Monday, August 22, 1983
Philadelphia Enquirer"To me, it's just an old memory," Andy Gibb said over the telephone. "I'm so much healthier now and really together."
Gibb has finally recovered, he says, from the emotional devastation that follwed his being jilted early last year by Victoria Principal, the actress, now 33, who portrays Pam Ewing on the CBS TV series "Dallas". It was a jolt that apparently cost the singer more than a few jobs along the way when it precipitated behavior that was reported to be "erratic".
After the end of the couples' year-long romance came reports of Gibb's deep depression, missed performances and bouts with cocaine. His departure from two stage productions- from the road company of The Pirates of Penzance and, as recently as January, from the Broadway cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat-were said to be dismissals. Ditto his co-hosting job on theTV variety series "Solid Gold", a spot the Rex Smith took over last September.
By his own admission, Gibb, who begins a one-week engagement at Resorts International Hotel Casino in Atlantic City tonight, was something of a mess. "But not that far off, either. You know what the National Enquirer can be like. They do sort of tend to overexaggerate. But I'm not saying it wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't good. It's something everybody wants to talk about. It just seems to me, why does it have to be brought up? The point is, it's not something I'm ashamed of. It's something I learned a lesson from."
"Sometimes you think, why the hell do you let yourself get in that kind of shape over a girl? Well, I guess a woman comes along now and again who can make putty of you. And she certainly was one of them."
(Despite Gibb's low regard for the National Enquirer, he has agreed to "tell all" to that publicatoin for a forthcoming article. "So many things were reported about that relationship and Victoria has said so many things exclusively to the Enquirer, that we felt the record should be set straight," Gibb's publicist said Friday.)
Gibb, 25, says he is off drugs now. He feels it's important that his young fans know that. In fact, before leaving the West Coast for Atlantic City, he and members of his band and management team went on a camping trip to a lake site north of Santa Barbara, California.
"The idea was to just relax and catch some bass and have a good time," Gibb said in an interview last week.
Tonight marks a milestone in Gibb's career, his debut as a club performer.
"This is a whole new thing to me," Gibb said. "I've never done anything quite like this before, and we have been working hard putting the show together, rehearsing every day. In fact, right now my voice is really sore. The difference between this and and the big concerts is that the setting is more intimate. I'll be talking more than I have before, chatting with the audience. And besides that, we'll have a few surprises up our sleeves-some dance routines, things like that that I've never done before."
Two days after Gibb's Resorts engagement ends, he'll open a one-week stand at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Then the plan calls for a return to the recording studio to begin work on an album, schelduled for release in the spring. It will be Gibb's first album in four years.
"I'm looking forward to it," said Gibb, younger brother of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, also known as the Bee Gees. "It's time that I get back to recording. It's just that there were so many hits in a rather short time and I needed to get away from it for a while, to try other things. But now I'm looking forward to getting back at it. I have six of my own songs. They aren't quite finished yet, but I think they're pretty good songs."
When introduced on record to the American public, Gibb scored quickly as a teenybopper idol with such songs as "Shadow Dancing", "Love is Thicker than Water", and "I Just Want to be Your Everything." It's a rare recording artist who can claim a greatest hits album by age 21, but Andy Gibb pulled it off.
Gibb feels that a film would be the natural next step in his career. "there's nothing in the works at this time," he said. "I have had some offers, but nothing I'd want to do the first time out. They always want me to play a rock singer, but I don't want to take a film role and then play myself. When the right thing comes along, though, I'll know it."
Even though Gibb's tenure in Pirates and Joseph was relatively short-lived, he feels he has gained valuable experience. He spent four months in the Los Angleles production of Pirates and three months in Joseph, including two months on Broadway and a month in Philadelphia.
He is especially pleased with his work in Joseph. "I'm just sorry I wasn't able to stick it out the full six months," he said. "But it was very demanding on me at the time, doing eight shows a week."
Gibb said he would welcome an opportunity to return to the theatre. "I'd really want to be ready for it, though," he said. "I didn't work out and get in shape for those other things. I just wasn't ready for them. I guess I'll have to wait until I'm older. Right now, may attention span over three months is very bad, dooing the same thing night after night. But maybe when I get older, more mature, maybe then I can cut it."
Gibb was born in Manchester, England, but a month later, the family moved to Australia, where his brothers began their career as the Bee Gees.
Gibb's parents ultimately made several more moves, finally settling on the British Isle of Man. There, in 1973, Gibb formed his first band. After a year, he decided to emulate his brothers' development by returning to Australia. "My brothers became the biggest group in Australia, and I felt it was such a good training ground for them that Australia was the place to go," Gibb said. "Back then, it was the kind of place where youcould make a lot of mistakes and the rest of the world wouldn't hear about it."
By April, 1977, Gibb had his first American record, "I Just Want to be Your Everything," which he recored with his brother Barry serving as executive producer.
