00:00Well, it's night, man. I'm going to invent a new concept.
00:03Uh-oh.
00:04Okay?
00:05Uh-oh.
00:06Be scared, be scared.
00:07No, seriously. This is the Grand Royale, man. That was a Grand Royale.
00:17Well, I was fired from Australian Idol at the beginning of 2008, the end of 2007,
00:26and I had no idea that it was coming, that it was in the wind,
00:32and it just took me totally by surprise and knocked me out.
00:40And, I mean, literally knocked me out.
00:42When I walked out of the meeting with the head of Channel 10, David Mott,
00:46who I loved then and I love now.
00:48I still love the man.
00:49He's a beautiful dude.
00:50I hold nothing against him.
00:54But, you know, it was such a shock and, like, it was like a physical punch.
01:02And I kind of reeled from it.
01:06And it turned out that that period of time, around 2008,
01:11was when the music business was really going through a terrible time.
01:14I mean, the whole concept of what records are and CDs and the move to audio
01:22has been a massive disruption and has seen a decimation of copyright
01:29as everything becomes digitalised.
01:32And so I couldn't necessarily see a way forward at that moment with music.
01:39And so I took it as a sliding doors moment.
01:44I had, when I got back to Australia, I started my law degree at 17,
01:54did four years there and dropped out just before the end of my final year
01:58because I was given a, I was offered a recording contract and, you know,
02:04music won that battle.
02:05And then I came back in 96 and went back and started again and managed to get
02:13through just as Vanessa Amorosi was blowing up.
02:16I did.
02:16Meanwhile, I discovered Vanessa and was writing songs for her and discovered her
02:22with Jack Strom.
02:23And, but I, but I, but I hung in and got my degree that time,
02:29but then Vanessa blew up.
02:31And so I, once again, I put it aside and followed my musical soul.
02:39And then this, and then this happened in 2008.
02:43I took, I basically took a year off to, to, you know, write my ship.
02:50And, and then I thought, well, you know what?
02:54I'm going to now get admitted to practice.
02:56Have you been watching Idol?
02:58No, I can't watch it.
02:59It's be like, you know, watching your ex-wife's marriage to the next guy.
03:07You know, no, I don't need to be at that ceremony.
03:10Is it still a little bit raw for you?
03:12What happened?
03:13It's not, it's not so much that it's raw.
03:15It's just, I loved it so much.
03:19I loved, I love musicians.
03:21I love singers.
03:22I love songs.
03:24I love singing.
03:25I love everything about it.
03:27And it was just, it was, you know, it's just super painful.
03:29It was the best job I've ever had in my life.
03:31I'll, I'll never have a job again like it.
03:35And that's, you know, so no, I can't, I don't, I don't want to, I can't, can't watch it.
03:42It almost doesn't exist anymore compared to back in, you know, particularly when we were younger.
03:50We were younger and better looking and, and, you know, there was that whole young thing.
03:55But it's not, but even for young people, there's just really so few vehicles for music to be heard and
04:02seen.
04:03The ABC doesn't support Australian music anymore.
04:06They don't play any new music.
04:10They don't, they don't play videos.
04:13If you look at the BBC, the BBC has half a dozen shows that, that, that British performers perform on
04:21that are then seen in the world.
04:23And we just don't do it anymore here.
04:26And there are no shows.
04:29There's no, hey, I mean, when Vanessa did Hey Hey at Saturday, changed her life with one performance.
04:35Because a Saturday evening at 6.30, everybody was getting ready to go out in those days.
04:39They'd be having a few drinks.
04:41You know, they'd be getting ready to go to the pub, you know.
04:45Yeah.
04:45And they'd watch Hey Hey.
04:47Yeah.
04:48And so, and, and same with Idol.
04:50Idol was a family experience.
04:52People would watch it together.
04:54That doesn't really exist anymore.
04:56So, you know, these, these podcasts are the only way to really communicate with people and, and give them the
05:03opportunity to discover an old man singing.
05:08I mean, literally the day before I was on Idol, the first time in 2003,
05:14I was an anonymous person that a few people remembered from the seventies.
05:21The next day, everyone in Australia knew who I was.
05:27Again, it was everywhere.
05:30It was millions of people were watching and they were all watching at the same time.
05:37And so it was, so its effect was instant.
05:40Yeah.
05:41Was that challenging for you?
05:43Or did you?
05:43It was fabulous.
05:46What are you kidding?
05:47It was fantastic.
Comments