I left the city and drove back to the Valley, where my wife, Sam, and our baby, Elvis, waited for me. In the car, I thought back to the first time Sam and I met. It was at Las Encinas. I was intrigued by her. It wasn’t anything I could pinpoint absolutely. It was any number of things. Mostly, I just thought she was cool. She stood apart from the crowd. I started to see her at different recovery meetings, but I kept my distance. I stayed at arm’s length for nearly six years. Sam was admitted to Las Encinas for a second stay as an outpatient, and I finally said to myself, “This is ridiculous. Ask the girl out.” It was a bold move. Staff is definitely not supposed to do that. It’s one of those rules designed to keep vulnerable people in treatment safe from predatory manipulations, but I thought to myself, I’m not a predator. I’m not a creep. I’m just a guy who really likes this girl. I approached Sam, who, by this time, had also shown an interest in me.
“Look, you know the rules. We’re not supposed to see each other socially,” I said in my most professional manner.
“But …,” she said, which gave me tacit permission to continue.
“Maybe we could go have some dinner and talk.”
“I’d like that.” She smiled.
“We could get in trouble for this, you know. Me, a lot more than you.”
“Nobody’s going to do anything. We’ll be discreet.”
On December 18, we went out on our first real date and we found that there was something there. We thought it was happiness, but these things are always tricky, especially in our particular situation. Word got out and I was betrayed by a friend. Loesha Zeviar, who has appeared as a resident technician on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, was a director at Las Encinas. She deduced the relationship that I had with Sam and went straight to her supervisor to spell it out. I felt hurt. I had known Loesha since she was sixteen. Our relationship covered years. She was married to my friend Flea for a time. But she was scared when she learned of my relationship with Sam. She felt like she was in over her head and so she went to her boss, a guy who had only been at the facility for four months, and trouble came hard and fast. I was called into the boss’s office. You know it will be bad when the first thing said to you is, “Please, sit down.”
I took a seat and watched this rookie study me. I don’t think he liked me much to begin with anyway. “Bob, did you go out with one of our clients?”
It made no sense to lie about it. He already knew the story from Loesha anyway. “Yeah,” I said.
“Bob, this is a serious violation of our standards.”
He read me the riot act, but I kept my job. I was upset. Sam was upset. But we stayed together and after a few years as a couple and the birth of our son, Elvis, we were married in December of 2012 in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. I don’t hold any of this against Loesha. Her job at Las Encinas was incredibly difficult and I’ve always thought the demands placed upon her were beyond her experience. She might have handled it differently given our history, but she made her decision. And I got a lovely wife and beautiful child in the deal.
I was thinking about them as I wheeled onto our street and pulled into the drive. I fumbled with my keys at the front door for a moment before I slid the right one into the lock and walked inside. “Honey, I’m home,” I said, sounding exactly like the kind of person I never thought I could be when I was lost in my increasingly faraway wasted years. Sam and I went to look in on Elvis, who was asleep in his bed. I thought to myself, I may not be completely well, but I’m much, much better. And I was happy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Bob Forrest wishes peace and love to Pete, Josh, Flea, Anthony, Dix, Chad, Morty, Norwood, J.D., Zander, Shelly, Drew, Sasha, Loesha, Doc Sheila, Paul T., Skip, all the girls I’ve loved, the ghost of Joe Strummer, Gibby, my family.… Everyone who is in my life, I can’t thank you enough!
Michael Albo thanks Bob Forrest for taking me on as his “with” guy, Evan Wright for his sage advice, Richard Abate for putting this book together, Suzanne O’Neill and Anna Thompson for their guidance, Frank and Diana Albo for their support, Kari Nelson, Crystal Taylor, and Amanda Colbath—the High Priestesses of the Pour—for making sure my glass was always full, and Tristen Pelton for her kind and sympathetic ear.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bob Forrest is “the guy with the hat” on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. He’s a certified addiction specialist and counselor as well as a musician. A rock-and-roll Zelig who has been on the Los Angeles music scene since the early eighties with his bands Thelonious Monster and the Bicycle Thief, he’s also a recovering addict who’s been sober for the past fifteen years. The father of two boys, Elijah, twenty-four, and Elvis, eighteen months, Bob lives with his wife and baby in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Albo is a Los Angeles–based author and journalist who has written about popular culture and true crime. He is a regular contributor to LA Weekly and the Los Angeles
