When Barry Gibb's son got on stage for emotional duet of Bee Gees' 'I've Gotta Get A Message to You'

1 February 2024, 15:02 | Updated: 9 February 2024, 13:57

The incredible moment happened during Barry Gibb's first solo tour without his brothers in 2014.

Sir Barry Gibb created a poignant moment Bee Gees fans will never forget when he invited his son on stage for a duet during his first time on tour after the death of his brothers, Robin and Maurice Gibb.

Stephen Gibb joined his dad during the Bee Gee star's 2014 Mythology Tour for a heartbreaking duet of 'I've Gotta Get A Message To You', two years after the death of Barry's last surviving brother, Robin Gibb, in 2012.

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The moment was the first time he would tour without any of his three brothers, whom he had been performing with since the inception of the Bee Gees in 1958.

The beautiful moment happened at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, on June 4, 2014, when Barry sang the 1968 hit with son Stephen Gibb, a musician and member of the Gibb Collective – a band consisting the sons and daughters of the Gibb brothers.

The Mythology Tour, designed as a celebration of his brothers Robin and Maurice, kicked off in Sydney in October 2012 and saw Barry Gibb accompanied by not only his son Stephen, but also Maurice's daughter Samantha, who also regularly joined Barry for duets on stage.

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The song 'I've Gotta Get a Message To You', was a 1968 hit for the Bee Gees and became their second number-one record in the UK Singles Chart.

The song, written by Robin Gibb, tells the story of a man, sentenced to die, who is begging the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife.

"This is about a prisoner on Death Row who only has a few hours to live," Robin told The Mail On Sunday in 2009.

"He wants the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife. There's a certain urgency about it. Myself and Barry wrote it. It's a bit like writing a script," he said.

"Sometimes you can sit there for three hours with your guitar and nothing will happen. Then in the last ten minutes something will spark."

Robin went on to explain the Bee Gees songwriting process, and revealed how they tried to enter the mind of the character to bring life experience to the song.

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"It was like acting, you see, we said, let's pretend that somebody, his life is on the line, somebody's going to the chair. What would be going through their mind? Let's not make it doom and gloom, but sort of an appeal to the person he loves.

"Because right now that's all he cares about. Regardless of whether he's done a bad thing, he is a human being, and he's sending out this last message. There's someone out there whom he loves. It's a torch song, but within a very sort of theatrical sense. Not sort of abstract, but definitely somebody in a very bad situation whose life is going to end.

Barry Gibb / Stephen Gibb I've Gotta Get A Message To You Brisbane 16/02/2013

"What would they be saying, you know? This is it: 'Gotta get a message to you, hold on"

In an emotional TV interview in 2012, Barry Gibb spoke about his regrets about being on bad terms with each of his brothers at the time of their deaths.

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The interview was filmed in the months after Robin Gibb passed away in May 2012 after battling cancer for a number of years, while his twin brother Maurice died in 2003 due to complications of a twisted intestine and their younger brother Andy Gibb died aged just 30 in 1988 after battling drug addiction and depression for many years.

"My greatest regret is that every brother I’ve lost was in a moment when we weren’t getting on, so I have to live with that and I’ll spend the rest of my life reflecting on that," an emotional Barry Gibb said.

Barry Gibb emotionally reflects on losing his brothers

"I’m the last man standing. I’ll never be able to understand that as I’m the eldest."

Barry also broke down in tears during the interview, admitting that he had never done that before when speaking about the subject.

"Nobody ever really knows what the three of us felt about each other," he added. "Only the three of us knew.

"It was such a unifying thing, the three of us became one person. We all had the same dream. Thats what I miss more than anything else."