Eddie Murphy enlisted Rick James for Todd Bridges intervention
Diff'rent Strokes star Todd Bridges has revealed Eddie Murphy staged an intervention by enlisting singer Rick James to go over to his house to talk to him about drugs.
Eddie Murphy staged an intervention for Todd Bridges by enlisting singer Rick James to talk to him about the dangers of drugs.
The Diff'rent Strokes actor, 60, has revealed Eddie tried to help him when he was battling addiction issues by asking Super Freak star Rick - who spent years battling his own drug problems - to go over to his house to help set him straight but Todd insists it was a baffling encounter because Rick left with half of his stash.
Speaking on the The Patrick LabyorSheaux with Patrick Labyorteaux, Todd explained: "I knew Eddie Murphy for a while. And Eddie was like: 'Man, we gotta get Todd some help, man. He's trippin'. We gotta find somebody who knows about drugs' ...
"They send Rick James to my house. Now, 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, you know, he opens his car door up, and all this smoke comes out. And I'm like: 'What's going on?'"
Rick told Todd they needed to have a chat and the actor admitted he was prepared to hear the singer out, saying: "When Rick spoke, you listened. Rick was wild, so when Rick spoke, you listened."
However, the visit took a turn when Rick asked to see Todd's drug stash. He explained: "I showed him, he goes: 'Man, that's too much. I don't want you killing yourself. That's too much. Let me take a half of that so you don't kill yourself' ...
"And then he started talking to [this] girl on my couch and she went with him! And I'm like, I'm ready to kill Rick at this point. So Rick leaves, and I'm like ... what kind of drug intervention was that?"
Todd went on to insist Eddie probably didn't realise Rick - who died in 2004 aged 56 - was also taking a lot of drugs at the time.
He said: "Eddie didn't know. No one knew that Rick was getting high either. They knew that he smoked weed, but they thought that's all it was."
Todd did eventually clean up his act and he's now been sober for more than three decades.
During an appearance on the Allison Interviews podcast in January 2025, he said of his sobriety: "I’ve been sober for 32 years. The mistake I don’t make is relapsing. I won’t make that mistake again ...
"I couldn’t be the same guy anymore. I got tired of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and getting the same results.
"I remember when I was in the rehab program, and this light came over me and God said: ‘I’m going to put people in your path and you just listen to what they tell you, do what they tell you to do and don’t question it, and you will be sober for a long time.’
"That’s exactly what happened and I finally got it. You have to surrender to win the program. That’s tough for people who don’t like to surrender."
