Barry Gibb's son Stephen reveals 'survivor's guilt' after growing up with The Bee Gees

Daily Mirror

a day ago

EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Gibb, the son of Bee Gees legend Barry, has opened up about growing up around the band and bravely shares his struggles and excitement over his new music
His dad may be one of the most recognisable singers of all time, but Stephen Gibb admits that he prefers taking a step back. The 51-year-old son of Bee Gees icon, Barry Gibb, has grown up with music in his blood, with his dad and uncles performing across the globe – and for the family.
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But now, London-born Stephen is stepping into his own having already performed with some of the biggest names in the business, including with his dad Barry, at his final performance to date on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017.
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Now residing in South Florida, Stephen and his Kill The Robot bandmates have released their debut self-titled album, and he reveals that although his father was obsessed with songwriting, this came later for the guitarist. "My dad wasn't obsessed with guitar playing, I was, he was obsessed with writing songs and singing," he exclusively told the Mirror.
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He added: "That came for me later. But the thing that gets asked of me a lot is, how come I'm not the full time lead singer of Kill The Robot? The fact of the matter is, I have a great singer in Gil [Bitton], and he's a great performer. I really just enjoy playing the guitar. Singing is fun as well but being the son of a Bee Gee and being a 'singer' always seemed daunting to me.
"Why? I don't know what else to compare it to, but if your dad was Michael Jordan, maybe you should get into baseball. If I get into pop music and being a singer, they're going to destroy me. And that would also be kind of semi-not authentic to me. I'm a rock and metal guy who loves all kinds of music."
But he is partial to pop music, after all, his dad and uncles were the Bee Gees. "I have a deep appreciation for the form when it's done at the highest level, I've seen that with the Bee Gees." Stephen, however, is much more comfortable with his guitar, having grown up listening to Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Metallica and Van Halen.
Aged just 16, Stephen admits his heart was left broken when blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, a hero of his, died in 1990 in a helicopter crash. "He finally got sober, his life together, making the best music of his life," he said. Stephen added: "Sometimes, I think the hardest part is, especially in a family like mine, there's a little bit of survivor's guilt."
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In his younger years, Stephen battled drugs and alcohol before getting clean. He admits he questions how he survived this, after his uncle Andy, aged just 30, died as a result of myocarditis after the use of cocaine had weakened his heart. "Eventually, you have to forgive yourself. You've got to live your life and accept it, God's got a plan, I don't know what it is, but I'm here for it," he said.
Growing up with a global icon as a dad, Stephen quickly had to discover who his real friends were. "The Bee Gees were still a very big band, the hardest thing is knowing who your real friends are," he said, adding: "That's a process, you might have to blow your life up for you to figure out who your real friends are, but you do.
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"The big misconception a lot of people have is that because a family is famous, it's somehow not affected by certain things that everyone else is affected by. The fact of the matter is, like most celebrities that I've met in my life, are real people that have problems, just like everybody else – it's just that they have this unimaginable skill or gift that they're able to bestow upon the world. It comes with a price."
Growing up, he followed his dad on the road and to the studios, but around the ages of eight and nine, he soon realised that not everybody's dad was a singer, never mind a global icon. "My dad and his brothers, we used to be a very close-knit, large family, we spent a lot of time together," he said, adding: "We would have cookouts at Maurice's house. The most powerful memories that all of us have, I can't speak for everybody, many nights after dinner, they would sit around and sing other people's songs, their favourite songs to entertain us.
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"I don't think it dawned on me until I was a little bit older, how special, unique and powerful their contributions were and are. You grow up as the oldest son of a guy that a lot of people know. The thing I'm most grateful for, I knew what it looked like, I knew what it took to be good at something that you really loved. It took obsession for my dad, all of them, 100 per cent commitment.
"You could be the greatest thing in the world, had the Bee Gees not gone back to the UK, what could have happened? Maybe nothing. It's an incredible gift and honour to be in a family that created something that has, up to this point, outlived them. I think as I get older, that's more and more rare with each passing year."
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He revealed he had to have his fair share of challenges, rites of passage, admitting he had a "bit of a chip on his shoulder" as a child, because of his dad's fame. "It does make life a little bit more challenging for your kids." One of these challenges was fans of Barry's turning up at their family home when Stephen was a child.
"I've had one or two of them say they were my real mum, my dad and them and me were going to run away together," he joked, adding: "It's odd, it comes with its odd things, as I've gotten older, I work just as hard as anybody else I know that does what I do. There's no free lunch; it doesn't matter if you're Barry Gibb's son or John Lennon's son; they're not going to make it easy for you. It's a double-edged sword.
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"It's like 'Oh, your son has a band, does he sound like his dad?' I don't, people get disappointed that you have your own fingerprint." That fingerprint left Stephen "terrified and excited" for Kill The Robot's debut album. He admits it's "hard" to get people to listen to a new band, but the record is a "labour of love."
"Making this album with some of my best friends, we had a lot of fun doing that," he beamed. He hopes that the record will please and entertain new fans, as well as fans who have stuck by him over the years. "My hope is now that it's out, people will see what Kill The Robot is as a band, they can find something that's comfortable for them in our music."
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Although the record experiences waves of different emotions, it has a slight touch of grief following the death of Brett Cosmo Thornberry, a friend of the band. Brett sadly died during the coronavirus lockdowns, when Gil had asked Stephen whether he wanted to write music, which he leapt at the chance, having believed he had already played his last gig.
The record opens with Mothership, a metaphor of going to heaven, which is a conversation between Stephen, Gil and Brett. Another track, Western Shores, is dedicated to Foo Fighters icon, Taylor Hawkins, a dear friend of Stephen and his dad. "That was a tough one," he said of losing Taylor, who died in March 2022 after consuming 10 different drugs, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, opioids, and benzodiazepines.
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"I just spoke to him days prior to losing him; it was a real shock for me and my dad. My dad was really close with him, and they would speak often at that time. Dad took it really hard. I'll never understand why some people get to stay and some people have to leave. Taylor was the best. The thing is, he was the real embodiment of pure rock and roll love I've ever seen in a human being.
"He really loved it. The world will never forget him, and it won't be because of a song I wrote. I wrote that song because I loved the guy. I'll never get to make music like we planned on doing. This was a little love letter to a guy that should be getting loved on forever. He was the real thing, a heart of gold and one of the greatest drummers in history.
"He accomplished what he set out to do here, I think, I hope for his sake, but God, I love him and I know the world loves him."