‘We didn’t talk for about 10 years’: Daniel Johns discusses marriage to Natalie Imbruglia

Singer Daniel Johns has opened up about the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Natalie Imbruglia – and where they stand now.

Daniel Johns has opened up about his relationship with ex-wife Natalie Imbruglia, revealing the former couple didn’t speak for a decade.

“We’re friends now. But to be honest, we didn’t talk for about 10 years,” Johns said on The Project.

“When we were married, I was in my 20s. I was incapable of learning how to be responsible. I didn’t know how to use a phone. I was touring all the time,” Johns said of his four-year marriage to Imbruglia (the couple divorced in 2008).

“And then, I don’t know, I took it of my own volition and said, ‘Why are we not talking?’ I didn’t really understand and she was like, ‘I don’t know why we’re not talking either!’”

Natalie Imbruglia and Daniel Johns in 2000. Picture: News Corp Australia

Imbruglia has been interviewed for Johns’ new Spotify podcast series, Who Is Daniel Johns?, in which she described him as a “musical genius” and a “Peter Pan, maybe”.

Speaking to The Project, Johns revealed therapy saved his life after years of deadling with anxiety and the pressures of fame.
“It took me years and years and years of really heavy, heavy therapy,” the former Silverchair frontman said.

“And if I didn’t do that work, I don’t think that I would be here.”

‘Why are we not talking?’ Natalie Imbrigulia and Daniel Johns, pictured in 2006, are now friends. Picture: News Corp Australia

‘I DON’T WANT IT AROUND’

Johns has emphatically closed the door on reuniting Silverchair – the band which catapulted him to global fame.

“I wouldn’t even get Silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to me head,” Johns said on Spotify’s Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast.

In the first episode, Johns reveals he has no memorabilia, no trophies, plaques or mementos of his years with the band in his Newcastle home.

And his recollections of those hectic – and dangerous – days as the frontman of one of the world’s biggest 90s rock bands are “vague” because he has mostly blocked his memories.

“It’s not that I am not proud of it but for some reason I don’t want it around,” Johns said.

Who Is Daniel Johns? reveals the real story behind Daniel Johns’ life and career. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Daniel Johns, centre. Silverchair went on an “indefinite hiatus” a decade ago … but now you can definitely call it over. Picture: Supplied

A reluctant interview subject for most of his life, Johns wanted to participate in the six-episode series to set the record straight on his life and struggle with fame and spotlight his new music.

Respected music industry manager John Watson, who guided Silverchair from their stratospheric rise to the world stage as teenagers, reveals just how frightening his young charge’s life was as they toured the world with their debut album, Frogstomp, in 1995.

An older female French fan stole the wallet of Johns’ mother Julie during a train journey and stalked the teen rock star across Europe and the US, using her driver’s licence to get backstage.

Ben Gillies, front, Daniel Johns (top) and Chris Joannou, far left, of Silverchair.

Watson reveals fans from across the globe found his home number – and this was before mobile phones – and would ring at all hours demanding to speak to the young rock star.

One horrifying call haunts him still. A fan with an American accent threatened to shoot themselves if Watson didn’t put Johns on the line.

After assuring him the singer wasn’t there and urging the caller to seek help, the fan repeated their threat.

“The person came in over the top of me and said ‘Put him on in the next 10 seconds or I am going to shoot myself,” Watson said.

“(I said) ‘There are people you can call for help’. And then a bang. I still don’t know if that person killed themselves or they were just trying to talk to Daniel.”

Daniel Johns at the 2015 APRA Awards.

Johns was given around-the-clock security. Being followed non-stop made him “really, really anxious” he reveals in the podcast, produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey, Amelia Chappelow and Frank Lopez.

“Can you imagine being 17 and every time you needed to do a piss he had to follow me and stand right beside me? It’s kind of hilarious … I find the absurd hilarious.”

Johns was 15 when Silverchair’s debut single Tomorrow exploded onto the charts and the band were booked to play the 1995 Big Day Out festival on the same bill as Courtney Love’s band, Hole.

At the time, the rocker was subject to endless comparisons with Kurt Cobain – the band was nicknamed “Nirvana In Pyjamas” – and Love made reference to Johns during her band’s set on the main stage, a few hours after Silverchair had smashed their performance on a smaller stage.

The Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast on Spotify.

“She just went on this rant. ‘What’s this Silverchair about? He sounds like Eddie Vedder and he looks like my dead husband,” Johns recalled.

“I was mortified. I could feel my face getting hot, I was red … it was so f***ing embarrassing.”

One of his closest mates and collaborators, Paul Mac, also shares how vicious and dangerous fans could be to the singer, from hurling abuse from their cars to throwing bottles full of urine at the stage during Silverchair’s set at the 2008 Big Day Out.

Mac was playing keyboards with the band and had been deemed “Yoko Ono” by fans and blamed for Johns taking Silverchar in a more pop direction, albeit with added orchestra.

Daniel Johns and Paul Mac have been mates and collaborators for more than two decades. Picture: NCA.

“The French horns stopped playing and I turned around and (a female musician’s) face was bleeding. She had been hit in the head with a bottle that was aimed at me and full of piss,” Mac says.

“I knew some people hated me because I was ‘gaying’ it up with the keyboards. I had my own Yoko Ono T-shirt printed for that tour.”

The podcast deep dive also features Johns’ ex-wife Natalie Imbruglia, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, and will reveal new music as each weekly episode drops on Spotify.

“I’m happy to do it because I think it’s a good vessel to release art.

“Above all things, I just want to make art, and I would really love for people to hear it.

“And the only way to get people to hear my art is through vessels like this because I don’t want to perform on stage,” Johns said.

Anyone with personal issues is urged to contact Lifeline Australia – 13 11 14 (available 24/7)

Text 0477 13 11 14. Chat online: lifelife.org.au (7pm-midnight).

Other resources: Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 and kidshelpline.com.au

Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636 (available 24/7)

Originally published as ‘We didn’t talk for about 10 years’: Daniel Johns discusses marriage to Natalie Imbruglia