“Rick was wild,” the “Diff’rent Strokes” star shared, recalling his puzzling and counterproductive meeting with the music legend.

Todd Bridges says Eddie Murphy enlisted Rick James for a drug intervention: ‘I don’t want you killing yourself’

"Rick was wild," the "Diff'rent Strokes" star shared, recalling his puzzling and counterproductive meeting with the music legend.

By Ryan Coleman

Published on August 12, 2025 06:11PM EDT

Todd Bridges pictured in 2019, Rick James circa 1981, and Eddie Murphy in July. Credit:

Marcus Ingram/Getty; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

When arranging an intervention for a loved one struggling with substance abuse, it's a good practice to screen potential interveners for their own substance use habits.

*Diff'rent Strokes *star Todd Bridges knew he needed help with his own addiction in the 1980s when celebrity pal Eddie Murphy came to the rescue. And Murphy might've been effective — if he'd intervened himself.

"I knew Eddie Murphy for a while, and Eddie was like, 'Man, we gotta get Todd some help. He's trippin'. We gotta find somebody who knows about drugs.' Everybody's naming Rick James. 'Send Rick James over there!'" Bridges revealed on a recent episode of *The Patrick LabyorSheaux* podcast.

So, he continued, "They send Rick James to my house."

Todd Bridges with Gary Coleman on 'Diff'rent Strokes'.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Bridges is now 32 years sober, but can't exactly assign James any credit for getting clean.**

"If any of you guys know anything about Rick James, Rick James was getting higher than I was at the time," Bridges explained. "So Rick comes to my house, opens his car door up, and all this smoke comes out. I'm like, 'What's going on?'"

***Sign up for **'s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.***

Bridges told host Patrick Labyorteaux that he knew James from "different clubs" the celebrity set would frequent during the peak of his *Diff'rent Strokes *fame in the mid-ʼ80s.

'Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges says Gary Coleman's father tried to get him fired from show

Nick Kroll was scared John Mulaney was going to die before 2020 drug intervention

"Rick was wild, so when Rick spoke, you listened. He said, 'Let me see your stuff. I said, 'What are you talking about?' He says, 'Your drugs.' 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.'"

The actor burst into laughter recalling the puzzling and very much ill-conceived encounter. To boot, Bridges said James "started talking to [this] girl on my couch and she went with him!... I'm ready to kill Rick at this point. So Rick leaves, and I'm like, 'What kind of drug intervention was that? He took half my drugs and left!'"**

Rick James performing in Indiana in 1983.

Paul Natkin/Getty

With three decades of sobriety under his belt, Bridges has gone on record numerous times about the trauma that led to his addiction and the daunting work it took to change his life.

"God healed my heart. He healed a lot of pain that I was going through, from being molested as a child and from having an alcoholic father, and from years of getting pulled over by the police every day when I was just going to work," Bridges recently explained on the *Allison Interviews *podcast. "Going through all of that, I developed a chip on my shoulder, and I became angry with everything around me."

Bridges said he turned to drugs to cope with the pain, but managed to turn things around when he finally "got tired of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and getting the same results." ****

You can watch the rest of Bridges' interview with Labyorteaux above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Celebrity”