Leif Garrett’s life is the stuff that Behind the Music episodes are made of. So it was no surprise when producers of the irresistibly tawdry tell-all series invited the former teen idol to share his filthy fetid laundry with their scandal-hungry viewers. Needless to say, the episode, overflowing with sex, drugs and mediocre rock ‘n’ roll, not to mention legal woes, celebrity dalliances and an alcohol-induced car accident that left his best friend paralyzed, was a hit.
It not only helped aging audiences conjure up images of more innocent times – Kristy McNichol’s sweat socks and Dorothy Hamill’s haircut, to name a few – but it also put Garrett back on the map. Suddenly, around water coolers and in beauty parlors, people were buzzing – "Did you know Leif Garrett dated Justine Bateman?"
It was the perfect time to launch his comeback, which is exactly what he did.
Since Behind the Music first aired, Garrett has appeared in the holiday musical The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t for the National Theater of the Deaf, an Entertainment Tonight Teen Idol Special, and an episode of Suddenly Susan. He has also formed the high-energy rock band F8, (pronounced ‘fate’) along with veteran rockers Joe Gaines, Chuck Billings and Darrell Arnold.
Tonight, Garrett will introduce Jersey audiences to his new sound when F8 takes the stage at Maxwell’s at 9 p.m.
"I’ve never done a club tour before," Garrett said recently during a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "It’s all new to me. This is not bragging, but back in the day, I went from the cover of teen magazines to the Houston Astrodome. So I’m looking forward to it."
On November 8, 1961, Leif Garrett was born into a family of celebrity hopefuls. His mother, Carolyn Stellar, and his father, Rik Narvik, were both struggling actors.
At the unripe age of 8, Garrett landed his first job, a small role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, the unmistakably late ’60s story about swingers starring Natalie Wood, Dyan Canon, Robert Culp and Elliot Gould. Despite his inconsiderable age, the thrill of working with Wood and Canon was not lost on Garrett.
"I’ve liked girls all my life," Garrett said. "So I had a crush on Natalie Wood and Dyan Cannon. It was like, ‘Oh, they’re prettier than mommy.’"
As he would later confess in Kristy McNicol’s E True Hollywood Story, Garrett quickly became his family’s "bread winner," appearing in movies like Macon County Line and Devil Times Five, and on television shows like Family Affair and The Odd Couple. Five years after his first performance, Garrett landed a starring role on the television series Three For the Road.
"It was only on one season," Garrett said. "But that’s what really led the teen magazines to launch into my personal life. It really got nuts. At one point, I was getting five of those huge sacks of mail delivered to my house a day. We had to hire people to respond to it. I felt kind of bad about that. But what could I do?"
It didn’t take long for record companies to pick up on Garrett’s unflagging fame. In 1976, Scotti Brothers asked the tireless teen with the curly blond shag if he wanted to make a record. In 1977, Garrett’s cover of "Surfin’ USA" found its way onto Billboard’s Top 20. A year later, the disco hit "I Was Made For Dancin’ solidified his status as a pop music icon.
"There is stuff about it that’s absolutely phenomenal," Garrett said, referring to his days as a Teen Beat pin up. "Especially being on stage and the travel. By the time I was 18, I had been around the world three times. But I would have to say, the best part about it was the girls. I liked the older women. By that I mean, when I was 18 I liked girls in their mid-20s. I took advantage of all of that. I was a dog. But I wasn’t an assh–e."
Unfortunately, Garrett would not have been the subject of a Behind the Music episode if his story ended there. As teen-aged girls, who are mercurial by nature, turned their attention towards Shaun Cassidy, Garrett began what would become an enduring battle with drugs and depression. His nadir came early when, in 1979, a drug and alcohol induced car accident left his best friend, Roland Winkler, paralyzed from the waist down.
"I knew they would ask me about that," Garret said, referring to Behind the Music’s unabashed exploration into his less radiant days. "Everyone wants to know about you crashing your car on Quaaludes, not you helping the March of Dimes. But [doing the show] turned out to be a really good thing for me, mentally and spiritually."
Perhaps that’s because confronting his demons in public is business as usual for Garrett.
"My life has been in the media ever since I could remember," he said. "So it doesn’t seem that foreign to me to do Behind the Music. Of course, I have secrets. But I have been completely honest about the stuff I’ve been public about. Except that one time when I said I was clean on VH1 and then I used again." (Just months after avowing to Behind the Music audiences that he was sober, Garrett was arrested for possession.) "But I’m clean now," he added. "It’s been almost two years and four months."
Today, along with touring the club scene, Garrett is making the rounds on TV. Most recently, he appeared in a celebrity edition of the Weakest Link. The episode, a charity edition sub-titled "News Makers," co-starred Kato Kaelin, Tanya Harding, Todd Bridges, Gennifer Flowers and Darva Conger.
"It was fun," he said. "And I raised $10,000 for the New York Firefighters’ Widows and Children’s fund. But I would never have done it if it wasn’t for the charity. I don’t to be associated with all of those losers. I mean, I hope I’m not as bad as that." q