Todd Bridges is looking back on one of the more unusual moments from his past struggles with addiction: a drug intervention that involved both Eddie Murphy and Rick James and ended in the most decadent way imaginable.
Speaking on The Patrick LabyorTeaux with host Patrick Labyorteaux, who says he'd known Bridges since the 1970s, the Diff'rent Strokes star recalled how Murphy, concerned about his drug use in the 1980s, decided to step in.
“I knew Eddie Murphy for a while,” Bridges said. “Eddie was like, ‘Man, we gotta get Todd some help…We gotta find somebody who knows about drugs.’”
Murphy and friends decided that James — the legendary “Super Freak” singer — might be the right person to talk to Bridges. But what followed wasn’t exactly a textbook intervention.
“They sent Rick James to my house,” Bridges recalled. “If any of you guys know anything about Rick James, Rick James was getting higher than I was at the time. So, Rick comes to my house, opens his car door, and all this smoke comes out.”
James told Bridges they needed to talk. The two were already acquainted from running in the same circles, and Bridges admitted that “when Rick spoke, you listened.” James then asked to see Bridges’ stash. “I showed him, and he goes, ‘Man, that’s too much. I don’t want you killing yourself. Let me take half of that so you don’t kill yourself.’”
But the visit took another turn when James began chatting with a woman sitting on Bridges’ couch — and ended up leaving with her. “I’m like… what kind of drug intervention was that?” Bridges said.
When Labyorteaux questioned the logic behind Murphy sending James, Bridges explained that Murphy and others didn’t realize the full extent of James’ drug use at the time. “They knew that he smoked weed, but they thought that’s all it was,” he said.