Rob Lowe Recalls Getting Busted With Michael J. Fox During Star-Studded 1980s Event
In the 1980s, Rob Lowe and Michael J. Fox used their celebrity status to draw attention to political causes. However, they likely didn’t expect their involvement in a star-studded environmental event to get them pulled over. The young actors were busted for smoking pot out of the open hatch of a Greyhound bus filled with a who’s who of famous faces.
Rob Lowe confessed his youthful misdeeds with Michael J. Fox
In an interview with Ted Danson for the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name With Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Sometimes), Rob Lowe confessed his youthful misdeeds. Lowe said the incident occurred when he and Michael J. Fox participated in a celebrity environmental rally.
Lowe, Fox, and other famous 1980s celebrities traveled on a Greyhound bus to promote a state measure to protect drinking water from toxic materials. At the same time, Lowe and Fox decided to pull a youthful prank that eventually got the bus pulled over by the police.
The actor revealed, “We got pulled over for speeding. Well, also because Michael J. Fox and I were smoking pot out of the top of the Greyhound bus roof.”
Rob Lowe continued speaking of the incident with Fox. “And the cop pulled us over, and it was like a clown car. Out came Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, Judd Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Robert Downey Jr., Jane Fonda, and Danny Glover.” Lowe did not state if any of the celebrities mentioned above were part of Fox’s and his misdeeds.
Reflecting on his time working as a celebrity environmental advocate, Lowe added a tongue-in-cheek comment about these types of celebrity events. “You know, when you wanna shut down a nuclear power plant, the two people that are best to do it for sure are me and Meg Ryan,” he joked. “I mean, you know that will make you rethink your energy priorities when we show up.”
Rob Lowe and Michael J. Fox were unlikely celebrity advocates in the decade of excess
Utilizing the star power of Rob Lowe, Michael J. Fox, and other famous actors to promote environmentalism was a shrewd political move. Celebrity advocacy typically bridges the gap between causes that need assistance and those who watch events unfold from a distance but don’t know how to help.
The 1980s were a massive decade for celebrity-driven activism. Some of the most popular events of the decade attempted to help Africans in need. Band Aid, USA for Africa, and the Bob-Geldof helmed Live Aid music event. Elizabeth Taylor championed AIDS research.
However, many celebrities didn’t present themselves as issue experts or spokespeople for a cause. Their role was to use their platform to legitimize causes that otherwise had been ignored. In the 1980s, Martin Sheen was an outspoken supporter of the Central American Solidarity movement. Danny Glover and Steven Van Zandt became leaders in organizing artists against South African apartheid.
Many of the decade’s biggest celebrities found themselves on the front lines of these causes. Their appearances lent even more credence to their positions, such as Rob Lowe and Michael J. Fox campaigning for clean drinking water. By the end of the decade, Lowe chose sobriety over partying and has remained sober ever since.
Rob Lowe marked 33 years of sobriety in 2023
After years of partying and using drugs and alcohol to excess, Rob Lowe chose sobriety on May 10, 1990. That’s the day he took his first step into treatment and recovery.
He told Variety, “I wasn’t ready until I was ready,” Lowe recalls. “I was ready when one day back in the days of answering machines, my mother called me, and I could hear her voice on the answering machine.”
Lowe continued, “I didn’t want to pick up because I was really, really hungover, and I didn’t want her to know. She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital, and she needed my help. And I didn’t pick up. My thought process in that moment was, ‘I need to drink half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone.’”
The other deciding factor in sobriety was his love for Sheryl Berkoff, his wife of now 30 years and the mother of his two sons, Matthew and Johnowen. He admitted that to be the husband and father he always wanted to be, he had to sober up.
In May 2023, Lowe posted a photograph of himself in the ocean to Instagram, marking his 33rd year of sobriety. He wrote, “33 years ago today, I found recovery and a tribe that has sustained me on my incredible, grateful journey. My life is full of love, family, God, opportunity, friends, work, dogs, and fun. If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction, hope, and joy are waiting if you want it and are willing to work for it!”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
