To me, teenage heartthrob Leif Garrett is underappreciated as an artist and performer. He deserved a lot more! The former teen idol endured extreme highs and lows during his career, but the highs he sought through drug addiction, which he used as a crutch, resulted in him sinking his career…It might be a good idea to hold your breath before seeing him today, at 61…He was such a babe…..

Leif Garrett began his career as a child actor, and when he became a musician in the 1970s, he set the hearts of young ladies racing. My mother told me that when she and her parents went to the grocery store, she noticed Leif’s face on all of the adolescent magazine covers at the checkout lanes.

The American singer-actor was 5 years old when he first starred in the 1969 picture Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which became the sixth highest-grossing film of the year.Following that, the sleepy-eyed, flaxen-haired hunk appeared in Walking Tall and its two sequels. In 1983, he co-starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders alongside Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, and Tom Cruise.

Some may also remember him from TV shows such as Family, The Odd Couple (1974), Wonder Woman (1978), and CHiPs (1979). Fans went wild when he sang renditions of classic songs like The Wanderer (Dion), Surfin’ USA (The Beach Boys), and Paul Anka’s Put Your Head on My Shoulder on his first album, Leif Garret, published in 1977.

Garrett felt like he was on top of the world. The blond, shaggy-haired musician performed all over the world, and his admirers (mainly young ladies) went insane when they saw him. “I was on a public appearance tour in Sydney, Australia, and they had to fly me in by helicopter, then I got into an armored car and drove into the theater through the back door.”

I tried using a lim there before, but the fans nearly knocked it down. It’s probably an adrenaline rush for them. They simply freak out. Garrett told the New York Daily News in 1979, “It’s very strange.” Despite the fact that his music was on the verge of chart success, he fought with management, who made him feel like a “fraud.” Garrett’s transition to adulthood was similarly difficult.

“I think I was a good performer from the get-go but I wish they had offered me singing lessons before ever making a record and doing the typical punching in a sentence here or there or words or whatever,” Garret was quoted as saying in the interview. “There’s one song (I Was Looking for Someone to Love) that doesn’t sound like me at all. I’d even argue that I wasn’t even on that path.

That, to me, is fraud. That’s like a Milli Vanilli situation, except mine was combined multiple times with myself and someone else.”Garrett’s career took a turn for the worst in 1979, when he crashed a car and sent it rolling down a slope in North Hollywood, paralyzing his then-close friend Ronald Winkler.

But that wasn’t enough for Garret, whose life slid downhill. In 1980, at the “apex of pinup fame,” as he describes it in his book, Garret reveled in sex, drugs, and rock and roll with Queen’s legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury, who was at the time recording the massively successful album The Game, which included the hits “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Garrett stated that he became acquainted with the band, who showed him the true rock star lifestyle, complete with girlfriends and drugs. Garrett noted in an interview with Fox for the release of his memoir, Idol Truth, “I don’t think I was a very mature 16-year-old.” I matured quickly since I was constantly around by adults who were drinking and doing coke.

I was a youngster, but I was treated like an adult… And that was all coming out of my pocket.” “You know, I probably have the biggest fan base I could ever imagine for myself,” he concluded. They have remained at my side through thick and thin. And, as you know, I’ve put myself into a lot of sticky situations.

A lot of terrible decisions were made. But, at the same time, I lacked the parental guidance that I needed at the time.”Garret has a long list of charges against him. He dropped out of treatment and had several run-ins with the cops, including one while attempting to buy drugs from undercover detectives and concealing heroin in his shoe.

Garrett eventually relapsed to his old behaviors despite his best efforts to claw his way back to the top. Garrett was chosen to contribute commentary on the comedy show World’s Dumbest, which records the “most amazingly stupid” criminals, due to his amusing experiences with the authorities.

Todd Bridges, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey, and Danny Bonaduce were among the other celebrities who appeared on the show. Garrett was then cast in a starring position on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a show he did not want to be a part of. Garrett said that the show forced him to relapse for drama, which VH1 categorically rejected.Garrett told the LA Times,

“They asked to get some footage of me using, and I said, ‘I haven’t been using.'” ‘We really need to acquire footage of you utilizing,’ they added. Anyway, I was easily persuaded to show them.” When a production counselor called him out, implying that he was still using, Garrett walked off the program, saying, “This is insanity, and quite honestly, I don’t appreciate it.”