‘I don’t get why people would like to glorify me’: Guy Sebastian on fame, family and Australian Idol
In a rare sit-down interview with his wife Jules alongside him, Guy Sebastian has addressed recent controversies involving his former manager – and a bizarre dispute over his home.
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A songwriter? Maybe. A pop star? Perhaps not, says Guy Sebastian. As a 21-year-old from Adelaide, the young singer was only looking for an outside chance at a music career when he auditioned for Australian Idol in 2003.
Since then, the series’ first-season winner has become the only Aussie male artist with six No.1 ARIA singles.
On the eve of two big concerts at the Sydney Opera House marking two decades since the victory that launched his career and changed his life, Sebastian joins Stellar for a photo shoot with his wife Jules and reflects on his still-surprising life in the spotlight
Guy, last month you surprised your fans by releasing a new version of your Australian Idol-winning song from 2003, ’Angels Brought Me Here’. How do you feel listening to it?
Guy: “Really good. It’s killer. For me to do it, I wanted to make sure it was representative of who I am now. It’s 20 years old, but it’s a great melody, so I worked with Aussie producer-artist Pat Byrne [aka Beso Palma] to make sure it had some interesting production elements that make you screw up your face in a good way.
“At the end of the day, this remix is a thank you to all the fans that have been with me since and after the day I won Idol. So it needed something special.”
Did you ever want to put the track behind you, as in, that is my past and this is my future?
Guy: “I’ve never prescribed to the notion of ‘I’ve got to move past Idol’. Back in the day, as an artist you were heavily criticised if you came off a TV show, but I just never bought into that.
“I always saw it for what it was – everyone gets their start somehow and afterwards it’s just only going to boil down to, are they talented and can they write songs? It is all the same in the end, whether it’s Battle Of The Bands, Triple J Unearthed, Australia’s Got Talent or TikTok; they are all just platforms to get a start.
“I always saw it as a bit ungrateful to have that approach to go, ‘I want to look out for my career and be taken seriously now so I almost need to denounce this thing that actually got me there, where people actually paid to vote for me!’”
So 20 years on, are you taking stock of how Idol changed your life?
Guy: “It’s been a non-stop adjustment. We have conversations about this all the time. It’s a constant processing. I just don’t think I fit in. I just don’t think it’s for me, the whole public thing.”
Do you mean fame?
Guy: “Yeah. Just being a public person and the fame thing and being treated differently. I don’t know if I’ve ever been at peace with that side of it. But I couldn’t do what I do without having to deal with that side of it, and most of it is so lovely.
“I’ve never understood fame, and I think that’s the problem. Like, I watch Beckham [documentary on Netflix] and I only see someone good at soccer.
“On their personal lives, I couldn’t care less. I just think everyone is beautifully human and that part doesn’t ever excite me.
“I love that I’m in a position to be able to have influence with my music, but I don’t get [why] people would like to glorify me. But you just have to come to terms with what fame entails.”
Have you ever thought about what life would look like if you came fifth on Idol or if runner-up Shannon Noll had won?
Guy: “I have. There’s nothing that would have stopped me doing music. I was probably scared to say that before because it comes off as arrogant, but if I didn’t win Idol, or if I didn’t go on Idol, I would have done something.
“I couldn’t have imagined another path where I have this ability to write and sing but it has to take a back seat as a hobby or something. There’s no way I would have gone back to medical radiation.”
To what do you credit your longevity in this competitive and often brutal industry?
Guy: “It is literally just songs, because who has a career without hit songs? And choices. When I first started, you had to try your best to be perfect. Starting out in the industry at that time was all those people like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
“I was born in Malaysia and grew up in Adelaide to a really conservative family in the sense that we were just a very normal household, very loving, brought up in church. Just kind of as boringly uneventful as it sounds, no drama, just quite ordinary – but the best.”
So you weren’t seeking to change that? You didn’t want all the drama?
Guy: “I see what people do to be loved and adored and it’s almost like there is this weird notion that if you act a certain way that everyone expects you to act, that’s the brave choice.
“Whereas being in the industry, I know it is actually the opposite. I’ve sat in a room in New York with the head of a major international label being told my Voice is great but the current song at the moment is ‘F*ck You’ by CeeLo Green and, ‘You don’t swear in your songs, you don’t have chicks in bikinis and promiscuous stuff in your videos, so you’ve got no edge.’
“Sitting there, I remember taking this deep breath out. He said I’m not interesting enough. I gulped and was like, OK. And then he proceeded to tell me how I could be interesting and provocative.”
So what did you do?
Guy: “I left that meeting and I didn’t change a thing about myself. I sing about love and family and mateship and heartbreak and grief and mental health and the world. So I think it is way harder to actually just be who you are, as opposed to being what gets you more accepted by the audience you want to reach.
“I think the public will cotton on to that. If you ask me about longevity, I think it’s just about having the balls to be who you are.”
With recent headlines involving your former manager Titus Day being found guilty in June 2022 of embezzling from you, as well as a long-running dispute with your neighbour over a shared fence, is it frustrating to be in headlines that challenge your sunny image?
Guy: “You can’t have it both ways. There’s light and shade in every industry and I work with the media to promote my music and my foundation, so I have to take the good with the bad.
“I’ve learnt through making bad calls in the past that it’s better to just stay quiet and not fuel these stories by trying to clear it up. People are trying to cope with costs of living and mortgages, and here’s a celebrity having a whinge. Better to cop it and try not to read it.
“At the end of the day, the people close to us know who we are and what the truth is.”
You two – Guy and Jules – dated for eight years and you’ve now been married for 15 years. How have you stayed so solid, especially with building your individual careers while raising sons Hudson, 11, and Archie, 9?
Jules: “We are very big communicators. We’re constantly talking all the time. When there’s distance – which used to be a lot more often than it is now – I think we’ve built up such a trust that it’s honestly just not even in my mind.
“I never want to be the person that’s like, ‘You didn’t call me today.’ I’d never be that because I understand the energy and the capacity it takes to be him.”
Guy: “You are also not needy. We are each other’s person so if anything ever happens, we talk. I don’t think we’ve ever had much time to be absent from each other.”
Jules: “I’ve lived through all of the things he is talking about. Coming back to what Guy said, both of us, our whole quest in life is genuinely to be ourselves and that is the hardest thing to do, to just show up and be who you are in every room, in every situation.
“It is exhausting but we have not compromised on that. We also know who each other is, so we are not going to get away with it. He needs space to be creative and time to do that. I understand his world and I understand what it takes for him to go off and do what he does.”
Surely your relationship has changed?
Jules: “Definitely. It is always changing but I think that [we have a] fundamental friendship and like for each other. Of course I love him, but I also really like him and think he is a fun person and smart and wise and caring and considerate and all of those things.
“And I respect him, as well. I like how he does life and how he is in the world. I like being around him; we have fun together. It is not always rosy, but I think we also know that we’re not going to give up.
“We’re not going to be like, ‘This is a hard time, we are going to stop here and go our separate ways.’”
Guy: “We learn from our moments, as well. I am a massive talker – frustratingly so!”
What do you love about Jules?
Guy: “She’s an amazing mum, a great friend. Our kids love me, but I’ll never be Mum. I think it is all the things that are unseen. There’s funny memes about mums and wine and things like that, and it is for a reason – it is the most relentless job I’ve ever seen anyone do, I reckon.
“With kids at a young age, there is never a break. It doesn’t end and there’s always uniforms, lunches, homework. And when they’re at school Jules is constantly working, always, and it is because she just loves creating something and she’s created something that’s really hers.”
Can you describe your new lifestyle project, Jules?
Jules: “It is a website, julessebastian.com. It all comes back to trying to help. I am like every other mother out there, every other wife or person trying to run a household.
“For me, it is all about simple, easy, quick but delicious recipes to follow along with. We entertain a lot and that’s how we kind of do things. Feed the people en masse – but it has to be good. That’s kind of what I tapped into on [her Instagram account] through Covid times, and people seem to have appreciated the help and I’ve appreciated helping people.”
Guy, you’re performing at the Sydney Opera House for two nights in December – the very place you were crowned winner of Australian Idol. How does that feel?
Guy: “Amazing. It’s all the good feels. We spend a lot of time thinking about production and set lists and being clever for a tour; every tour has a lot of thought gone in and a lot of planning. On this one, all of the thought is only focused on creating a celebration of nostalgia.”
Guy Sebastian’s XX Double Decade Celebration shows are on at the Sydney Opera House on December 10 and 11. Guy’s song ‘Angels Brought Me Here, Again’ is out now.
Read the full interview and see the shoot inside today’s Stellar, via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (SA) and Sunday Mail (Queensland).
Originally published as ‘I don’t get why people would like to glorify me’: Guy Sebastian on fame, family and Australian Idol
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