I believe that Leif Garrett, the teen idol, does not receive enough recognition for his artistic and performing abilities. He was very deserving of more!
During his career, the former teen idol went through incredible highs and lows, but his crutch of drug addiction provided the highs he needed, which ultimately destroyed his career.
It could be a good idea to hold your breath before you see him today at 61.
He was such a cutie. Leif Garrett began his career as a child actor and, when he ventured into music in the 1970s, he instantly won over the hearts of young ladies.
During her grocery store trip with her parents, my mother told me that she noticed Leif’s face on every adolescent magazine cover at the checkout lines.
The 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which went on to become the sixth highest-grossing movie of the year, featured the American singer-actor, who was born in Hollywood, California, at the age of five.
After that part, the flaxen-haired, sleepy-eyed movie star starred in Walking Tall and its two sequels. He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders in 1983 alongside a number of other teenage heartthrobs, such as Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, and Tom Cruise.
He may also be known to some from his roles in TV shows like CHiPs (1979), Wonder Woman (1978), The Odd Couple (1974), and Family (1979).
When he performed covers of well-known songs like Paul Anka’s Put Your Head on My Shoulder, Dion’s The Wanderer, and The Beach Boys’ Surfin’ USA in 1977, the crowd went berserk. This was his first album, Leif Garret.
Garrett felt absolutely amazing. When the blonde, shaggy-haired singer went on tour around the world, his largely young female fans went berserk the moment they laid eyes on him.
I had to be flown in by helicopter while on a public appearance tour in Sydney, Australia. After that, I got into an armored sedan and drove via the back entrance of the theater. The last time I tried to use a lim there, the fans nearly toppled it over. It’s probably an adrenaline rush for them. They simply lose it. It’s quite strange,” Garrett remarked in 1979 to the New York Daily News.
But despite the fact that his songs nearly reached the top of the charts, he had problems with management who made him feel like a “fraud.”Garrett found it difficult to transition into maturity.
“In an interview, I stated that I believed I was a good performer right away, but I wish they had given me singing lessons before I ever made a record and did the usual punching in words or sentences here and there or whatever”
“There’s a song called I Was Looking for Someone to Love that sounds nothing like me at all. In fact, I might even argue that I wasn’t even in that direction. That seems like fraud to me. That seems similar to a Milli Vanilli scenario, with the obvious distinction being that mine was repeatedly combined with both myself and someone else.
In 1979, while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Garrett crashed his car, sending it hurtling down a hillside in North Hollywood, paralyzing his then-close friend Ronald Winkler. This was the beginning of Garrett’s downfall in terms of his career.
For Garret, though, that was insufficient, and his life kept going worse.
In 1980, when Freddie Mercury, the iconic frontman of Queen, was recording the enormously popular album The Game, which included the hits “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust,” Garrett reveled in sex, drugs, and rock & roll. He refers to this period in his book as “the apex of pinup fame.” Thanks to the band, Garrett claimed he made friends and was shown the actual rock star lifestyle complete with drugs and women.
“I don’t think I was a very mature 16-year-old,” Garrett stated in a Fox interview to promote the publication of his memoir, Idol Truth. I was constantly around by adults who were drinking and doing coke, so I soon matured. Despite being a child, I was treated like an adult. I was paying for all of this out of my pocket.
“You know, I probably have the greatest fan base that I could ever imagine for myself,” he said in continuation. They have supported me through good times and bad. And I’ve put myself in a lot of awkward circumstances, as you are aware. A great deal of poor decisions were made. However, I was also without the parental direction I ought to have had at the time.
Garret has a long list of charges against him. After leaving treatment, he had multiple run-ins with the law, including attempting to purchase drugs from undercover police officers and conceal heroin in his shoe.
Garrett eventually reverted to his previous behaviors, even though he made a great effort to climb back to the top. Due to his hilarious run-ins with the law, Garrett was chosen to contribute to the comedy series World’s Dumbest, which follows the “most amazingly stupid” criminals.
Other celebrities such Todd Bridges, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey, and Danny Bonaduce—who are well-known for their personal mishaps—were also featured on the show.
Garrett then got cast in the lead on a show he didn’t want to be on, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew on VH1. VH1 vehemently refuted Garrett’s accusation that the show caused him to relapse for drama.
“They asked to get some footage of me using, and I said, ‘I haven’t been using,'” Garrett stated in an interview with the LA Times. We absolutely need to acquire video of you using, they declared. I was, however, readily persuaded to show them.
“This is insanity and quite honestly I don’t appreciate it,” Garrett said as he left the show after a production counselor called him out and suggested he was still using.
