that? You needed to reinvent yourself every other day.
M.Gibb: You don't think about reinventing. You don't think about that. You just do what you love to do. We're persistent little buggers. We keep on trying and trying and trying. We've had pitfalls, we've had valleys, we've had mountains. And if you didn't have the valleys you wouldn't know about the mountains.
Q: Well why don't you tell me something about the valleys, the really tough times.
M.Gibb: You know, I don't like talking negative about stuff because that recycles in my head the memories that I did I went through.
Q: But then you survived you survived...
M.Gibb: Because we persisted in our talent in what we wanted to do like any actor. John Travolta for example... kept on persisting. Now look where he is.
Q: And what was it that you require to sort of survive that trough.
M.Gibb: Love.
Q: You took a long time
M.Gibb: Everybody has two training thoughts. It's either fear or love. Nothing in between. It's always the one or the other. I love to live in love today. I don't live in the negative I don't think negative. I don't pursue anything that is negative. I don't even ask questions that are negative. I just go for what I enjoy. And love to do what I to do. And if I am loving it then it's incredible. That you can do something that you love as you work or your hobby whatever. To have that blessing.
Q: You've had great successes in Europe more than America.
M.Gibb: Sometimes..
Q: And then now Asia. Asia is also picking up a lot of your music and a lot of Asians love your music too. Do you ever think when you write a song what sort of audience you are writing for?
M.Gibb: No. We always write our songs that we love and record what we love and we hope that everybody else would love what we love. We don't make records or cds or anything like that just to please the public. We always write the songs that we love to write and perform and record. Some songs don't make it to the album, some do. Those also are covered, so we've got people who wanted songs, we've got extra songs to give to them. But creating in that way and the love that's involved to be blessed with that, it's amazing. We still do what we love to do. And still loving it.
Q:Well, one of the things about the group is that it survived as a family group where others have not. What's this about the family that's kept you going?
M.Gibb: I was saying earlier, I think that would change our lives more than anything, was losing Andy. When he died we became very ...Life's too short... taken away like that, we have to be bonded and I remember saying to Barry and Robin at the funeral, I said that we have to stay bonded. We have to be together because without each other, we're nothing. And we realised that, not because of Andy's death. But we realised it of all the things we've done years before, we've gone … this cannot happen. We cannot loose each other. And that made our bond much stronger. So that was a tragedy that helped.
Q: So now, is the family really together...
M.Gibb: Oh yeah ... even our kids, with Barry's kids and Robin's kids, it's all very very together.
Q: What sort of music do your kids like?
M.Gibb: Well, my daughter, she is 21 in July and my son is 25. They write songs together, they've done an album. I recorded eight tracks, produced it. Blew me away. It's like Romanian pop. It's like gypsy music but funky and I produced that and I did the eight tracks. My daughter blew me away, my son blew me away and the way she sings, sounds very blessed. Lots of kids are. Barry's kids, too. One's an incredible DJ guy. He loves to … Travis, he loves to play the stuff and get involved in all the mixing and engineering and the stuff. Well, Ashley is an engineer. Ashley is also credited on the new album, because he assisted engineering for us for about three weeks on the album. We put his name on because we want to open doors for him.
Q: Well, when you enjoy sit back relax, what sort of music do you listen to?
M.Gibb: Classical mostly...mostly classical. I love some country stuff, I really do. I love Tim Mcgraw. I love his stuff, and I mean it's so ...it's just the way the guitar sound and the way he sings, I like all that stuff. ...It's like a mixture. We have so many different types of music I love and that's the greatest thing about music is that it's totally loveable and it's totally an international language. No matter where it comes from, not mad about rap, because somebody talking on a record doesn't qualify him as a singer. It doesn't do it for me. That's it. But that's not my favourite kind of music. Even a lot of rap artists have done our songs.
Q: What about the relationship between the artists and the recording industry? I mean you've had major problems in the past, legal battles that you fought in, you survived. What do you think it should be like?
M.Gibb: You know, it scares the hell out of me if the people, the kids that are in these boy bands that have no experience of longevity. They have no experience in the business. They're just put together. 'Okay, let's make the record.' It's a formulated thing. It's all formula. And management and record companies make lots more money than the group. They make fortunes but the group don't. They may be just get a nice bit of payoff. But they can't choose their own songs. They can't record what they want to record. Everything's told exactly what you have to do. Take it or leave it. If you don't like it, bugger off. It's that simple. I find it that it is almost close to slave labour. The labour, slaves, you do what we tell you.
Q: But they also ....
M.Gibb: Thank god, we never gone through that.
Q:But they help you become major icons.
M.Gibb: Yeah, but maybe there'll be one or two maybe out of all these groups that are around today that may come out blossom and become incredible talents like George Michael did with Wham. Might be the same thing. But we wrote a song, for instance, after the Backstreet Boys in an album called "Sacred Trust." We wrote it for them, they ask us for a song. We said: "Yeap! We'll do it." We sent it to them, they loved it. They went crazy over it. They loved the demo. They want to do it exactly the same as the demo. Of course the producer stepped in and said: "No! I didn't write it, you can't record it."
So that was it, so we said: "We're going to record it. Because we feel for the song, we know the song .... "That's what you're up against. But I feel for the kids when their approval goes away. The ultimate buzz of being approved by the masses, big success big hit records. What do you do when that's taken away. You don't have any experience. So you're likely to turn to other things that will give you a buzz. Like your alcohol or drugs or whatever. I know I've been there I've done that.
Q: So how are you dealing with it now?
M.Gibb: Oh, it's ten years in September for me that I last had my drink, my last drink. And I've never lived a better life. My life is totally together, which is very rare in this business.
Q: Do you still get the buzz when you see the people .coming up?
M.Gibb: Oh definitely.... like hearing the song for the first time on the radio, a new song.
Q: But you've done it so many times before so many people have come up against. So what sort of motivates you and inspires you?
M.Gibb: Just the whole thing. Every thing that is involved in it. Creating the song, producing it, writing it, getting into the studio, it's like one of our kids, put all the colours on, release it to the world and hope it does well. When it doesn't, it doesn't. But that doesn't mean: "Oh God what are we going to do, we just carry on. Because the worst thing you can do for any new group any new artist is to give up. Don't give up. If you really believe in what you are doing keep going, keep doing it. No matter what it is, whether you are a writer a cameraman or a cinematographer or lawyer, whatever. Go the extra mile. Go that bit further and you will achieve incredible results.
Q: Well, what is your latest CD, 'This is where I came in' all about?
M.Gibb: It really represents five decades of what we've been influenced by. And we recorded the same way as we did the late 60s. We always thought what would be the album we would make if Fever never come along and just do what we wanted to do and all that stuff we did for Fever was R & B. We weren't disco. We never heard the word disco. And so KC and the Sunshine Band and Donna Summer, they were disco to us. The Village People. It was all that happy dance music that would go on longer than the normal record. And we thought that was disco; that was great fun times, you know. The one that was "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep Is Your Love," songs of that credibility, of substance that lasts for years. We weren't thinking disco. We never even knew what disco to us was. Just great dance fun. We knew about the R & B from the Stylists, Delphonics, so forth. And that falsetto voice, but it was black, and it was R & B, it's soul and that's been our influence for years. Besides even the Beatles explain that too, it's like, Paul was always very influenced by..
Q: Well, you do have something from the Beatles in the first track of your CD.
M.Gibb: Oh yes... absolutely ... that was John's guitar.
Q: Right
M.Gibb: He gave it to me for my 21st birthday and I said we got to play this. I changed the string, I still have got the original strings not going to lose them. I changed the strings and we played "This is Where I came In." And also the apertone, which I used for the beginning of "She keeps on coming." That was John's.
Q: Wasn't it John who introduced you to scotch?
M.Gibb: Yes scotch and coke. Well he said that was funny. I didn't even know he was sitting next to me. I am sitting in this club and there was my future wife-to-be, Lulu, and this lady called Cynthia. I didn't know. I was chatting away and I feel a tap on my shoulders, scotch and coke isn't it? Ya, even if it is cyanide, I would have drunk it. I didn't realise it was John as he had the other, the whole outfit from Sgt Pepper cover ... they just come from a shoot, he's wearing his full uniform that he wore for Sergeant Pepper cover and with the moustache and the glasses. Holy cow! And when you are 17 in a club, idolising these people only months earlier, in Australia buying a Beatles fan club book and suddenly I am getting drunk with the guys. What is going on? This is incredible! But we became really good mates. I miss John, I miss him terribly.
Q: Well, what's with this get up now, the hat and the ....
M.Gibb: This is a get up is it? I've been called other things but never that. I've always worn this. This was what I worn in the 60s.
Q: But you never let go of the hat?
M.Gibb: No, I can't get it off. It's screwed on. The wife's gotten used to it and the boots.
Q: Well, on the CD, This is where I came in, there is the song that you've done, "Man in the Middle", that I really like and you really do sound like as if you're talking about what you've been through with your family, with the group. Is it right?
M.Gibb: Yes, Yes .... I am more or less in the middle. I've always been between Barry and Robin. I think we should tour in October 19 whatever okay. ... I don't really want to do that. I'll say: "Listen if you do this we do that, we can do that, we can do that, we can do that. Oh okay, we'll do it." But I am always the decider. I decide ... which ... I just came about, I mean this is just the way we lived. It's just been our life that I always end up being the man in the middle. So they call me the engine. They call me all sorts of stuff. Barry and Robin have these different types of egos sometimes they come out and they stop. And I've got to cut myself out here. I don't want to be like them. So being down to earth is probably more important than anything else. And they're like that. They're just great guys. They're just guys like you and me. We sit and we chat, it's the same thing.
Q: Are you also the peacemaker?
M.Gibb: Yes, yes... I've been in my time...
Q: Well as little boys what would you fight about? What are the things you would do?
M.Gibb: Oh God ... later year … Actually in the 70, 71 was the fact that Robin sang "Lamplight," this lovely song that ... and Barry sang "First of May" which we did in New York... and we just got this piano and his vocal, got to keep these two tracks, because you can't recapture that. And that's the greatest thing about recording a demo, you capture the mood and emotion that you can't go back three months later, and say, I need to do that vocal again. It will never be the same. It's always sung the first time you sing the song.. something happens. So there's a lot of jealousy going on between those two singers. We split up for about 15 months, which is like 15 minutes of our life... and realised that together we're magic, separately we're not.
Q: So when the three of you get together, how do you actually get working on the song? How does it happen?
M.Gibb: Usually atmosphere... we're always, we don't actually we'll say let's go in we got to write we're going to do this, we're going to do that. We usually go in and say I feel crazy today, we'll do something. Yes, let's go back. It's just the two of us to start with and then one of them will join us. I'll call Robin, I'll call Barry up: "Listen I've got this great idea, got to come down, listen I need your input." And everybody, if each brother says something that's not quite right, there's a reason why he's saying it. So the other two always listen. What is it about it that you want to keep? What is it that's making you argumentative or creative? What is it? And then we'll explore that area totally. If I have something: "No we shouldn't go there, we should be here." There's a reason why I am saying it. And each of us now over the years respected each other's opinion. So when that comes into the fold … oh he's really going on about this. What is it? What is he keeps on talking about it? There's something in his head that he can't through to us. What is it? So the three of us will sit and talk about what it it that you feel about the song. What is it that you want to change? What is it that you want to improve on? Whatever.
Q: Well Maurice, one last thing. This is where I came in sounds very much an album that a group that is now a legend achieved everything that it possibly can, has brought about and you're talking about the five decades you put in. Well, what after this, is this really the end of the road in the sense?
M.Gibb: Ya I'm going to miss have a sex change over the weekend and going to move to Island Madagascar … a pig farm in Devon, I don't know. It's just we don't even think about that. It's something, it's beyond our reach, that's you know....
Q: You're doing your world tour. Are you coming to Singapore?
M.Gibb: Oh absolutely, Oh God ya... we're going to do every place we've always wanted to play again. It's been a while...
Q: When are you going to be in Singapore?
M.Gibb: Tomorrow morning? It'll be about .. It takes about six months to plan this whole thing... so it'll be next year, probably the summer of next year.
Q:What's a typical Bee Gees song today?
M.Gibb: Typical ... that's a strange word...
Q: Do you have a typical Bee Gees song?
M.Gibb: Oh, I would think on the new album "Wedding Day" is definitely classic Bee Gees if you like, the big ballad thing ... So yes I would say that .. is probably the most original type of Bee Gees song. But the other stuff is totally different.
Q: Well, Man in the Middle, Maurice Gibb, thank you very much on being on In Conversation...
M.Gibb: Thank you...thanks a lot...

 

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Robin Gibb Danger Ric e Gian folies 1983

 

Barry Gibb Performs _Grand Illusion_Saturday Sessions_

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BARRY GIBB interviewed on Live 1997

BARRY GIBB interviewed on Live (December 1997) Q: How many secrets do your brothers know about you that they hang over your head? BARRY GIBB: I think it's the other way around. Q: Really? You're the good brother? BARRY GIBB: No, but how many secrets do I know about them? Q: So this is what keeps the group together? BARRY GIBB: I'd have to say, without a doubt, it's a pure love of pop music and the fact that we're a family that's knit together. Q: Can you still fit in the old Bee Gees clothes? BARRY GIBB: No. My waist is 32, but in those days I was about 29 to 30. Q: There were no scandals were there? BARRY GIBB: No, not like the Jacksons or situations like that. I think there was a small one when Robin got a divorce in England. But I don't remember anything you would call a scandal. Q: What do you collect? BARRY GIBB: Now there's a scandal. I can't tell you. Q: The largest porn collection in Florida? BARRY GIBB: You said it, I didn't. Q: This could only do good for your image! Didn't that one night concert put a lot of pressure on you?   BARRY GIBB: Enormous. The only thing I don't want to do is a tour. I'm a 50 year old man, jumping out of bed each morning and getting on a place is no longer feasible for me. I have a condition that is pretty arthritic. It's one of 100 different kinds of arthritis, and I have to deal with that. Q: Do you force yourself to listen to new music? BARRY GIBB: No. I do like the Hansons, though. I think they're very talented. I think they're going to surprise a lot of people in the next 10 years. When I see the Hansons, I see us as kids. Q: Do you ever feel embarrassed by your music because of the criticism? Did you ever wish you were the Rolling Stones?   BARRY GIBB: I don't ever wish I was somebody else. I know that I am meant to be who I am, and I'm meant to have my own destiny. Whever that takes me, I'm sensible enough to accept it no matter what it is. My music, certainly, has never embarrassed me.     https://beegeesfanfever.blogspot.com/

0:03 / 13:20 Bee Gees Medley High Civilization 1991 Dortmund FAN REQUEST PART 2

 

ANDY GIBB: THE STORY BEHIND THE MUSIC

(VH1, 1997. Excerpt)

Andy Gibb was talented and successful, famous around the world as a top selling pop star, but on March 10th, 1988 fans would receive the shocking news that the shining and charming life on Andy Gibb was over. Tabloids would blame it on a cocaine overdose but his family and those who knew him best believe it was a kind of slow suicide, a deadly combination of low self-esteem, drug addiction and "too much, too fast, too young."

Barbara Gibb: He never grew up. He was like Peter Pan. He was just like a little boy all of his life. He was a baby all his life.

Robin Gibb: He was a great artist out of control and his personality and emotions just couldn't deal with what was going on around him and the success that he had.

Andy Gibb was born in 1958 in Manchester, England. The youngest boy in a close-knitted music family of six. His parents played in a big band. Mother Barbara was the singer, father Hugh the band leader. But jobs for musicians were sparse in the working class town and soon the family struck out for Australia for a fresh start and a brand new life.

It wasn't long before the oldest brother Barry and the twins Robin and Maurice started harmonizing together as the Brothers Gibb, soon to be known simply as The Bee Gees.

Growing up Andy was constantly entowed tagging behind his talented older brothers. But he was always closest to Barry, even though they were ten years apart.

Maurice Gibb: Andy emulated Barry a lot. He thought a great deal of his older brother. A sort of hero was he for him.

Barry Gibb: Maurice and Rob were twins so  they always had each other. Andy was someone I could always talk to and he always could talk to me, because both of us sort of had a sense of isolation in growing up, so we were extremely close.

The Bee Gees soon developed their own distinctive style and by 1967 had gone from being an Australian phenomenon to international pop stars. Andy was always close by, taking it all. [...]

Clad up in the world of his brothers' success, Andy wanted a music career of his own, and Barry was there to help. When Andy was 13, Barry bought him his first guitar, and when he was 16, Barry introduced him to the man who engineered the Bee Gees astonishing rise to fame, music impresario, founder of RSO Records, Robert Stigwood. [...]

For two years Andy honed his talents in bars and clubs of Australia. When he was 18 Stigwood decided he was ready for the big time. He sent Andy to America to cast his first record.

Barry Gibb: I thought:  if anyone can do it, if someone can make Andy a star, that's Robert Stigwood.

But the young performer faced a dilemma: a start in America or true love in Australia. For two years he had been involved with Kim Reeder [...]. Kim says Andy was determined to have his career and her. He asked her to marry him. Kim and Andy, just 18 years old, were married on July 11th, 1976. Within weeks, the teenage newly-weds were living in California, and Andy was in studio recording his first album.

Barry Gibb: That was Andy at his best. At that age, wanting to be successful, not having the success but having the hunger, and music was all, music was everything.

And the music was making Andy a star. Six months after arriving in America "I just want to be your everything" was the number one song in the country and his debut album Flowing rivers was climbing the charts. Andy had followed his brothers' road up for success, but he wasn't prepared for the danger that lay ahead.

In early 1977 Andy Gibb was 19 years old, newly married and his debut album, Flowing Rivers, was on the way to selling a million copies. Soon his picture was covering the walls of teenage and preteen girls around the country. He was an overnight sensation. But this was no solo effort. His brothers, The Bee Gees, were guiding his career at evry step of the way.

Andy Gibb: I believe I owe it chiefly to my brothers, who produce my records, my brother Barry, who helps me, you know, if I have a problem in writing any songs, he always puts me on the right direction.

Barry wrote, produced and sang back upon Andy's first number one single. The next one, "Love is thicker than water", Barry and Andy wrote together [...].

As Andy's career was climbing, his brothers' was riding high on their second wave of fame. It was early 1978 and The Bee Gees had started the "disco revolution" with the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever. For two months that year the Gibb family would dominate the top of the Billboard charts. First The Bee Gees grabbed number one with "Stayin' alive", only to be bumped by Andy's "Love is thicker than water"; two weeks later The Bee Gees were back on top with "Night fever". The success was a family affair.

But Andy struggled for his own identity beyond the long shadow cast by his brothers.

Maurice Gibb: I still think he thinks that he still had to prove himself to be as good as we were in many ways, or to gain the same success. I think that there's always that kind of brotherly, sibling type of rivalry.

But Andy Gibb quickly discovered that escaping the Bee Gees connection was nearly impossible.

Barbara Gibb: We were in Dallas once, driving from the airport, and he saw  the Arena had "Andy Gibb" and, onto it, "Younger brother of The Bee Gees". He went crazy. His personal assistant had to go  to get it taken down. Things like that would upset him.

Like it or not, as the younger brother of The Bee Gees Andy got noticed. He became a regular on TV talk shows but even there his brothers were a favourite topic. [...]

By the time Andy was 20 he was meeting with the presidents, socializing with the stars. He was nominated for two Grammy awards and he won the People's Choice award. He had sold millions of records around the world and he had done it in under two years.

His brothers had been there before. They knew the dark side of early success and even had a name for it: "fisrt fame".

Barry Gibb: First fame is a very dangerous thing. You read about yourself, believe what people say about you, you believe that you have something very special to say, and God speaks through you and the public need to know, you know. This happens to you when you become famous for the first time, and especially on an international level. So I think it was a little crazy for him for a while.

Young, naive and struggling to find his own identity, Andy succumbed to temptation.

Robin Gibb: Andy had a very weak personality in saying no to these things. He didn't see any harm. He felt good doing it and he didn't think it was doing him any harm.

Andy's growing passion for drugs was changing him into a different person. The sweet, enthusiastic boy was unrecognizable when he was high. His mother Barbara would watch in horror coke transform her son into a stranger.

Barbara Gibb: When he was under the influence that wasn't him at all, that was somebody else to cope with. But the next day he would apologize into everybody. He didn't know what he had done but he would be sorry.

Andy's young wife Kim could see changes in him too, but says she was slow to realize that the difference was caused by drugs. [...] Andy was spending long periods on the road hanging out with a new crowd of people. For the most part Kim says she was left behind and she's convinced Andy's promoters wanted it that way [...] Kim thinks keeping her hidden was a deliberate effort to protect Andy's image as a teenage idol.

Kim Reeder: He was on all the teen pop magazines and they had to give the perception that he was available and they did.

Despite the long separations and his cocaine binges, Andy and Kim struggled to make their relationship work. A year into their marriage, Kim gave Andy the news she hoped would get him to settle down and sober up. She was pregnant. [...]

Andy promised to make things better but it was a promise he couldn't keep. Two months into her pregnancy, Kim gave him an ultimatum: get off drugs, spend more time at home or she was leaving. But Kim says nothing changed. In June she headed home to Australia. As she left she says Andy made one more promise, that he'd be there for the birth of their child, but it was another promise he wouldn't keep. Their daughter Peta was born on January 25th, 1978 [...]. Kim and Andy were divorced a short time later. He wouldn't see his daughter until she was two years old. It would be their only one meeting [though they'd be in touch].

Kim was gone and before not long Andy was back in studio recording his next hit.

By the time his second album came out in the summer of 78, 20-year-old Andy Gibb had gone through major changes in his life: his wife had left him, he fathered a daughter he'd never seen and he was struggling with a growing drug and alcohol problem.

Andy moved to Miami to be near his brothers and the recording studio. Despite his personal problems, his career was growing strong. In June of 78 he set a pop music milestone that stands to this day: when his single "Shadow dancing" hit number one he became the only artist ever to have his three first singles top the charts.

But for Andy the proudest moment may have come in July 1978 when the brothers that had guided him for so long for the first time were joining him on his own stage. The following year it was Andy's turn to sing in a Bee Gees concert. But his family says Andy still didn't feel he was the equal of his brothers. To him the rivalry would never really end.

[...] Andy was heading down a dangerous path. He began spending lavishly. He bought a 58 foot boat, fancy cars, he charted private planes and charged them to his record company. He was running up an enormous debt and his family suspected cocaine was fueling the outrageous behaviour. They tried to intervene.

Maurice Gibb: When I told Andy about it he began "yeah, you're right, I'm gonna to start making some changes" and sort like that. Soon later, I found him sniffing his nose again.

Barry Gibb: They are helpless because that people really have to aid themselves. Other people can't do it. You have to decide that you want to be clean, that you want to be straight.

Andy refused his brothers' help and soon moved away from Miami and his family's watchful eyes. He settled 3,000 miles away, in Malibu, California.

Barry Gibb: Once he realized that everyone in Miami was trying to stop him from doing it, then he moved to L.A.

In 1980 he released a third album, After dark, and a greatest hits LP but his record sells were slipping, and the cocaine abuse was affecting his ability to work. After months fighting to get Andy straight and keep him sober, RSO president Robert Stigwood made the painful decision to drop Andy from the label.

Even with his recording career in ruins, Andy remained a regular in TV talk and variety shows. One of these appearances would change his life in February 1979.

Andy had admired actress Victoria Principal from afar. He had said in a magazine interview that he would like to meet the beautiful star of Dallas. [...] They went out three days after meeting her at that TV show and within weeks they were nearly inseparable.

Victoria was 30, Andy just 22. many of the time considered the relationship scandalous. But Andy was happy and his family hoped Victoria'd give him the focus he'd been missing in his life.

Maurice Gibb: I think the relationship with Victoria Principal was absolutely beautiful. It was everything he had dreamed of and that's the important thing, not what I think or everybody else thinks. Andy thought the world of her.

With his new love Andy seemed to find the confidence to recharge his career. He co-hosted the variety show "Solid Gold". He taped "Solid Gold" during the day. At night he was taking his first shot at musical theatre, starring in "The Pirates of Penzance". [...] It was the summer of 1981. Andy's career seemed to be back on track. But Victoria would soon discover that success was dangerous territory for Andy. She began to see the changes in his personality that his family had been witnessing for years.

Victoria Principal: It became very apparent to me that his behaviour was becoming erratic and that he was very very thin.  And Andy was a very kind person, and a very gentle person and some of his behaviour seemed so the   antithesis of what he used to be and I finally realized that it had to be drugs.

The drug abuse sparked arguments. The arguments filled more drug abuse. Andy stopped showing up for tapings of "Solid Gold" and the producers were finally forced to fire him. It was the same story at "The Pirates...": night after night Andy just wouldn't show up, and when the production hit the road they left Andy behind. [...]

After more than a year of dealing with Andy's addiction, Victoria forced the issue. Andy faced another ultimatum from a woman he loved.

Victoria Principal: I asked either to choose me or to choose drugs, and I know that with all his heart he wanted to choose me... he chose drugs.

The break-up with Victoria left Andy emotionally shattered. For months he was a recluse, drinking and using drugs like never before, spending up to 1,000 dollars a day on cocaine.

Barbara Gibb: For abouth twelve months he was devastated.

Nearly 6 months we go by before Andy found the strength to face his fans. In July of 82 he appeared on "Good Morning America" to confess his drug and alcohol abuse. It was his first public appearance since the split with Victoria. Andy blamed the break-up for his decline.

Victoria Principal: It put me on an incredible position, a terrible dilemma: To speak out on my own behalf, to reveal the fact that the problem had been ongoing and that was the reason for the break-up would have been to add to the tremendous burden Andy was carrying, and so I chose to remain silent.

For a few months Andy did seem to be off drugs and he got another job, this time as the lead in the Broadway production of "Joseph and The amazing technicolour dreamcoat". Opening night was extraordinary. His brothers Barry and Maurice came to see his Broadway debut. It was one of his proudest moments. He got great reviews but the very next night Andy called in sick [...]. Over the next 6 weeks Andy called in sick 12 times and was forced to leave the show. Once again Andy was out of a job and facing an uncertain future.

By the time he was 25, Andy Gibb's drug and alcohol abuse had destroyed his career as a pop star, a TV host and a stage actor. But he managed to find a new act for his talent. He played Vegas night clubs and took his show on the road to small venues across the country. He promoted the act on "Good Morning America" and once more he told the world he was drug-free and ready for a fresh start. But the truth was Andy was about to hit into one of the worst periods of drug abuse in his life and again his mother was there to witness it. She says during his binges he was a tyrant, ordering his staff to get cocaine for him, if they failed he fired them, if they refused he threatened not to perform. Sometimes, his mother says, he would demand to be taken into hospital but she never knew if he was really sick or just hoping to get his hands on more drugs.

But years of drug abuse were taking their toll on Andy's health. High on cocaine is heart-damaging. He had pains on his chest. Dr William Shell says Andy was doing permanent damage to his heart.

After a couple of warnings from doctors, Andy finally sought professional help for his addiction. He spent 6 weeks at the Betty Ford treatment center in southern California, but the drinking and cocaine binges started up again almost immediately.

Finally in the spring of 87 Andy got serious about getting sober. He checked into another drug saviour and joined Alcoholic Anonymous. His long time friend Marie Osmond says she'd never seen him look so healthy.

But the years of excess, the cars, the boats and especially the drugs had left him broke. In September of 1987 Andy filed for bankruptcy, with more than one million dollars in debts. His income had fallen from 2 million a year at the high of his career to less than 8,000 dollars in 1986.

Barry Gibb: I think that was a dashing blow to Andy, a crippling blow to him. I don't think he survived that. I think he was embarrassed by it.

Andy moved back to Miami, back to the family feud. His brothers put him up on a condominium  and gave him a small allowance. Barry and Andy became closer than they had been in years. They spent hours playing tennis, but on the court Barry began to suspect something was wrong with his little brother.

Barry Gibb: We would play tennis, and we played 5 or 6 sets and he got very sort of flushed and red  and I didn't know why, you know, and what he wasn't telling me was that he really shouldn't be doing this.

No one knew just how serious his condition was, least of all, Andy.

He wanted to get back to work. He was still young, he still had his voice and he wanted one more shot of being a pop star, and once again his brothers were there to help. The brothers wrote and produced four new songs with Andy at their recording studio in Miami. Special chemestry they had had before was back and the new songs got Andy at Island Records in London. But the company wanted Andy to write more new songs and he moved to England to get to work. He settled into the 11th century estate of his brother Robin, about one hour outside London. Andy had a cottage all to himself and it was supposed to be a quiet retreat, a place where he could concentrate on writing new songs. But he'd never had much success writing on his own, and without the help of his brothers the ancient walls began closing in. The pressure built and Andy was beginning to crack.

Robin would make regular visits to Andy's cottage to help him any way he could.

Robin Gibb: I had to keep reassuring him of his talent and build up his confidence.

Andy's behaviour began to change. He was keeping to himself and Robin suspected the worst.

Robin Gibb: Andy wouldn't leave the cottage for days. We missed appointments. He wouldn't take phone calls. Something was going on but I couldn't figure it out.

Barbara Gibb: I called Robin and he said "Don't call, mom, your baby so much; he's fine." But I was on a plane the next day because I knew something was wrong.

March 5th, 1988. Andy's 30th birthday celebration was a party of two, just he and his mother. She knew he was deeply depressed. He missed his brothers. He missed home. But he had made a commitment.

Barry Gibb: He didn't really need to be away from his family and we didn't really want him away from us. I think he went into a decline because of that.

The anxieties and insecurities that had consumed Andy all his life were back and reaching a crisis point. His need to prove himself on his own. He escaped the pressure the way he had so many times, with the one drug he could find in a quiet rural English town -alcohol.

Barbara Gibb: He was drinking again. He was drinking, definitively. He was getting those tiny bottles. He was ringing the local liquor store in Thames at 2 o'clock in the morning for a bottle of vodka!

In Miami, Barry and Maurice tried to help, each taking a turn with a long distance plea for Andy to stop.

Maurice Gibb: I called him up but Robin said he couldn't answer the phone because he was drunk. I  put the phone down. I'll never forgive myself for that. For a long time I thought I should've spoken to him.

Barry called Andy too, having no idea it would be the last time he would speak to his little brother.

Barry Gibb: The last thing that happened between me and Andy was an argument, which is devastating to me because I have to live with it all of my life. And that was a phone call between he and me and I said "you really have to react, this is no good..." Instead of being gentle about it I was angry, because someone else had said to me at some point that tough love is the answer. For me it wasn't because it was the last conversation we had. So that's my regret, that's what I live with.

Andy continued drinking heavily, ignoring the pleas of his family to stop.

Robin Gibb: He couldn't even stand up. He smashed his face against the wall and lost all his teeth. It was a mess going on. My mother had to be there to see it. It was a nightmare for her. He wasn't even aware of his existence anymore.

On March 7th Andy became violently ill and suffered startling pains on his chest and abdomen. Paramedics rushed him to the local hospital, but the English doctors were unaware of the long term damage that drugs and alcohol had done to Andy's heart. They never contacted his doctors in America.

Dr. Shell: The English physicians could have made something more if they had known what the treatment was.

Andy was admitted to the hospital twice in the next three days. The second time his mother sensed something was different and didn't want to leave him alone.

Barbara Gibb: I sensed I'd stay with him all night. But they didn't let me; they said in England you can't stay in the ward all night and so I had to go.

It was the last time she'd ever see her youngest son alive.

Barbara Gibb: The next morning the doctor went in and said "Do you mind if I take some more blood, Andy"; he said "No". The doctor turned round and he [Andy^] gave a big sigh...

The cause of death was listed as miocarditis, an inflamation of the tissues surrounding the heart. Even though the autopsy found no drugs or alcohol in Andy's system, the tabloids immediately called his death a cocaine overdose. But his family knew that drug abuse had killed Andy; it just took a decade to do it.

Barbara Gibb: When he died, it had nothing to do with drugs at all but the damage had been done through drugs in the first place.

March 10th, 1988, five days after his 30th birtday, Andy's life was over. And the people who loved him were left wondering why the boy who had it all seemed determined to throw it all away. [...] Andy was laid to rest in his adoptive home of Los Angeles on March 21st, 1988. The family were left with the cruelest kind of loss: older brothers saying goodbye to the younger, parents burying a child.

Barry Gibb: I regret that we didn't spend more time, that we were always too busy. Of course you always feel that when somebody's gone, you feel remorse because you could've given him more time, things you could've said  and you didn't say...

Maurice Gibb: People will remember particularly his kindness, because he helped a lot of people, but he just couldn't help himself.

When friends got news of his death, many were shocked but few were surprised. The question on everyone's mind was why. He seemed to have it all, talent, looks, wealth and fame, but what Andy never found was what he needed most -peace and happiness.

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