Having shot to fame during the disco heyday of the 1970s, the Bee Gees are nothing less
than music legends. Despite enjoying plenty of fame and success, however, none of the three
brothers Gibb have had an easy life. This is the tragic real-life story of the Bee Gees.
Barry Gibb and his brothers, fraternal twins Robin and Maurice were all born on the Isle of Man,
along with their sister Lesley. During their early years, their parents moved
them to Manchester, England, where their youngest brother, Andy, was later born.
The Gibbs hoped to find a better life in Manchester, but the area was still
struggling in the aftermath of World War II, and the family was having trouble making ends meet.
Not only that, but Robin Gibb was becoming somewhat of a delinquent in his youth.
In particular, the young Robin had a reputation as a pyromaniac,
and was known for playing with matches and setting fires to billboards.
Apparently, the local Manchester police took notice of Robin's antics.
One day, a constable came knocking and gently suggested that the Gibb family
might want to consider emigrating to Australia. Between their difficult economic situation and
the need to keep the boys out of trouble, the Gibbs eventually moved to Redcliffe.
In a 2017 interview with Variety, the eldest of the Gibb brothers,
Barry Gibb, revealed for the first time that he once came
dangerously close to being abused — when he was only four years old. Gibb admitted:
"I've never said this before, Jesus Christ, should I be saying it now? But there was a
moment in time when a man tried to molest me when I was about four years old. He didn't touch me,
but other things happened, and happened to other kids."
Gibb added that, although the perpetrator was arrested, he still had to give a statement to
the police — even though he was only four. And despite his age, Gibb still remembers the incident
itself vividly, as well as the ordeal of having to give the details to the police. He continued:
"Four years old and a policeman on your bed at four in the morning, interviewing you; if that
doesn't teach you about life, nothing does. But it's vivid for me still. I've never told anybody."
All three of the Bee Gees have encountered drugs at some point in their lives. Maurice Gibb was an
alcoholic, Robin Gibb was into pills, and Barry Gibb was into smoking marijuana. There were also
bouts of experimentation with cocaine, though the brothers usually stayed away from harder drugs.
Barry clearly had significantly fewer issues with drugs than his brothers too,
generally avoiding heavier drugs. He has even pointed out that he probably wrote
most of his songs while under the influence of pot, claiming that it helped his creativity.
However, Robin became hooked on amphetamines, using them to help him stay up late to
work on music for the band. His addiction eventually caused problems in his family life,
ultimately leading to his wife filing for divorce and a court banning him from seeing
his two children. His twin brother, Maurice, long struggled with an addiction to alcohol
that would affect his personal and professional life. Maurice's dependence on alcohol made him
increasingly unreliable, and also brought an end to his brief marriage with pop star Lulu.
Even though they were brothers, the Bee Gees were not without their conflicts.
Although eldest brother Barry Gibb was considered the frontman and leader of the group,
Robin Gibb was often considered to be the better singer. After some internal squabbling — brought
on mostly by their mutual egos — Robin decided to quit the band and try going solo in 1969.
Robin later admitted the band split due to their pride and individual ambitions. He explained:
"That was a period where we had tremendous egos for success where we just stopped
talking to each other. We had people saying that 'you're responsible for the success
of the group,' and 'he's successful,' so we all had our own sort of court."
Robin did record his solo album, but it wasn't as successful as he had hoped. Likewise, the Bee Gees
weren't exactly turning out the hits, either. Robin rejoined the band in 1970, and shortly
after reuniting, they nabbed their first hit in the U.S. in 1971 with "How Can You Mend A Broken
Heart." By then, it was crystal clear that the Bee Gees were better as a group than as solo artists.
Robin Gibb had a highly contentious divorce with his first wife, Molly Gibb. It was 1980,
and their marriage had gone off the rails due to Robin's amphetamine addiction.
Although they had been living separate lives for some time,
Molly wanted Robin officially gone and away from their two children.
However, the divorce proceedings took a particularly nasty turn
when Robin allegedly made threats against his soon-to-be-ex-wife's lawyers.
He started sending aggressive messages to Molly's lawyers, threatening their lives
and insinuating that he had hired a hitman to kill them. Once such telegram Robin sent read:
"What you have done is just about the limit.
I have taken out a contract [...] it is now a question of time."
The law firm reported Robin to the FBI, prompting an investigation into the Bee
Gee singer's threats. Robin's own lawyers had to cover for their client's erratic behavior,
assuring the police that Robin wouldn't be foolish enough to carry out the threat. Eventually,
the matter was dropped as Molly and her attorneys opted not to press charges against Robin.
Contrary to popular belief, the youngest Gibb sibling, Andy Gibb, wasn't actually a member of
the Bee Gees. Though he was a talented singer, and occasionally performed with his older brothers,
Andy actually found far more success as a solo artist.
Once he had his first hit song in Australia, he went to the states to advance his singing career.
With help from his brother, Barry Gibb, Andy released his first album, Flowing Rivers,
which became a great success. Two songs from his album became number one hits:
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" and "Love Is Thicker than Water."
Although Andy's career appeared to be on an upward swing, he was already struggling with
drug addiction by the time he was preparing his second album. His problems with drugs started
costing him personally and professionally, too. Andy was hired for theater and television
gigs but kept getting fired for missing work and not showing up for performances.
His relationship with actress Victoria Principal also ended as a result of his addiction.
It wasn't until the mid-'80s that Andy went to rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic. But even after his
treatment ended, Andy was completely bankrupt and never quite found the fame he had enjoyed before.
On March 10th 1988, Andy went to the hospital after feeling ill,
where he soon died. He was only 30-years-old. The doctors ruled that myocarditis,
a heart condition, was the cause of death — most likely caused by prolonged drug abuse.
In 1997, the three Bee Gees appeared on the British talk show, Clive Anderson All Talk.
However, the host, Clive Anderson, took his ribbing of the band a little too far.
He made fun of their falsetto singing voices,
comparing them to Mickey Mouse — and that was just one of many insults.
"Before we became the Bee Gees we were Les Tossers."
"You'll always be Les Tossers to me."
Things quickly stopped being fun for the Gibb brothers, and,
after one joke too many, they walked out on the show — during a live broadcast.
"In fact, I might just leave."
"Oh, I've never had anyone walk out before, but…"
"Well, you're the tosser, pal. Goodnight everybody!"
In a 2020 interview with The Spectator,
Anderson did admit that he regretted his handling of the Bee Gees' interview. He said:
"Yes, it was poor. But it was only meant as a joke. [...] I know it
can be annoying. I know a lot of people who are the same as me,
and when you're rat-tatting with them everyone enjoys it. But I forget that it's not always
entertaining to everybody else. That's probably the mistake I was making with the Bee Gees."
"See you later, Clive."
"Well, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bee Gees!"
In 2003, Maurice Gibb died of a heart attack. He was just 53 years old. Maurice had a long
history of alcoholism, which severely damaged his long-term health. However, he had originally
gone to the hospital to have surgery for a blocked intestine. During the operation,
Maurice suffered a heart attack. Despite hoping for signs that he might recover, Maurice passed
away in the early hours of Saturday, January 12th, 2003. He was with his second wife, Yvonne,
and his two children, Adam and Samantha. The family issued a statement later that day, reading:
"It is with great sadness and sorrow that we regretfully announce the passing of Maurice Gibb
this morning. His love and enthusiasm and energy
for life remain an inspiration to all of us. We will all deeply miss him."
Maurice was known as the most outgoing of the three brothers — his twin brother,
Robin, once also said that Maurice was really the one who held the band together.
Even right before his death, Maurice was still working on his music, too — he had
been planning a new album with older brother Barry Gibb and his friend, one Michael Jackson.
In 2012, Robin Gibb died at 62, after battling liver and colon cancer. His
more serious problems started in 2010 when he began to suffer from abdominal pain brought
on from a blocked intestine — similar to what had happened to his twin brother, Maurice Gibb.
While the initial emergency surgery seemed to be successful, he still ended up having
to be hospitalized three more times in 2011, before finally being diagnosed with cancer.
After going through chemotherapy, Robin felt confident that he had beaten his
cancer by early 2012. At that time, he had been working on a classical composition with his son,
RJ — a piece called Titanic Requiem to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the
R.M.S. Titanic. He was hoping to be present for Titanic Requiem's premiere in London that April.
Unfortunately, Robin wouldn't make it to the concert.
That spring, he came down with a severe bout of pneumonia and slipped into a coma. While
Robin did come out of the coma in late April, he passed away a few weeks later, on May 20th, 2012.
The Bee Gees' mother, Barbara Gibb, was a gifted singer.
Barbara and her husband Hugh even acted as their sons' managers in the early days of
their singing careers — leading their sons to become one of the biggest pop groups in history.
Sadly, though, Barbara Gibb would ultimately outlive three out of her five children.
When Barbara passed away in 2016 of natural causes,
she was 95-years-old. The only two children who survived her were her oldest son, Barry Gibb,
and her daughter, Lesley. In a 2016 interview, Barry opened up about how
hard it was on his mother to have to bury three children. He explained:
"[Maurice] was gone in two days. Maybe that's better than long and tortured, which is what
Robin went through. Andy went at 30. All different forms of passing — and, for our mum, devastating."
Barry Gibb is currently the last living member of the Bee Gees. In a 2012 interview with the
Australian show, Sunday Night, Gibb opened up about the painful loss of three brothers.
"Are you feeling the loss of them?"
"Uh, yeah, for a long time. The only way I can deal with it is through music."
Gibb went on to say that at first he thought he would never perform again, that it wouldn't be
the same without his brothers. But Gibb did go on, to both perform and write music once more.
In 2016, he performed on stage with Coldplay at a concert in Glastonbury.
In the same year, he released his first solo album in 30 years. Even in 2020, Gibb is
teaming up with a number of well-known country artists — and seeing if he can give the Bee Gees'
old hits a kick of country twang. It seems like Gibb will continue to keep the legacy
of the Bee Gees alive for as long as he can... and ensure they always have a place in music history.
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