Apache won't start after PHP upgrade

I recently upgraded PHP from v.7.4.x -> v.8.0. Then I upgraded from v.8.1. I was unable to restart Apache after the upgrade.

Looking at # journalctl -xe as the error instructs I see a ton of entries like…

pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=(IP NUMBER)

And user names I do not recognize. I'm guessing these are attempts from bots to try to gain access as root. I don't see anything online to help with fixing the issue, if this is even the reason it won't start.

My next step will be to try to blow away Apache and reinstall or possibly the whole Linode setup. Before I go that nuclear, I'm hoping someone has some ideas to try.

Thanks