Tawny Kitaen opines Robbin Crosby took his own life and declares that he was the love of her life

Tawny Kitaen opines Robbin Crosby took his own life and declares that he was the love of her life

Actress, comedian and media personality Tawny Kitaen was recently interviewed by Mitch Lafon for the Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon podcast.

Kitaen has a lot of links to the ’80s hard rock / heavy metal era since she dated Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby during and after high school, and she married Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale in 1989 before divorcing him in 1991. She also appeared on the cover of Ratt‘s debut full-length album Out of The Cellar (1984) and she starred in many of Whitesnake‘s videos including “Here I Go Again” and “Still of The Night.”

With respect to her ties to Crosby, Kitaen indicated (as transcribed by Sleaze Roxx): “I lived with him. We moved in together when we were 15 1/2 – 16 years old. So I had orange Marshall stacks in my bedroom and we were living with the bass player. The band that he was in was called Phenomenon. That was the band that he was in before he went up to Los Angeles. Yeah, I cut all of the guys’ hair in the band [laughs], I was the hair stylist, I was the, you know, ‘This is what you are going to wear.’ Robb obviously got to say where we would go with the money from that gig and it was always to a Mexican restaurant. Mexican food was his favourite and my favourite on the planet.”

Wikipedia reports the following in part about Crosby‘s death (with slight edits):

“Crosby died in Los Angeles on June 6, 2002. Reported causes of his death include AIDS-related complications, and heroin overdose. At the time of his death, Crosby had changed physically, due to a pancreatic condition that altered his metabolism; Crosby had gained significant weight since his 1980s Ratt heyday. He was quoted as saying in an interview just before his death, “Apparently my pancreas has given up and I’m not metabolizing food the way I should. It’s real frustrating…. I have a roommate that probably weighs 150 lbs. and he eats a lot more than I do. It’s not like I’m a pig or a slob.” According to an autopsy report after his death, Crosby was 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) and weighed 400 pounds (180 kg).”

In terms of whether she was in touch with Crosby towards the end, Kitaen stated: “Yes. I was. I was fortunate at the end. About five or six months before he passed… before he took his life, I would go up and stay with him at the nursing home. He could not stay at Cedars Sinai. He got so big that the beds could not accommodate his size. That’s why he got moved to the old folks’ retirement home. They could accommodate him better. Every time — I lived in Newport and I’d drive up an hour and a half to L.A. and he’d beg me [laughs] to bring him some Peppermint Schnapps. I was like ‘Do the nurses? Are they going to?’ And he’d be ‘Screw the nurses thing. I am in a rest home and I am dying. Could you please bring me…’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely! I don’t care what he wants. I don’t care if the nurses say it’s not good for him. He’s going to get what he wants.’ Because we didn’t know when this thing, if this thing was going to get better, if he was going to get better, if he was going to survive this.

He knew his mind. He had already made up in his head what he was going to do. Something he said really struck a chord with me about him wanting to reach out and tell his story and the people that he was around, letting them know that he appreciated them and so on, and so forth. He said to me in that vein that ‘I wish that we would have had children.’ And that just broke my heart. I was in a marriage and I had two children. Robb was the love of my life and to not have had a child with the love of my life… His birthday was August 4th, mine was August 5th. We both looked like lions [laughs] with all the hair that we had going on. It would have been, it would have been a wonderful time. I can’t even put into words what that would mean to me, to have Robb and my child here, but unfortunately, the cards did not play out that way. But they did play put that way in that there was never really a moment when we weren’t;t in each other’s lives. Till the day he died, till the day he checked himself out of the home as you know. He went home and gave himself a last shot and went to sleep to never wake up.’

You can listen to the interview with Tawny Kitaen by Mitch Lafon for the Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon podcast below: