Rob Lowe has some perspective on what Taylor Swift is going through right now.
By the 1980s he was so famous (and had so many fans trying to get to him by any means necessary) that they had to fly him to the set of St. Elmo’s Fire and bring him back in a police car.
“It’s the kind of thing you look back on and wonder: Did that really happen?” said Lowe, 60. People for this week’s cover story. ‘The stories I have are crazy, they’re crazy.’
He said that today, the kind of fame he experiences is experienced by Justin Bieber, Swift and Austin Butler, although for them it is even more intense.
Considering Taylor’s current fame, the St. Elmo’s Fire star, who said it was a “nightmare” acting with her son John Owen, said: “I look at that and that’s what I went through with a lot of steroids.”
Rob Lowe Has Some Perspective On What Taylor Swift Is Going Through Right Now
Lowe made his film debut at age 19 in 1983’s The Outsiders and followed that up with St. Elmo’s Fire.
Eventually, the attention led the Parks And Recreation actor to rehab, and today he’s been sober for 34 years.
‘At that time I was intuitive enough to sense the disconnect between me, who I was, the work I was doing, what was in the public eye, and what was causing this phenomenon, the hysteria, to happen.’
The Youngblood star’s turning point with alcohol came in 1990, when he ignored his mother’s call after his grandfather suffered a heart attack.
‘I remember it like it was yesterday: my mother telling me (on the answering machine) ‘answer, answer’ because my grandfather had had a heart attack.
“I couldn’t handle it in the state I was in, and I needed to go to sleep to wake up and be able to deal with it,” she told People, adding that she immediately turned to tequila.
“Who doesn’t have a bottle of (Jose) Cuervo Gold next to their nightstand? That was the final wake-up call. I’ve been sober ever since.”
By this time, Lowe’s sex tape involving a 16-year-old girl in Atlanta during the 1988 Democratic National Convention had been leaked, causing damage to his image and requiring him to perform 20 hours of community service.
By the 1980s he was so famous (and had so many fans trying to get to him by any means necessary) that he had to be flown to the set of St. Elmo’s Fire and brought back in a police car. Swift photographed in Lisbon in 2024
“It’s the kind of thing you look back on and think, did that really happen?” Lowe, 60, told People for this week’s cover story. “The stories I have are crazy, they’re insane”; seen here in 1985
He said that today, the kind of fame he experiences is experienced by Justin Bieber, Swift and Austin Butler, although for them it is even more intense; photographed in 1985
Speaking about Taylor’s current fame, the St. Elmo’s Fire star said: “I look at that and that’s what I went through with a lot of steroids”; photographed at Spago in West Hollywood in 1985
Lowe made her film debut at age 19 in 1983’s The Outsiders and followed it up with St. Elmo’s Fire; pictured in May 2024
“(The aftermath) definitely changed my life at the time and looking back, I realize it was another step that led me to recovery and reevaluating my life,” she said. People.
“But what really changed me was not being able to be there for myself and my family.”
And he realized that he couldn’t stop drinking because he had made a mistake. He had to do it because he was ready. And he was.
“It was a relief and a little scary, but I learned the tools to change your life if you have the honesty to do it,” he said. “I felt, ‘Well, I’m not alone. I’m not crazy.'”