Andrew Lloyd Webber Opens Up About His Journey to Sobriety
Andrew Lloyd Webber reveals his struggles with alcohol and his path to sobriety in a recent interview, detailing his experiences with AA and the impact on his life and creativity.
Andrew Lloyd Webber recently shared his personal battle with alcohol addiction in an interview with The Times. He revealed that he embarked on his sobriety journey over a year ago. The celebrated 78-year-old composer, an EGOT winner, admitted that while rehab “didn’t work” for him, attending AA meetings has been a positive and fulfilling experience.
"I am a recovering alcoholic," he told the publication. "Sixteen months ago I decided that I needed help and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me."
Despite previous attempts to quit drinking in 2015 and 2016 during the production of School of Rock on Broadway, Lloyd Webber confessed to relapsing.
"I was doing what they call ‘white-knuckling’, without any backup, and 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," he told The Times.
Lloyd Webber, whose Cats: The Jellicle Ball is currently on Broadway, described a downward spiral that began about 18 months ago, deeply affecting his family. He noted his wife felt she “couldn’t go on.”
He also reflected on the deceptive nature of his drinking habits. "When you’re a wine drinker, you don’t think of yourself as… well, alcoholics drink spirits," he added. "That was the shocking thing for me, when I realized that I was drinking vodka to hide it."
"I’m lucky that nothing did go very wrong. I haven’t had some frightful accident. But then you begin to think of the near misses," he admitted, acknowledging the potential consequences he avoided.
"I thought that I was getting away with it," said Lloyd Webber. "The thing is, I am deeply sorry and I can only apologize to people if I made a mess."
Describing his daily attendance at AA meetings, he shared, "People had always said, ‘Oh no, you wouldn’t like that.’ And you get this thought that it’s a load of meth drinkers coming in off the streets. Not at all. 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."
When questioned about whether he composed any of his musicals while drinking, he responded, "Probably not a lot, but I can think of a couple of songs that have been hits where I’d definitely had a glass of wine and thought, that was all right."
Currently, Lloyd Webber is immersed in the creation of two new musicals, one inspired by the 2006 film The Illusionist and the other centered around the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa.
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