Whispering Jack’s back … again

Greasing the pipes: John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John will perform duets on their upcoming tour.
Source: Supplied

There was one slight problem.

“I couldn’t answer the questions about me,” Farnham says with a laugh. “I didn’t remember the answers, so I just kind of moved along.”

Farnham is the last person to dwell on his fame, or exploit his celebrity to bank easy cash. He politely declines each time The Voice asks him to join its judging panel.

“It’s not something I wish to do,” the Voice says of being on The Voice. “I’m having enough trouble doing what I do without judging anybody else.”

John Farnham on stage in Sydney. Picture: Hancock Tom
Source: News Limited

While he’s batted away repeated offers to write a memoir, Farnham does surface in Molly Meldrum’s recently released biography, for which he wrote the foreword, having been the only person on the first and last episode of Countdown.

“I actually wrote that foreword 20 years ago,” Farnham, 65, laughs. “Literally, that’s how long they’ve been working on that book.”

Farnham’s introduction casually mentions a tale of sharing a bath with the man in the hat, who he calls Ian, without actually explaining how they happened to occupy the same tub.

“I think we were in England. It must have been some time in the ’70s and we were staying at the same hotel,” Farnham says. “We were leaving that day so we kept a day room. And I thought, ‘Bugger it, I’m going to have a bath’. There were no showers there.

A fresh faced John in 1967.
Source: News Corp Australia

“I must have been in there a bit too long because Meldrum just jumped in the bath. I was gobsmacked. I got out pretty quick, got my towel, let him have the dirty water. It was a pretty unpleasant experience.”

Meldrum fires off a few Farnham anecdotes in his book, including one about Jill Farnham who, at a concert by her husband in the lean years before the Whispering Jack comeback, shouted at people who were talking during the show.

“I don’t remember that but I’m sure that didn’t happen. Jill wouldn’t do that. I think that’s a bit of poetic licence from Ian,” Farnham says.

Farnham beams when asked about his favourite stories about Jill, who he married in 1973.

John Farnham with wife Jill on their wedding day in 1973.
Source: News Corp Australia

“I was in Adelaide, working at a club as Johnny Farnham at that time, so it was a long time ago,” he says. “Halfway through the set Jilly went to the bathroom. There were two women preening themselves in the mirror.

“One was saying, ‘I can’t stand Johnny Farnham, he makes my skin crawl’. The other was saying, ‘Oh, I hate him’. This happens to Jillian occasionally. Jillian, to her credit turned around and said, ‘Oh, I love him, I think he’s great’. And these two women went, ‘Oh, how could you?’ Jill just said, ‘I’m his wife!’ and left. And that story is absolutely true.”

Any more?

“I was doing a charity gig at Luna Park, I can’t remember how long ago. This is before we had our boys, but my wife has seen me perform a million times. We had our niece and nephew with us, so she thought while everyone was watching me on stage she’d take the kids on the rides because there’d be no queues.

“So she walked up to the guy running the dodgem cars to buy tickets. He said, ‘Can’t, the rides have stopped’. Jilly asked when they were starting again and he tells her, ‘When pig lips up on stage stops singing’.”

John Farnham and new bride share a drink at their wedding reception.
Source: News Limited

There’s no club shows these days for John Farnham, and very few haters, except the tiresome “Hasn’t he retired?” rants each time he announces another tour (a product of good old-fashioned supply and demand).

“People say, ‘Jesus, not again, he’s had more comebacks than Methuselah’ but I never actually said I was going to retire,” he patiently explains, not for the last time. “The people who are complaining, they’re not going to come and see me anyway. The folks that do come along have hopefully enjoyed their time and I love it. I don’t know how to do anything else. It’s good fun, it’s not brain surgery, it’s just music and entertainment. I love it up there.”

The only thing Farnham has retired from is the limelight when he’s not on tour. He’s not up with the latest musical world. He and Jill prefer to listen to audio books on a long drive but he’ll occasionally dig through his CDs for everything from AC/DC to Pavarotti if he wants some Sunday morning listening.

Unsurprisingly, Farnham isn’t concerned with social media — signposted by the fact he calls it “the Twitters”.

“I live a pretty boring existence really. If I’m not working I go fishing. If I’m not working or fishing I might ride me horse,” he says. “That’s why I’m not on the Twitters. I don’t know anyone would be interested in the minutiae of my day.

“The record company handles a Twitter account to let everyone know what’s going on. I take it relatively easy. I don’t do enough exercise. I’ve lost about 10kg, which is good for me, I needed to drop some.”

John Farnham takes care of himself off stage.
Source: DailyTelegraph

The Voice’s weight-loss tips?

“It was just through eating healthily, taking more care of myself, taking walks,” he says. “I spend a lot of time with my horses. I ride cutting horses, which is like riding a bucking horse sideways. I’m in pretty good shape. I enjoy myself.”

Farnham will hit the stage again in April for his second co-headline tour in as many years. Last year it was with Lionel Richie. If you were surprised they didn’t sing together during the tour, you weren’t alone.

“Frankly, I was disappointed, too,” Farnham admits, putting it down to not enough time to rehearse a duet.

He’s fixing that with this year’s tour with Olivia Newton-John. The friends are already in negotiations about how much they’ll do together.

He loves her Peter Allen material and has been Danny to her Sandy singing the Grease duets several times in the past.

“That’s almost a shoo-in,’’ he says. “It’s going to be great fun. Olivia and I are a natural fit.”

Farnham’s manager and record company are pressuring him to make a new album, but he is waiting for the right new songs after scuppering suggestions for another covers album.

“It’s agonising making a record, but I enjoy the process,” he says. “It’s all down to the material. I don’t want to make another catalogue album yet.”

While he’s only an occasional songwriter, he’s contemplating writing with musician son Rob, whose band is Rival Fire.

John holding two record awards he scored back in 1982.
Source: News Corp Australia

“He asked me if I’d sit down and write some songs with him, which I think I might try,” Farnham says.
“I would enjoy that. I like some of the stuff he writes. Actually, I like all of it. Some of it’s pretty dark, but it’s good. I’m very proud of him.”

Farnham will once again return to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne; the venue at which he had the record for most shows until Pink pipped him.

“I did think, ‘Oh bugger’ but I didn’t lose any sleep over it,” he says. “It’s lovely going into Rod Laver Arena and seeing all the folks that work there. There’s always a recognisable face.

“And it’s kind of nice to walk into The Farnham Room (the hospitality room backstage that bears his name). It feels like home. It’s a fanatic venue.

“Ultimately it’s what happens inside the hall. If the audience sits there on their hands you think, ‘Gee, what do I do next?’ But like any entertainer, whether you’re working 10 or 10,000 people, if they’re giving back to you it makes you want to bleed for them and work harder for them.

“That’s been the way I work anyway. This will sound funny, but when I’m on stage I tend to treat it as though it’s the last time I’m going to get a shot at it.”

John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John. Rod Laver Arena, April 8. $ 115-$ 195, Ticketek

Originally published as Whispering Jack’s back … again
www.news.com.au/entertainment/music