Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hi to you. I hope you’re well and as excited as I am this week to step into something truly special.
Today we’re pulling back the curtain on one of French music’s most legendary families, the Gibbs. We’re not doing it through the voice you’ve heard for decades. Instead we’re hearing the story from the next generation.
My guest is Stephen Gibbs, the eldest son of the incomparable Barry Gibbs of the Bee Gees and he brings with him memories, reflections, honesty, humour and a fascinating life story of his own. Growing up as the child of one of the most recognisable figures in music history might sound glamorous and yes there have been lots of magical moments but Stephen shares what it was really like behind the scenes. He talks about the warmth, the love, the family bonds and the incredible music connection between the Gibbs brothers.
He also opens up about the very real pressures and unique challenges that come with having a famous last name. Stephen takes us back to his childhood. He speaks beautifully about Barry, not just as a global icon but as a dad.
You will hear touching insights into Barry’s personality and the profound relationships he shared with his brothers Morris, Robin and Andy. Get set for a dose of nostalgia as Stephen Gibbs reflects on family life inside one of the most beloved musical dynasties. Hi there.
Hello Stephen, we finally made it. Yeah we did. I want to talk to you about your own career obviously but I also want to talk about how you grew up with dad and your uncles.
Well yeah I mean I think I have the fortunate position. You know I got to watch the Bee Gees work in front of my face as a child every day and you don’t really understand what that is when you’re in it because you’re so young. When I started realising how good they were at singing and playing I thought everybody’s parents did stuff like this.
I didn’t realise like until I started going to my friend’s houses at school I was like oh my house is a little bit more interesting after dinner because when I was small after dinner the three families we were all very close. We were really one big family back then. So after dinner the boys would sit around and sing other people’s songs to the family.
I thought everybody’s parents did that after dinner and then I started to understand what was going on and I started paying attention more because I was fascinated. I wanted to be like that. It was to my gal.
I said you’d never even try gal. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, please, please, please, oh yeah, like I please you. I knew from a very young age that probably wasn’t going to be likely but it was still inspired.
I got lucky that the first time I ever got to play with the Bee Gees I was 17 and then my own career kind of started and then later on when Morris and Robin had passed dad and I started working together more and I ended up in his band and just I guess you know as I always like to refer to myself I’m sort of his emotional support animal now that there’s no brothers around it’s like you know if I can show up and play the guitar and that’s enough to get him to want to do stuff then great the preacher talked with me and he smiled said come and walk with me come and walk one more mile now for once in your life you’re alone but you ain’t got a dime there’s no time for the phone I just gotta get a message to you hold on hold on one more hour and my life will be true hold on hold on I told him I’m in no hurry but if I broke her heart then won’t you tell her I’m sorry and for once in my life I am alone and I gotta let her know just in time before I go I just gotta get a message to you hold on hold on one more hour and my life will be true oh can you describe what it was like growing up in that household and was it always filled with music more often than not yeah my early memories are my dad was always singing he was always warming up he was always humming song ideas I mean I remember him writing several of the songs and I was just sitting in the corner watching a cartoon on tv and he would just like spit grease out oh we got nothing to begin to you know oh that’s cool dad you know like I wouldn’t say anything I’d just be like wow he’s he’s got something there he was an obsessed person I think that’s you know people talk about talent and I think talent’s really at that level it’s about obsession I think you know you have to be obsessed to the point that you can find the ceiling you know and then when you break when you hit that ceiling go I want to keep going because you know there’s something there’s another level waiting for you and I think even when he discovered his falsetto is a great example of that it’s like he was pushing and pushing and pushing and then it was like oh wait there’s another gear there’s a whole other realm there with a voice I didn’t even know I had until 20 minutes ago if he was always singing and practicing and trying to break through to the next level did that come at the exclusion of you I mean could you interrupt that at any time or how did that work for you I mean I think my dad was pretty liberal and didn’t really I was never shushed or if I had a question about something whatever you just be like one second whatever but I mean my dad’s just always been super encouraging and maybe sometimes maybe there were times he could have been more of a hard-ass in some ways you know he could have been a bit tougher on me in certain ways at certain times but that’s not his way and I can respect that now I think if anything it wasn’t like I grew up around my dad and I just got to hang out with him I didn’t know any different I was always surrounded by dad and dad’s friends and my mom and the extended family so I was never lacking in supervision or love or support there were times I just wanted to be around my dad and I couldn’t because from a certain time of the day until another time of the day let’s say we were on tour he didn’t belong to us for those hours just like when anybody else’s dad goes to work dad doesn’t belong to you he’s you know he’s got bosses out there people bought tickets so you know at a certain point you start to understand that he’s not just my dad he’s actually something else to other people when I was very young there was a concept of like we had a lot of money or we said we were successful we all lived in one house together and shared a station wagon at first you know it wasn’t always what it became so you you start to warm up to the idea that dad isn’t like other dads in a lot of ways you know he can’t come to all the football games he can’t can’t do all the things and do all of those things that the world is going hey we want to dance let’s go yeah you know what I mean did he come to some of them yeah of course one time I was playing the cowardly lion in uh grade school wizard of oz you know and uh dad came to the the little school house where we were doing the performance we brought Michael Jackson with him during the thriller era and so while me and my friends were trying to do wizard of oz you know dad oh it’d be great to bring Michael well you know it’d be great we get to watch the kids every parent in that audience was looking behind them at these two guys sitting in the back of the room so he always made an effort to show up but sometimes just doing that was more of an issue than not is it easy to accept when you’re a kid not really but is it easy to understand as you grow up it is it just is now I got a nation the story unfolds what the wise man I told you he’s already known that a woman and a man should go by the plan and we find out how high we can fly foreign we saw the children as god cries above and they’re giving not the tank with hearts open wide and it looks like We fall And it burns like a flame Any ground that I claim So what is my life If I don’t believe There is someone To watch me follow my dreams Take all the chances I should leave You just don’t You say that I know a few other kids of, you know, successful, famous people, and they’re great people, just like other great people. And then there’s some that are really, really not okay as a result of it. And it happens because it can be a very challenging shadow for certain people.
And if they don’t have really close friends or relationships with their, you know, their father or mother, then it doesn’t go well. Yeah, okay. You know, I’ve been blessed.
My parents are great people. They’ve been married forever. They still are.
Steven, as you were growing up, I mean, the Bee Gees were known for their incredible harmonies. So I’d imagine, and tell me if I’m wrong, that the brothers would come over or you’d all get together in someone’s house and they’d be practicing their harmonies all over the place too. Was that the way it was? I mean, when they were practicing or writing, they did that in private.
Like they had a room either, you know, either in the studio or a room off to the side of the studio. It would just be like a sitting room or something. And, you know, Dad and Morris would grab their acoustic guitars and the three of them would just lock themselves in a room and then they would just work hours and hours in a room together.
So I think they did a lot of their dirty work, just the three of them. Did they ever encourage the kids to join in the harmonies with them? I mean, everybody was encouraged to sing along if they wanted to, but there was never any formal, they weren’t formally educated musicals. So they didn’t, that wasn’t even in their scope of understanding.
It was either like you just kind of jumped in and started to figure it out or you did in a way. And for me, I was fortunate that I had a close relationship with Andy before his passing and even, you know, when he was younger and we were very close. I watched him kind of wanting to figure out a way to get, you know, in there with them.
That’s really what he wanted. And I think that’s what they wanted too, but they were kind of waiting for him to evolve or grow up a bit more. And that was challenging for him to try to exist in that shadow.
And then I think what he accomplished was incredible. I’ve known you for so long And the feeling that I feel for you is more than strong, girl Take it from me If you give a little more than you’re asking for Your love will turn the key, darling, mine I would wait forever for those lips of a wife Build my world around you, darling This love will shine, girl Watch it and see If you give a little more than you’re asking for Your love will turn the key I, I, I just wanna be your everything Open up the heaven in your heart and let me be The things you brought to me And that’s a buffet on a string Oh, dear, and why If I stay here without you, darling, I would die I started to see the aspects of that that weren’t maybe the best for him. And I never had a desire to play with the Bee Gees or be even associated at a certain level because I was afraid.
I was like, I don’t want it to negatively impact my life. But it’s been the greatest blessing ever. I just knew I wanted to kind of carve things out a different way for myself.
And if that meant not being as successful financially, I was okay with that. I mean, God, God bless Julian Lennon. I mean, Sean Lennon, they’re brilliantly talented.
They sound incredible as themselves. I’m sure they can emulate their dad a little bit if they want to and probably better than anybody can. And, you know, even as I get older, I mean, I can emulate stuff of his, but I can’t be him.
I cannot embody that voice. Like that is, you know, that kind of showed me that this was real. And in some ways who, you know, is to your benefit for sure.