Andy Gibb Biography

Andy Gibb was born Andrew Roy Gibb, on March 5, 1958, at the Stretford Memorial Hospital in Stretford, Manchester, England, UK. He was the fifth and last child of his parents, Hugh and Barbara Gibb.

When he was 6 months old, he and his family moved to Australia. Andy was raised in Redcliffe, Queensland, near Brisbane. The family also spent a while in Sydney. In 1967, at age 9, he moved back to the UK.

He had three older brothers, Barry and fraternal twins Robin and Maurice, and an older sister, Lesley Evans. His brothers grew up to rule the music charts in the 1960s and the 1970s, as the Bee Gees.

Unfortunately, when his brothers became iconic names in the music industry, Andy was still too young to join them. It is believed he was bullied in school because his classmates thought he had a superiority complex because of his brothers’ success in the music industry.

He was 13 when he quit school and started playing at tourist clubs in Ibiza, Spain (after his parents moved there), equipped with an acoustic guitar gifted to him by his brother Barry. He later played at the Isle of Man, where his family moved.

While Andy Gibb’s brothers shot to international fame with their group the Bee Gees, especially in the mid-to-late 1970s, Andy too signed to the Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood's label RSO Records. Andy was quite close to his eldest brother Barry and was mentored by him throughout his career.

Barry also sang back-up vocals in many of Andy’s songs and assisted him with writing many of his songs. Andy recorded a series of his own compositions. One of them was released as the single Words and Music, which, in 1976, reached the top 5 on the Sydney music charts.

By 20, Andy was making serious music in the disco, pop, and rock scene, and by 21, he had three US number one tracks under his belt, namely, I Just Want to Be Your Everything, Shadow Dancing, and (Love Is) Thicker Than Water. Shadow Dancing stayed at the number one spot for 7 weeks in 1978. Andy thus scripted history as the first male solo artist to have three back-to-back number one tracks on the US Billboard Hot 100.

His other top 10 hits were An Everlasting Love, Desire, and (Our Love) Don't Throw it All Away. Andy also bagged two Grammy Award nominations at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards. He was nominated for two American Music Awards, too.

He was later placed at number 82 on VH1's list of the 100 Sexiest Artists. However, he had not been as successful in the UK, scoring only one top 10 hit, An Everlasting Love.

He soon grew extremely unreliable and was dragged into a mess of drugs, alcohol, and a reckless lifestyle. As a result, he was removed from the musical theater productions of The Pirates of Penzance and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He was also fired as the co-host of Solid Gold in 1981. Amid all this chaos and his own depressive state, he declared bankruptcy in 1987.

Andy Gibb married Kim Reeder on July 11, 1976. The couple divorced on January 15, 1978. However, their daughter, Peta, was born on January 25, 1978, just a few days after their divorce.

He had apparently met Peta only once, in 1981. Peta grew up as Peta J. Reeder-Gibb and became a Staffordshire Bull Terrier breeder. She also judged dog shows in New South Wales, Australia, and married Matt Weber in January 2008.

While filming for The John Davidson Show in January 1981, Andy met actor Victoria Principal. The couple soon began a relationship.

Andy was reportedly a licensed pilot. He also had an issue handling teen success and fell into deep depression. He was later plagued by habits such as alcoholism, womanizing, and drug abuse.

By early 1988, Andy Gibb had somehow managed to control his drug addiction but had soon slipped into depression due to his break-up with Victoria Principal. In March 1988, Andy was working on a new album in London and thus stayed near Oxford.

A couple of days after he celebrated his birthday, he visited John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Oxfordshire, complaining of chest pains. At around 8:30 am on March 10, his doctor at the hospital asked him to get some more tests done to find out the cause of his chest pains. Soon, Andy lost his consciousness and died.

The cause of his death was said to be myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart caused by a virus. In his case, excessive cocaine consumption, too, had weakened his heart and worsened his situation.

The day he died was just 5 days after his 30th birthday. His brother Barry apparently had a bitter argument with him shortly before Andy turned 30 and regretted it later, as that was the last time he had seen Andy alive.

Andy was buried in the Court of Remembrance, at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles, California. His epitaph reads “An Everlasting Love.”

The Andy Gibb Memorial Foundation still contributes to the charitable causes that Andy supported, such as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the Diabetes Research Institute.

A song by the Bee Gees on the album and DVD One Night Only is dedicated to Andy. They called it A Song for Andy.