Rob Lowe reveals 'final wake-up call' that made him get sober
The 'Unstable' star has been sober since he went to rehab in 1990
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Rob Lowe says his road to sobriety more than 30 years ago was "incremental," he also recalls the night he didn’t take his mother’s call about his grandfather’s heart attack, which he referred to as his "final wake-up call."
"I remember like it was yesterday: My mom telling me [on the answering machine] to, 'Pick up, pick up,' because my grandpa had had a heart attack," the Brat Pack alum told People magazine recently. "I couldn't deal with it in the state I was in, and I needed to go to sleep to wake up so I could deal with it." Once in his bedroom, he began drinking tequila.
He added, "Who doesn’t keep a bottle of Cuervo Gold by their bedside table? That was the final wake-up call. I’ve been sober ever since."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 60-year-old finally went to rehab later that year, in 1990.
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Rob Lowe got sober in 1990. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
"Getting sober was an incremental decision. It's baby steps until you're ready. You can't do it until you’re really ready," the "Unstable" star admitted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Interestingly, Lowe said the 1975 movie "Shampoo," about a lascivious hairdresser, was a "baby step" toward sobriety.
"It’s a great movie, but at the end, he's a bon vivant, charming playboy left with nothing," Lowe said of Warren Beatty’s character. "It affected me tremendously and [was] the first glimmer of your conscience, your destiny, God, going, 'Psst, pay attention to this.'"
"I always tell people: you can't get sober... I don't care if it's fentanyl, booze, drugs, coke, pot, gambling, overeating, sex addiction, whatever, you cannot stop for your job, your wife, your family, your parole officer, because you screwed something up. You only are going to stop when you're ready, period."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rob Lowe has never shied away from speaking of his recovery journey. (Gilbert Flores/Variety)
Another low point for Lowe came in 1988 when a sex tape he made with two women – one of whom he says he didn’t know was 16 at the time – was leaked, threatening to end his career.
"[The fallout] definitely changed my life at the time, and, in hindsight, I realized it was another step that led me to recovery and reevaluating my life," he said. "But the thing that really changed me was not being able to show up for my family and myself."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rob Lowe with his two sons in 2021. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
He said by the time he got to rehab he "didn’t have any doubts" he was done drinking.
"I wasn't like, well, maybe I'll be sober for a little bit," he says. Instead, he just knew he was done.
"I always tell people: you can't get sober... I don't care if it's fentanyl, booze, drugs, coke, pot, gambling, overeating, sex addiction, whatever, you cannot stop for your job, your wife, your family, your parole officer, because you screwed something up."
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Rob Lowe with fellow Brat Pack member Emilio Estevez in 1985. Five years later, he went to rehab. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
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"You only are going to stop when you're ready, period," he insisted.