Introduction:
In March 2020, Barry Gibb, 74, and his son Stephen Gibb, 46, treated Bee Gees fans to a rare and intimate live jam session streamed online.
The father-son duo delivered a beautifully stripped-down acoustic medley featuring three of the Bee Gees’ most beloved classics: “Stayin’ Alive,” “Words,” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”
Filmed at Barry Gibb’s Miami home — the residence he’s cherished since making it his permanent base in 1974 — the session captured the effortless harmony and deep musical connection between them.
Stephen, an accomplished musician in his own right, has been performing alongside his father as part of Barry’s touring band since 2013.
Stephen Gibb, the first-born son of Barry and Linda Gibb, graduated from music school and honed his craft performing with several renowned bands across the United States, including Black Label Society, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, and The Underbellys.
A gifted musician in his own right, Stephen joined his father as lead guitarist for The Mythology Tour in 2013 — Barry Gibb’s first solo tour following the Bee Gees era. Since then, he has continued to perform alongside Barry, contributing not only to live shows but also to the Bee Gees’ various charitable projects.
The Mythology Tour featured memorable moments with Stephen and his cousin, Samantha Gibb — Maurice Gibb’s daughter — sharing the stage with Barry. Among the highlights were Stephen’s powerful rendition of “Stayin’ Alive” with Barry and Samantha, Samantha’s heartfelt duet of “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” with her uncle, and their dynamic performance of “You Win Again” as Barry proudly looked on.
In 2017, Stephen and Samantha carried on the family legacy by forming The Gibb Collective, a group uniting the next generation of Gibb talent — the children of Barry, Maurice, Robin, and Andy Gibb — to celebrate and reimagine the timeless music of the Bee Gees.
The Gibb Collective released their debut album, Please Don’t Turn Out the Lights, on May 19, 2017 — a heartfelt tribute featuring ten reimagined versions of Bee Gees classics. The record offered a fresh, contemporary take on the timeless songs that shaped generations, honoring the legacy of the legendary Gibb family while introducing their music to a new audience.
In 2020, Stephen Gibb shared a deeply personal story about his battle with drug addiction and the long road to recovery. The musician opened up about how his dependency had led him into a downward spiral of homelessness and desperation, at one point scavenging for food just to survive.
Reflecting on his darkest days, the now 46-year-old revealed that he reached a breaking point where he realized continuing on that path would mean “death, prison, or a mental institution.”
Speaking candidly on his recovery podcast Addiction Talks, Stephen recounted: “The first time I drank, I was probably 14. I downed an entire bottle of Jack Daniel’s and blacked out.” From there, he described how life unraveled — from holding steady gigs to losing everything.
“After I lost my gig with my band, I was homeless,” he recalled. “They throw away so much good food in studios, and I remember eating out of the dumpster at the record plant, praying nobody would see me.”
His story stands as a powerful testament to resilience, transformation, and the courage to rebuild — both as an artist and as a person.
“I remember thinking, ‘This sucks.’ I was living in my van or wherever I could find a place to crash. If someone let me sleep on their couch, I considered myself lucky,” Stephen Gibb recalled. “What really struck me was that old saying — from Park Avenue to park bench — and realizing how true it had become for me.”
After turning his life around and achieving sobriety, Stephen returned to his passion — performing, writing, and playing guitar alongside his father. But the shadow of addiction is one that has long haunted the Gibb family.
The youngest brother, Andy Gibb, tragically passed away in 1988 at just 30 years old from heart failure linked to cocaine abuse. Maurice Gibb, Samantha’s father and a recovering alcoholic, died in 2003 at 53 following a cardiac arrest. Robin Gibb succumbed to cancer in 2012 after a long and courageous battle.
In the wake of the acclaimed documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, which chronicled the Bee Gees’ remarkable career and personal struggles, Barry Gibb admitted he could not bring himself to watch it. Speaking with CBS Sunday Morning in January 2021, the 74-year-old said with emotion, “I can’t handle watching the loss of my family. I just can’t handle it.”
It was a poignant reminder that behind the legendary harmonies and timeless music lies a story of resilience, heartbreak, and enduring love — both for family and for the art that defined their lives.
“Who would?” Barry Gibb said softly. “I think it’s perfectly normal not to want to relive how each brother was lost, you know? And I don’t want to talk about it. I’m past it.”
Reflecting on the loss of his brothers during the interview, Barry admitted that it had been “incredibly, incredibly hard.”
“We’d never been apart,” he said. “The first year after my last brother, Robin, passed — that was the hardest time of my life.”
He added, “People have said I had a breakdown. But I didn’t, really. I just didn’t know where to go, what to do, or how to face the world. I didn’t know how to interpret people’s opinions — or even my own.”
In 2024, the last surviving Bee Gee received one of the highest honors in the arts — the Kennedy Center Honor — recognizing his extraordinary lifetime contribution to music.
Barry stood among fellow honorees Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, and Dionne Warwick, while heartfelt video tributes poured in from Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Barbra Streisand, and Paul McCartney. Country group Little Big Town took the stage with a moving rendition of the Bee Gees classic “Lonely Days.”
In his emotional acceptance speech, Barry paid tribute to the brothers who had shared his journey from the very beginning.
“Thank you all — this is the greatest honor of my life,” he said. “Without my brothers, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I salute Maurice, Robin, and Andy. We were a family of music — and a family of love.”