“I was at that time, for that show, I was sober.”
Leif Garrett’s name was back in the news this week when Rosie O’Donnell claimed he was one of five celebrities banned from her talk show, after he burned himself in her green room with a crack pipe.
But Garrett tells a different story, saying he’d “never do anything like that” and went on to share his own version of the events.
“No, that’s not even how it came close,” he told TooFab. “I don’t know if she’s got Alzheimer’s or doesn’t remember what happened, but it’s on YouTube. You can watch the clip on YouTube. She said I had a little burn on my face from using crack, which is so not true. First of all, I would never do anything like that.”
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Appearing on “Watch What Happens Live” this week, O’Donnell said Garrett came on her show in 1999 “with a fresh wound from a pipe that he used for crack.” According to her, Garrett “had a normal face and he came out a few minutes later and he had a huge red welt of burn from being in the green room those 20 minutes I didn’t see him,” pointing to her cheek as she spoke.
Pointing to the footage — which is low-res on YouTube below — Garrett said there’s nothing on his face. He did admit, however, that he had another drug-related injury on his hand from which he was still recovering at the time.
“What I had was on my hand, I had a scarf tied onto my hand because I had an abscess from using dope. Not that day … my body was still detoxing at that time,” he explained. “I had a little thing on my hand that I had covered up with a bandana. Anyway, that’s what she made a comment on. Nobody was smoking crack and there was no burn on my face.”
“The funny thing was she even said that I supposedly used crack in her green room and then was nodding off,” he added. “First of all, anyone knows if you use crack, you don’t nod off. I was at that time, for that show, I was sober. At least get the story right, you know?”
Garrett also found it funny Rosie made such a big deal out of pronouncing his first name correctly back in 1999, but didn’t manage to do the same when telling her story on WWHL. “There’s no reason to be nasty, man. It’s just insane,” he added. “Rosie, come on.”
The former teen idol said he did think O’Donnell was “really sweet” at the time, saying she sent him a note following his appearance on her show. “She actually wrote me a note and said, hey man, stay well,” he claimed, “You can tell by the clip that I’m not f–king on drugs, sorry my language. She wrote me a note saying anytime, give me a call if you need someone to talk to.”
Garrett said there’s “no hard feelings” toward Rosie, but wanted to tell her, “Don’t assume.” He added, “Never assume, man. Look at the footage of me on the show, you can tell what she said was not true.”
Leif’s appearance on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” came just months before he was arrested for trying to buy heroin and cocaine from undercover cops in Los Angeles. He was arrested again in 2004, 2006 and 2010, all on drug charges and served time in county jail.
“That one, you know, that was the one that pretty much made me say, hey, hello,” he explained. “County jail is way worse than prison. Every night I had to keep an eye open to save my cookie, so to speak. And that’s a metaphor for both things, because they wanted my dessert as well.”
Now, Garrett said he feels great, is happy to be healthy amid the pandemic and has been taking care of his mother. He’s working on a followup to his 2019 book “Idol Truth,” as well as new music. “I don’t want to live forever, but I got some more time in me and I’ve got more to say and more to do, for sure,” he added.
Summing up his reaction to making headlines again, he said, “I don’t believe that any news is good news as long as they got your name right, I don’t believe that. But I think when people stop talking about you, then you gotta worry.”