‘American Pickers’ Star Opens Up About Frank Fritz’s Addiction

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz were known to fans for their friendship and their ability to find rare artifacts across the United States on the reality show American Pickers.

Sadly, Fritz passed away in September of this year and Wolfe opened up about his friend, Fritz’s addiction issues, and cleared up some misconceptions about what happened between him and Fritz before his death.

In a new interview with People, Wolfe shared what happened with Fritz’s addiction issues.

Wolfe was candid with the outlet, sharing that he cannot tell all of Fritz’s story because it was his to share.

But he did open up about what happened with their relationship and what part he played in it. “Here’s the deal, I don’t have the right to tell his story– only he does,” Wolfe told People.

“But I do have, I feel, the right to tell the personal story of how myself and so many people struggled to navigate what was going on in his life.”

Wolfe then went on to say that during the Pandemic, after he and Fritz were both going through rough patches in relationships, Fritz became addicted to drugs and it changed their entire relationship.

“He became addicted to opioids and that’s when everything changed,” Wolfe said.

He talked about how he tried to stage an intervention, how he tried to be there for Fritz, and how hard it was to watch his friend during this time.

“Watching Frank doing some of the things that he was doing, it was really hard,” he said.

Mike Wolfe Claims He Never Abandoned Frank Fritz

There were posts during this time from Fritz that insinuated that he and Wolfe had not spoken in years.

According to Wolfe, that wasn’t the case, he was still there for his friend but he understood where Fritz was coming from.

To the public, the show had left Fritz behind. When it was announced that he was no longer on American Pickers, fans were confused but Wolfe said he had mixed feelings on leaving Fritz behind.

“They’re just like, ‘Listen, we have to move on. We have to keep going with this,’” Wolfe said “ … we were just trying to figure out what we were going to do.”

Wolfe went on to talk about how Fritz’s comment about their friendship ended up resulting in him reaching out to Fritz.

“I know how judgmental the public can be,” Wolfe said.

“And so that’s why when we did end up speaking again, it was so easy for me to forgive him because I knew it wasn’t him talking. It was his addiction talking.”

You can watch Fritz and Wolfe on American Pickers.