A video of Barry Gibb singing one of the Bee Gees’ greatest hits with his son Stephen and niece Samantha is a moment which will go down in music history.
The footage, taken during Barry Gibb’s first tour without any of his three brothers, shows the Bee Gee taking to the stage to sing ‘Stayin’ Alive’ in honour of his siblings.
The 1977 song, performed originally as a trio with Robin and Maurice Gibb, is given a unique makeover by Barry, Samantha and Stephen Gibb in a beautiful moment captured by an onlooker.
Running from February 2013 to June 2014 across Australia, the UK and the United States, the tour featured guest appearances from Stephen and Samantha, both members of the Gibb Collective – a band consisting of the sons and daughters of the Gibb brothers.
Barry Gibb inviting Maurice’s daughter on stage for duet of ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ is so moving
Created to celebrate the lives of Maurice and Robin Gibb, Mythology kicked off in Sydney, with Gibb giving an emotional statement at the time, saying: “I am absolutely thrilled that Australian music lovers have embraced the Mythology Tour so wholeheartedly, given that it’s the country where it all began.
“I am truly humbled by this response and can’t wait to perform these songs again on home soil.”
Barry Gibb and his son Stephen have only given a handful of joint performances in their careers and alongside the performance of ‘Stayin’ Alive’, the 2014 Mythology Tour also saw the pair sing a spine-tinglingly good duet of ‘Grease’.
The musical pair gave a stripped-back acoustic performance of three of the band’s most famous songs: ‘Stayin’ Alive’, ‘Words’ and ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’.
In 2020, Stephen Gibb opened up about his battle with drug-addiction and how he managed to turn his life around.
The 46-year-old revealed how his drug addiction led him into a spiral of homelessness and scavenging for food.
Stephen recalled that he came to a crossroads and turned his life around, knowing that if he carried as he was he faced ‘death, prison or a mental institution.’
Speaking on his recovery podcast, Addiction Talks, the performer said: “The first time I drank I was probably 14 and I downed an entire bottle of Jack Daniels [and] blacked out.”
He went on to describe his spiral from having regular work to losing everything.
Watch the amazing moment Barry Gibb sing ‘Stayin’ Alive’ with Stephen and Samantha Gibb:
“After I lost my gig with my band I was homeless, they throw away so much good food in studios and I remember eating out of the dumpster at the record plant praying nobody would see me,” he says.
“I remember thinking ‘This sucks’.’I was living in my van or wherever I could land. If somebody let me crash on a couch I was fortunate.
“The thing for me that was mind-blowing was the old saying, from Park Avenue to park bench.”
Once he turned his life around and got sober, Stephen went back to performing, writing music and playing the guitar with his dad, however, the threat of addiction has sadly been rife in the Gibb family.
Robin Gibb passed away in May 2012 after battling cancer for a number of years, while his twin brother Maurice – who had been sober for 20 years – died in 2003 due to complications of a twisted intestine.
The Bee Gee’s youngest brother, Andy Gibb, died in 1988 aged just 30 due to heart problems caused by cocaine addiction.
