Barry Gibb: I was abused at age of 4
Man tried to molest me and other kids, says Bee Gees star
‘It is vivid for me still’
BARRY GIBB has revealed that he was the victim of abuse as a child. The Bee Gees singer told how a man tried to molest him when he was four.
Gibb said he told nobody about the incident and that the details of what happened would be ‘unpalatable’.
The 70-year- old, who spent the first nine years of his life on the Isle of Man, said that the man did not touch him but ‘other things’ occurred.
He said he knew other children who were also abused.
In an interview with Radio Times, Gibb said: ‘I’ve never said this before. Jesus Christ, should I be saying it now?
‘But there was a moment in time when a man tried to molest me when I was about four years old.
‘ He didn’t touch me, but other things happened, and happened to other kids. And eventually they came and arrested him, and they woke me up during the night.
‘Four years old and a policeman on your bed at four in the morning, interviewing you!
‘If that doesn’t teach you about life, nothing does. But it’s vivid for me still. I’ve never told anybody.’
When asked if this abuse was in the home, he said: ‘Those details would be unpalatable.’
Gibb, whose family moved to Manchester and then in the late 1950s to Australia, went on to say that his experience had Victim: Barry Gibb as a child prepared him for a lifetime in showbusiness. He found fame at 13, when he and his brothers Robin and Maurice appeared on Australian TV.
Gibb said: ‘In Australia there was a lot of returned soldiers that were damaged, like people are damaged in the war now. They would drive up next to you and open the door of their car and say, “You want to go for a drive?”
‘I was ready. I could see the predators coming. I learnt very quickly to say, “Sorry, not available”, to move the other way as fast as I could.
‘There is a dark side, a very dark side, to showbusiness.’
Gibb has since sold 220million records, including the Bee Gees chart-toppers Massachusetts, Night Fever, Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love, Tragedy and You Win Again.
He has also written hits for other artists, such as Islands In The Stream, Woman In Love, Chain Reaction and Grease.
Gibb was introduced to his second wife, Linda, now 67, by Jimmy Savile, after she was an audience member on Top Of The Pops.
However, he declined to reveal that detail when appearing on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories earlier this year, despite Morgan pushing for the intricacies of how he met his wife of 46 years, with whom he has five children. He simply said: ‘She was Miss Edinburgh. But there is a whole slew of stories behind all that. Some of them cannot be told.’ Pushed for details, he added: ‘ No, no because even the name would send a shudder through you.’
Gibb told Radio Times: ‘Jimmy Savile’s name was never mentioned. Piers asked how we met, and I said it was “a famous DJ”. I didn’t want to mention his name. I can’t see why anyone would.’
Gibb has outlived all three of his brothers. The youngest, Andy, who was not in the Bee Gees, died aged 30 in 1988 from heart disease blamed on years of cocaine abuse.
Maurice died in 2003, aged 53, from a ruptured intestine. Robin died in 2012, aged 62, after a battle with cancer.