I feel like I know a celebrity whenever I hear them interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. That’s how I feel about Katey Sagal, who told host David Bianculli in 2013 about growing up in LA with a dad who was a director for TV shows and later working as a backup singer for Bette Midler and Bob Dylan. Katey has a new memoir out today called Grace Notes: My Recollections. According to advance details, she had a drug and alcohol dependence she developed in her teens which she struggled with for fifteen years. She also reveals that she had an affair years ago with Gene Simmons, the news of which came out last month. She met him while she was working as a singing waitress as a restaurant, and it all sounds so cinematic. I guess she didn’t reveal much on Fresh Air at all and it sounds like she’s had a very eventful life.
Sagal blames growing up in Los Angeles for an attitude toward drugs that led to a 15-year addiction to diet pills, cocaine and alcohol. “When I was 12, we lived on the same block as Judy Garland. Her daughter Lorna Luft and I became neighborhood buddies. Lorna’s mom had a lot of pills on her bedside table and slept past noon just like my mom. We hung tight. And, of course, I thought everyone’s mom took a lot of pills.”
Before becoming an actress, Sagal was a singing waitress. “I could get your order wrong, spill blue cheese dressing on your lap, whisper what an a-hole you were, and then pick up my guitar or go to the piano and sing you an awesome rendition of ‘Brown Eyed Girl.’”
After being a backup singer for Bette Midler and Etta James, she was approached to audition for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Her reaction was, “Are you kidding? I’m not even looking for a job as an actor. I’m a musician!” Sagal recalled. “Apparently that approach is gold for me.”
How sad to see your mom and your friends’ moms be addicted to pills and basically absent from your life. At least she was able to beat her demons in her late 20s, if my math is correct, and achieve sobriety. Katey has been working steadily in film and on TV since Sons of Anarchy wrapped in 2014. She currently stars on a comedy on CBS called Superior Donuts. She also has a part in the Dirty Dancing TV remake, which is out this May. She plays Vivian Pressman, the older lady who tried to seduce the male staff. That’s a great part for her. She’s such a kickass actress I’m surprised she wasn’t interested in acting at first.
photos credit: Getty and FameFlynet
I always like her in anything and everything she’s done i bet she would be cool to hang out with:)
Love this woman. She was brilliant on Sons of Anarchy, very Lady MacBeth. lol
love her voice work on “Futurama” and of course Peggy and Gemma.
Futurama 4ever!
Yes yes yes! She works on the best things, and she’s one of the best parts of everything she does. I have a total girl crush on her.
I’m always a little incredulous about the “growing up in Los Angeles” led to the attitude and addiction claim. It’s pretty clear she had the behaviour modelled for her by her mother and likely has genetic factors too; that would have been present if she lived in Bangor, Maine.
It reminds me of Philip Seymour Hoffman who literally had in his Will that he never wanted to have his kids live in Los Angeles (LA wasn’t cultured enough or something)…and we know this because he died of a heroin overdose in his beloved NYC leaving those kids without a father.
If you have other risk factors, thinking that living in certain places will shield you from addiction and risky behaviour is incredibly dangerous.
I wonder if she actually said Los Angeles, or if the journalists parsed her words for her. In the actual statement, I don’t see any mention of LA in her own words but rather in the part where Page Six interpreted the information for her. I wonder if they stuck their own interpretation in there because her actual statement just seems to matter-of-factly state that Judy Garland and her mom took pills, and therefore, she thought everybody else did too.
Ah. That makes sense that the journalist would simplify (possibly misleadingly) her words. It’s definitely an attitude that exists though. In the meantime small midwestern “heartland” towns are ravaged by meth and opioids. We have to start looking at this all differently.
Whatever the circumstances bravo to Katey on her sobriety.
To be fair, the 70s LA she is talking about was very different–there was a very permissive attitude about drugs–cocaine was great, didn’t you know? –not addictive, helped you keep your weight down and helped you get a lot of work done. The ‘barriers to entry’ were very low. And it was everywhere. In those days you would have been hard pressed to find coke in Bangor–mother’s little helper, sure–if she’d been in Bangor it might have been weed, beer and Valium, but it also would not have been socially acceptable. Drugs were totally fine in LA as long as you could keep working.
I wondered if Katey S. actually used the word addiction herself, or if she’d fall more under the “chronic partier” type of drug user. I do not do drugs, never have, but I’ve known addicts whose whole life was taken over by substance abuse (losing jobs, friends, and robbing relatives and others) and people who have the attitude of “I’m going to do any drug available at a party on my days and nights off from work”.
I just read this morning that Woody Harrelson just said he hasn’t smoked pot in a year and that it left him too “emotionally unavailable”.
I remember when she lost her babies (I recall she was pregnant with twins, but not sure) while still filming Married With Children. I was pretty young but remember being so heartbroken for her. I’m so glad she’s found her happiness & not for nothing but Kurt Sutter + Katey Sagal = One bad ass couple & kick ass parents
She really suffered a tragedy. I remember that.
One of my favorite shows ever is Married With Children. Peggy Bundy with a shoe salesman, and Katey with Kisses biggest egomaniac. Definitely different. Awesome that she was able to overcome the addictions while still young and hope she stays great forever
She has a face that really changes dramatically with hair color, so I always forget that she has a television career spanning decades because she tends to fade into the roles so well. (Married with Children was a staple of my youth, ya’ll.) She looks fantastic too – such great bone structure in the face! If she’s had work done, it’s very subtle.
It’s crazy how pervasive drugs are in Hollywood. I mean, I get it, but geez…no wonder so many of them wind up falling down the rabbit hole of addiction.
I’ve heard the problem is also that the quality of the drugs in Hollywood is so much better that people there get addicted faster. The highs are nicer and the bad trips not so common, plus it’s all stronger.
Totally unrelated to this specific article. Did you know that she is the sister of the Sagal twins from the 1980’s TV show “Double Trouble?” I loved that show.
I had no recollection of this show, but now I’m going down a weird internet rabbit hole. Thanks!
Yes! I remember that show, loved it. I used to want to be like the twins with their outfits and dancing abilities.
Her sisters are the Sagal twins. Liz and Jean. They had a NBC sitcom in the 80s. They were also the Doublemint Twins for those of you who don’t know.
I loved Katey in John Ritter’s last sitcom. It was so sad how that ended.
Apparently her stepmom is Marge Champion. She was married to Gower Champion and they danced and acted in the MGM musicals. Show Boat was the one I remember them from. Her was a tv director.
KATEY SAGAL FOREVER. That’s all.
Go Katey! I have always loved her so much. Her kick-ass-ness comes through in every single one of her roles.