Rob Lowe, Michael J Fox, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s ’80s Pot Incident on a Bus

Rob Lowe was once pulled over by cops for smoking marijuana with Michael J Fox.

The Outsiders star, now 60, recently opened up about the incident on the “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast. Rob recalled that back in 1986, he and Fox were participating in a bus tour through California for Prop 65, which aimed to clean up the state’s water system.

‘There was a bus tour through California for Prop 65, which was about cleaning up our water system, and everybody on the planet was on it. But there were two different buses. We got pulled over for speeding, but also because Michael J. Fox and I were smoking pot out of the top of the Greyhound bus roof,’ Lowe admitted on the podcast.

The incident became even more memorable when other A-listers got caught up in the drama too. ‘The cop pulled us over, and it was like a clown car—out came Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, Judd Nelson, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Robert Downey Jr., Jane Fonda, Danny Glover,’ Rob shared.

Lowe explained that their bus was pulled over because ‘we had the top emergency hatch off,’ reiterating that he and Fox were smoking pot at the time.

Since then, Rob Lowe has been vocal about his struggles with addiction, which plagued him during the ’80s. He eventually got sober in 1990 with the help of his makeup artist wife Sheryl Berkoff, whom he married the following year.

In 2021, the Unstable actor told ET, ‘Listen, she may have saved my life, really. I mean, she met me when I was at the end of my ’80s run of wild boy craziness and she was worth changing my life for. So I am really lucky that that happened to me. Maybe I had changed it on my own—maybe—but it’s a big maybe. And just when I met her, I knew that if I could not make it with her, I definitely could not make it work with anyone else.’

His battle with alcoholism interfered with family emergencies at the time. ‘I remember like it was yesterday. My mom telling me to “pick up, pick up” because my grandpa had had a heart attack,’ Lowe explained, noting he had a bottle of tequila beside him. ‘I couldn’t deal with it in the state I was in, and I needed to go to sleep to wake up so I could deal with it.’

Lowe said their bus was pulled over because ‘We had the top emergency hatch off.’ He repeated candidly, ‘Michael and I, and we were smoking pot’; seen in 1986

The St. Elmo’s Fire star expressed that in that moment, he knew he had gone too far. ‘Who doesn’t keep a bottle of Cuervo Gold by their bedside table? That was the final wake-up call. I’ve been sober ever since,’ Rob said.

Before their infamous traffic stop, Rob and Michael J. Fox met on the set of Family Ties in 1982. They lost touch before reconnecting while filming Bright Lights, Big City together in 1988.

He got sober in 1990 with the help of his makeup artist wife Sheryl Berkoff, who he married the following year; Rob and Sheryl seen in 2023

Now, Rob runs the hit podcast “Literally! With Rob Lowe” while acting on “9-1-1: Lone Star” and “Unstable,” which is slated to release season two next month.