Rob Lowe is feeling grateful.
The actor has so much going on his life, both personally and professionally.
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These days, he’s busy juggling 9-1-1 Lone Star , his two podcasts, and his family. But if there’s one thing he always has time for, it’s reflecting on his 30 years of sobriety .
In one of his most candid interviews yet, the actor went deep.
The start of Rob’s career was also the beginning of his battle with addiction.
Partying was normal in Hollywood when he starred in his first feature film, The Outsiders .
“People talk about how the industry has changed… Warner Brothers would provide beer in the van for 15-year-old Tommy Howell and 17-year-old Rob,” he said in an interview with People .
“It was just a different world.”
He began to find it hard to separate who he was from the characters he was playing.
This was prominently the case in his role as Billy Hicks, the “lovable rogue” in the 1985 film, St. Elmo’s Fire .
“I became so identified with it — the wild, fun, rock and roll, quasi-debauched with the heart of gold [guy]: that’s my early twenties in a nutshell.”
Since a lot of women can’t resist a bad boy, Rob had his pick of the litter when it came to the women in Hollywood.
He became romanically involved with Melissa Gilbert and even Princess Stephanie of Monaco.
A low point was when he was involved in a 1988 sex scandal involving two young girls.
It was on this descent to rock bottom that he had experienced moments of reckoning.
One of these came when he was 26.
He came home late after a night of partying to find a voicemail message on his machine from his mother.
She said that his grandfather had a heart attack and begged for Lowe to pick up. He didn’t.
“You need to drink directly from this bottle of Cuervo Gold so you can go to sleep, so you can wake up, so you can deal with this,'” he recalled thinking.
“Out of all the things that had gone on in my life, that was the thing where finally I went, ‘This is no way to live.’ I went to rehab 48 hours later.”
He’s been sober ever since.
A lot of this he credits to his wife, Sheryl, who he met while working on the 1990 erotic thriller, Bad Influence .
“I had the feeling that if I was ever going to be able to make it work with anybody, it was Sheryl,” he said. “Alcohol and drugs were only going to make that next to impossible.”
The pair married in 1991 and welcomed two sons, Matthew and John Owen.
When John Owen struggled with his own addictions, Rob played a part in his son’s sobriety.
“On the most personal level possible, when I was struggling with addiction, he was always there for me,” John Owen told People .
“I credit that with being one, if not the main, reason that I’m sober and living a healthy lifestyle.”
John said that his father never gave up on him.
“I have a little over three and a half years [of sobriety] now, but when I took my first-year chip, he and I spoke at a [12-step] meeting in front of 200 people. And it was one of the best experiences of my life.”
Lowe recalled similar feelings as he was there for his son.
“To give him his one-year [sobriety] chip, and him to give me my 30-year chip, it defies articulation.”
This, coupled with his own personal journey, has left the actor feeling the most fulfilled he ever has.
“I’ve never been happier, personally or professionally [and] there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not thankful about it all,” Lowe told ‘People.’
“Up until I turned 26, I spent all my time investing in my career,” he said.
“From 26 on, I’ve invested in me; my spirituality, my recovery, my marriage, my family. A lot of it has been, excuse me, f—ing hard. And no one has a perfect life… but I’m grateful for all of it.”
H/T: People
