The road to sobriety for actor Rob Lowe was filled with self-reflection and challenges, but it wasn’t until a “final wake-up call” that he quit for good. “I remember like it was yesterday: My mom telling me [on the answering machine] to ‘pick up, pick up’ because my grandpa had had a heart attack. I couldn’t deal with it in the state I was in, and I needed to go to sleep to wake up so I could deal with it,” he said.
The 60-year-old said he automatically turned to tequila, adding that was one of the stand-out moments that led him to check into rehab later that year. “Who doesn’t keep a bottle of Cuervo Gold by their bedside table? That was the final wake-up call. I’ve been sober ever since.
” Lowe made his acting debut at just 15-years-old on ABC’s short-lived sitcom “A New Kind of Family” and rose to fame in 1983 for his breakthrough movie role in “The Outsiders.” He quickly became a heartthrob in Hollywood, landing other famous roles but also starting to drink at a young age. He notes some questionable decisions he made along the way that led to his sobriety, like when his sex-tape was leaked to the public.
“[The fallout] definitely changed my life at the time, and, in hindsight, I realized it was another step that led me to recovery and reevaluating my life ...
But the thing that really changed me was not being able to show up for my family and myself.” The “Unstable” star (alongside his son, John Owen Lowe) says his decision to stop.