Comedian Andy Dick has broken his silence after his apparent drug overdose.
“I don’t mind doing some crack every now and then,” Dick, 59, told TMZ in an interview from his L.A. home on Wednesday, December 10.
According to the outlet, the comedian told the cameramen that he was “100 percent fine” before later changing his answer to “110” percent.
Dick and one of his unnamed friends reportedly told the outlet that on Tuesday, he “sat down next” to a friend described as “down-on-his-luck,” who allegedly “whipped out some crack.” Per the outlet, “from that point forward, everything went downhill.”
Everything Andy Dick Said About His Drug Addiction Before Reported Overdose
“[I needed] a little bit of that,” the actor said.
On Wednesday, TMZ was first to report that Dick’s friends attempted to revive him by administering the life-saving medication Narcan on the streets of Los Angeles. Other people at the scene by a building in Hollywood reportedly called an ambulance.
A rep for the Los Angeles Fire Department told the outlet that they responded to the scene for “an overdose involving a 59-year-old man on Tuesday, December 9.” The man was allegedly not transported to the hospital. The Los Angeles Police Department was also called to the scene.
TMZ reportedly spoke to Dick via phone on Tuesday night, with the actor sharing that he is “alive and relieved he’s OK.’
NewsPlop has reached out to the LAPD and a rep for Dick for comment.
Dick, known for starring on NBC’s NewsRadio and The Andy Dick Show, has previously discussed his battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
“The main thing that I’ve struggled with over the years, as an actor and really as a person, is the abuse of drugs and alcohol,” he said in a February 2015 YouTube video for The Artists Project LA. “I’m in recovery [and] I have a lot of months behind me and hopefully many, many more years ahead of me.”
Dick noted that it had been a “long, rough, up and down, winding, inside-out, tumbly road” for his journey to sobriety through the years.
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“My main advice [that] I give to people is keep going, don’t give up if you fall off the horse [and then] get back on it and go for it,” he said.
According to Dick, he first checked himself into a treatment facility in 2014 after previous failed attempts to maintain his sobriety.
“I had to stop drinking, or I was going to die,” Dick told Vice in 2016. “I could see it very clearly. I was bleeding out of my ass. I was going to die. I would always say that I didn’t have a problem with drugs and alcohol, but I would drink when I was happy, when I was sad, when I was anxious. Without drugs or alcohol, I was depressed, frustrated, angry.”
Eventually drugs “stopped being fun” for Dick when he found himself “crawling around on the floor to find the phone, not able to dial because both [his] hands were shaking.”
“When I would get ahold of one of the recovery centers, they would hang up when they found out it was me,” he explained. ”No one wanted to help me because I was unhelpable. Why would they bring me in just to have me die in their bed?”
Andy Dick Arrested for Assault With a Deadly Weapon
This incident was not Dick’s first run-in with the law. In 1999, Dick pled guilty to felony cocaine possession, misdemeanor cannabis possession and possession of a “smoking device” after he drove his car into a utility pole.
Nearly nine years after the charges were dismissed, Dick was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of drug possession and sexual battery after he allegedly exposed the breasts of a 17-year-old girl. When police searched him, they allegedly found cannabis and one Xanax tablet, for which he did not have a prescription. He ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and marijuana possession. Dick was sentenced to three years’ probation, approximately $700 in fines and was ordered to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet for one year.
In 2018, Dick was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and battery for allegedly groping an Uber driver earlier that year. Although he later pleaded not guilty, in 2022, Dick was convicted and sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).