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Fact #19893

When:

Short story:

Don Everly of The Everly Brothers collapses on the stage of The Prince Of Wales Theatre, London, England, UK, Europe, during rehearsals for their imminent tour. After two suicide attempts in The Savoy Hotel, he is too drugged on amphetamines to perform. Phil Everly goes on and does the tour alone.

Full article:

Frank Ifield (supporting act on tour) : On the Saturday they were due to rehearse after me but when I finished, and before the Everlys did their run-through, the whole show was cleared out. We weren't allowed in while they were rehearsing, so I could not even watch them from the wings.

The whisper went round that Don had taken some drugs, and he had collapsed on stage during Cathy's Clown. His wife, Venetia, took him to Charing Cross hospital where, I'm told, he had his stomach pumped.

Snuff Garrett (Everlys' producer): The Everlys were basically producing their own records and Don at that time was pretty much taking the helm on everything. He was constantly trying to prove himself and he did have a terrible bout of problems at that time.

Felice Bryant (songwriter/friend of the Everlys) : I still feel that all the troubles at that time were caused by him subconsciously trying to get away from the terrible demands that touring put on him. They had such an excessive schedule that it's not surprising that one of them cracked.

Jack Rael (manager) : Dr. Jacobson was their doctor when I inherited the act.

Phil Everly : It was very fashionable to go to a "speed" doctor. He was a real Doctor Feelgood.

Jack Rael : He was a strange doctor but I didn't care for him. I remember once he had to leave quickly because he said, "Eddie Fisher will not go on without me being there" which I felt was ridiculous but this is what the guy did. I think that whoever sent Don and Phil to this guy did not do them any favours.

Phil Everly : It was Archie Bleyer (owner of Everly's label, Cadence Records) that started it. I got locked in, because I was staying at Archie's house in New York, and I was hysterical one night and I wound up there. The doctor was very famous at the time, treating all of these famous people you wouldn't believe.

Don Everly : In those days people didn't realise that amphetamines were drugs and that they were addictive. Unbeknown to me I got involved. I saw Eddie Fisher in his office loads of times. I saw pictures of the doctor with John F. Kennedy, and I figured, "Hell, this fella can't be wrong" but he was. It didn't seem to be an unusual thing to do either. I had the drug on prescription and injected myself. At the beginning you don't realise what's happening but finally you catch on that you're awake for three days on B12. I got to a point where I couldn't go on stage without it. If you'd go searching for him he'd be there.

Jack Rael : Don reacted terribly to it. I don't know what the drug was, but it was not heroin. They were never involved with any hard drugs so they didn't have a problem as such. It was on prescription and the police never bothered them because it was all legitimate.

Phil Everly : Jacobson's theory was that our society had become accustomed to all kinds of instant things: 'Quick, I'm not feeling good, I want to feel better.' So he would change the metabolism of your chemical make-up, but it wasn't good for you because you had no permanent control of it and you were depending on some outside influence.

You were supposed to note psychologically how it kept you and strive to be like that when you weren't involved with it. With me, the idea was just to use it as a guide to make myself more stable, better able to handle my own pressures. I don't know if it worked for me but I could see from what it was doing to Donald that it was dangerous to mess with.

At the time we went there it was better than the other options. It seemed right at the time. There were other avenues but it wasn't really seedy.

Phil Everly : What we needed was to take a long vacation, to get off the merry-go-round. There were too many people making too much money off us, keeping us going.

Don Everly : Ritalin made you feel energised. You could stay up for days. It just got me strung out. I got so far out there, I didn't know what I was doing.

Phil Everly : I was in the hotel room with him at the time but deep down inside I just refused to believe that he was really trying to kill himself. Donald had not been well for a while and we were semi-cognisant of his situation. It was just the most dreadful period I could ever imagine. There were like eight thousand different things causing it. It was just terrible.

Don Everly : I was so high, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't want to continue where that [prescription drug] experience was going. I was beginning a long tour in England, and they sent me over with all these bottles and needles. It left a hole in my soul, and it nearly left me for dead. With drugs, it takes away all intellect and you become dependent and controlled. It's terrible. I'm lucky to be alive.

Frank Ifield : The next thing we heard was that Don had discharged himself from the hospital. Then I gather he collapsed again and was taken into The Middlesex. They had a very good road manager on the tour, Wally Stewart, who quickly went into action keeping the press away from the Everlys.

Jack Rael : We had to bring Don back (to the USA) and we had an ambulance meet him at the airport and we put him in a hospital.

Don Everly : I had a full nervous breakdown and spent a year in and out of hospital.

Felice Bryant (songwriter/friend of The Everly Brothers] : He looked terrible. He suffered from all the pressures on him and it took a lot of rest to pull him round.

Don Everly : They say shock therapy is good for some things, but it didn't do me any good. It was a pretty primitive treatment at the time - once they gave it to you, you couldn't remember how long you'd been there. It knocked me back for a long time. I thought I'd never write again.

Frank Ifield : Everything was so sudden. I was asked to extend my act there and then to give Phil a bit of breathing space. I had hardly any notice at all. Fortunately I had worked with the band before so it wasn't too difficult for me. At that time I was very big which was fortunate because my extending didn't make much difference from an audience point of view and as second top I was able to give strong support to Phil who rightly topped the bill.

Phil Everly : I honestly don't know what I felt on that first night. I was too mixed up.

Frank Ifield : It was all kept so quiet that no-one knew exactly what was going on, even to the extent that the fans who had come to see the first show didn't hear about it until the very last minute. Even we were still expecting Don to turn up.

Phil Everly : Joey Paige (bassist) got me through the 1962 tour, particularly the first night at East Ham.

Frank Ifield : Phil was incredibly nervous, because Don usually sang the lead vocal lines and he did the harmonies. So he tried to take over Don's lead parts, but of course he'd keep slipping back into the harmonies, which sounded very odd.

Phil Everly : That was my first solo on stage. I had done solos on radio, but not in years. I had to switch over to Donald's part, which I found very difficult. I sang the harmony part of Lucille all the way through. But there was nothing else I could do.

Frank Ifield : Then the bass player, Joey, stepped forward and started to sing Don's lead parts, which enabled Phil to go back to doing what he did best. After that, it was much better.

Phil Everly : It was like "the show must go on" kinda silliness or put everybody out of work, but also too I didn't know whether it was the end totally. I had no real idea of what the situation was. I knew we'd best continue and bring the funds in.

Frank Ifield : Phil did a very brave job going on alone. It was a hell of a thing to do. Nobody asked for their money back. Obviously they were disappointed, but they were happy that Phil had the guts to get up and do it on his own.

Jack Rael : Phil called me and asked me to go back over to England and continue the tour with him, which I did. Everywhere was sold out and Phil would go out and say, "My brother said to tell you he's so happy you're here - he's coming along fine." Phil handled it beautifully. He and the group did tremendous business; naturally Don was missed because he was very important, but they didn't have to give back any money.

Frank Ifield : At the start of the tour, there was no connection by Phil with the rest of the acts, because Wally was doing such a good job, but the result was that the rest of us were constantly hounded at the stage doors and in our hotels by journalists trying to get the story.

Then I went to No1 with Lovesick Blues, so I became the prime target for the press. Wally then got separate cars for Phil and me to protect us, but that meant we weren't on the bus with everybody else.

The consequence of this was that there was no spirit among the performers. The bill was falling apart because nobody was able to get together with anybody. So I decided to move out of my chauffeured car and travel on the coach with the rest of the gang.

I wanted to see Phil to suggest that he move into the coach as well and asked Wally, who was looking after Phil, if I could see him but he would not let me so I just barged past him and I asked Phil, "How's about coming on the coach?" and Phil was delighted and said, "Yes". He got on the coach with us and we had a ball, but the funniest thing to me was to see the two chauffeur-driven cars travelling behind with the two managers travelling in style while we were in the coach having a ball of fun.

I think us getting back on the bus helped put the spirit back into the thing and probably saved the show.

Albert Lee (guitarist) : The Everlys were so big at that time and everybody wanted Phil to do well and that probably made it easier for him.

Billy Kinsley (The Merseybeats) : When I saw Phil with just a trio, I wanted to get up and harmonise with him. I think nearly everyone in the audience did.

Don Everly : When I look back on it, there's no way it could've lasted much longer. Things developed too fast. There were too many things happening at the same time. The mainspring was the law suits with Wesley and my wife, the Marines and the drug addiction we wound up with.

Phil Everly : Things were too confused. We should have taken a long rest but, in those days, we couldn't. The tensions between Don and I … well, we're just a family that is like that, I guess. Everything that was happening then contributed to it. But you could just as easily say that the tension between us existed from day one, from birth. And will go on forever.