Photo: Darren Hayes | By Darren Hayes, Huffpost Personal | The year is 1997, and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell is interviewing me about the smash hit “I Want You.” It’s a song Rosie helped make a Billboard Top 5 hit, having played what she affectionately nicknamed “The Chica Cherry Cola Song” incessantly during her show’s intro segment for months prior to us even landing a U.S. record deal.
Rosie’s obsession led to U.S. airplay, then a bidding war between major record labels, and suddenly, there I was, Darren Hayes, this inwardly shy kid from Brisbane ― a blue-collar, conservative, hyper-masculine city in the north of Australia ― sitting comfortably on the couch of the biggest daytime television show in the United States, oozing star power as half of the hot new Australian pop duo Savage Garden.
To the casual observer, I appeared confident, full of swagger with my vaguely ’70s blow wave and a blue-black dye job that could rival Elvis in his prime. But my bravado was a carefully crafted persona, built to protect me from years of bullying at school, denial and shame about my sexuality, and a mask to hide the rapidly increasing depression that would soon become overwhelming.
I was beginning to experience the full force of a mental illness that had seeded itself when I was a child, partly inherited from my mother’s side of the family but mostly activated by trauma that had begun incubating from the age of 3 after my exposure to extreme violence growing up with a violent, alcoholic father who physically and emotionally abused my mother.
Nobody could have known any of this as they watched me on Rosie’s couch. Savage Garden was on the precipice of global fame and would go on to sell 26 million albums, have two Billboard No. 1 singles and tour the world. Yet no one knew I was deeply unhappy, barely containing secrets that would soon devastate me emotionally and send me to the brink of suicide at the height of my fame.
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This is VERY important in light of Suicide Prevention Month: Read the full story/article here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/darren-hayes-savage-garden-secrets-depression-gay_n_62bb37c9e4b094be76a90714?utm_campaign=msn-recirc
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Darren Hayes returned to Australian and UK stages for the first time in over a decade in January/February 2023 with his “Do You Remember?” Tour – 25 Years Of Savage Garden, Solo Hits And More. For more information, visit http://www.darrenhayes.com and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.
As lead singer and songwriter of Savage Garden and as a solo artist, Darren Hayes has sold over 30 million albums globally, has achieved two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles and the longest-running Adult Contemporary hit in the chart’s history with “Truly Madly Deeply,” which stayed 123 weeks in the chart. He has won 10 ARIA awards for Savage Garden’s debut album alone, and 14 ARIAs in total. He has also won 10 APRA songwriting awards and was named “one of Australia’s 50 greatest artists of all time” by Rolling Stone Australia. Darren has sold out shows around the world, including at Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House and Radio City Music Hall. He has taken the stage with Luciano Pavarotti and performed to a global audience of hundreds of millions at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. In addition to his 25-year career as a singer and songwriter, Darren has also studied sketch comedy at renowned improv school The Groundlings, has co-hosted over 100 episodes of the film podcast “We Paid To See This” and holds a Bachelor of Education. In 2022, Darren released his first album in 10 years and celebrated 25 years since the release of Savage Garden’s debut self-titled album.
Darren Hayes: I Was One Of The Most Famous Pop Stars In The World. No One Knew The Secret Pain I Hid.
