The night Barry Gibb and Stephen Gibb sang 'Grease' as a sensational father-son duet
16 February 2024, 16:03
The Gibbs were on stage in during Barry Gibb's 'Mythology Tour' when they gave a powerful performance.
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Barry Gibb and son Stephen Gibb have only given a handful of joint performances in their lives and this rendition of 'Grease' from 2014 is spine-tinglingly good.
The father-son duo took to the stage during the Bee Gees' first solo tour without his brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb, and gave tribute to the film soundtrack from the hit movie Grease.
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The Mythology Tour, designed as a celebration of Barry's brothers, kicked off in Sydney in October 2012 and saw Barry Gibb accompanied by not only his son Stephen, but also Maurice's daughter Samantha, who also regularly joined Barry for duets on stage.
Barry Gibb wrote the hit 1978 song, especially for the film, where it became the movie's title song, recorded and released by Frankie Valli.
When it was dropped as a single in May 1878, the record became an enormous success and sold over seven million records worldwide and Frankie Valli – who sang the hit and didn't even have a recording contract – was quickly snapped up by Warner Bros.
The song went on to be performed many times by the Bee Gees throughout the years, culminating in Stephen and Barry playing their own rendition of the track while on tour.
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In the years following the tour, Barry and his son have reunited only a handful of times, most notably during lockdown where they recorded a live jamming session back in March 2020 and streamed the medley for lucky Bee Gees fans.
The musical pair gave a stripped-back acoustic performance of three of the band's most famous songs: 'Stayin' Alive', 'Words' and 'How Can You Mend A Broken Heart'.
- Watch Barry Gibb and son Stephen sing 'Grease':
Barry Gibb and son Stephen singing "Grease"
Recorded at Barry Gibb's house in Miami – a property the Bee Gee made his permanent home in 1974 – the duo are very comfortable playing with one another and sound effortless as they duet.
In 2020, Stephen opened up about his battle with drug-addiction and how he managed to turn his life around.
The 46-year-old revealed how his drug addiction led him into a spiral of homelessness and scavenging for food.
Stephen recalled that he came to a crossroads and turned his life around, knowing that if he carried as he was he faced 'death, prison or a mental institution.'
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Speaking on his recovery podcast, Addiction Talks, the performer said: "The first time I drank I was probably 14 and I downed an entire bottle of Jack Daniels [and] blacked out."
He went on to describe his spiral from having regular work to losing everything.
"After I lost my gig with my band I was homeless, they throw away so much good food in studios and I remember eating out of the dumpster at the record plant praying nobody would see me," he says.
Barry Gibb and son Stephen perform Staying Alive on Twitch
"I remember thinking ‘This sucks’.'I was living in my van or wherever I could land. If somebody let me crash on a couch I was fortunate.
"The thing for me that was mind blowing was the old saying, from Park Avenue to park bench."
Once he turned his life around and got getting sober, Stephen Gibb went back to performing, writing music and regularly playing the guitar with his dad, however the threat of addiction has sadly been rife in the Gibb family.
Robin Gibb passed away in May 2012 after battling cancer for a number of years, while his twin brother Maurice – who had been sober for 20 years – died in 2003 due to complications of a twisted intestine.
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The Bee Gees youngest brother, Andy Gibb, died aged just 30 in 1988 after battling drug addiction and depression for many years.
"My greatest regret is that every brother I’ve lost was in a moment when we weren’t getting on, so I have to live with that and I’ll spend the rest of my life reflecting on that," an emotional Barry Gibb said in a TV interview in 2012.
Barry Gibb emotionally reflects on losing his brothers
"I’m the last man standing. I’ll never be able to understand that as I’m the eldest."
Barry also broke down in tears during the interview, admitting that he had never done that before when speaking about the subject.
"Nobody ever really knows what the three of us felt about each other," he added. "Only the three of us knew.
"It was such a unifying thing, the three of us became one person. We all had the same dream. That's what I miss more than anything else."
