Admitting he secretly drank for years after he claimed to have quit, Andrew Lloyd Webber has confirmed that he is a recovering alcoholic.
Opening up about his journey with alcohol, during an interview with The Times, the legendary composer said “I am a recovering alcoholic.” “Sixteen months ago, I decided that I needed help, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Now 78-years old, the iconic musician said he previously stopped drinking between 2015 and 2016 while producing School of Rock on Broadway but didn’t establish the proper support systems to guide him through the process., adding “I was doing what they call ‘white-knuckling,’ without any backup.”
Fearing that perhaps alcohol was part of the reason for his success, the British-born musician said “I started to worry that I wasn’t being creative,” “And I thought, ‘But I’ve said to everybody that I’m not drinking.’ So I started to drink secretly. You think it’s secret, but it’s not. Everybody knows.”
Addressing what he called a “downhill spiral” that culminated about 18 months ago, leaving his family at their wits’ end, Webber said “My wife was feeling she couldn’t go on.”
Because a prior rehabilitation clinic stint did not work for him, Andrew went to his first-ever Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting, which he described as life-changing. “What I love about it is, you go into a room and everybody’s equal. I’ve made friends that I wouldn’t have thought possible,” said the multi-Tony Award winner who now attends a meeting every single day, regardless of what city he’s in.
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Author: Al Dente
Photo: Tracey Nolan from Toronto, Canada