\nThroughout his career, the former teen idol had extreme highs and lows. However, his use of \u1d05\u0280\u1d1c\u0262 \u1d00\u1d05\u1d05\u026a\u1d04\u1d1b\u026a\u1d0f\u0274 as a crutch led to the downfall of his career.\n
What a babe he was. Leif Garrett began his career as a child actor before becoming a singer in the 1970s and setting young women\u2019s hearts aflutter.\n
My mother told me that when she went grocery shopping with her parents, she noticed Leif\u2019s face on all of the adolescent magazine covers at the checkout lines.\n
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Born in Hollywood, California, the American singer-actor initially starred in the 1969 picture Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which became the sixth highest-grossing film of the year, at the age of five.\n
Following that part, the sleepy-eyed, flaxen-haired hunk appeared in the film Walking Tall and its two sequels. He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s The Outsiders in 1983, alongside Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, and Tom Cruise, among other young heartthrobs.\n
Some may also recall him from his roles in TV shows such as Family, The Odd Couple (1974), Wonder Woman (1978), and CHiPs (1979).\n
In 1977, he released his debut album, Leif Garret, and fans went crazy when he sang renditions of classic songs like The Wanderer (Dion), Surfin\u2019 USA (The Beach Boys), and Paul Anka\u2019s Put Your Head on My Shoulder.\n
Garrett was on top of the world. The blond, shaggy-haired singer toured the world, and his admirers (mainly young ladies) went berserk whenever they saw him.\n
\u201dI was on a public appearance tour in Sydney, Australia, and they had to fly me in by helicopter and then I jumped into an armored car and drove into the theater by back door. I\u2019ve tried using a lim there before, but the fans almost tipped it over. I guess it\u2019s an adrenalin push for them. They just freak out. It\u2019s very weird,\u201d Garrett told New York Daily News in 1979.\n
Despite the fact that his music was nearly at the top of the charts, he fought with management, who treated him as a \u201cfraud.\u201d Garrett found it difficult to adjust to maturity.\n
\u201cI think I was a good performer from the get-go but I wish they had offered me singing lessons before ever making a record and doing the typical punching in a sentence here or there or words or whatever,\u201d Garret said in an interview.\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s a particular track (I Was Looking for Someone to Love) that doesn\u2019t even sound like me at all. I would even possibly say I wasn\u2019t even on that track. And to me, that IS fraud. That\u2019s like a Milli Vanilli situation, the difference being, of course, mine was blended many times with myself and somebody else.\u201d\n
Garrett\u2019s career began to decline in 1979, when drunk and drugged, he crashed a car and sent it tumbling down a slope in North Hollywood, paralyzing his then-close friend Ronald Winkler.\n
But that wasn\u2019t enough for Garret, whose life proceeded to sink downward.\n
Garret reveled in s3x, drugs, and rock and roll with Queen\u2019s legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury, who was at the time recording the hugely successful album The Game, which featured the hits \u201cCrazy Little Thing Called Love\u201d and \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust,\u201d according to his book. Garrett stated that he became acquainted with the band, who showed him the true rock star lifestyle, complete with girlfriends and drugs.\n
In an interview with Fox for the release of his memoir, Idol Truth, Garrett said:\u201cI don\u2019t think I was a very mature 16-year-old. I became mature very quickly because I was always surrounded by adults who were drinking and doing coke. I was a child, but being treated as an adult\u2026 And all of this was coming out of my pocket.\u201d\n
He continued: \u201cYou know, I probably have the greatest fan base that I could ever imagine for myself. They have stuck with me through thick and thin. And as you know, I\u2019ve gotten myself in plenty of bad situations. There was a lot of bad decision-making. But at the same time, I didn\u2019t have the parental guidance that I should have at that time.\u201d\n Garret\u2019s record of charges is substantial. He dropped out of treatment and had several encounters with the police, including attempting to acquire drugs from undercover detectives and concealing heroin in his shoe.\n Despite his best efforts to claw his way back to the top, Garrett eventually reverted to his old behaviors. Garrett was chosen to contribute commentary on the comedy show World\u2019s Dumbest, which recounts the \u201cmost amazingly stupid\u201d criminals.\n Other celebrities known for personal follies who appeared on the show included Todd Bridges, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey, and Danny Bonaduce.\n Garrett then received a prominent part on VH1\u2019s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which he did not want to be on. Garrett accused the show of causing him to relapse for drama, which VH1 categorically rejected.\n Garrett stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: \u201cThey asked to get some footage of me using, and I said, \u2018I haven\u2019t been using. They said, \u2018We really have to get footage of you using.\u2019 Anyway, I was easily talked into showing them.\u201d\n When a production counselor called him out, implying he was still using, Garrett walked off the set, stating, \u201cThis is insanity and quite honestly I don\u2019t appreciate it.\u201d\n Fortunately, Leif Garrett is sober today.\n \u201dI had a 90-day sentence in county jail. I was in court-ordered rehab before that, and then my mom visited and told me she had stage IV lung cancer. I said, \u2018I\u2019m leaving to take care of her\u2014nobody lives with her.\u2019 So dealing with that, I started using again. So it was like, \u2018Cuff him, bring him in,\u2019 and I did the 90 days, and that was it,\u201d he says.\n According to the former teen idol, he\u2019s still very grateful for all his fans.\n \u201dI\u2019ve kept every photo or letter that a young lady sent, telling me about being on their walls and kissing me good night before they went to bed,\u201d Garrett told Closer. \u201cIt\u2019s very surreal and a bit embarrassing, but how flattering! I can\u2019t thank [my fans] enough, because I\u2019m still able to do something I enjoy and get paid for it.\u201d\n Leif Garrett arrives at the opening night of \u2018Rain- A Tribute To The Beatles\u2019 at the Pantages Theatre on April 12, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Angela Weiss\/Getty Images for Pantages Theatre)\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout his career, the former teen idol had extreme highs and lows. 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