Frankie Valli Opens Up: “I Don’t Know How I Survived It”
In a rare, soul-baring interview, Frankie Valli, the voice behind timeless classics like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” offered a glimpse into a chapter of his life marked not by fame, but by unbearable grief.
“You’ve gone through some difficult periods of your life,” the interviewer began gently. Frankie didn’t flinch. He looked back on a devastating six-month stretch where he endured not one, but the deaths of two children and the finalization of a divorce already in motion.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know how I survived it,” he admitted. “I never really drank in my life… but I was really beginning to drink a lot. Alone. Day and night. I just didn’t care anymore.”
The pain was raw, unfiltered. The iconic singer—so often seen with confidence and polish on stage—was suddenly just a man grappling with unimaginable loss. He described the period as being hit “from every side.” The divorce may not have been caused by the deaths, but everything came crashing down at once.
“It’s something that never ever leaves you,” he said quietly.
But then came the turning point.
He met someone new. She got pregnant. And in that moment, something shifted. Frankie quit drinking, stopped smoking, and threw out every substance that had dulled his pain.
“I said, I never want my kid to see me do anything like this.”
A Song for the End
When asked to imagine his own memorial service—what song should be played, if only one—Frankie paused, then softly answered:
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
Written specifically for him by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, the song had been a defining moment in his career. But choosing it wasn’t about popularity—it was about personal meaning. Still, he couldn’t help but compare songs to his children:
“It’s like if someone says, ‘You have six kids, which one is your favorite?’ They’re all favorites in different ways.”
He mentioned “Swearin’ to God” for its jazz flair, and expressed his love for all genres, saying he’d learned that “all music is good—as long as it’s done well.”
A Legacy of Resilience
As the interview closed, Valli expressed something rare among celebrities: gratitude for the opportunity to be vulnerable.
“I’ve had more fun doing this than I’ve had in a lot of things I’ve done,” he said warmly.
In this conversation, Frankie Valli wasn’t just a legendary voice of the ’60s. He was a father, a survivor, and a man who had walked through fire and come out the other side—not unscathed, but stronger, and more determined to live with purpose and integrity.
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