IN THE PINK AT LAST
TELLS MARION McMULLEN TURNING 50 HAS CHANGED HIS LIFE
HIT records, tours and albums were all part of the Savage Garden world when singer Darren Hayes decided to walk away from it all 10 years ago.
“I really loved what I was doing, and I still do, but I was just tired,” he says.
“I didn’t really think I was going to come back to be honest, but a series of lovely events led me back.
“One of them was studying comedy improv in Los Angeles, which was just a strange right angle.
“I think it was a part of me that really missed performing, I really missed being creative, but it took all that pressure off because noone in LA knew who I was.
“There was no pressure to be good. I wasn’t the best at doing it and I think that was a really good thing for the ego to just sort of try something and stumble.”
He laughs: “I made a lot of really good friends and they secretly found out who I was. They were saying ‘You are quite confident on stage’ and then the Googling happened.”
The charismatic Australian singer enjoyed success with Savage Garden with hits like Truly Madly Deeply, I Knew I Loved You, To The Moon And Back and I Want You and then went on to have a solo career with tracks such as UK top ten hit Insatiable.
His new album Homosexual has just been released and he is planning to mark the 25th anniversary of Savage Garden next year with a UK tour.
“I named my album Homosexual for a variety of reasons,” he says.
“The most obvious is that I’m a gay man who grew up in an era when that word was used to shame and vilify people like me, so I wanted to reclaim it.
“I’m also a recording artist who came up in an era where being openly gay was frowned upon and I experienced first hand, the attempted erasure of my true identity from the marketing department of a major record label.”
Darren turned 50 this year and he says that made him re-evaluate his life after being out of the public eye for almost 10 years.
“I just thought it would be such a shame if I didn’t sing these songs anymore.
“I looked at the climate and what’s happening in the world and the art and it’s so much more accepting now than it was 20 or 25 years ago when I was a very confused young person. I was definitely under a lot of attention and it was really, really hard for me to work out who I was.
“I’ve been married for 17 years (to British screenwriter and director Richard Cullen) and I’m still an artist and I still have this desire to make music.”
Darren says he now feels more comfortable in his own skin, but he was the last person to realise he was gay.
“I am happy, but I didn’t start happy,” he admits. “It’s not the most normal job in the world to want to do this. You’re normally compensating for something.
“I was bullied at school and home life was difficult. I always said there was something in me that was missing.
“As a teenager I thought if I just became a pop star, larger than life, I could fix this thing in me.”
He laughs: “Obviously that didn’t work, but it is a wonderful form of motivation.
“I had this drive that allowed me to walk around like this gilded prince so, if you look at me in Top Of The Pops back then, I held myself in such a way – but that was a costume, a mask.
“I’ve managed to let that guard down over the years. I think exposure to fame at high levels is really toxic and I’ve learned to keep a healthy distance from that.”
Darren says for the last 10 years he had got on with having a life away from music and felt it was now the right time to return.
“I wasn’t sure if people would remember me,” he admits.
“I was on a plane when the tour was first announced and it had internet. I just took a quick peek at social media and I thought there was something wrong with the computers because fans were complaining that they couldn’t get pre-sales [tickets] for the concerts.
“I sent an email to my agent and the promoter saying ‘Guys, we need to sort this out’ and it turned out that the pre-sales had sold out.
“The demand was there and I was very touched. I didn’t expect it, and it was such an emotional feeling. Not from 25 years ago, when this started, to now as a 50 year old man did I expect anything as a given.
“It can be such a fickle industry and I was so moved that my desire to come back and sing these songs was met by people remembering and saying ‘You are part of our memories’. That’s really special.”
SAVAGE GARDEN’S DARREN HAYES
I was a confused young person. It was really hard for me to work out who I was
Darren Hayes – The Do You Remember Tour starts on March 21, 2023. Visit gigsandtours.com, ticketmaster.co.uk and darrenhayes.com for tickets