The Demons
Bob was an abuser of alcohol even in his teens. He had also experimented with drugs. By the time of his rise to success in Chicago he was a heavy user of speed. "Drugs were never recreational for me. My use of them from the beginning was abusive." His drug use escalated when he discovered heroin. Gibson was in and out of jails in Canada (which led to his hilarious Christmas carol "Box of Candy and a Piece of Fruit"), Chicago, and Cleveland for various drug-related charges. In the mid-1960s, Gibson began a three-year period of complete isolation where drugs were his only priority. From 1969 to 1978, Gibson tried repeatedly to restart his career, but his addictions made it impossible. During this period he tried often, but unsuccessfully, to get sober. He knew that he needed structure, but, at first, disavowing God he rejected AA. In 1978 he attended an AA meeting in Cleveland and learned to live a life without alcohol and drugs. He regained his sobriety through AA and became both an advocate as well as a sponsor to much of the young, upcoming talent across America. One of his proudest moments was receiving his twenty year "chip" before he became too ill to comprehend the importance of that success.
Read more about this topic: Bob Gibson (musician)
Famous quotes containing the word demons:
“Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 9:1,2.
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)