Playing with Leif

Playing it Leif

Wire Service

tress, and his two sisters, actresses Debralee Scott and Dawn Lynn, made the rounds of casting calls for spots in television and film.

Garrett landed roles on hit programs such as "Family Affair," "Gunsmoke," "Three for the Road," and "Family" - in which he played Kristy McNichol's boyfriend - as well as films such as "Walking Tall," "Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice" and "Skateboard."

Epitomizing the California surfer boy, Garrett was guided by the Svengali music executives at the Scotti Bros. label - also home to David Cassidy - to record music. His repertoire included mostly all-American songs originally performed by other artists: The Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA," Paul Anka's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," and Dion's "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer."

Then, in 1978, he had a major disco hit with "I Was Made For Dancing," a favorite in then-popular roller disco rinks.

His crossover music success was a hit with the teen set, and Garrett's young physique and face were plastered on the glossy pages of Tiger Beat and Teen Beat. He performed on "American Bandstand." He appeared as a young rock superstar in a special two-part episode of "CHiPs." He even guest-starred on "Wonder Woman," playing the dual role of evil twins identified only by the differing colors of his tight satin pants. His pop music blasted from speakers of eight-track tape stereos and his countenance inspired television ratings, record sales, and teenage girls to swoon.

However, fans are fickle. The '80s arrived, and a new breed of teen dreams were taking over. After landing a coveted role in the Francis Ford Coppola film "The Outsiders" - where he starred alongside a new crop of idols including Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise - Garrett started to fade into adult obscurity.

Until recently.

Garrett grows up

In the year 2000, Garrett is more Bohemian than surfer boy. Dressed from head-to-toe in black, traces of the old Leif are evident in the grown-up Leif. Sure, the trademark blond mane is thinning, but the hazel eyes are still there. And his face, although mature, is still reminiscent of those old pin-up posters.

"I get double takes," the 39-year-old said recently prior to a play rehearsal in an old Hartford factory. "It's the glance, and then ‘Wait a minute. I know you.'"

Just a few days ago in a local mall, a woman shopping in Pottery Barn thought she knew him from somewhere, but couldn't place his face, he said. And the previous evening, a young woman in his hotel's restaurant thought he was "Leif Ericson, from VH1." These are typical examples of how he is often remembered, stemming through two types of memories: Those who worshipped Garrett as a teen idol or those who learned of his existence through VH1's "Behind the Music."

The VH1 music biography series chronicled the ups and downs of Garrett's life in a notorious 1998 episode which Garrett is unlikely to escape for long time. The show focused on a 1979 car accident in which his friend, Roland Winkler, was paralyzed. Garrett was driving at the time the car plummeted 80 feet down a hill. After Winkler filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit, the two never spoke.

But the show's producers arranged a meeting, and didn't tell Garrett until he was on camera.

"I tried to get out of it," he said. "I had a full-on anxiety attack."

The meeting was set for the next day, in a park, where producers hid cameras behind trees.

"It didn't feel like it was being filmed," he said of the reunion. "I just got lost in the moment. It was real... People always comment to me about it, which is weird. To me it was a very private moment."

He has only seen the episode once, on the evening it debuted. And his friendship with Winkler is not completely re-kindled, although the pair do talk occasionally.

"It's certainly not what it was," he said hesitantly. "The ultimate story would be that we're best friends and hanging out again but that's not the way it worked out. We do stay in touch and that does not diminish what was said between us.

"But the time spent away almost takes not as much, but probably a tenth of that time to deal with it," he continued. "Twenty years of thoughts and serious angst may take a year, or two or three, to just get over the sheer magnitude of the emotional release."

A new Leif

The "Behind the Music" program came at a tumultuous time in Garrett's life. The former teen idol was recovering from a substance-abuse problem and established a new image performing with a new modern rock band.

His five-year heroin problem - from which he went through a rapid detox twice and is still on probation for a drug arrest - is an issue from which he is still recuperating.

Suffering from a substance-abuse problem in the public's eye has its consequences, he said.

"We are all human beings," he said. "Just because we are famous doesn't mean we don't have the same issues and problems as anyone else."

However, Garrett doesn't mind the media attention he still gets, good or bad.

"I appreciate the people who are interested and who are wondering where I am," he said. "I guess I'll be worried when people stop talking about me. But some of it's true and most of it's not."

During his photo session, Garrett relished and mocked the camera, alternately smiling and mugging. He picked up an acoustic guitar and hugged it.

"It's the Eric Clapton pose," he said, before leaping in the air in a split.

"That's so rock and roll," he said as he landed on the floor, before asking the photographer: "Did you get that?"

Garrett, acutely aware of the camera poised on him, is grateful for the public's curiosity, he said. But he does not obsess over the flattery of fans and the persistence of the press like he did in his early career.

"I don't know if I need anyone to think about me anymore," he said. "I used to need that, but I don't. In the grand scheme of things, that's a downfall of somebody's character, and I don't want that kind of character."

After his work on the "A Child's Christmas in Wales," Garrett will return again to his music roots. He recently sang on The Melvins' version of the Nirvana song "Smells Like Teen Spirit," featured on the band's recent album, "The Crybaby."

"I wanted to call it ‘Smells like Teen Idol,' but they wouldn't let me," Garrett said, laughing.

Although his band, Godspeed, has recorded material for an album, Garrett hinted - and then declared - that the group is over.

"I guess I'll give you an exclusive: In my mind, the band is already finished," he said.

He's currently working on a new project to be unveiled next year, and would like to produce a few artists as well. He is producing one song for the soundtrack of the coming film "A Little Bit of Lipstick" by Connecticut filmmaker J.T. Foster.

In the meantime, he'll be wandering around his current base of Hartford and the rest of Connecticut with people doing double-takes in restaurants, malls, and on the streets.

"It's a double-edged sword," he said. "It's a wonderful thing to be recognized and have people know you. And other times it's annoying as hell. But I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It's the coolest thing in the world."

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