Billy Connolly: My son’s battle with booze and drug addiction
HE has been candid about his own personal battle with Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer.
But now Sir Billy Connolly has revealed his son is in the grip of his own fight – against alcohol and drug addiction.
Sir Billy said his son Jamie, 50, had a ‘problem’ while visiting recovering drug addicts as part of his ITV travel series. The Glasgow-born comedian said his eldest child, from his first marriage to Iris Pressagh, had been to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings to get help.
The 76-year-old also hit out at the lack of understanding and compassion shown towards those with addiction problems.
Speaking in West Virginia on his Great American Trail programme, he said: ‘My son has a problem and he’s in AA and NA. He told me when he went to the detox place some kids were being let out and they were back on the stuff before they got to the railway station. It’s so powerful.
‘People who don’t know about it say, “Why do they take it? Just say no. Just stop and you’ll be better.” Duh. It’s extraordinary.’
Sir Billy, who gave up drinking 35 years ago, has previously spoken of his love of going on fishing trips with his son, who he said worked in theatre prop departments.
Addressing workers and those getting treatment at the Southern West Virginia
‘People don’t know what to say’
Fellowship Home, the comedian added: ‘You do grand work. Any time they speak about this stuff they talk about it like people are losers and they are dying all over the place.
‘They never talk about this, about people pulling themselves up and getting on with it.’ The majority of people at the therapy centre were being treated for addiction to powerful opioid painkillers.
Sir Billy told viewers that 90,000 people in America had died due to opioid addiction in the last two years.
He said: ‘Make no mistake, this is a middle and working class crisis. The scale of addiction is industrial. There are now over a million and a half Americans addicted to medical and illegal opioids. The numbers are terrifying. It’s a national tragedy.’
The comedian said he had smoked cannabis but had no experience of using harder drugs. ‘I know nothing about the whole drug thing. I’ve smoked a little dope but I’ve never been deeply involved in it,’ he said.
The final part of his travelogue, which follows the route taken by Scottish immigrants in the 1700s, also saw Sir Billy return to the stage to play his beloved banjo.
He performed country music classic Will the Circle Be Unbroken at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, which has played host to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Sir Billy announced his retirement from live performance last year, citing Parkinson’s disease affecting his movement on stage.
Making light of his condition on his TV programme, he said: ‘I don’t shake because I’m in need of a fix, I shake because I’ve got Parkinson’s disease.’
He was diagnosed with the disease in 2012 – the same year he was told he had prostate cancer – after a doctor spotted him walking with a ‘strange gait’ through a hotel lobby in Los Angeles. He moved from New York to Florida as his doctors advised him to live in a warmer climate. A film of the comic’s final stand-up tour is being shown for one night only in cinemas on October 10.