![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/andrew-lloyd-webber-reveals-he-is-recovering-alcoholic.jpg\")
Lloyd-Webber is known for writing songs for hit musicals such as Cats (Maja Smiejkowska\/PA)<\/p>\nWest End composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed he is a \u201crecovering alcoholic\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 78-year-old said he had previously checked himself into a clinic to deal with his addiction, which he added did not work, before then attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings in Switzerland and the UK, which he said he \u201cadored\u201d, in an interview with The Times.<\/p>\n
Lloyd-Webber said: \u201cI am a recovering alcoholic. Sixteen months ago I decided that I needed help and it\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to me.<\/p>\n
Lloyd-Webber is known for writing songs for hit musicals such as Cats (Maja Smiejkowska\/PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think it\u2019s secret, but it\u2019s not, everybody knows. I started getting into a downhill spiral and about 18 months ago the family were in a desperate state. My wife was feeling she couldn\u2019t go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writer of songs behind musicals such as Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom Of The Opera added he is now attending a meeting every day while moving between his homes in London, Hampshire and New York.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cPeople had always said: \u2018Oh no, you wouldn\u2019t like that\u2019, and you get this thought that it\u2019s a load of meth drinkers coming in off the streets. Not at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about it is, you go into a room and everybody\u2019s equal. I\u2019ve made friends that I wouldn\u2019t have thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd-Webber said he had been noticed at the meetings but said this was \u201cnot an issue\u201d, and added that his favourite AA meeting was in St Louis with \u201ca whole load of rednecks\u201d.<\/p>\n
The star said that the turning point in his battle with addiction was hearing someone else describe the \u201cstupidity\u201d of it.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt was about the ludicrous lengths you go to, the hiding and the pretending.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a wine drinker, you don\u2019t think of yourself as\u2026 well, alcoholics drink spirits, that was the shocking thing for me, when I realised that I was drinking vodka to hide it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t really think. It\u2019s just: \u2018How am I going to get through the day?\u2019 I got that thing of seriously worrying that I wasn\u2019t writing, and panicked. \u2018Maybe I\u2019ll have a drink \u2013 OK, I\u2019ve written something\u2019, because it does slightly liberate you \u2014 but then it\u2019s more and more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The London-born composer went on to say that one of the songs he wrote while under the influence was No Matter What, which went on to be a hit for the boyband Boyzone.<\/p>\n
It comes after Lloyd-Webber\u2019s brother, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, announced he will receive treatment for prostate cancer earlier this week, having celebrated his 75th birthday on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West End composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed he is a \u201crecovering alcoholic\u201d. The 78-year-old said he had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-406510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}