Ella Scott
Legendary composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has alleged that getting sober was the ‘best thing’ that could ever happen to him, as he revealed the turning point in his alcohol addiction.
The Evita, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera visionary initially ceased drinking back in 2015/16 while producing School of Rock on Broadway.
However, he secretly began indulging again 18 months later due to creative concerns.
“I was doing what they call ‘white-knuckling’, without any backup, and I started to worry that I wasn’t being creative,” the 78-year-old baron told The Times.
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“I got that thing of seriously worrying that I wasn’t writing, and panicked. ‘Maybe I’ll have a drink. OK, I’ve written something.’ Because it does slightly liberate you — but then it’s more and more and more.”
Admitting he had fallen into a ‘downhill spiral’, Lloyd Webber said his wife, Madeleine Gurdon, felt as if she ‘couldn’t go on’ and that his family was in a ‘desperate state’ regarding his drinking.
However, the recovering alcoholic’s real turning point was when he heard someone else describing the ‘ludicrous lengths’ drinkers can go to hide their addiction.
“When you’re a wine drinker, you don’t think of yourself as… well, alcoholics drink spirits,” he mused.
“That was the shocking thing for me, when I realised that I was drinking vodka to hide it.”
16 months ago, Lloyd Webber admitted that he needed help—a moment that he said was the ‘best thing that ever happen’, he informed the publication.
Following the eye-opening revelation, the musical theatre impresario checked into a rehab clinic and has since started attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings in New York, Hampshire and London.
Of AA, the icon said: “You go into a room and everybody’s equal. I’ve made friends that I wouldn’t have thought possible.
He also told the publication that he is more productive than ever since giving up the bottle.
The father of five currently has two projects in the works, a musical based on the 2006 film, The Illusionist, and another about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa.
Lloyd Webber recently attended the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, where Nicole Scherzinger sang songs from Sunset Boulevard, and the Olivier Awards, where Rachel Zegler sang ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ from Evita.
“I have had probably the two finest female performers in musical theatre in my shows, and I’ll have heard them back to back. When you’re not drinking you think, ‘My God, how lucky am I?’,” he claimed.
As he is no longer consuming alcohol, Lloyd Webber is in the process of selling off his extensive wine collection, with auction plans set for springtime.
The sale is set to take place at Christie’s between 22 April and 6 May, with the estimated £300,000 raised being donated to the Music in Secondary Schools Trust.
The collection reportedly includes cases of Château Pétrus 1982 worth £50,000 each and Romanée-Conti 2005, worth £15,000 a pop.
Final Treasures from the Wine Cellar of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Apr 22-May 6; christies.com