Jeff LaBar’s drinking problem to blame for Cinderella’s inactivity

Cinderella guitarist Jeff LaBar believes it’s his fault that the band have been inactive in recent years.

The group’s last album was 1994’s Still Climbing and they haven’t played live since 2013’s Monsters Of Rock Cruise. And LaBar says he thinks his drinking problem is at the centre of the rift within the band.

LaBar tells the Izzy Presley podcast: “We all made a pact a long time ago to not continue Cinderella if one of us dropped out. And I think vocalist and guitarist Tom Keifer is going to stick to that. I don’t talk to him anymore, so I don’t really know for a fact. But we all made a pact not to do it if it wasn’t the four of us – and it’s not the four of us anymore.

“I can only speculate, but I believe it’s all my fault. It’s no secret that I’ve had a drinking problem. And it showed its ugly face on one of those cruises. I guess that’s what caused a rift.

“Over 30 years, we’ve all gotten along every single day and almost never argued with each other. When I fell out on one of those cruise ships in front of everybody, that’s when the band, and mostly Tom, took notice and was, like, ‘What the fuck?’”

LaBar reports he’s entered rehab several times to cure his addiction, revealing that Keifer paid for much of his treatment, but adds: “I only stayed sober for a year. I got off painkillers that I was addicted to because of my hip surgery, which I needed, but I took it too far being a partying guy.

“So I got off the painkillers, but a year sober alienated me from everybody around me. Being sober in front of people drinking sucks. On top of the fact that I suffer from anxiety. Part of the reason I drink is so I can walk out of my house and deal with the public – and it’s always been that way. So I went back to drinking, and some people maybe took it personally.”

LaBar released his debut solo album One For The Road in 2014, but admits that he struggles to play live these days.

He adds: “I’m pretty much done playing music. With Cinderella we have crew, bus drivers, buses and trucks. I wake up, I go on stage, I do my thing.

“On the level that I’ve been doing it for the past few years, I just don’t have it in me anymore. I can’t travel in a van with trailers and haul my own gear until four in the morning. It’s just too hard. I enjoy cooking more.”

Last year, LaBar said Cinderella were “essentially a nostalgia act.” Keifer, meanwhile, released his solo album The Way Life Goes in 2013.

The 10 best Cinderella songs, chosen by Lzzy Hale

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